Paducah, Kentucky!

 Our route for today:

More spectacular West Virginia wilderness of wild, crumpled mountains in deep forests, followed abruptly by the smooth rolling thoroughbred bluegrass country of Kentucky.  You can see the dividing line on the map.  (We saw many more impressive-looking horse farms than actual visible horses, though.)Then came farm country, with lush corn already seven feet tall and grazing beef cattle, interrupted by overgrown woods studded with mysterious pink-flowering trees that I haven't figured out yet. We drove on the Martha Layne Collins Bluegrass Parkway (named for a former governor) and the Wendell H. Ford Western Kentucky Parkway (also named for a former governor). Become a Kentucky governor, and you, too, can have a Parkway named after you! Really beautiful all the way. 

[Edit: Looking at that map, we realize we must have passed close to the spot south of Evansville IN and north of Nashville where Luke and Monica hit the deer. There were, in fact, a startling number of dead deer along the roads for the whole distance. Definitely a menace.]

In Elizabethtown, Kentucky, we stopped to stretch our legs at the Buffalo Lake Walking Trail, improbably located right beside Interstate 65 at the end of a service road crammed with chain hotels.  Sure enough, after the hotels ran out, along came surprisingly peaceful woods, and cool shade to park in, and a trail kiosk with a bridge over a sleepy little creek.  The trails weren't very well marked but we found our way through. There was supposed to be a nice loop along a levee and around a small lake.  We found the levee, all right, but unfortunately the lake has been drained while some kind of restoration is going on.  Nevertheless, the woods were nice.

  

 

Now we're in a comfy hotel in Paducah known as Auburn Place.  Much much MUCH better than last night.  After the long day in the car, we stretched our legs a little in the exercise room and then went for a swim in the small, but cool and refreshing, indoor pool, both of which we had to ourselves. In the morning we have to decide among three possible alternate routes west to Phoenix: the northern and most direct route through Springfield, MO, the middle but interesting route through Arkansas and the southernmost route that would touch the Mexican border.  Decisions decisions.  Tomorrow you'll know!