The thoughtful adventures of Man, Woman and Cat.
I was unsuccessful at quitting smoking.
They say it can be addictive, and I guess that must be true. I was up to several times a week on several different devices. I had reached the point where everything tasted of smoke and my clothes and hair lent their smell every room I entered, like some gigantic campfire scented Airwick. So I tried to go cold turkey. (Ever notice how most cold turkey is smoked? But I digress.)
When you’re exploring America’s back roads, you often encounter reminders of an older era. Sometimes you are confronted with a full-tilt anachronism like this:
As I cruised out of the National Park into private lands, I passed a farmer baling hay. No big deal… except this chap’s hay rake was propelled by only two horsepower – as in two horses. Pretty unusual to see such an old piece of mechanical farm machinery actually doing the job it was made to do a hundred years ago.
I was dawdling at the stop sign at the corner of his hay field, trying to figure out if I could get a photo of him without disturbing him, when the moment got even better. This Amish guy turned his team out onto the road behind me and started coming up on the truck. I turned the corner, and he came right along with me. When I glanced ahead I saw why. Continue reading “Kentucky Backwoods 3”
Ugly Creek Road is far from the sketchiest byway I’ve navigated in my travels, but it does offer enough soft spots, washouts and creek fords to merit close attention and switching Peggy (my 3/4 ton Ram pickup) into 4 wheel drive.
The key to the geology of Mammoth Cave is that there are two layers of rock beneath these Kentucky hills: a wide belt of limestone capped by a layer of sandstone & shale. The cap rock acts like the lid on a Tupperware bowl, protecting the limestone beneath. Where this cap rock has been compromised in spots, water can make it’s way down to dissolve the limestone layer, forming voids. Since most of the cap rock remains intact, it acts as a roof to protect the limestone from too much erosion, so you end up with caves instead of canyons.