Four Days Off-Topic in the U.S.

Mattias Hallin Mattias.Hallin at jurenh.lu.se
Thu Aug 18 17:09:02 CEST 1994


DON!

    But of course I shall tel| you all about it -- the fact I haven't as yet is 
mainly due to the combined efforts of severe jet-lag and going back to work; 
basically I've spent all my waking hours fast asleep since I got back! Or, well, 
rather: when not at work, I've been sleeping practically around the clock since 
Sunday afternoon.
    
(And to the list: well, I hope you will forgive this off-topic posting; but 
since Don asked for it here, I guess I'll post it here, too.)
    
So! Now that I'm finally awake...

First my own and Klas' thanks to you and Ann for having us as guests! We both 
enjoyed it very much!

And also -- you were quite wrong: Kentucky proved a most interesting place to 
visit, even not considering it's resident Duck-artist. From your place we went 
to Bardstown (I think it's called), which was quite pretty, and also had a 
well-stocked, brochure-wise, visitor's center, and the nice-to-look-at Talbot 
Inn, which I think dates back to 1779, where we had lunch (standard fare, but 
edible enough). From there we went to the Maker's Mark distillery ('bout 18 
miles further south) which I think was a wise choice, since it's a very small 
distillery, bent on quality rather than quantity. They had a free tour ('twas 
good), the place was interesting to see, and their bourbon quite excellent 
(though by necessity of law purchased later on, in Lebanon).

So from there, by way of Lebanon, we went to see the Perryville battlefield, 
which Klas quite enjoyed; and though of course it does not compare to the major 
Civil War battlefield NHSs, the small museum was good enough, and one was able 
by leap of imagination to get a grasp of what must have happened there. In 
Perryville, which BTW has quite a number of buildings left that stood there 
already during the Civil War, we had some quite good and very inexpensive dinner 
at the local Greasy Spoon; where Klas got to try grits. I'm not sure he'll do 
*that* again, though -- I think he found it a mite dull...

Thence we drove on eastwards, heading for the Daniel Boone Nat'l Park, or at 
least the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. And I can add here that the 
entire drive, all the way from Dawson Hill Road, varied between quite scenic and 
*very* scenic.

After passing through Richmond, KY, we started looking for a town small enough 
to have a downtown-or-nearly-so located Motel *and* a bar; but bad luck dogged 
us, and every town promising motel-wise proved to be smack in a dry county; and 
as night fell and the towns got smaller and fewer, we finally gave up on the 
bar-thing, and settled for the night at the "Li'l Abner Motel" in Slade, just 
off the Natural Bridge State Park, in between Stanton and Clampton.

Well, we'd planned to spend the entire Thursday exploring the State Park, but 
when we came out to the car that morning, we had a flat! So we called the rental 
agency, and they told us we had to get an identical tire on, and after some 
phone-calls we went to Stanton, 10 miles down, on the emergency wheel, and spent 
three hours at Witt's Sunoco, while Mr. Witt went to the nearest town big enough 
to have the right brand of tire, which took him 'bout two and a half hours, and 
then changed the tires, which took his grease-jockey all of fifteen minutes!

Anyway, we finally got to spend at least the afternoon hiking in the Natural 
Bridge park, which was *gorgeous*, and then started heading north on state and 
county roads, until we got to Maysville, where we crossed over into Ohio, and 
headed north on US 68.

We stayed the night in a small town that I can't recall the name of, but which 
was most famous for having the first concrete pavement in the U.S. already in 
1891 or something; and then Friday morning went on to Toledo, where we met some 
musicians we'd gotten to know in Davenport, and sat in with them at a local bar 
that night, and generally had a good time.

Saturday, we just drove into Chicago and flew back home...

But I'd like to tell you again that both Klas and I were real glad we'd made it 
to Kentucky, and we quite agreed that it was a pity we had so little time, both 
to visit you and Ann, and to just drive around Kentucky. Actually, not least 
Klas appreciated the fact that Northeastern Kentucky was settled already in the 
18th century, and that there seemed to be quite a few places of historical 
interest -- there was several we'd have wanted to look at, but never really had 
the time for... Also, the landscape and the small towns were quite nice to look 
at more often than not, and from what we saw and experienced of it all, I think 
we'd have like to explore Kentucky more.

Once more -- thanks you, and give our regards to Ann! And if you're ever 'round 
over here, and have some spare time, just give me a call!

All my best!

Mattias

**** Mattias Hallin ** Lund * Sweden ** <Mattias.Hallin at jurenh.lu.se> ****
*                                                                        *
*               "Oh bury me thar! With my battered git-tar!              * 
**************       A-screamin' my heart out fer yew!"      *************



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