Thursday, April 26 – Monday, April 30

After driving from northern Alabama to visit Robert’s daughter, Victoria, in Nashville, we came across a beautiful Tennessee State Park in the juniper forests south of Lebanon, Tennessee.  This state park, and the surrounding forest, encompasses 9,000 acres of woodlands and recreational areas.  There are beautiful stone lodges, and we found a very quiet campsite which faced our doors towards the woods.  Once the word got out that we were traveling with a bag full of pecans, we were visited by several squirrels.  Our first evening there, we were also adopted by a kitten, who helped us eat the scraps from our dinner.  He was very tame and friendly, and after his dinner he curled up on my lap and fell asleep. 

(Throughout our trip to Nashville and Kentucky we had excellent weather with abundant sunshine and gentle breezes.  Much different from the bitter winter storms they had suffered just a month ago.) 

We crossed over into Kentucky, a state I have always wanted to see, on Sunday. At noon we stopped for lunch at a fun little place south of Bowling Green, on the Barren River Lake, called Paradise Point.  It's a funky little antique boutique that also sells yummy fried pies and Hebrew National hotdogs.  The owners are a chiropractor and his wife who live and work during the week in Bowling Green, then come out to the lake and open their store each weekend throughout the spring and summer.  They spend the winter weekends looking for antiques and old Airstreams, like this one.  They are wonderfully friendly, and obviously love what they do. 

Next we aimed our trailer for the northeastern corner of the state, 90 miles east of Lexington, to a piece of land called the Laurel Gorge.  We spent two days on ATV’s and hiking in an area that looked prehistoric; with rocky overhangs and sheer cliffs that reminded me of Yosemite.  Robert took a dip in a clear deep pool which was about 60 F.  Brrr!  (If you click on the enlargement to the left here, you can see Robert at the base of this huge boulder.) 

We were graciously hosted by a family that owns several hundred acres adjacent to the Laurel Gorge.  To give you some idea of the property values, and if anyone out there is interested in moving to Kentucky, the family is hoping to sell a 400-acre piece of rolling hills and pastureland for $600K. That’s just $1500 per acre!  Or, you can buy the whole expanse of Laurel Gorge, 1100 acres or more, for the tidy sum of $3 million.  Any takers? 

After all that excitement, we took another hike along a ridge on our friends’ horse ranch.  Distances are very deceiving in those rolling hills.  Either that, or we are poorly out of shape after spending the year in the flatlands of the Florida panhandle.  We were both exhausted, and Robert found a shade tree for a rest.

-Jeanie