Two Days in the Trees

Now, the title of this post might seem a bit odd but 1) yesterday’s blog mysteriously disappeared. We think it may have something to do with our recent travels through Roswell, New Mexico and Area 51 but we can’t say for sure? Anyway, Pam wrote and posted it and this morning it was gone - poof! AND 2) we live in Arizona. We read about trees. We see trees on TV. We really don’t have many to call our own in the valley where we live. The nearest we have are tall green lumpy things with arms and needles. So, we’re pretty excited about the real thing.

We spent the past two days traveling across Kentucky, parts of West Virginia, and now a stop for the night outside of Canton, Ohio. We have been doing rural. Some of the past couple days were on the interstate but lots were on smaller roads winding through rolling hills, river bottoms, and tiny small towns. We got to see magnificent horse farms and poverty-stricken areas along the riverbanks. In Kentucky we passed Lincoln’s birthplace and discovered that Daniel Boone is a Kentucky hero with towns, roads, forests, and State Parks bearing his name. We visited a newly opened brewery. We stopped at a Civil War battlefield. We bought veggies in an Amish market and dodged the droppings left behind the Amish buggies on the back roads. We also felt compelled to spend some time with the wonderful folks who run Balance Distilling, maker of authentic recipe Civil War bourbon and several types of moonshine.

Up above I mentioned riverbanks. As Arizonans we were stunned to see rivers that actually hold running water. All this time we’ve been led to believe that a river is gash in the earth that holds sand - kind of a storage facility. Here rivers are everywhere and they are full of water. If someone told me there were fish in them I might even think it possible.

We left Kentucky and crossed into West Virginia where there were also trees and rivers. Fortunately we had a GPS burp and got routed along a one and a half to two lane road that wandered its way past tiny small towns.  Every little town sported signs cautioning us against Hell and encouraging us to give up gin and tonics. We aren’t sure how these folks are employed or where they might be. There was no sign of industry or employment opportunities - anywhere.  Now that we have the Big Beautiful Bill requiring folks to work to retain Medicaid it’s a mystery how that might be possible. Clearly, these folks are about to have an even tougher life.

We ended our travel day #2 not far beyond the Ohio River crossing from West Virginia to Ohio. We have a sweet little campsite with many, many sweet children to keep us company tonight. Maggie has a nice grassy area to poop in and we might even be able to sit out tonight. For the last many days we have been in the coach huddled up next to air conditioning vent. It’s been in the 90’s with humidity approaching 120%. Have any Arizonans told you about the wonders of dry heat? 

We are in our 11th day of travel. We have driven 2300 miles and spent about 50 hours on the road. In the next days we will meet friends at Niagara Falls, meet up in New Hampshire with sister Vicki and this guy she hangs around with and then spend four nights in Maine with brother Marc and with Karen, the lady who tries to civilize him.  Then, on to the Maritime Provinces and a slow and meandering journey down the east coast. See you all on the road 😁