“This is what we came for!” – Kentucky and Tennessee
The morning of day 5 we rolled out of Charleston, WVA and headed west to Lexington, KY for a visit with Catherine’s cousin Stuart and his wonderful wife K. We mulled over tales of the prior generations and heard about their youthful adventures traveling through North America and Europe in a VW bug (and they heard plenty from us too).
After a night in a comfy (ancestral) bed, we shoved off for the Red River Gorge. Our first stop was the Auxiers Ridge trail for an outstanding hike through lush woods and rock lined ridges with vistas of huge rock formations. The mountain laurel was just starting to bloom, making us excited about the possibility of what we’ll encounter in North Carolina in a couple weeks. The sound of the wind in the pines was augmented with many of the same bird songs we hear at home, with an overlay of warblers of all sorts. The wilderness experience prompted Catherine to say, “This is what we came for!” which is becoming a bit of a mantra.
We camped in a well-maintained and sparsely populated USFS campground, demonstrating that grabbing a site in an eastern US campground is possible. We went to sleep with the doors open to enjoy the breezes but closed up when a fierce storm arrived – a wild night of thunder, lightning and hail. We were very gratefully snug in Evangeline (and also grateful for the cassette toilet onboard ;).
The next day dawned bright and we headed to Natural Bridge State Park. Eastern Kentucky has over 2000 natural arches and this is the crown jewel. Not surprisingly, it has been developed for tourist access, including a chair lift, but we opted to hike up along the Rock Garden trail which ran along rock ledges with walls towering above on a scale I usually associate with the far west. There were fascinating patterns of all sorts in the sandstone walls displaying its origins as an ancient seabed that has been thrust upward and then eroded over eons. After checking out the views from along the bridge, we returned through the lush, secluded Hood Branch valley.
Upon returning to camp in Koomers Ridge we spent happy hour reorganizing the van based on lessons learned so far. It seems we’re close to correct on what will stay on board and what will be ejected for the long trip. The lessons so far: it’s not always going to be perfect, but (a) it’s good enough, and (b) the experiences are the point (not the housekeeping).
The next morning we headed south into Tennessee. We’d planned to check out Knoxville, briefly engage in some history tourism at Oak Ridge National Lab (one of the three principal Manhattan Project sites ), and then head on to Nashville. We had a navigational mishap causing us to bypass downtown Knoxville (another lesson learned: always zoom out on whatever Google Maps tells you). After a delicious falafel and shawarma lunch in the Knoxville suburbs, we arrived at the K-25 historical site in Oak Ridge, having listened to a couple podcasts for context and with only an hour budgeted to take in the site and the story. It’s amazing that the government created a “Secret City” in this remote location that was home to 75,000 people and, in just three years, developed the required infrastructure and technology to turn out the atomic bomb. The scale of the site and the problem-solving and engineering that happened here is a good reminder of what Americans can accomplish when united in a cause.
We got in the van at the scheduled time for the drive to Nashville, pleased that we would be on time for our dinner engagement (rare;). Then we noticed the time shift on our phones and realized we had crossed into the Central Time Zone and recovered an hour that could’ve been spent checking out Knoxville (yet another lesson learned – always plan for time zone shifts).
Following delicious smoked brisket and pulled pork at Martin’s BBQ with my friend and former colleague Mike and his wife Angie, we headed over to Broadway to sample the legendary Nashville honky-tonk scene. We breezed through the first bar after 2 songs and headed down the street, checking out the music through the open windows. We had strolled past a bar and looked over our shoulder at a young guy fronting three elders as they were delivering an interpretation of John Prine’s Paradise, a song that has been going through my head our whole time in Kentucky. Catherine said, “Want to check it out?” and I readily agreed. As it turned out, this was Hank Williams Jr’s joint and we were in for a rollicking good time. The band featured the sort of veteran musicians that Nashville is famous for, with a vast repertoire and talent, backing a young, handsome lead. We loved the impromptu line dancing and two-stepping, but the best part was when the band received a request for Six Days on the Road (with the customary $20 tip). Since the front man couldn’t do it, the band called through the window to a fellow musician walking by and recruited him to sing the lead – he killed it. It was a priceless moment!
The following day we spent the morning in the County Music Hall of Fame Museum, which is more than can be done in a day. Loved the Dolly Parton exhibit, got a great primer on Muscle Shoals before we visit there next week, and saw Elvis’ 1960 Cadilac Limo, among countless other artifacts and exhibits. Having had a late lunch, we wandered around The Gulch neighborhood, took a rest, and then headed back out for more entertainment. The highlight was the Bourbon Street Boogie & Blues Bar on Printers Alley (another Duncan suggestion), with Robert’s Western World coming in a close second. Nashville is a music lover’s dream town. I expect we’ll come back.
We now find ourselves on the Tennessee – Kentucky border in the “Land Between the Lakes.” We’re staying in a Hipcamp nestled in a forest of tall trees with the wind blowing gently as the sun sets high in the canopy (as the full moon did last night). We spent the morning paddling a kayak on Lake Kentucky (created by damming the Tennessee river), and the afternoon hiking through a forest and wetland. This is what we came for.