More of the Same

When we first retired, anxious friends were concerned we would wither away watching “Dancing..”, so they offered this sage advice.


 “ Make sure you have a project each day, even if it is just buying a new screwdriver.”


So this morning I finally got around to fixing the pesky leak in one of the trailer tires.

• Pulled the tire
• Had Goodyear fix TWO leaks
• Replaced tire
• Pulled around and exchanged unneeded fluids for fresh water
• Torqued  the tires and sat back down.

IS THAT ENOUGH FOR YOU???


Evidently this does not qualify, so we went for a late afternoon hike toward White Rocks.  I say “toward” knowing there was no way we were going to make that climb (and it has nothing to do with the late start; the last half mile switchbacks up these.




We old folks do have ways to amuse ourselves. 
“Look a picture rock!” which means we must stop here and BREATHE; taking a picture is strictly optional.  UNLESS the rock looks like something, then other rules apply.  If it looks like a PIG for instance, one must interact with it (in ways that do not expend any unnecessary energy gaining altitude.)
Unlike clouds, rocks can be ridden.

Skylight Cave Hike

It’s been quiet and not too remarkable for the last couple days.  (Are you sitting on the edge of your computer chair NOW?)  It has been cool and sunny and we have been finding small chores and small adventures to fill our days.  Many small Airstream repairs have been accomplished as well as routine laundry and such.  We are getting tired of hearing we should see the view from the Pinnacle, so we did.
Called the Gibraltar of America, this position commands access to the Gap and Powell valley.  Both sides in the Civil War held it a couple times each, but always got bored, sick and hungry so left it to the other side without a shot being fired. Now there are lovely views, but the road is closed too early to see a sunset there…

Did meet this hippie chick up there…awesome….


We had to render tribute to the Postal service in Middleboro and nearby found the Old Carnegie Library building  which now houses the local Historical Society. There we learned:

• Middleboro is the only town in America situated in a meteor crater. We mentioned Wetumpka Alabama, but further research may be required…
• The history of the “Lost Squadron” –- planes which crash landed in Greenland in 1942.  They weren’t actually lost at the time, just out of fuel and landing fields, but the planes were under 236 feet of ice when a local Middleboro man funded an expedition to recover one.  It was restored and flew again.
• Oh yes.  Chad Everett, the Six Million Dollar Man is a native…. OK, gotta go…..

This morning  we walked through sun dappled hardwoods listening to the birds and trying to identify all the different nut crops along the trail.  It is all second growth around here, but the variety is amazing. We  climbed a narrowing gorge with broken rock faces on each side until we found the entrances to the cave.
We knew the cave would be closed, but enjoyed a pleasant lunch on the bridge, talking quietly as is our wont.  Along came a doe and two fawns, looked us over and passed along.  A very nice quiet afternoon.

THE HENSLEY SETTLEMENT

The Hensley and Gibbons families settled an isolated plateau near the Cumberland Gap and lived independently there for five decades. The settlement they built has been reconstructed and, if you are very fortunate, Ranger Sharon and volunteer Ancil will walk the grounds and tell you the stories.  We were lucky to be the only sign ups for the Sunday morning  tour which begins with 30 minute ride on Kentucky back roads and UP the gated one lane Shillalah Creek road.  There is too much to tell here –- several tours would not exhaust Sharon’s stories, but here are some pictures with a few notes in the captions.



There was no sawmill on the top of Brush Mountain, so all the buildings were log, mostly chestnut,  chinked with clay then battened with these short split boards.






The homes and most outbuildings were built in the folds of the land; the wind rages over the top of the mountain here.




Fences were split rail as above or pickets.

















Chicken house (with outside nesting boxes) and wood shed (elevated to allow wood to dry)


THIS LINK GIVES MORE ON HENSLEY SETTLEMENT





Our day wasn’t over yet because the Pine Mountain Resort State Park has a Sunday Buffet that is justly famous.  The park sits astride the next ridge northward from the Cumberland Gap which would itself have been a formidable barrier if not for the Narrows.  The dinning room windows give a view of the steep, rugged folds of the land and the Thomas Walker overlook gives a view of the sinuous passage cut through by the Cumberland River.  The overlook is a half mile hike, but here in eastern Kentucky that is measured VERTICALLY. Trust me, old bodies rebel at such after salad, green beans, mashed potatoes, fried apples, mac/cheese, carrots, roast beef, fried catfish, ham, chicken/dumplings, fried chicken and banana pudding, berry cobbler, three kinds of cake, macaroons and your choice of several kinds of pies only served on Sundays to native Kentuckians.   We dragged ourselves home and showered while the dulcimer students and instructors jammed in the campground.




This is all that remains of the State Record Elk after we strapped into it at the buffet.

CAMP CHAIR BLISS

Loyal readers will recall (and no doubt anxiously await) our promise to report on the search for proper campground  seating. search for the ultimate camp chair  We received absolutely no assistance from the dear doctor Whirl; He apparently took my reference to “broad aluminum beams” personally and withheld vital purchasing information.

Adrift as we were in the bewildering world of portable furniture, we stumbled on so many many unsuitable options—with multiple drink holders, tables left and right, battery operated rope lights, and umbrellas. (Sorry, flamingo fans, only this one.)
Notable is the new Camping World offering –a swiveling folding chair with BUILT-IN SPEAKERS (batteries not included). click here for a video which should have "Gypsy" theme music. Sorry, we prefer our outdoors unplugged.
We have settled into (and that is appropriate)  two ALP SPORT aluminum chairs with  “broad Aluminum beams”, nice blue upholstery,  and nearly inconspicuous drink holder.  (We have loved Alp Sport since they issued mimeographed catalogs and George Lamb answered the phone himself). 
Our Broad beams are power coated, so the true aluminum goodness does not shine through, but we know it’s there and it comforts us.

OK.  We like this one too.  

CUMBERLAND GAP NP

THINGS WE LIKE ABOUT THE CUMBERLAND GAP:

• THE PEOPLE are grand.  The park is small and not overly crowded, so the staff all know and like each other and we are so cute, they know us around here too.  The folks we meet in town, along the bike trail and the volunteers in the park make us feel welcome.
• THE CAMPGROUND, to quote the superintendent, is "five star."  Where else have you found a National Park with hot showers, electrical hookups and 3G coverage?
• THE VISITORS CENTER is really well done with world class movies and modern dioramas.
• THE SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS CRAFT GUILD has a shop in the visitors center –- best craftsmen in the area.
• THE BUFFET at Pine Mountain State Park deserves a mention -- great food and a double portion of friendliness.
• THE HISTORY. The whole course of the American expansion into the West depended on the path through the Cumberland Gap. The story of the Gap from Buffalo path to the Modern Tunnel built to restore the terrain to the wild state is what you come here to learn and the Park personnel make that story unfold.
• THE SCENERY!!! is spectacular.  Long, STEEP ridges with outcrops of stone, heavily forested with a real variety of trees so that Fall will be mind blowing. 

  WILDERNESS ROAD BIKE TRAIL

We started from Gibson Station and headed East.  (To the West the Rail has been taken over by the highway and the trail now follows the highway right of way.)
The path is fine gravel but well pocked with hoof prints. We pass under this faux covered bridge and sight beautiful farms on both sides.  All day we saw only two parties of horsewomen and two bikes.  The horsewomen were warm and welcoming, told us more detail about the area.
  At one point we stopped to read a sign about the Wilderness road’s beginning as a buffalo path and looked up to see –– BUFFALO. They go all out for authenticity around here.





ALONG THE WILDERNESS ROAD BIKE TRAIL



The best part of the day was yet to come…Wilderness Road State Park has Ranger Billy who reenacts the role of Joseph Miller, frontiersman and founder of Miller’s Station.  The story is well told in another fine film shown at the visitor center.  The reconstructed fort is regarded to be the Most authentic in America.
We feel we know “Joseph Miller” from the film and shake his hand just as Daniel Boone had. Billy walks us through the Gunsmith shop where they have just fashioned a 1775 rifle in a shop  with only a forge and a hand made rifling machine made of wood. He slips in and out of character discussing the trade in deer hides destined to be fashionable pants for British dandies.  He walks us through the blacksmith shop and tells us just how the “pigs” of iron were carried to this point on the wilderness road.  Then the best part of the story… Billy was hired in 1999 to “build this fort.”  After several years of research, he came on the site with: two oxen, two horses, a wagon load of eighteenth century foodstuffs, some bedding, a very few iron tools,and thirty willing reenactors.  Six months later they left having completed the most historically accurate fort in the Americas.

 “In the first two days we made our wooden tools –mallets, handles for the froe….."
hHeumbly and carefully answered all our questions, invited us back for the reenactment of the “raid” in the Spring and might have stayed into the evening  if they were not closing the park.  We left amazed at the vision of this one man and his mastery of this era, but even more  thankful for his gracious manner.  They said that the real Joseph Miller could be gentle with children and fight fiercely to build and defend his dreams. We thought  Billy too might share those traits.

Gap Cave : you’re guano love this

 

Today we are off for a tour of Gap Cave with Ranger Lucas (part-time ranger and a full-time college student) and he was a delight.  We could tell that he loved his job; he had lots of stories, jokes, knew the history of the cave  and really made it fun for everyone.

“If you’re not havin fun, you’re not on MY tour.”

His specialty is civil war battlefields and he pointed out where civil war soldiers of both sides had signed the walls of the cave. Neatly inscribed in an almost inaccessible part of the roof was the name of a prominent confederate general. Al insists that this was done by an Aide valued for his penmanship and willingness to crawl through bat xxxx for the sake of his efficiency report.

Sometimes I think he was trying out his teaching techniques when he would throw out questions and then wait for one of us to answer.  Stump the tour, but we had Al along and only once was he able to get us. 

This was about a 2 hour tour through  4 levels of the cave (over 180 steps) with the usual stalagmites, stalactites and other formations you would expect to see.  We were treated to several kinds of bats hanging around -- not a cave tour without them.  Yes, I took a lot of pictures, but they are just not very interesting after the fact….they look like a lot of blobs dripping.

Al’s favorite part:  It seems that before the park this cave was called Cudjo’s Cave and owned by the local college.  It wasn’t a pretty sight.  The ticket booth was across the busy “massacre road” from the cave and the scariest part of the tour was crossing the road to the cave.  When the park service took over, they replaced the rickety wooden steps and railings and took out the electrical cords running through the water in the cave. (Now it is all NPS –- stainless steel railings and safe steps throughout.)  BUT, when the college gave it up , they KEPT the water rights.  Now the water that forms the cave is collected, and bottled by Coca-Cola as Cumberland Gap Spring Water.

“Yeah, they filter out the bat guano and run a little ultraviolet through it, and it’s on sale for 99 cents a six pack.”

Westward ho ..through the Gap

Movin again.  Old Timers weekend coming to the Cove, so we are heading north to the Cumberland Gap. Had a nice time talking with our neighbors but still got away early, for us. Groceries in Townsend.  Once through Knoxville, the two lane highway 11W was running parallel to the escarpment through lovely farmland. Then left on 25E through some huge grades over a set of tall ridges.  These would have been a tough slough with an Airstream on the old roads; hard to imagine how rugged the country was before the Wilderness Road.  This is new country for us and we are anxious to get to the visitors center and start our own exploration.