I guess it’s past time for an update. This may be the only post I do for December, since I’ll be headed down to Florida for Christmas and New Year. Keep watching though, you never know. And of course Akela can always get in here and write something up too. (He is embarrassed that he can only type using one toe at a time. He is working on using a stick, but the slobber ruins the keyboard)

In case you haven’t been paying attention, my trips have been long “Out and Back” routes stopping at a few places. My last two videos, Look Rock Campground at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the Blue Heron campground at Big South Fork Recreation Area, have been a loop heading up to and through Kentucky. It was a pretty fast loop, staying for only two nights in any one spot. Though we did have a great time and we saw a lot of stuff. I think I need to slow down a little bit and stay in one spot for a little longer. Some of the issues are reservation availabilities.  Some of it is just my “get home -itis”. When I’m away from my house I tend to worry about my lawn. My neighbor will take care of cutting the grass, but the weeds will take over if I’m not there. At least that’s what I worry about.

But the good thing about only staying a few days is that I get to pile up quite a lot of videos. That gave me a nice rest during November to edit and work on some house issues and trailer issues. I’m still getting used to this retirement idea. I haven’t figured out the entire money situation with the initial startup of Medicare A, B, D, all the others that sneak up on you. It’s just amazing they can’t seem to get healthcare together like the rest of the world has.

One of the things about travel the just blows my mind is how little I know about the places I’m going. I’ve been traveling around the eastern United States since I was 12. I would take a school bus to school, meet up with a friend, and we would immediately go the two blocks to the highway and hitchhike somewhere four or five hours away. So from central New York we had been to New York City, Washington DC, many places in Vermont, Boston, Niagara Falls, and Toronto. And that was all before I was 16. Once I got a car, my parents knew all bets were off to where I would end up. But then when I got into the world of professional work, I traveled all over the US for work and for conferences and had a lot of time to explore different cities I’d visit. I thought I knew it all about every place.

So I always thought I had a pretty good idea of what the US was like. I mean I don’t wanna sound slightly biased, but I always thought New York and the Adirondacks were the best place in the world. And I’m not saying I’m giving up on that belief just yet. But I’m amazed at some of the other places I’ve been to. They totally upset my idea of what I assumed they were like. My initial impression of Kentucky was that it was a coal miner’s paradise and that most of the land had been ripped apart through mining. Maybe that was true 40 years ago. Forty years can make a huge difference when mother nature takes back control. But the big South Fork Recreation Area had a lot of very interesting places and things to see. Awesome natural areas and forests and rivers. Who’d a thought you could  have all these arches in Kentucky. I mean there are a lot of them, and the only thing is they’re a bit covered up by the forest.  Wonderful Forest and majestic arches. What more could you want?!

I’m not saying the Kentucky arches are any better than the arches out West, but I do like trees. While they do get in the way of a fancy photograph, they make it all the more marvelous and mysterious.  So the marvel of the arches is pretty impressive. The rock formations throughout Kentucky seem like they are some giants Clay Play land. From the arches and gorges to the caves and sinkholes, the Earth’s surface has definitely been manipulated. There are so many amazing things to see, we will have to go back.

In the coming weeks will be visiting Mammoth Cave’s National Park. And will make a stop over to Bardstown, Kentucky to try to figure out what this bourbon thing is all about. And then we’ll go to the Red River Gorge and tour around through there. I can honestly say we didn’t stay long enough at Mammoth Cave’s, we stayed too long at Bardstown. It would be better if we stayed another two weeks at the Red River Gorge. We will may be going back there again soon.

We had some minor mix ups in video clips that resulted in incomplete videos of the trip. You probably won’t notice, but I know some great stuff was lost in the shuffle. I was switching computers from old computer to new computer, and my cameras were playing tricks on me too. I guess I mentioned that in the last post.  But that’s the game we play in YouTube. We don’t have $30,000 worth of equipment and a crew of 12 helping get everything organized and properly recorded. Maybe in a couple years. Like the big channels do!

Anyways, thanks for letting me take you long on these journeys. I hope you have a great holiday season and phenomenal New Year. We will continue to throw content out there for you to review. Please remember to like, share, subscribe, and leave comments about what you see and where you’ve been. Without viewer recommendations I don’t have any idea of places to go.

So from me and Akela, stay healthy, stay safe, and stay happy.

Rick & Akela
GoingNoWhereFast