we drank many cans of beer.
Just in case you were wondering: yes, my body is one giant bug bite at this point. This week I feel like I’ve fallen behind on my blogging, but I guess it’s just because so much has happened and I’ve had very limited internet access way out in nature here. Oh where to begin? How about: Eastern Kentucky, what a blast! Who knew? I stayed at
Wiley’s Last Resort, a crazy place run by a lovely man on top of Pine Mountain just outside of Whitesburg, KY. I don’t even think I can explain this place in words, you should all just go there and camp there and have a lovely time. Okay maybe you can check out their
website first if you must. The proprietor, Jim, always seems to have some sort of party going on there. I was there for a wedding of a friend of a friend. Party moocher, anyone? I have no shame. We had a lovely time and drank many, many cans of beer (Jim prefers cans).
The father of the groom, an exceptionally nice man, is associated with an organization called Appalshop. They do a very good job documenting local history and culture through film, music, and radio. I stayed an extra day after the wedding (moocher) along with some other folks and we got a super special back roads tour of the area from the groom’s father. Whitesburg and the outlying areas are mining towns of the past and present. I learned a lot about coal mining. I learned that I don’t ever want to do it.
not a bad place to sleep!
The next day I drove to Tennessee via the Hal Rogers Parkway, which used to be called the Daniel Boone Parkway, which makes a lot more sense seeing as it takes you through the Daniel Boone National Forest. Just who the Hal does this new Rogers guy think he is anyways? Ha, I crack myself up. I was told that this is a very pretty drive and it was no lie, tree-covered mountains unfold majestically in front of you all along this road. Just cross your fingers that your car doesn’t break down, because there sure as hell isn’t cell phone service in this National Forest.
My first night in Tennessee I stayed at a commune in Whites Creek, just outside of Nashville. I camped out by a pond with the four horsies who live there, despite my fear that the horses might accidentally trample me in my sleep, which they didn’t (Hooray!). I chased fireflies around the pond until it was time for bed. Bedtime was determined as the time when I got scared because lots of bats were flying around. The next morning one of the residents asked me if any “critters” had bothered me out there. When I said no, he proceeded to tell me about all the various kinds of poisonous snakes that live in and around the pond that he had spotted on previous occasions. I am very happy that he didn’t tell me about the snakes beforehand, because otherwise I would have spent the whole night with a flashlight scanning the ground around me. Who am I kidding, I would have spent the night in my car.
On an end note, in the house where I am spending the night tonight (which I will talk about tomorrow) there is a bug flying outside of my window that is so big that I heard it tapping and thought it was a cat trying to get in. Yipes!
