Down the "Country Music Highway"

I headed out on Friday to spend the weekend with my FEMA guy.... He was supposed to be in Louisville, so I was thinking shopping... But on Thursday, they sent him over to eastern Kentucky to Pikeville, so I headed down the Country Music Highway for the weekend. Shopping would not be the same in Pikeville, but it was a good weekend just the same.

On the way down, I passed through Ashland and Catlettsburg. The Marathon Refinery at Catlettsburg on the Ohio River is pretty impressive. My Mom and Dad were married in Catlettsburg in 1939. Then I passed the big AEP Power Plant (Kentucky Power) as I headed south along the Big Sandy River enroute to Pikeville. It's pretty incredible how much energy flows out of Appalachia via the electric and refineries and railways loaded with coal. You'd think that the local people would reap more rewards than they do for supplying so much of the energy used in the eastern US.

I passed through Prestonsburg, and saw the signs to the Jenny Wiley State Park, but didn't have time to stop there. Maybe next trip...

As I got into Pikeville, I was amazed by the Cut-Through. In the 1970's, the Army Core of Engineers re-routed the river, the railroad and the highway by cutting through the mountain. All the way down Route 23 (which is a nice 4 lane), there had been lots of cuts into the mountains, but this one at Pikeville was the most incredible.

I spent some time at the pool and soaked up some sun on Saturday. We had dinner at the Landmark Inn Saturday evening. Dinner was excellent and the atmosphere was a little 1950ish... Quite charming. We also had a couple of meals at El Azul Grande too, their food was great too. Maybe I am just tired of my own cooking at this point though. :-)

On Sunday, we went over the see The Breaks Interstate Park and did a little hiking... We hiked the Overlook Trail - it was too hot for a lot of strenuous up hill stuff! It was beautiful and we were lucky because there were still some rhododendron and mountain laurel in bloom.

On the way home, I noticed that KY's deer crossing signs looked like they had HUGE deer down there... LOL, when I checked on it when I got home, low and behold it was an ELK Crossing sign!