Day 6 - Kentucky

Monday, August 11th

Woke up this morning in Indianapolis, Indiana. My intentions were to drive thru to Virginia today....only 10 hours away via interstate. Since the corn fields had burned me out a bit on the back roads, I figured the express route to Virginia would be my method for this leg of the trip. However, I started on the interstate and saw a sign for Louisville, KY and thought, "hey, I want to go to Louisville", so I called my friend in Virginia and let her know I would be arriving on Tuesday in order to check out Kentucky. I stayed on the Interstate until I rolled into Louisville.

Crossing into Louisville

I decided to get off on one of the many back road highways here in Louisville. Thankfully I confused myself, I saw that I wanted to take 60E but once I got into Louisville I got off on 31E...thinking I was doing what I intended. Louisville appears to be a cute city with a small town feel. It was the middle of the day on a Monday and the downtown streets weren't crowded, it actually reminded me of downtown Portland on a weekend. Not as many people as I expected. Anway, I continued on 31E and went through an intersection and saw some people on the sidewalk looking at something up in the sky....I looked over that direction and realized what they were looking at....

the large Louisville Slugger bat that stands out front the Museum and Factory. Hey, look at me, coming across yet another sight unexpectedly. I had some friends that visited this factory last year and really enjoyed it, so I figured, since I was here, might as well check it out.

Didn't take many pictures inside the museum...nobody else was and so I felt a bit initmidated to pull out my camera. But I did manage a picture of the flags that represent a few of the players that have sported the slugger contract. I took the tour through the factory to see how they make the bats. That was cool, but am not going to try and relay the information, I would totally butcher it. I do know they have a specialized lathe machine that can be programmed with something like 220 different specifications that players choose to get the bat thoroughly customized to their needs. It's interesting, if ever in Louisville, I suggest you check it out. And you get a small Louisville slugger as a souvenir. After my stint as a tourist, I got back on 31E and started heading toward the Kentucky countryside. But not before being totally surprised by the city streets....look at this picture closely. The lanes (all 4) are divided only by short dashed yellow lines. ALL the lanes. Now look up at the street lights. The green arrows and red X's determine the direction of traffic.

It got a little crazy, especially when there were lane direction lights and the normal red-yellow-green lights all at the same intersection. So at any given time the street I was on could become a one-way. Talk about a faith-based traffic system, to make sure everyone is paying attention to those lights. It through me so was glad to get out into the country.

Noticeable attributes of the Kentucky I saw: abandoned houses, long driveways and, of course, tobacco fields.

I'm not really sure what my fascination is with abandonment and death (ie. houses, towns, cemeteries), but I am and here are some more pics to verify it.

Okay, this house (below) completely freaked me out....got under my skin. It's obviously abandoned, but when I was taking the picture I couldn't escape the feeling of someone watching me. The feeling was so intense that I got goose bumps a few miles down the road just thinking about it. It still sends shivers up my spine....but it was cool though.

I wonder if the driveways represent wealth...like the longer it takes to get to your house the more money you have? Or maybe it is a safety thing? I never stopped to find out, I'm sure I could find out via the internet.

And the Tobacco Fields...




Entering the little town of Fairfield (I think)..

I got so turned around on the back roads of Kentucky. It seemed every couple miles was sign indicating a junction and everytime I looked for that junction on the map....couldn't find it. I was getting frustrated, but was able to get on a main vein eventually. It was about that time the time zones caught up with me and I had to find a hotel. I planned on staying in Lexington, which if you look at the map, isn't very far from Louiville, but because I got so turned around, I ended spending 3 hours driving around the outskirts of Louisville. I drove through Versailles, the "Horse Capital of the World" and then just found the next motel on the road side, and pulled off the road about 6pm. I was looking forward to a relax evening, watch some tv and go to bed at decent time. I made sure they had wireless, but then when I tried to connect....."the wireless provided is not available". I was too tired to deal with it. So that ended my 6th day.