22 - West Virginia & Kentucky (WV, KY)



Where are we? Don't ask our GPS because it doesn't really know...New River Gorge, (well part of it)!


Leaving Virginia we drove to West Virginia (the geographer in me questions why they didn't come up with a more original name...).   New River Gorge, located in the Appalachian Mountains, is known to be one of the best white water rafting rivers around on the oldest river on the continent. The New River Gorge National River lies at the core of a globally significant forest containing the most diverse flora of any river gorge in central and southern Appalachia and provides essential habitat for endangered mammals and rare birds and amphibians.  Wow! we were pumped and excited to check out the park.

Only problem, our GPS had other plans and we ended up entering part of the park that wasn't a main entrance and after parking the truck and walking along the road for a couple of hours, all we saw was a nice picnic area to have lunch. We found large flat rocks along the river, so we hopped along them to our spot. While hopping, Catalina decided that she preferred to swim instead of hop...we think that's her first time ever swimming! Maybe the cool temperatures of the water was more of a motivator, but either way, while we sat and ate our sandwiches, she shook herself dry.

View from our lunchtime picnic area

An old railway converted to a footbridge, during the industrial period
of the 1870's, coal mining created small towns along the river.

MAMMOTH CAVE:

 

One of the larger rooms, just leaving the Rotunda Room

After a couple days in the area we moved onto to Kentucky. Our destination was Mammoth cave, the world's longest cave system, currently over 390 miles explored.  To go along with the largeness of the cave was also the size of our tour group; over 70 people and only one guide! If you were not at the front of the group you couldn't hear much of what the guide said. Fortunately we were at the front and the grandeur of the cave kept most people satisfied.  One cool feature in the cave, you could see where people back in the 1800's left their name, by candlelight.  Using the flame to blacken (scorch) the ceilings, people wrote their names & date they visited.

A LITTLE BIT OF THIS & A LITTLE BIT OF THAT:

WigWam Village, huge concrete teepees for you to stay in...far cooler than a Motel 6!

Our campsite was in Cave City, kind of an interesting place. Along the main road it wasn't uncommon to see 50ft tall T-Rex statues, haunted houses, raceways & amusement rides, Jesse James paraphernalia, WigWam Village, Yogi Bear's Jellystone park - and much more! After Labor Day it seems attendance goes way down since most places looked either closed or only 1 or 2 cars were in their parking lots.

CHOCOLATE, KENTUCKY STYLE!
One parking lot we did visit was the best fudge in Kentucky store! Our campsite owners highly recommended sampling the homemade chocolate bon bons and fudge at Chasers Kentucky Chocolates. "More gifts to bring home", I thought, but after about 3 days, everything was eaten with the exception of the bourbon balls (currently in the freezer)! If you are in the area, you need to visit this place, their dark chocolate is very, very good & it's homemade!


BOURBON TRAIL:

Since Kentucky is known for it's bourbon, we decided to spend the day driving the Bourbon Trail. The trail was North from where we were staying (about 50 miles) and consisted of 6 distilleries. You can visit them in any order and do it at your leisure. Not sure if we even liked Bourbon (we've never tried it before), our first stop was Jim Beam's Distillery, one of the more popular brands out there. The distillery was only offering self guided tours to certain areas of the compound, (Oct is when they were offer the full tour). That was okay since the displays were very interesting. I was amazed the casks (barrels) don't use glue. In fact the process involved in making one is to use 30-32 pieces of oak strips of wood which are then pressed into shape with steam and held in place with only 6 metal rings. The inside of the barrel is burned to char the insides giving the bourbon that oaky finish. Once the barrel is complete, the bourbon is stored in it for a minimum of 6 yrs.

Oh, the fumes when you walked into here....
millions of gallons all under one roof

After going through the process and seeing where the barrels were stored, we went to the tasting room, and the verdict is.....we are not bourbon fans!


A DAY TOO LATE:

Another tour we were excited to see was the Corvette factory & museum in Bowling Green. We arrived on Fri, Sep 14th, only to find out the last tour for the year was the day before. The plant is shutting down public access so that they can focus on their new body style for the 2013 model....so close, but yet so far....

We spent a few extra days at our campsite waiting for a rv part for Dave to install. Sometimes it's nice to have extra days padded between destinations, I especially enjoyed sleeping in for a change! September is a big birthday month for both our families, I was able to send my parents' cards from the town nextdoor to where we were staying, Glasgow, Kentucky.....I thought that was appropriate for my Scottish parents! :)

WHERE TO NEXT?

Our next destination is a place that sounds like an interesting place to visit, so without much research, we turned SE to the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.