Standing Still

Good morning, my friends. We had a do-nothing day yesterday. We've been doing so much sight-seeing and driving, it's nice to just sit still and do nothing for a bit. Sunday was my birthday. Today is Mike's birthday. That can mean only one thing...Eggs Benedict for breakfast.

I've only made Eggs Benedict one other time while on the road. It was somewhere in North Carolina, I think. I tried unsuccessfully to find a blog post about it because I wanted to see what I did about the hollandaise. When I make this at home, I do the hollandaise from scratch. On the road, I use one of the envelope mixes. When I did this the last time, the hollandaise was kind of thin and flavorless. This time I used a Knorr mix, and it was actually very good. It was easy to do too. We give two thumbs up for Knorr hollandaise mix.

Backing up to yesterday, I took the first stitches on the Kittens block. It's nice to be working with some color again.

After that, it was time to wash our bedsheets. We have a small washer/dryer combo in the RV, but it's too small for sheets. Those have to go to the laundromat. Laundromats seem to get more confusing all the time. I've run into laundromats that don't take coins, and only accept cards. Back in Las Cruces, I found one that required an app and a QR code. It was a happy thing when I walked into the laundromat here to find that it took quarters...just like the good old days, when cash was king. And everything was going along swimmingly until I went to add detergent and fabric softener. These were the instructions on the machine.

Here's the dispenser they referred to. I defy you to tell me what goes where. What do those symbols even mean?

Optimistically, I glanced around the laundry room to see if there were instructions posted anywhere. Oh, silly you. Of course not. We finally had to go up to the office to ask. Having solved the puzzle of the day, we headed back to the RV and got Smitty out for a walk. The woofies beside us had moved on, and I wanted to get him out before someone else moved in.

Our walk didn't last long.

He saw the biggest effing bird he's ever seen. He worried about the mess it would make if he had to kill it, and so he decided it was best if he went back inside. A couple of nibbles of grass, and he was good to go.

While I waited for the sheets to wash, I took a little stroll around the pond behind the RV. It's a very pretty spot. The island is a nice touch.

Just a few steps away, I noticed this pair of Canada geese with two goslings in tow. Excuse me for a minute...SQUEE!!!

Ahem. Yes, they were adorable. The geese were not happy about me being nearby, and so they took their little ones and hopped off the bank into the pond...

and swam away.

Too adorable for words.

I'm guessing that's dad leading the way.

Inside, Sadie considered the best way of attacking this bird that was easily four times her size. She figures she could defeat it, given the chance. It's one of the benefits of being an indoor-only kitty when we're traveling. She can talk tough without having to show it.

So I expect today will be another slow day for us. Our visit to the horse ranch is tomorrow. We're a little on pins and needles about the weather. You might have heard about the scary weather system that passed through Kansas, Oklahoma and the surrounding area yesterday. The weakened system is heading east now, and it looks like it will arrive here sometime this afternoon. They're talking about the possibility of tornadoes and large hail, both of which we'd just as soon avoid. 

This morning we're checking weather apps, listening to the weather radio, and checking local weather broadcasts frequently. It doesn't seem as if we need to up our angst to panic level just yet. So we're paying close attention, and we will skedaddle out of here if it seems advisable. We've been known to pack up and leave an area in less than ten minutes. We're also taking our cues from the folks around us, including the RV park folks. Nobody seems particularly concerned. 

Assuming it doesn't get any more exciting this afternoon, we have a small prime rib for our dinner. I made some green beans yesterday, and I'll make some mashed potatoes today. Also, I have some leftover gravy that was frozen and brought from home. I'm hoping Mike can do the prime rib on the Traeger, but we can do it in the oven if the weather turns nasty. Also, I'm trying out a new recipe for Lemon Pudding Cakes for Two. I'll tell you about all of it tomorrow, assuming we don't have to pull up stakes and run for our lives. All I can say is we're keeping our fingers crossed. If you guys will keep your fingers crossed too, we should be fine [she says, glancing out the window nervously].

Georgetown, Kentucky

Good morning, my friends. We find ourselves in Georgetown, Kentucky, this morning...so named for our first president, George Washington. Looking up Georgetown, I learned it is the birthplace of Nellie Showalter (1870-1946). And if, like me, you've never heard of her, just know she was an American women's chess champion. Also, it's the home of Steve Zahn, the actor, who lives on a farm in the same county.

It has been pouring rain here for much of the morning with lightning and thunder so loud it sounds like gunfire. The thunder and lightning have quieted since I started writing, but we're expecting rain for much of the day today and at least part of the day tomorrow. Happily, the forecast is for good weather the day of our horse ranch tour.

And before we get too far along, I should remind you that we're back in the Eastern time zone for the last time this trip. I'll leave it up to you if you want to reset your watch.

Okay, but we're getting ahead of ourselves, so let's just back up to the yesterday morning. Before we left, I was able to finish stitching the 3rd covered bridge for Grandpa's Bridges.

That background fabric has a bit of a bluish tinge to it that doesn't photograph well. Sorry it looks so shadowy. Finishing this block was my goal for May's

so I'll link up there when the party starts at the end of the month.

Here are the blocks I have for this quilt so far:

Next, I'll be starting on the 10th of 12 blocks for the "Kittens" quilt...this one:

It was an easy drive from Bowling Green to Georgetown. We're just a little north of Lexington, Kentucky, here. Also, a little east of Kentucky's state capital of Frankfort. Kentucky is a surprisingly beautiful state. I don't know why that should surprise me, but it's easy to understand why it's called the "Bluegrass State." Everything is lush and green. Driving along, we're surrounded by dense forest on both sides of the road. It looks like this:

Except when it looks like this. There are places where the roadway was cut through many feet of Kentucky limestone.

It was a good day for barns and other rustic structures.

We passed through the town of Versailles, Kentucky, just before reaching Lexington. Lexington is known as "the horse capital of the world." Indeed, we came here to tour a horse farm. Approaching Versailles, we saw this beautifully painted water tank. I tried to capture it as we drove by, but I was thwarted by a Wal-Mart truck that got in the way just as I snapped my picture. (Wal-Mart!!! Shakes fist.) Anyway, I found this image online. 

The art was completed by artist Eric Henn. It displays a painted scene of thoroughbred race horses with the caption, "Welcome to the Horse Capital of the World." The water tower is especially visible to eastbound traffic. 

And don't go pronouncing "Versailles" with a snotty French accent. No. Here in Kentucky, it's pronounced ver-SAYLZ. Also, it happens to be the home of William Shatner, of Star Trek fame. Also, Edward Platt. He was the actor who played the "Chief" in "Get Smart." (Please tell me you're old enough to remember "Get Smart.")

A little farther along, we saw this:

This is The Kentucky Castle hotel. It is an honest-to-goodness turreted castle. It can be seen driving by on US Hwy 60. It was built by Rex Martin Sr., who began building it in 1969 after he was inspired by a trip to Europe.

It wasn't long before we reached our final destination. When we arrived at the RV park, we pulled up next to these gorgeous iris.

And we have a very nice spot here. This is the view from our window. You can see the clouds rolling in, but we didn't get any rain until this morning.

As I watched, a great blue heron flew across the pond and landed on the other side.

Closer to our site there were a couple of ducks...

and a kildeer.

And this might be a perfect spot for Smitty to get out except for...

Wait...do you see what Sadie sees? Drat! Woofies! The people in the site beside ours have two stupid woofies. We know they are stupid because they are woofies, and all woofies are stupid. They can't help themselves. We can only hope they won't stay the whole time we're here.

We have four days in Georgetown. As I mentioned, we're here for the horse farm. That will be for Wednesday. In the meantime, we'll do whatever strikes us. It may mean just lazing around for a few days. There are some things of interest in Lexington, and so we'll see how we feel as the days dawn. With rain coming down in buckets, I foresee a day spent lazing around the RV and slow-stitching.

Fountain Square Park

Good morning, my friends! It's our last morning in Bowling Green. When we get ourselves around, we'll continue on a journey to our eastern-most stop this trip at Georgetown, Kentucky. It's just a little bit north of Lexington, and about a three-hour drive. We don't have much planned for the area except to visit a horse ranch. We want to see the thoroughbreds. We're told it's foaling season, and so we should see some young foals. 

Backing up to our day yesterday, I spent some time on my embroidery, finishing off the roof and some of the trees on the left.

We were stalling until we could arrive at the brewery for lunch at around 11:30 a.m. When we finally took off, the kitties were more than ready for their morning naps.

With so much 'sploring, they're 'zhausted. (Have you ever noticed how kitties leave off the first syllable of some words when they talk?)

When we were heading south toward Bowling Green a few days ago, I looked up the city. That's when I discovered the famous Duncan Hines. Also in my reading, there was something about a water tower that could be seen for miles around. It wasn't this one, but we saw this one yesterday.

It was just about a 15-minute drive to the White Squirrel Brewery. 

This is a low-budget operation. We thought they served lunch on the weekends, but no. We could drink beer, but there was no food until 3:30 p.m. Oh well. Mike had a beer. I had a hard cider. There were white squirrels posted all around the place. 

We haven't seen any white squirrels in Kentucky, but it brought to mind these that we saw some years back when we visited Ochlockonee River State Park in the Florida panhandle. I took the picture below while we were there.

It was a little early to be drinking hard cider on an empty stomach, so we finished our drinks and went in search of food. I was able to pick up a t-shirt for Erik (the real reason for our visit). From there, we drove into the historic part of Bowling Green. It was just a half mile to Fountain Square Park with historic buildings all around. 

Fountain Square Park has a vibrant history that dates back to the Civil War. Plans for the park were drawn up in 1870. We were able to find a parking space right away. Just around the corner and across the street, we found it. The weather was completely cooperative while we were out, with blue skies and puffy white clouds.

Here's the fountain in the middle of the park. The park itself takes up one city block.

We were in an area where we could see the county justice center, a federal courthouse, and a utilities building, and so you know a lot of people work here during the week. This would be a lovely place to relax on a lunch hour. I noticed this sculpture by George Lundeen.

This was the associated plaque. I tried to get more information about it, but I couldn't find anything. I can only think the reference to the Byars/Willock Families refers to a marriage between two people named Byars and Willock. Both people died young. 

Wandering farther, the landscaping was lovely, and there were other sculptures around.

I think I enjoy these historic sections of the city because they're different from what we see in the west. The east has been a part of our country for longer, while the west was settled later. 

When we see historic structures in the west, they're generally made of wood and more rustic in appearance. And there are many, many ghost towns because of the rush to mine an area and then abandonment when the minerals were mined out. As an example, here are some structures we saw at Bannack State Park in Montana.

Walking on, I noticed these allium.

And whoa...do you see what I see? Insomnia Cookies? Well. Lunch first. We'll come back for that.

So we walked about another block over and found the Lunchbox Cafe. It was not busy on a Saturday. After my error in choosing salmon for our menu here in Kentucky, I've realized that catfish is what we should be looking for. I actually have some on our menu for this coming week, and I decided on the catfish sandwich for lunch. It was yummy. Mike had a club sandwich.

And then we went back for the cookies to enjoy with our afternoon cup of espresso. Along the way we stopped to get some fuel for the truck. While there, Mike found this butterfly lying on the ground, dead. (Sniff.😞) It's a Western Swallowtail. I'm sorry it was dead, but it did give me a nice opportunity to inspect its pretty wings.

Okay and from there we went back to the RV and relaxed for a while. I spent some time looking for seat cushions, as I have been ever since my hip pain started up. I've found different ones on Amazon, and I considered getting one shipped to Lexington where I could pick it up at an Amazon locker. None of the ones I saw were going to work, and they were rather expensive. Everything is "memory foam" or else some kind of gel. I'm looking for something to give me even distribution of my hips and thighs across the seat. 

I'll try to explain this with pictures. This is my seat in the image below. It's a comfortable enough seat. It has good adjustable lumbar support, and so my back never bothers me. 

Below, I tried to get a good photo of the profile of the seat, but I couldn't really position the camera back far enough without bumping into the dash. I'm going to try to explain this using those green marks. The seat is flat in the middle, but then has a firm "bolster" on both sides. As we ride down rough roads for hours on any given day, I believe those bolsters are putting pressure on my hips and causing inflammation. On a previous trip, I was having some minor right hip pain until we arrived home. After several days at home, the pain was gone. This time when we started out, I was intentionally scooting a little to the left to keep the pressure off my right hip, but then, as we now know, it simply made the left hip hurt.

So I was looking for something flat that would boost me up to the height of those bolsters and give me even distribution across my hips and derriere. I found just what I wanted at Wal-Mart. Before we took our naps, I bought one and arranged for curbside pick-up at the nearest store. Hopefully, this will give me some relief. It has two inches of polyester batting inside, so it will create a more or less flat surface for sitting.

I like that it has a non-skid backing so it won't be slipping around on me, and it'll be less likely to fall out of the truck when I'm getting in and out.

Our drive to Georgetown is relatively short...about 170 miles...and so it will be a good test. Mainly I'm glad I didn't invest a lot of money in it...about $12. If it doesn't work, it's no great loss, and I'll figure out something else.

When we got back from Wal-Mart, Mike got Smitty out for a minute-long walk. The park is suddenly very busy...Kentucky Derby people??? Not sure why. There was too much noise and activity for him.

As I mentioned, it's our last morning in Bowling Green. Our next stop will be our eastern-most stop of the trip, and when we move on from there, we'll be heading for home. We still have several weeks of travel ahead of us, and lots more sight-seeing. Don't start unpacking just yet.