Cave City, Kentucky

August 25 – September 13

After a wonderful day in Salem, Massachusetts, we made the rest of the lengthy drive to Cave City, Kentucky, through some of the most beautiful country we’d seen up until that point.

And I sure did feel fall coming.

The drive from Salem to our AirBnB in Kentucky was about 16 hours and some change. We discussed and decided that we were going to try to split it into a 10 hour drive on the 24th and the remaining 6-ish hours on the 25th. We were up and ready to go at 8:30. After some rearranging, I was able to eliminate the bag of laundry we’d carried from Maine so much of what was in the back seat with Ash made it to the bed of the truck. We packed up what we did have and set out to make our way through Massachusetts and beyond.

The route took us through Boston where the roads were an absolute mess. It’s a big city so the setting was much more urban that what we’d seen lately. We really hadn’t seen a BIG city like this since Portland, Oregon (I’d driven solo through Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo and more but Brandy specifically hadn’t seen a true city like this in a while.)

We continued on through Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland where things took on a whole different look.

The western part of Maryland and into West Virginia was absolutely, jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Nothing but green mountains literally as far as the eye could see, for miles and miles and miles, that’s all we saw were forested mountains. Every once in a while, I spied a house or a cottage or a cabin tucked into the lavish forest, and maybe a one-light town here and there. One town we passed through in western Maryland was just so picturesque yet I failed to figure out what town it was and now, looking back, I’m not sure if it was Frostburg.

As we drove, we guesstimated our 10 hour landing spot. We wound up stopping at about 9 1/2 hours in Morgantown, West Virginia. We found a Super 8 that had availability and allowed pets so we picked up a room with a king sized bed and boy, do I regret that decision. The motel was filthy with paint peeling all over the place, the chair in our room was stained terribly and there was a pretty foul odor on the 3rd floor where we were given our room. A sign on the front door announced that they were undergoing renovations but I saw no evidence of such renovations. They may have been taking place but I didn’t see it, particularly on the third floor.

Brandy Door Dashed our dinner from Outback Steakhouse, who shared a parking lot with the motel, and after eating, we called it a night.

The next morning, we hit the road at about 9:00, stopping for gas and coffee on the way to the interstate. We made the rest of the 6 1/2 hour drive uneventfully, topping off with gas one time at the halfway point.

Cave City

Cave City is a home-rule class city in Southern Kentucky mere minutes from Mammoth Cave National Park (which was the draw for us to stop there in the first place.)

We exited Interstate 65 at the Mammoth Cave exit and took Kentucky highway 70 straight to the AirBnB, which is situated right on the highway.

On our way down the road, I saw some astounding roadside attractions that I would have died to have the time to have gone to, like Mammoth Valley Park, Raven’s Cross Village of Adventure, Treasure Trove Park, Dinosaur World, and, of course, what trip to the south would be complete without spying a Trump store…

And boy, do they really want to make sure you know they’re there. Across the street is this:

Anyway, moving on…

We pulled into the gravel driveway of our AirBnB and realized that the house we would be staying with is brand new. In fact, further investigation reveals that the owners may still be in the process of building the place. There were some common things noticeably missing, like towel bars in the bathroom and knives in the kitchen.

The house itself was spacious enough, with two bedrooms, each containing a queen sized bed, a bathroom, full laundry machines, a good-sized kitchen and a reasonable living room (though the furniture was arranged in a somewhat confounding manner.)

There was a huge unfenced back yard, plenty of room for Ash to run around. Our recent experiences with him in Vermont and Maine led us to trust him enough to not leash him up when letting him out, though we did keep a close eye on him and used his shock collar if he started to get too far away. Spoiler alert, he was very well behaved. He made us proud.

I parked and spent the next hour or so unloading the truck, then found a nearby grocery store to get some food for at least the next week. Some of the items on my shopping list were not available from that grocery store so when I got back to our temporary home, I loaded up a sizable cart on Walmart.com and set it to pick up the following evening after work. Included on that cart were a set of knives and some cheap plastic cutting boards (the AirBnB provided one small bamboo cutting board and a granite cutting board, neither of which are suitable surfaces to cut on.)

I set up our workstations, poured us some drinks and settled in to prepare for the weeks ahead.

Weather

It was just as hot and muggy in Kentucky as it had been in Vermont. Our time in Maine and Salem gave us respite from the heat and humidity but we were once again plunged into it once we left the relative comfort of the coast.

We had several days of rain while we were in Kentucky, putting some of our planned activities in danger. Luckily, the big outdoor adventures we’d planned were not drastically impacted by the weather, save earlier starts to them to avoid the mid-day heat.

Shopping

The closest grocery stores were small, independently owned stores, which is fine, but their selections are limited. There were several things that we would need that would not be found in places like this so I frequently would make a trip to the nearest Walmart, in Glasgow, about 15 minutes from the AirBnB. I wound up making more trips there than I’d care to, but it was closer than the nearest grocery store in Vermont, so that’s something.

We did plenty of shopping out on our adventures too, picking up souvenirs pretty much everywhere we went as well as the time we spent at the outlet mall in Nashville.

Kentucky Adventures

Here are the amazing things we did in our time in Kentucky:

Dixon Cave, Green River Bluffs, and River Styx Spring Loop

Lost River Cave Boat Tour and Nashville, Tennessee

Echo River Spring and Sinkhole Loop Trail, Mammoth Cave National Park

Mammoth Cave National Park

Rail Explorers, Bluegrass Division

Conclusion

Overall, we both had a really good time in Kentucky. I am slightly disappointed that I didn’t make it to a couple of hopeful destinations (the Louisville Slugger Factory & Museum, and the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park) but I’m super grateful for the things we were able to do together.

Up next will be likely a quick recap of our short stay in Albuquerque. We don’t have a lot planned outside of the same things we do each time we visit – hike the Cedro Creek Nature Trail, pick up green chile, hang out with Alan and Jarrod, the same, but ya never know. Perhaps something a little out of the ordinary may pop up. Check back in and find out!

Until then!

-Phil