Left
Grayson in Kentucky at around 8.30am and drove
along I 64 into Lexington and then along the Bluegrass Highway
to Elizabethtown. It was a more or less uneventful trip until we reached Lexington, where the traffic thickened and a utility packed with four or five mattresses in the back, passed us in the overtaking lane. I remarked to Marg at the time, that the load was not secured at all and a moment or two later, one of the mattresses flew out the back of the truck and deposited itself on the road. Vehicles slowed and swerved to manoeuvre around the mattress, while the offending driver slowed to a stop against the median strip barrier someway down the road. I saw him get out and head back down the road no doubt focussed on retrieving the mattress. Good luck in that traffic !
Arrived just after midday and found an
acceptable motel downtown in a strip of motels along Mulberry Street near Dixie Highway.
Had a look
at the Swope Car Museum
which was put together by a car dealer in town named Bill Swope. His fingerprints are all over town and he may
well be Mr Big in this town. Anyway the
Museum had some very interesting vehicles in it.
After lunch
we drove out to Hogenville to visit the Lincoln
birthplace memorial. This is another
National Park Service facility which celebrates the legend of Lincoln.
It is quite tastefully done till you come to the fake log cabin “Lincoln
Inn” which sells ice creams and all sorts of tacky Lincoln memorabilia. It allows the grand historical moment to slip
back into the world of commerce.
Probably inevitable, but sad.
Inside the mausoleum, is a log cabin which, while it is now known not to have been Lincoln's birthplace, was at one time purported to be. This cabin has been shortened to fit inside the mausoleum, but would I guess be fairly typical of the style of house with which Lincoln would have been familiar.
Headed back to E'town and spent a quiet and peaceful night.
