Kentucky, where have you been my whole life?

Posted on May 27, 2013 by bottlingmoonlight | 4 Comments

About a month ago, and before we had van troubles, we had an amazing week in Kentucky. We didn’t have too many preconceived notions about the state, but we were blown away again and again. The beauty, the kindness, the sheer number of interesting things to do and see, the work ethic, we could go on and on. It’s become a bit of a joke between us. Every time we go somewhere and find that someone is not that friendly or that service is not that good, we look at each other and say that we’re not in Kentucky anymore. A week was barely enough to scrape the surface. We’re both looking forward to going back in the future and spending much more time so that we can further explore some of the areas we visited and check out the many areas we weren’t able to see.

We spent our first full day in Kentucky in coal country. Based on the recommendation of some friends in the know, we checked out a couple of coal camps (Benham and Lynch to be specific). We also spent a good portion of the day driving some narrow, twisty, mountain roads to see amazing scenery, small towns, and evidence of coal mining operations. Appalachia fascinates me. Coal mining fascinates me. This was easily one of my favorite days of the trip. I also asked said friends in the know to direct us to evidence of mountaintop removal mining. I had no idea what I was in for. I expected to see this type of mining and be moved. I did not realize how improperly named (or rather, nicknamed) this type of mining is. It should really just be called mountain removal mining. Mountaintop removal assumes that much of the mountain remains. While this may happen in some cases, this certainly doesn’t happen in all cases. I was blown away. Thanks, Sarah and Tom for the great recommendations!

The Depot in Lynch, Kentucky

Portal 31 in Lynch, Kentucky

Coal

View into Virginia from Black Mountain, the highest point in Kentucky

Closer view into Virginia from Black Mountain, the highest point in Kentucky

In our short time in the area, we began to gain a better appreciation of the social impacts and importance of coal mining to this region and the devastating environmental effects. It made me think more about our role (because we all have a role) in this environmental destruction. It also reinforced why local citizens are often such fierce proponents of coal – it is life here. I came away from this day wanting to dive even deeper into the social and environmental history of coal mining in this region. This is going on the top of my list of things to research and read about after our trip.

We spent the night at the nicest Red Roof Inn, probably in the history of man. It was worth at least two or three times the $46 we paid for the night. While we typically camp each night, we’ve been spending every fifth or sixth night in a motel. Most have been around this same price point and nowhere (not even close) as nice as this motel. And everyone we met who worked there were the most genuinely friendly and competent hotel clerks ever. And thus continues our love affair with Kentucky.

When we awoke, the rain was coming down hard. We decided to drive up to Lexington and spend the day at the Explorium, the local children’s museum. Even through the gray and rain, we fell in love again. And Van had a blast at the museum. Though the horse exhibits were the most fun for us, he loved the “lala boat” (water boat).

My first horse ride

Nothing is better than playing in water

Trapped in a bubble!

I particularly enjoyed the exhibit about homes around the world. I would have loved playing in the various homes when I was a child. But then, a seemingly out-of-place panel caught my eye. It was a panel dedicated to explaining that not everyone has a home. The portion below made me smile to myself. It was the part of this exhibit that explained our housing situation, except not at all. While we may be living in a vehicle, we are not homeless and would never consider ourselves as such. But, living in a car with fewer necessities does help me to empathize a bit more than I did before our trip with our homeless brothers and sisters who have no choice but to live in a vehicle.

Exhibit in the Explorium of Lexington

Continuing our theme of being impressed with all that exists in Kentucky, we made our way to a beautiful and incredibly well maintained campground in Taylorsville Lake State Park. Well situated between Lexington and Louisville, this became our home base for the next six nights.

Our campsite in Taylorsville Lake State Park

And We Move On…

Posted on May 23, 2013 by bottlingmoonlight | 3 Comments

Apologies for the radio silence over the past week. We’ve been enjoying time with family, running tons of errands, and reassessing our next steps. The sale of our inoperable van was final as of this morning and our wagon is now topped with a Yakima car box. While it’s sad to think that we will not be traveling as we had planned, we are moving forward. I’ve already moved past it and am looking forward to the challenge of squeezing the three of us and all of our camping equipment and belongings (including a stroller, pack and play, and backpack carrier) into our wagon.

In between outings with the grandparents and spending time in the beautiful Colorado sunshine, we’ve been cleaning and organizing all of our equipment and culling our already limited belongings. There is certainly a lesson in this about how little you actually need. Rather than feeling stressful, it’s actually been freeing to winnow our belongings to the basic necessities (and a couple of extras here and there). I plan to carry this lesson beyond our travels into our more settled life.

I leave you with a few words from the book I’m currently reading.

I had three pieces of limestone on my desk, but I was terrified to find that they required to be dusted daily, when the furniture of my mind was all undusted still, and threw them out the window in disgust.

– Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Regrouping

Posted on May 17, 2013 by bottlingmoonlight | 1 Comment

After a wonderful week in northwest Arkansas with my parents, we made the long drive to Colorado yesterday. We were on the road for just over twelve hours straight (Arkansas to Missouri to Kansas, Kansas, and more Kansas to Colorado), which is a record for our little guy. He was fantastic, we really did win the kid lottery! We are now safe and sound with Alan’s family and are in the process of cleaning, reorganizing, and regrouping. We’ll likely be here off and on for the next several weeks (at least) to see family and friends, but we’ll also be hitting the road for several shorter camping trips to various corners of the state that we’d like to check out. In the process, we’ll be figuring out how and where we’re going to travel going forward and put those preparations into action. As some of you may know, we wound up having to skip over several states we wanted to visit due to our van troubles. We’re not sure if we’ll be visiting the those places after we leave Colorado, or if we’re going to leave them for later in the trip. I imagine that after a visit to the local library and several evenings spent poring over travel books and we’ll have a better sense of where we’re headed next. In the mean time, we should be more accessible, and if you’re reading this from Colorado, we’d love to see you while we’re here!

48th State

Posted on May 13, 2013 by bottlingmoonlight | Leave a comment

We picked up our rental van last week, packed it full of everything from our sad, broken van in Memphis, and traveled west towards the Ozarks. After our third night here, I’m in love. I had high expectations – but they have been exceeded at every turn. It’s also been wonderful to focus on something other than our van troubles. My parents flew in for the week to spend time with their grandson (and us), so we’ve been able to relax and enjoy time with family.

We spent our first night at a beautiful bed and breakfast in Mountain Home headed southwest to the upper Buffalo River for our next two nights, and are now in Branson, Missouri for the night. We’ll be returning to Arkansas for the last two nights of my family’s visit – leaving for Eureka Springs in the morning. We’ve seen eagles nesting in the wild, elk, a gorgeous bluebird, and my mother, husband and son spotted a baby woodpecker yesterday. Between that and all of the armadillo roadkill, we’ve seen quite a bit of wildlife. But nothing has topped the Buffalo River, the first national river. I had heard it was beautiful, but I was unprepared for the sheer beauty of the setting, the towering bluffs, and the clear turquoise water. My father and I were lucky to get away and float down about eight miles of the river yesterday, with a side hike to a towering waterfall. An almost perfect day (it would have been perfect if Alan had been able to join us)!

And now, I can update the list of states I’ve visited, spent time in, and (at a bare minimum) spent the night in. Arkansas was my 48th state! We were planning to visit what would have been my 49th state next week, but since we need to speed to Colorado and return the rental van, Oklahoma will have to wait. And Hawaii will make a great trip at some point in the future to celebrate traveling to all 50 states.

I know you’re probably wondering where the photos are after I’ve written so much about the beauty of this area. Once we have a bit more down time in the next week or so, I’ll be sure the post some photos from our time here.

Eastern Tennessee

Posted on May 10, 2013 by bottlingmoonlight | 1 Comment

It was only fitting that on our journey through the land of orange dirt, we should stop at an old copper mine. The mine has long since closed, but I had heard that this mine, in Ducktown, Tennessee, had one of the largest open copper craters in the area and I wanted to take a look. Although we arrived after the small museum had closed, we had a nice chat with the woman who ran it. She told us that on an ordinary day she’d stay open late for us, but she had to get home to see her daughter. No matter, we were able to see the crater and be on our way.

After a day and a half of exploring Chattanooga, we headed up to our highlight of Eastern Tennessee, the Museum of Appalachia in Clinton. I’m a sucker for living history museums, and this was one of the best I’ve ever seen. The curation was as interesting as the contents themselves. It was pretty clear that this was not the work of a museum committee made up of historians who are at arm’s length from the history they are describing. Instead, it was a more personal look at a community’s attempt to save, define, and communicate a sense of itself. We were able to spend several hours there (it helped that there was a lot of outdoor space for Van to run around), but I could have easily spent a full day or so if I wasn’t tethered to a small child.

We finished our stay in Eastern Tennessee with a couple of nights in Cumberland Gap National Historic Park. We technically camped in Virginia, but all three states meet right there, so we considered it more of an extension or our time in Tennessee. We did some great hiking, but by far the coolest thing for me was walking along the Wilderness Road Trail. This is the trail that Daniel Boone blazed in 1775, following the footsteps of many Indians and bison before him. The Wilderness Road was recently restored to its original appearance as it crosses the Gap. I spent all of our short time on the trail envisioning the many, many people who had crossed this Gap with all of their belongings, heading west not knowing exactly what to expect. Certainly one could draw some loose parallels to our trip, but those folks had guts well beyond anything that travelers with motorized transportation, a cell phone, and ready access to clean drinking water and food sources could understand.

Alan’s favorite thing in the park was standing in Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee at the same time. I admit that it was cool, and made even cooler by the fact that this point is on a mountain, which is conveniently named Tri-State Peak. We would have liked to have done even more hiking, but Van was having a particularly tough day (meaning lots of tantrums, crying, and not listening) and the hikes we were most interested in were rather long with a screamy two year old in tow. Regardless, we were able to see a lot and get a few miles of hiking in before we headed north into Kentucky.

Van and Buddy the Bison, a gift from Uncle Jack and Aunt Jenni for his travels to our National Parks

The Wilderness Trail

Bottling Moonlight

Yearly Archives: 2013