Did I miss something?  When did it get to be November?!  It’s another Thanksgiving?!  I guess I did too much traveling during October! But boy, did we (Akela and I) have some great fun. 

I have amazed myself with some of the random places we have gone to.  The Videos are just being finished up and will be released in Late November and December, and maybe right into January.  We went so many places and had such a good time. We wanted to go to Mammoth Cave National Park and had to find a route that would be comfortable, have camping, and have some kind of “attraction” value. We started at Great Smoky Mountains national park, which has never really impressed me. But boy I guess I was in the wrong place before!  This campground was interesting. The drive to get there was amazing, and the cost was perfect.  We did not have a great campsite. But it was still an amazing place. And the host was in an Aliner!  We will be back, since we only stayed one night!

Next we went north into the Big South Fork Recreation Area.  Which I thought was just another big National Forest. Boy was I wrong again!  They have some great trails for hiking, some very interesting coal mines to explore and learn how they worked them in the day. They also have these great big Sandstone Arches!  Like out west!  They were so cool. And there were very amazing waterfalls.  And to top it off there was a 100mile race going on for the weekend all through the park. Well 36 hours for the runners.

After that we finally got to Mammoth Cave National Park.  In case you don’t know, its one cave that is 480 miles of cave.  I don’t think it goes that far in one direction, I think it has many layers and turns and it all just adds up to being HUGE!  It is a sort of boring cave in that it has been used as a tourist attraction, a Hospital, and Gunpowder Factory, and more since the 1800s.  So there are no stalactites or stalagmites.  Just mostly large open rooms with small passageways to go from one to the other.  Or at least that’s what they show you on the tours I went on.  But the actual land above the cave is awesome.  Sink holes and springs, river crossings and lots of hiking trails. Also biking and maybe even horse back riding.  But I’m not sure of that. My video files got all mixed up. My camera reset the date, and so everything was filmed on 1/1/2000.  So when it came time to sort out the 72 video files of 15 days of travel and camping, some stuff went into the wrong bucket.  But you’ll still enjoy the videos, I’m pretty sure.

After Mammoth Cave we went to Bardstown. It is the Bourbon capital of the world.  There must be 220-30 bourbon distillers in the general area. And some have been producing bourbon since the 1800s.  Of course all was lost during prohibition in the 20s (Was it only 2 years?). But many came right back afterwards.  So a lot of historic buildings and big ole Plantations and such.  Bardstown itself is a very nice quaint little town with a drug store that has a soda fountain where they mix you up a sarsaparilla with syrup and soda water or whip up a milkshake with REAL milk and Ice Cream. (I would be embarrassed to tell you how much money I spent there).  Not being a drinking of hard spirits, I didn’t do the full Bourbon Trail, but did check out a few historical places. 

At that time we were going to head home, but then I saw a photo of the Red River Gorge and the Tunnel you have to drive through to get there.  So we made plans to camp a few days there.  And that was really the one of the major highlights of the trip.  Unfortunately, this is the most mixed up set of files, so it won’t be done until Jan 4th.  So you better SUBSCRIBE because you will not want to miss it.  We stayed at a very popular “first come-first served” campground with a great bathroom and shower facility. We had a super nice campsite, and we got to watch all these RVers and motor homes drive in and not find a place because it was full. But the gorge was amazing (Decked out in Fall Colors). And there was much more to see hiking around there.  Akela got totally spoiled! Unlike Mammoth Cave, we were never separated and he never had to wait for me.  Well except when we are hiking and he’s 300ft in front or swimming in the river!!

So that is whats coming up. I have so much to be thankful for after this last trip. And the trip before that up to camp with my son and his new wife in Pennsylvania.  It has been a fantastic October.  November is turning out to be a work month. Editing videos, doing home chores, more mods on the Wolf Pup, winterizing the pup and Aliner.  I had a 30amp outlet installed so I can plug in the campers without tripping the basement circuit breaker (The new converter in the wolf pup pumps 30-40amps into the LiFePO4 battery, and kicks off the breaker on the regular 20amp circuit to my basement). We will be heading down to Florida after Christmas for a few days of family time.  Those videos probably will probably be up near the end of January.    We are staying in some new interesting places I think you’ll enjoy. 

So I hope you’ll be thankful for life and living this thanksgiving.  Be happy with what you have and be grateful you are making it every day.  I am finally getting a little used to retired life.  I’m having some small mental issues with sleep and motivation, but that  is more the change in clocks and loss of daylight than not having a job anymore. So I am thankful I have my readers and viewers to take on my travels.  It really means a lot that I now have over 11000 subscribers, and that some of my videos have been viewed over 60,000 times.  It really makes me feel appreciated and worthwhile.  Anyway, I may take Christmas week off.  Again, if you subscribe you’ll know…lol.

Have  a great Thanksgiving, and a Very Merry Christmas/Holiday season. Stay Safe, Stay Healthy.  We’ll see you in the videos

Rick & Akela
GoingNoWhereFast