A collection of posts about adventures in Kentucky.
Dr. Negativity – the one who keeps saying I’ll never be off oxygen – is finally coming around. Might I be off oxygen by the end of the summer? I decided to try a hike without Gus and see how my lungs kept up without their training wheels.
Sometimes ticking off a goal on a checklist isn’t as much fun as just wandering aimlessly through the woods.
There was this one big hill I’ve avoided since my lungs broke. Not anymore! Consider Gobbler’s Trace Trail vanquished.
My last hike for the summer season was a huge let down. I only ended up logging two out of a planned six miles, I had no water and I threw the biggest trail tantrum of my life.
Hike one of the 52 Hike Challenge was a half frozen one around Big Bone Lick SP’s sulfur springs and creeks.
One of my favorite local parks to hike at is Big Bone Lick State Park. So named for the bone digs that were so popular in the 1700s. Today, the big bones are gone but there are miles of uncrowded trails to explore — and bison!
I’m breaking my no-preview rule because I am just so gosh-darned excited for my summer adventures!
The more I explore Kentucky, the more surprised I am by how many very interesting and beautiful things lurk in the next holler. One of the places that inspired me recently was a small village just south of Maysville, Ky. When I walk on flagstone sidewalks along Main Street, it’s easy to imagine hearing the clop of hooves on the road. What is harder to imagine is the impact the people of this blip on the map have had on the world.
Its late January and we’ve been getting hit with cold and snow pretty consistently for a couple of months now. Taking the dog for a walk has become an exercise in endurance for both of us — and that’s on the days where she doesn’t just run out, do her business and then make a bee line back to the door. Cabin fever has set in. Don’t get me wrong, I love winter. I would much rather be dealing with temperatures on the southern end of 70 degrees, wind chill or not. Pulling on a pair of thermals under my pants is no big hardship to me. And living in that big, bulky hoodie for a few months? I welcome it. But what do to on those days when you’re tired of being cooped up and you feel like if your dog runs a circle around the room one more time you just might hog-tie her and hang her from the ceiling fan? I slap on one more layer of clothes, grab the long leash …
We finally made it to Hannibal, Mo. for our first stop of the trip. We actually made it on the road by 2 p.m. as planned but traffic at some inopportune moments kept holding us back. Everything was going well until we were about 30 minutes from Cohokia Mounds State Historic Site — about 30 minutes from sunset when the park closed. Traffic came to a dead stop and Cory realized we must have hit traffic from an accident he heard some locals talking about at a gas station. In a desperate attempt to avoid the traffic and make it to the Mounds before dark, we exited off the Interstate and followed a line of cars doing the same thing. Of course, that was when Sheila, the GPS, decided to become useless. Apparently a U-turn was the only solution she could think of. So while Shelia kept yelling at us to turn around, Amanda and I figured out what road we ended up on, used the sun to determine what direction we were headed on …
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