We left Missouri and headed for Kentucky. Our parks are a little further apart in the middle states, so instead of having to pay for just a night's parking, we stayed in a Walmart in Sikeston MO. Thank goodness for Walmarts. But, on the other hand, we always have to go in shopping whenever we are there, so I guess it pretty much evens out..
The next day we crossed into Kentucky. Right at the border is where the Ohio River merges into the Mississippi River. It has been amazing to us to learn how much produce and products are shipped by barges on these rivers. We were told that a tugboat can push enough barges at one time that would total over 90 semi trailers. That would save a lot of diesel fuel!
We saw our first cotton fields as we came into Kentucky. It seems that each state has a little of their own uniqueness. It made me think of some of the books I have read about the cotton pickers of Kentucky.
Diamond Caverns is the only park we have in our system in Kentucky. We had a hard time getting in it because it is an Encore park, which is a sister park in our Thousand Trails group. But, we can only stay in them for a about 20% less than the public (we would pay about $35/night, which doesn't fit in our budget too well when we are used to paying $0-$10/night.) Even though this is also an RPI park--RPI is owned by the same company as Thousand Trails and Encore--we couldn't stay for the $10/night fee because of being Thousand Trail members. But, we also belong to Coast to Coast, which is a different affiliate, so we sneaked in under them for $10/night, although Encore told me over the phone that we wouldn't be able to do that. It gets kind of complicated playing these games, but it is the only way we are able to live this kind of lifestyle. It is worth it!
We only stayed three days in this park--just long enough to catch our breath from all the activity in Branson. It was a small little park and out of the way from towns of any size. We cleaned the motorhome, Terry worked on some woody projects, and I got some sewing done. It was kind of a nice, relaxing break. The park had this unique miniature golf course. It was made out of PVC pipe on concrete. But, we were never ambitious enough to try it out. After the three nights there, we headed to another Walmart--this one in Shelby KY.
The main reason we went to Kentucky was to go to Eminence and try to connect with some family members of an Army buddy of Terry's that he was in Viet Nam with. His name is Larry Shea and he died in Viet Nam a couple of months before both of their tours were up. We drove to the Town Hall in Eminence and stopped at a monument business, trying to find out where Larry was buried, with no luck. Finally, we got in touch with a gal whose husband was best friends with him in high school, and she remembered where he had been buried--in a different county.
We found his grave, which was right next to his mom's and stepdad's graves. His grandmother is next to them and on the other side of his grave is a headstone for his brother, although he is still living. It looked like all of the plots and headstones were acquired at the same time because they were all alike. They all had flowers on them. We thought that family must be nearby who put the flowers there, but then we realized that every grave in the small cemetery had flowers, so it may be the community or the person who takes care of it who puts flowers out.
Larry has a military plaque on his grave and it gave the date that he died and Viet Nam, and his rank in the Army. It was pretty cool. We left phone messages with the high school buddy and his wife that we would be in the Shelby Walmart. They had been in Louisville all day and ended up stopping on their way home, but unfortionately, we missed them because we had gone to dinner. Terry had talked to Larry's cousin quite a few years ago and we had his phone number. But, like a lot of us, his phone was no longer in service and we assumed he had a cell phone. We had spent a lot of time on the Internet looking for him and did find an old address in Eminence. We went there and no one was home, but a neighbor confirmed that he still lived there and gave us his phone number. So, we called him a couple of times and left messages and then went back to Walmart to spend the night.
We had been told that Colonel Sanders had started his Kentucky Fried Chicken business in Shelby. So, we checked it out and, sure enough, we found their original home and headquarters.
In 1968, Colonel Sander's wife opened the Claudia Sanders Dinner House. The restaurant was in the building that was originally used as an office and warehouse for the famous Kentucky Fried Chicken operation. She ran it for five years and then franchised it to Cherry and Tommy Settle. It 1999 it was destroyed by fire, but was then rebuilt and added on to.
There is a great painting of Claudia and Colonel Sanders on the wall in the restaurant.
It is really quite a place. They have four dinning rooms, with enough room to seat 700 people at one time! Their specialties are fried chicken and country ham with eight famous vegetables. We didn't order that meal, but the table next to us did. She read off all of vegetables, and some of them I didn't recognize!
It made you feel like you were in some one's fancy Kentucky home eating dinner, and they treated you that way, too.
Kentucky has a lot of big ranches with a lot of open fields--which are usually mowed! There is no irrigation systems. They just rely on the weather to keep everything green. I would think that the lawn mowing business would be a good one to be in. There are lawn mower stores that sell nothing but lawn mowers, and most of them look like small tractors!
Horse ranches are pretty common in this area also. Terry thought they would look better if they all had pretty white vinyl fences, but the fences were usually brown or black.
This is another beautiful ranch home.
The next morning, a Saturday, we took a flag and put it on Larry Shea's grave and then drove in to Eminece to try to catch his cousin at home. He still was not answering his phone or returning our messages. There was still no one home, so we decided to go back to Walmart, hook up, and head to West Virginia. He had had our first "bad Walmart experience" the night before, with noisy cars and teenagers driving around the parking lot all night, a truck driver with his generator on, and some VERY early construction going on with paving the lot next to us. We had never stayed at a Walmart on a weekend before and we decided we would try to avoid weekends in the future.
As we traveled through the hills of Kentucky, we finally got a call from Larry's cousin. His job had kept him busy until past midnight the night before, and he had to go back in early that morning. So, he hadn't called us until in the afternoon. We were all sorry we hadn't connected, but Terry felt good about getting to see where Larry had been buried and got to drive around the area where he had lived. Maybe next time!
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