We had to stop and see Superman along the way. The only real question is how he fits into the phone booth at 34 ft tall? I’ll say that it was a nice stop In Metropolis from driving all day. Be we did have a catfish dinner that we were trying to eat that night. We were up against a timeline trying to get to the restaurant before it closed. Unfortunately, it has decided to close about an hour early than normal and we were still craving catfish. Only one thing left to do: go to the Old Country Buffet. It wasn’t exciting but we also didn’t that much of an option at 8 at night. The good news that we made it to Land between the Lakes Campsite and we even had live entertainment till about 11 that night. Both Ben and I had earplugs.
In the morning, while having our coffee, we had several people approach us and ask about the rooftop tent and how it worked. I was one of two people in the campgrounds that had a rooftop tent. It was fun to explain to our neighbors how it worked and what we were doing. Even the Park Ranger was having some fun saying that we wouldn’t have earthquakes so the ground should be a little more stable than what we were used too.
We drove from Land Between the Lakes to Mammoth Cave which for some reason I can’t stop saying Monmouth Cave. I have no idea why. MAMMOTH cave deserves its name. It is the biggest cave system in the United States and has been occupied since about 4500 years ago. After the Revolution War, the United States was desperate for saltpeter and gunpowder production. Mammoth Cave was recently discovered and bat guano was essential for making both gunpowder and saltpeter. In 1811, the guano from Mammoth Cave alone was able to produce over 300,000lbs of gunpowder which was essential during the war of 1812.
Ben and I decided to look for Abraham’s birthplace which was about 40 miles from Mammoth Cave. President Taft started the National Park and President Theodore Roosevelt completed the memorial. Abraham Lincoln childhood home is encased in a giant mausoleum. Except it isn’t. You see then they first started the construction they assumed that the cabin on the property was the same one that Abraham Lincoln grew up in. However, some archeologist radiocarbon dated and took a core sample of the wood that only dated back to 1840 which means that the cabin enshrined is just an example of the house that Lincoln grew up in. Oh well.
We were starting to get hungry at this point and decided that since we were in Kentucky, we could only get KFC. Naturally expecting them to be everywhere in its home state we were wrong and ended up driving up the Lexington, KY for KFC. Which, of course, had to be one of the slowest fast-food restaurants we have been too. A good 30 minutes after we ordered we got our food. Rather underwhelming. However, we go KFC in Kentucky. And we also had to stop in Paris, Kentucky. The center of Bourbon County where REAL Kentucky bourbon is made. All along the Bluegrass Parkway (yes, we did listen to bluegrass almost the whole time in Kentucky. What else would you listen to) are distilleries that you can stop at along your way. We didn’t stop. We were too interested in that KFC in Lexington.
Currently, we are in Ohio heading to Parkersburg, WV listening to Jet Airliner by Steve Miller Band. The scenery has turned from golden fields to green fields of corn and the straight roads now have way more turns in them. The trees reach to the blue sunny skies. IT funny to think that only a couple of days ago we were way “Out West” and now we are knocking on the door of home. We are trying our best to blend in but I think our accents give us away.