September 27 - Exploring his "Old Kentucky Home"!

     On a beautiful cool, crisp Autumn day we set out to explore Kentucky staying off the Interstates.  After a short positioning drive to Madisonville, we switched to US 85 and US 431 heading north to Owensboro.  The countryside was beautiful - rolling hills, trees, and "hillocks" (what we call small mountains that stand alone, and aren't connected by ridges).  There were lots of soybeans, uncounted thousands of acres of corn stalks, and tobacco!  We saw it yellowing in fields, being staked up to dry, and then hung in drying sheds.

      Our initial destination for the day was Owensboro, the home of Kentucky Colonel Colyar P. Dodson - Becky's great uncle by marriage.  After parking the RV with the generator running for air conditioning, we entered and were directed to the nicely appointed genealogy  area.  The librarian in charge of the section was most helpful in assisting her, and discovered several articles including an obit on this very fascinating man.
       Born in 1891, he grew up in Owensboro until he was 18 years old.   He served in the Navy during the first World War.  His career was in the hotel business, and after settling in Boston became the General Manager of the Kenmore Hotel.  He had married Becky's great aunt, Florence Smith, and they enjoyed travel.  On one trip to Germany, they fell in love with and brought home a Doberman Pincer puppy.  The puppy became a show Champion, and the Dodson's enjoyed traveling around the country entering him in dog competitions.  They discovered a major problem, though.  Decent hotels did not like to accommodate pets.  "Uncle Dodd" decided to do something about it, and created a wing at the Kenmore Hotel devoted to pets and their owners.  It was a great success, and eventually spread to other mid-level and high-end hotels.  So, if you ever travel with your pet and stay in one that is pet-friendly, just think of Uncle Dodd and remember you heard it here first!
     We continued our journey eastward towards our next destination, Louisville, and again stayed on "back roads".  This time it was KY 54 and KY 261, and again the drive was pleasant with interesting scenery.   Roads were quite empty, and we only had to slow down from the speed limit when we went through the infrequent towns.  We finished the cross-country part of the journey on US 60, which terminated when we reached Fort Knox. 
     During the drive we finished listening to "The House at Riverton".  The last quarter of the book was much better paced and interesting than the slow first 3 quarters.  The author cleverly had the protagonist at a critical point say, "the end" and Becky and Jim simultaneous gasped "NO!"  Fortunately it wasn't, and all the little loose ends of the mystery were nicely tied up.  We agreed this could be a decent movie, as the slow pace building up to the climax could be significantly shortened and made more interesting. 
     We went north around Fort Knox, through Shepardsville.  Big mistake.  Note to self - don't drive on busy suburban highways exiting from a city at rush hour on a Friday!
     The Louisville South KOA is the largest in Kentucky, and is a nice one.  We're in a fairly isolated area, and booked for two nights.  Decent dog park, good internet and cable connections - all we need, and the dogs like it!
     One of the fun things that some RVers do is put a map with decals of the states and Canadian Provinces they have traveled through with their RV's.  We started doing it with our first Itasca when we got it in 2009, and after we traded it in this past January we decided to get 2 new maps (US and Canadian are separate) and continue the "quest" to fill in the states.  On this trip we added 6 more states, and we now only have 4 to go finish the "lower 48" - Nevada, Utah, Colorado and North Dakota.  We're looking forward to eventually travelling to Alaska.  We would probably drive cross country, then on the Alaska State Ferrys north, and drive back via Canada.  We don't anticipate ever driving to Hawaii!!