Road Trip

I was in Kentucky for an uncles funeral over the weekend. My uncle
was 87 so he had a long and good life. Also he had been suffering from
extremely poor health for several years. Still it was nice to see people
that I haven't seen in many a year.

It was really nice to visit Eastern Kentucky too. It has really changed over
the years some of it good and some of it bad. What got me was the
roads. The roads I remember with the exception of the Mountain Parkway
was that they were badly paved deer tracks.

Sorry to hear about your uncle. 87 is a good long time, wish he'd been in better health for the final years.

What's eastern Kentucky like? Just wondering.

It's really pretty. Especially in the summer, the fall is really nice and
the spring. Winter it's very bleak. When all the leaves are off the
trees you can see the ugliness underneath. Also the coal companies
have been doing mountain top removal and have really destroyed
parts of it.

You know Fif, I almost called my cousin in Indianapolis. That's a real
short drive from Frankfort. If had done that I would have tried to
contact Fluffnstuff and her family. I wasn't really up to dealing with
Barbara at that point.

I'm sorry to hear about your uncle, Sue. What I've seen of KY is quite lovely, with those rolling hills. Like anywhere, I'm sure it has its good and its bad.

Thank you Bobcat. My cousin and his wife have a lovely home
in Frankfort. The backyard is just wonderful. They have waterfall
(not a natural one) along with a line of trees. The little pond at the
bottom have goldfish in it. I saw all kinds of birds coming to get water
in the early morning and evening. All types of butterflies and hummingbirds.

Sounds like they've done a great job on their backyard. Must be soooo beautiful and restful to just sit there and watch the wildlife..........

road trips are great. Too bad it was for such a sad occasion.
That backyard sounds wonderful. I've always wanted a watergarden arrangement. It sounds a bit like the watergarden they put into the renovated hotel we stay at in Michigan every year.

It was and what was really neat was that on the
way back to Frankfort I saw a wild turkey. Thing was
huge and ran across a four lane highway. My first that
was WOW!!!!! my next thought was Thanksgiving dinner
on the hoof.

i was thinking the same thing about the turkey! i've never seen a real live wild one though they're supposed to be around this area. (come to think of it, i haven't seen the ducks i used to see for a few years).

Wild turkeys are smart and very hard to find.
If you have any kind of dense woods you may
have them. That's strange about the ducks, i wonder
what happened, Habitat change?

One of the things I think Kentucky ought to do
is when you enter the state in addition to the sign
"Welcome to Kentucky, the Bluegrass State"
one large sign that says something like this.
"One large deer crossing, drive at your own risk" There were
deer crossing signs about every five miles. Even in Frankfort.

the geese haven't been around like they used to be either...we used to have TONS of geese. i have no idea why or where they've gone.
there are a lot of woods around here...i walk past three different wooded areas on the way home from work and there are lots with trees and high weeds on three sides of the house here!

I've read that places on the East Coast have been culling
geese. Still you should see some. This is migration time.

I know where the geese are: right here in Rockton. We have big flocks staying here now, gathering for migration. But we had more geese than ever all summer long too.

Haven't spotted a wild turkey yet but it won't be long. I usually do see them farther into the fall. We have flocks of them!

My cousin's wife and got off on the back roads and had a blast. Found a really
wonderful old church back in the woods. Even better was we passed a home
that was new construction. Looked like it had been built with in the past
couple of years. What made it so neat was designed to blend in with the
mountain top. Kentucky limestone etc. Really pretty.

oo that must look cool. its nice when they make the houses etc blend in...instead of building something wild! (we have a house in this town they call the IF house cuz the structuring of the front (I can't say the pillars cuz its not that) look like I and F!

Another thing that was really interesting
was the really old houses. Homes that were
built in the 19th century or even early 20th.
They all had trees around them, porches and built
to catch the prevailing winds. Also the roofs. Roofs were
tin with a crimped seam. You also saw a lot of Federal style
(Google it) those are definetly 19th century, in fact a lot of
them are early 19th century. Kentucky became a state not
too long after the Revolutionary War.

back in the days before AC people knew how to build houses to keep things cool;) And were smart enough to either build where there already were a lot of nice shady trees or planted trees around the house;)
my mom always wanted a house with a wrap around porch....i don't know what style that is, but i've been thinking a lot about how nice it would be to have that.

They are very common in older homes in the South. They litarly wrap around the
house. Also roofs, roofs in different parts of the country reflect how much rainfall/
snowfall they get. A sloped roof will let the moisture fall to the ground, a flat roof
will let the moisture collect. In the southwest you will in older homes flat roofs.

and stuff the roofs are made from as well!
i've never known a house with a flat roof around me...but when they built the elementary school i went to it had a flat roof and nothing but drips! (same for any place i've worked...flat roof and it always dripped in the rain or when the snow melted!). Flat roofs are probably good where its often dry?

Flat roofs are mainly found in arid climates. Also the older
homes had either slate roofs, even tin roofs. There are
older homes here in Dallas that have slate roofs.

My cousin and his wife have two dogs and a cat.
The dogs are just mutts from the local shelters. Blue,
the cat, used to belong to my cousins' son. Since he traveled
a lot the cat spent most her time with my cousin and his wife.
They decided that Blue needed a more stable home life so she
stayed. She is wonderful Russian Blue type cat. When I first saw
her I thought so much Bobcat's Blue. She's daintier version.

Gotta love those Russian Blue "mutts!"

You do, Bobcat. I mean she was a petite version of
Blue. The fact that her name was Blue helped too.
Bless her heart, she would come and snug with me
in bed.

Awwwwww....................think maybe she knew you missed the other Blue? She sounds like a wonderful lil kitty. But Russian Blues in general are like that, very lovable and empathatic.

Maybe. My cousin's wife says that she has always been very
affectionate.

Sure sounds like a Russian Blue to me, they are known for their very sweet affectionate natures. Blue might even be purebred for all your cousin knows, anything is possible.

I know my sis's Leon sure was a prime example of that! Bottlefed as a baby (found as a stray), and looking for all the world like a purebred, he was so sweet, and gone from us at only 3 years old. I still blame my soon-to-be ex BIL for that. He let him out of the house at the start of a blizzard at Thanksgiving and then hampered our efforts to find him.