Heading North but slooowley

June 10
It’s hot!! The temperature today is predicted to reach 94f with high humidity.
A large part of America is experiencing higher than normal temps and we are very glad to have air con in our ‘house’ but we did see on this morning’s news that the temp for Colorado was minus 15f and we also saw snow (on TV) in Washington state.
During the warm (hot!) evenings we have seen fireflies, something we have never seen before, a quick flash of a bright light, then it’s gone. I don’t think that is the kind of thing you would ever see in a zoo, just as you would not see flying fish actually flying in a zoo. I remember being amazed when I first saw flying fish actually flying (in the Mediterranean sea) and I have not seen them since so they must be quite rare too!
We were shopping a day or two back and passing the vegetables section in the supermarket, when we heard the sound of thunder and then the crack of lightning closely followed by a spray of water onto the veg! The sound effects were the warning to step back before the “storm.” Perhaps at a supermarket near you next week!
The pool at the campground in Nashville is not heated but with the continuous hot weather, stepping into the water is like stepping into a warm bath. The sun reflects off the water and it is possible to burn extremely quickly as you swim, we soon learnt to wait until almost six pm when there was a shadow across the pool to avoid getting toasted.
We had the grand tour of Nashville in the air con bus with various stops along the way. We stopped at the “Country Music Hall of Fame” where we saw more gold records than you would believe could exist. We also went to the Ryman Auditorium where the Grand Ole Opry was based for many years before moving to its new home in 1974. The name refers to the radio programme, so it can move home and keep it’s name.
We booked to go and see the show at the Grand Old Opry at the one performance of the week that was being televised, probably the best show as only the best acts would be shown. Even the big stars got to do no more than three numbers so if you didn’t like some one’s style, you only had to put up with it for a few minutes! I think Freda summed it up well, they started with the old, old has beens and worked their way to a more current crop of wannabes.
The show was good and a different style of theatre to what we are accustomed to. Just to make sure we had done it to death, the following day we did the back stage tour. Grand Ole Opry, over and out!!
On our way down to Nashville, I was studying the Exit Guide and noted that we would soon pass into another time zone. I mentioned this to Freda who said, “Yes, just seen the sign at the roadside” (she was driving).
A little later in a Mexican restauraunt we asked the manager for a time check. “Ten after two” he said. That’s what we had! That’s funny, we thought we had just crossed the line and had to alter our clocks and watches!
For the next couple of days, everything we went to started an hour late, but it wasn’t until we went to the Opry show that we discovered that the Mexican had given us a bum steer!
Don’t forget the photo’s at
http://picasaweb.google.com/arthur.croasdell/Blog10Pics
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June 12
We have now travelled to Kentucky, land of the horse. We could tell we were in Kentucky because the first thing we noted next to the visitor centre (on the state border) was a horse race track. Americans seem to race horses on loose packed dirt but this was a grass track which I think is unusual over here.
On our way from Tennessee we passed through Bowling Green City where the Chevrolet Corvette is made. We had seen on the webcam that the place had a huge car park and so we stopped to have a look for a while. We spent time in the Corvette museum and then one mile away at the GM factory where we had an excellent tour of the assembly lines, where they produce about 145 Corvettes per day, and the new very whizz Cadillac sports car, almost hand built only making about eight per day, at hundred grand a “pop“. It might be interesting to check European prices for that and the 06 Corvette that is priced here at a very reasonable $60,000.
Onwards to Cave City where the campground we had booked turned out to be very disappointing, and after setting up and finding the electric hookup didn’t work, which was the last straw, I told the owner what I thought of his place then moved on to a “proper” campground, Yogi’s Jellystone Park” which is much better.
Here in Kentucky we seem to be too early for this event or too late for that event and so it is proving to be a quiet couple of days except that we are only a few miles from the world’s longest cave system, Mammoth Cave.
This cave is HUGE and very cold. The network has 379 miles actually mapped and all connected, and work is still going on exploring. It is the longest cave system in the world, and there are five levels. Only the bottom level has water in it.
We have been down a few caves in our time and we should have remembered just how cold you can get when you are underground for over an hour; caves the world over seem to be at around 54 f and after a surface temp of 90 plus, we felt a bit uncomfortable with a temperature drop close to 40f but the tour was well worth the goose bumps. The caves are run by the National Parks Service. We can always recommend anything that they do, always done well, always good value and sometimes even free!
Today June 12th we took the guided walk in the woods close to the Mamoth Cavern, This was a pleasant experience for no charge at all. The ranger, a former university tutor, told us all kinds of stuff but we had a job to hear him over the sound of the cicadas.
These cicadas in this part of the world take seventeen years underground to mature to the flying stage. No one here has seen a cicada (of this type) for sixteen years and this is their year to emerge, one and a half million per acre!! The males live for 14 days, the females about a month. In about 6 weeks they are all gone, and peace will return. The tree frogs were struggling to make themselves heard above the din.
Northwards tomorrow to Lexington, more miles on the clock. The Ford has done 3700 miles so far and has proved to be very comfortable if not economical. Having compared notes with a Chevy owner with a similar truck, but regular gas (petrol to most of you), as opposed to our diesel, it seemed that he was getting seven to the gallon! We decided we were doin’ OK after all!

I took my wife out to dinner tonite (do you like the American spelling?)
It was one of those “all you can eat without bursting” things and good food too. I felt pleased with the bill (check) at $8 a head, can this place get any cheaper?
June 13
Onwards today to Lexington and on the way a visit the birthplace and boyhood home of Abraham Lincoln, an interesting short stop and chance later to consider it all as we sat housebound during a monumental thunderstorm.
Today ( June 15th, Fathers day) we went to the Kentucky Horse Park, a sort of horsey theme park. I’m not a horse nut but still found it very interesting with lots to see, and they made it very entertaining. This is like Disney for horse freaks but all good fun!
Moving day tomorrow, the crazy high temperatures have calmed down a bit and at last we are below the ninety mark, much more comfortable. We should be able to move in comfort and then have a blog post.
16th June and we are now in West Virginia after a simple 140 mile three hour trudge up the interstate. This a nice site with Wi-Fi and lovely weather.
More soon! I must remember to tell you about golf carts next time!!
Don’t forget to see the photo’s at http://picasaweb.google.com/arthur.croasdell/Blog10Pics
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