I woke up in Lexington yesterday, ready to leave Kentucky and make it to Saint Louis. I drove through Louisville trying to visit the Cumberland Brewing Company and fought traffic only to find I was far to early to get a taste. Louisville seemed like a cool city like Austin jammed into a hideous sprawl on a river with terrible drivers. Making it to Saint Louis was satisfying; I was so happy when I saw that arch. In the last week I've traveled about 1500 miles from home out of what was first projected to be 4500 miles of travel. I feel good about settling down and getting to know the city for a few weeks. I still need to call up D and D but I'm sort of being lazy today. It's the weekend anyway.
Btw Lexington was cool. Good bars, beers, and an old theater played Ghostbusters and it was fun. I hadn't ever seen it all the way through and I was surprised at how conservative it was. The EPA was the bad guy. The spooky scary stuff was just basic occult demon stuff backed up with pseudo-science.
No one will ever read this. Maybe I'll clean it up now that I'll not be moving around constantly.
Friday, June 22, 2012
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Today is Wednesday.. got it
Yesterday I woke up in my tent in Bardstown on a golf course. It was closest to Heaven Hill's Bourbon Heritage Center. Took the tour there. Seems like I'm the weird young person in the tour groups that I take. It was like that at Mammoth also. Kentucky seems to be an insular commonwealth. Everyone I met working at Mammoth park or at the distilleries was from a thirty mile radius of the attraction. And even at Mammoth Cave National Park, few non-whites or non-Americans.
I can't make myself blog like this. I hate it.
Anyway. I got to my friend Jessica's in Lexington and thank god for showers. I think I'm heading to Saint Louis tomorrow. I've been 1000 miles and still haven't made it to the place I told everyone I was moving to. Yay.
I can't make myself blog like this. I hate it.
Anyway. I got to my friend Jessica's in Lexington and thank god for showers. I think I'm heading to Saint Louis tomorrow. I've been 1000 miles and still haven't made it to the place I told everyone I was moving to. Yay.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Sunday 17 June
Yesterday, after a proper night's sleep or so, Drew and I visited the farm of one Brock Krider. Brock has been commuting from Dallas to maintain blueberry, blackberry, and apiary operations. As if this weren't cool enough, I was permitted to pick black berries to my heart's content. Being genetically selected cultivars, they had no thorny bramble and harvest proceeded easily. Slugging back Anheuser-Busch's less than extraordinary products, we gathered around 25 pounds. Note: Calloway County Kentucky is officially dry and even across the nearby Tennessee state line, the beer selection is not great. When in Rome, right?
From Krider's Blackberry slaughterhouse we moved to Milburn Kentucky to begin harvesting honey. The process involves blowing smoke at the bees to stun and disorient their chemical communication and then checking for coverage of slats with honey-filled hexagons. Taking one box weighing about fifty pounds back, we blew out the remaining bees, secluded ourselves in the garage lest nearby hives go berserk looking for honey, and we cut the tops of the wax combs off so the honey could be centrifuged out by hand. That was fun.
So many fireflies the eyes could not tell them apart from the stars.
Hah, after beeswaxing eloquent on the benefits of eating raw honey, I am enjoying a Sunday of aggravating nasal drip and sinus pressure. Kentucky pollen, a worthy nemesis you are.
Drinking a very smooth clear moonshine while cooking shrimp and catfish etouffee.
Drove through some nasty rain but got through it.
It is hot as balls here at mammoth cave, but the bike trails are fun. Historic cave tour tomorrow. A few miles underground sounds like fun to me.
From Krider's Blackberry slaughterhouse we moved to Milburn Kentucky to begin harvesting honey. The process involves blowing smoke at the bees to stun and disorient their chemical communication and then checking for coverage of slats with honey-filled hexagons. Taking one box weighing about fifty pounds back, we blew out the remaining bees, secluded ourselves in the garage lest nearby hives go berserk looking for honey, and we cut the tops of the wax combs off so the honey could be centrifuged out by hand. That was fun.
So many fireflies the eyes could not tell them apart from the stars.
Hah, after beeswaxing eloquent on the benefits of eating raw honey, I am enjoying a Sunday of aggravating nasal drip and sinus pressure. Kentucky pollen, a worthy nemesis you are.
Drinking a very smooth clear moonshine while cooking shrimp and catfish etouffee.
Drove through some nasty rain but got through it.
It is hot as balls here at mammoth cave, but the bike trails are fun. Historic cave tour tomorrow. A few miles underground sounds like fun to me.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Day 3
The drive to Kentucky was longer than predicted as I discovered my truck will really not do more than 75 miles per hour (the speedometer goes up to 80). By the time I left I-40 to head north, night had fallen and the trickiest navigation through the least familiar territory became slightly trickier. To abate fatigue, deer had done me the service of posting up by the road, sometimes threatening even to cross lest I appear less than alert. Just over the state line, New Concord (pronounced: "con-cord" not "conquered") was my stopping point on the only slightly developed shore of Kentucky Lake. It was 10 p.m. I left at noon. Sleep came at midnight.
The second day began at 6 a.m. "Jungle Bob" was our guide and he proved to be an interesting and adept stripe of local culture. Drew and I accompanied him onto the aforementioned lake and piddled around with the notion of bass fishing. Note: I go fishing once per year, tops.. but after an expert reminds me how to properly work a reel and tie those knots, I was having fun! Even if you couldn't pay a fish to bite... Alas the idea of trot-line fishing proved more bountiful. Basically a heavy line intermittently hooked, baited, and anchored is left over night tied to a floating buoy/red plastic jug. The next morning, all sizes of catfish and even a small striped bass were patiently waiting for harvest. One was too big and ugly, but the rest were good enough to watch Bob masterfully disassemble once we made it back to Murray.
Lime stone stacks.. notes on geology and history of river and LBL
Cleaning the fish, the carnage threatened to overturn my stomach but only by combination of the smell and the sight, but the masterful efficiency of an expert was soothing.
The shrimp reached their destination happily. My gamble on their preservation was a success, but I will not be repeating the trucker's escapade if I can avoid it.
Interesting sights and topics I hope to explore further soon:
Bootleggery
Farms
Tobacco.
Lack of racial strife in Murray compared to what is familiar in Baton Rouge
The second day began at 6 a.m. "Jungle Bob" was our guide and he proved to be an interesting and adept stripe of local culture. Drew and I accompanied him onto the aforementioned lake and piddled around with the notion of bass fishing. Note: I go fishing once per year, tops.. but after an expert reminds me how to properly work a reel and tie those knots, I was having fun! Even if you couldn't pay a fish to bite... Alas the idea of trot-line fishing proved more bountiful. Basically a heavy line intermittently hooked, baited, and anchored is left over night tied to a floating buoy/red plastic jug. The next morning, all sizes of catfish and even a small striped bass were patiently waiting for harvest. One was too big and ugly, but the rest were good enough to watch Bob masterfully disassemble once we made it back to Murray.
Lime stone stacks.. notes on geology and history of river and LBL
Cleaning the fish, the carnage threatened to overturn my stomach but only by combination of the smell and the sight, but the masterful efficiency of an expert was soothing.
The shrimp reached their destination happily. My gamble on their preservation was a success, but I will not be repeating the trucker's escapade if I can avoid it.
Interesting sights and topics I hope to explore further soon:
Bootleggery
Farms
Tobacco.
Lack of racial strife in Murray compared to what is familiar in Baton Rouge
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Pre-Departure Thoughts
As I sit in the kitchen reviewing the route to Murray, Kentucky I am filled with trepidation that I am unprepared for the unforseen. Not karmically untarnished, I am as anxiously excited by the tribulation awaiting me as I am by the many destinations I intend to visit. I will stop by Tony's seafood and gather 20 or so pounds of large fresh shrimp to accompany me to Murray. With my icy bottom-feeding scion of gulf south eats I head into the unknown. I am grateful that my first destination is the welcoming environment of a good friend's homeland. Additionally, I am thankful that though I leave my own homeland out of feelings of suffocating familiarity, I am loved by my friends, fans, and family. This will be interesting. This will be fun. Beyond that I just don't know..
Pictures and less melodramatic narrative forthcoming!
Pictures and less melodramatic narrative forthcoming!
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