2021 - Kentucky

 Kentucky - 2021

 

 

We left home on Friday, June 4, 2021 and headed for Natural Bridge Resort State Park in Eastern Kentucky, Southeast of Lexington. 

 June 4th-8th

                                                                          Natural Bridge

                                                                      

                                                            Natural Bridge from the top

We celebrated our 46th anniversary with lunch at the Natural Bridge Lodge.  We hiked up to the Lodge in the rain and enjoyed beautiful views from our table.

        

                     

                                

                                           Nada Tunnel - Red River Gorge Geological Area

 

                                                                    Red River Bridge

                                                                 Magnolia Macrophylla

 

June 8th

This battle took place on January 10, 1862 and pitted Kentucky vs Kentucky. The Union forcesd were led by an unknown colonel, James A. Garfield, who would later become President of the United States. This was the largest and most significant Civil War battle in Eastern Kentucky. The Union halted a Confederate advance into Kentucky.

This is a replica of the statue in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.  There is an interesting story on this monument.  It used to be in front of prominent attorneys law office.  The attorney was charged with Social Security embezzlement and sentenced to 12 year.  he went on the run and was captured in Honduras.  An additional 15 years was added to his sentence.  The statue was moved to the Middle Creek Battlefield in April of this year.

 

 June 8th-11th

                                                        Jenny Wiley Resort State Park

The old expression "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade" applies to our 3 days at Jenny Wiley Resort State Park.  In all our years of camping we have never run into what we did at Jenny Wiley.  It rained and rained and rained, 4"-6"+/-.  The dump station overflowed and it was closed the entire time we were there, with no evidence of getting the situation fixed.  Our fire ring was full of melted plastic, as were most of the other sites we peeked at.  Trash all over.  The women's restroom had a broken toilet, another overflowing, and the only working one covered with poop and cigarette ashes all over the toilet and floor.  4-30' trailers parked in a circle around one campsite, 3 parked on the grass. One decided to leave and buried his truck in the mud, destroying the campsite with deep ruts.  Old pop-up campers and a pontoon boat stored at the entrance of the loop. Upon arrival I asked for maps of the campground and a map of the trails.  They said they didn't have any and didn't know when they would be re-supplied.  We ended up walking in the campground to get our steps in. Not what you would expect from a state park. 

                                                        Perryville National Battlefield

 Perryville was the "High Water Mark" for the Confederates in the Western Theater. Never again were the Confederates closer to winning the war. The battle kept Kentucky in Union hands for the remainder of the conflict, which helped contribute to Northern victory. Over 7,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or missing/captured

                                                       Confederate Monument & Cemetery

 

 

                                                                       Union Monument

 

 

                              Thomas Lincoln's (Father of Abraham Lincoln) boyhood home

                                                         Lincoln Homestead State Park

   
                           Berry House - Home of Nancy Hanks, mother of Abraham Lincoln

June 11th-13


                                    Federal Hill Mansion - My Old Kentucky Home State Park

 My Old Kentucky Home

                                                                          Spring House

                                                                         Stephen Foster

It was thought that Stephen Foster wrote the song "My Old Kentucky Home, Good-Night after visiting his cousins Federal Hill.  John Rowan was a prominent Judge, Congressman, and Senator and cousin to Stephen Foster.  Federal Hill was later renamed My Old Kentucky Home.

                                                                 Stephen Foster Statue

We had lunch at Scout & Scholar Brewery in Bardstown, KY  The food and beer were great.  This brewery opened in 2020 during the height of the pandemic, and they have done an amazing job to survive and provide a great environment for food and drink.

                                                                        Hodgenville, KY

 Sinking Spring Farm

The Memorial at  Sinking Spring was built seven (7) years before the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. 

 
                                               Replica of the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln

                                                                            Sinking Spring

Natural Bridge Resort State Park and My Old Kentucky Home State Park were a couple of the best state parks we have camped at outside Indiana.  As is the case on all of our trips, we like to visit as many historical sites as we can.  On this trip we visited the childhood homes of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, and the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln.  We also visited two (2) Civil War Battlefields, Middle Creek National Battlefield and Perryville National Battlefield.  We had hoped to stop at the childhood home of Abraham Lincoln, at Knob Creek, just East of his birth place, but unfortunately the gates were locked and there was no place to pull over.

We had planned a final night at a Harvest Host site, but our grandson had a 4:30pm soccer tournament match south of Indianapolis, and on our way home.  Mack's team won all four (4) matches and he scored a goal in each match and 2 in the match we watched for 5 goals.  He is growing up quickly.