Mt. Vernon to the End of Kentucky

Day 43 Photo Album

October 15, 2009

I should have been more specific about the state when I speak of cities; it seems that there are duplicates. As I began my day I did a double take over the border in Indiana: signs for Mt. Vernon and Boonville (places I had driven through in Illinois) were posted. Hey, am I going the wrong direction?

This happened at the border of Kansas and Illinois too. I saw signs for O’Fallon before getting to Kansas City (which is duplicated right next to itself as well) then as I headed out of Indepedence I saw another sign for O’Fallon in Missouri, just about the same distance from Kansas City as the other one.

This makes me wonder if borders cause a mirroring affect.

My stay was in Mt Vernon, Illinois. The usual heavy cloud cover stayed with me all day. A bit of rain again, not serious. The corn is dried out, but apparently not dried out enough. My father says that to harvest corn for grain it needs to get to the optimum moisture content so that it stores well. I believe this is between 15% and 16%. There seemed to be a lot of orange and yellow in the landscape of crops which may be soybeans. It was beautiful to me. Folds of gentle slopes dipping and weaving in and out of each other amidst stands of trees and farm buildings, their colors changing from yellow to orange to green. Then a vast open space of corn with a line of distant trees to hold it in the frame.

Oil pumps are in the fields of Illinois and Indiana as well. Just one or two here and there. Right in the middle of the crops. This fascinates me.

Then the highway will be enclosed by a tunnel of trees. It was fun.

Indiana billboards informed me that I could visit the Marengo Caves which are a National Landmark. I wondered why I would do such a thing on such an overcast day. But when I stopped for a rest at the exit for Marengo I changed my mind and ventured ten miles north off the highway to walk underground. After all, I’ve never been in a cave and I could use a walk.

This was a very weird experience. The tour covers over a mile of the cave. Though they are careful about people touching things and leaving trash behind, it hasn’t always been that way. When the caves were first discovered they were used for all kinds of events: concerts, plays, square dancing, boy scout sleepovers, and more. The kids still get to do quite a lot more than the tour, which is pretty exciting for them.

Some of the spaces are small enough you have to duck, but for the most part it is a passageway that leads into multiple large areas (where all the fun used to transpire). I was enjoying the weirdness of it and taking photos like a nut, hoping something would turn out.

When I came outside I suddenly found I could breathe much freer. It hadn’t occurred to me until then that I was feeling a bit tense down there. Especially from the point where she showed us how the ceiling falls down every once in a while to create various layers. Oh yes, and she was told it was safer to be underground during an earthquake. I’m going to have to look into that assertion.

The clouds and dullness of the day seemed infinitely more cheerful for the remainder of the day.

Into Kentucky I started to see those beautiful green grasses and black fences. Didn’t see many white fences. What I really enjoyed was the way the hills were shaped and how the highway flowed in and out of them. The colors are still turning with just a few places where the trees are bare.

My energy was good so I drove on a bit after dark and found the KOA west of Ashland, Kentucky, right before the border of West Virginia. To my delighted surprise I found their cabins have bathrooms! What a lovely cabin I’ve got! So I’ve decided to stay a day here and rest up while the snow blows out of Pennsylvania.

The snow and rain are covering the entire northeast until Sunday or Monday. I’ll make for Morgantown, West Virginia, Saturday then get off the highway as I make my way north across the western part of Pennsylvania.