SOLO ROADTRIP IV: DAY 4 [KENTUCKY]

for the sake of organization, this post is going to be shorter to keep kentucky in its own post. i only spent one day & one night in the state. i left early in the morning from nashville and made my way north to kentucky. the first stop was bowling green, the third most populous city in the state. i first stopped at a cute little square for coffee. the coffeehouse was called spencers & i was happy to find they also had chia pudding for breakfast. i also got a seasonal "hooded sweatshirt" latte, which had pumpkin, marshmallow, & cinnamon. i am a sucker for anything with marshmallow. 

the coffeehouse is located at fountain square park, a 19th century park. you can feel the history here. it feels old and like it can easily transform into a film set. i love visiting these kind of parks since there are very few in california. at the center is a fountain displaying roman mythology: hebe (youth) is at the top, with ceres (grain),  pomona (fruit), melpomane (tragedy), & flora (flowers) surrounding her. 

the roman mythology fountain

i then made my way to western kentucky university to visit the free museum on campus. this where i learned the university's mascot is a red blob called big red. there were not many exhibits (and they were quite random), so i was quick. i did enjoy the exhibit on duncan hines (the man known for the cake mix) & the decorative arts on display (i like antiques).

i then got back on the road. i was surprised to find that a bucc-ees was off the highway. i was not expecting to be able to visit one during my trip. i do not know how i missed it as i looked at all the locations in advance & for some reason did not think one would be nearby during this entire trip. i did end up being able to visit another location towards the end of my trip. i love truck stops, and this feels like one. i wanted a postcard, but surprisingly, they do not sell any (i was shocked, even the worker was socked when they also realized this). i ended up buying some souvenirs & a deli meat/cheese cup for lunch to save some time since i would lose an hour due to the time zone change.

my main stop for the day was the abraham lincoln birthplace national historic site. the site commemorates the area lincoln was born & lived his first years of life before moving to illonois. this is a weird site that i believe nowadays would never have been part of the nps, but things were different back then. the site is more symbolic & is not actually very historical. i believe since it was dedicated so long ago in 1909, it stays a part of the nps. i think what is more interesting is not the info about lincoln, but looking more into the decisions & design that created this site. it has its own lore. 

the memorial building that houses a cabin similar to the one lincoln was born in (1911 - neoclassical)

the cabin is symbolic, not actually lincoln's cabin. most of the logs are from the 1800s though.

this spring was used by the lincoln family, known as the sinking spring

i took a little walk along a boardwalk trail on site

 i also got to see my first red leaf of this trip!

in town there was a cute little harvest display in  the town square. this was the first of many small towns that decorated with corn stalks for harvest.

i then drove to the boyhood home unit a good 8 miles off a mountain road. i arrived just in time as they were going to close early due to the storm coming in. i was confused as the national weather service did not have any alerts in place for kentucky. when i asked the young girl at the front desk some info about the local roads, she was so helpful! she even let me use her personal computer to look at updates from the national weather service for tennessee as the maps are not available on mobile (providing the names of cities & counties does not help when you are not from the area). i was nervous as the next day hurricane helene was to hit tennessee & i had a pretty long drive to knoxville. the worker knew the roads i would be taking and gave me some local tips.

the only picture i took at the boyhood home unit.

a this point, i could tell a storm was coming so i cancelled my stops for the rest of the day & decided to drive to my motel for the night in columbus, kentucky. there were not very many options for accommodations in this area of kentucky. i was so shocked how such a small town had a days inn. i was hoping to pick up some veggies and have a grocery store dinner from the deli for dinner, but there was no grocery store in town. the only option was food from the gas station or the dairy queen, so a salad from dairy queen it was. 

the next morning was when the remnants of hurricane helene would hit eastern tennessee. i had a 3 hour drive ahead of me & was mostly going to be driving in tennessee. i was not going to be driving into the hurricane or tropical store advisories, but the national weather service did release both wind & flooding advisories in the area. i called the nps site outside of knoxville to ask if they were going to be open as i noticed the schools in knoxville were closed. the ranger who ran the place answered, "why wouldn't we be?" she said they would only be closed if the schools in their city were going to be closed & would be surprised if they did. she referred me to the facebook page as they would update with any closures there. well guess what, the next morning they were closed. i was not surprised, but the ranger seemed so sure. this night i stayed up late coming up with a back-up plan because almost all the places i planned on visiting during my stay in knoxville for the next 2 days was closed because of the hurricane. i decided to just prioritize on my drive and that the goal would be to just get to knoxville safely and hope that at least one place would be opened so 1) i had someplace to go during the day as i could not check in until the afternoon; & 2) i would check something off my list of places i wanted to visit. more on that in the next post. on a side note, i was entertained by how the local news had segments on local high school football. small town vibes that do not exist where i am from.