Day 3

Distance Traveled Lexington KY to Marion VA:  472 KM

Pet Peeve of the Day:  Seriously, wtf is up with pickup drivers in the US? They drive their gas guzzling trucks like Dale Earnhardt Jr. on crack while having the judgement skills and timing of someone swimming in molasses. Jack rabbit starts at lights... Sudden lane changes after working so hard to pass you and realizing they need to turn right, right now!

Cars of Note:

Highly modified Ford Falcon 1960 - 63

Lime green, with super wide rear slicks. Driver looked like Lenny Kosnowski from Laverne and Shirley. Had sweep side sunglasses on, white t-shirt and a ciggy hanging from his lips. Cool car!

 Well, here I am in Lexington, Kentucky. I originally tried to get into a Super 8 just north of Lexington in Georgetown but was denied. Not because of my Canadianis or my accent (the accents change almost at each State border) but because of poor planning on my part. There seems to be a law of inverse benefit if one travels by road in the US. The later you drive the less likely you will get a room. I popped back in the car and hit the next major exit with accommodations and lucked (?) out at the Knights Inn.

It was their last room and the clerk let me know that the parking was limited (i.e. I would have to park on the street and not near my unit) and that one of the two Queen sized beds were broken. Luckily I only use one bed at a time (except when playing Kangaroo - ask Cam and Annika about that) and agreed. Well, I thought the Motel 6 was bad but my unit here compared most remarkably to the condition of my first night's stay. But the motel was full and there were 4 other hotel/motels in the area all with full parking lots so high demand creates customers that become less discerning about room quality when they become more desperate for sleep.

Anyways... The clerk said that a complimentary breakfast and coffee were included so all is good. Plus, traveling alone it is only my standards that matter so I have a wider range of tolerance. You're only staying for about 8 hours and moving on but it certainly makes me think to increase my nightly accommodation budget to something around $75 a night.

The next day went to check out and no coffee. Damn it motel clerk... Your PROMISED! Actually they were just out of coffee so I decided to use the old GPS and find a Starbucks, regroup and recce my routing for the day.

They are putting bar codes on everything these days!

 Lexington is not an unknown city for me. I used to work for Lexmark Inc. and it is headquartered in said town. And it is not called LEXmark after LEXington. I will let you google-ites figure that one out. I was just of New Circle Road and the headquarters/main plant building. It brought back some fine memories of training and product introductions. The town is really very nice and the Starbucks was downtown right near the convention center. I logged on my iPad, called the folks and decided on a route.

BTW, Lexington is very sophisticated and up-scale. The downtown is looking a little worse for wear since the economic downturn but there seems to be a fine selection of restaurants and shopping (and I do not mean MALL shops). The University of Kentucky is a major school in the area and you can see UK stuff everywhere. 

I get tired of interstate travel so I decided to do the following routing for this leg of the trip:

I-75 south to Berea and then 421 south to the Hal Rodgers Parkway. From there travel east until it hooks up with 421 again. Then west on 119 until 25e south and then to the Cumberland Gap National Historic Park.

OK. So about 5 miles out of Berea the whole world changed. South of the Ohio/Kentucky the land is hilly characterized by gentle slopes and grades but once outside of Berea the geography changes rapidly and quite unexpected by me. I should have known that all the squiggly bits of road on the map indicated major topography changes but I had a major topographical and brain freeze. I associated the topography to be much like northern KY.

Suffice to say the driving was FANTASTIC. The speed limit in this area varies from 35 to 55 MPH and for about 2 hours the longest straight I had was barely a mile long. The rises and falls, and turns on the road gave me a lot of lively driving and I had a major smile on my face.

There was not any traffic, either, which enhanced the pleasure of the drive. But I did find one small quibble with my trusty Hyundai Accent:  The assisted electric power steering has no feel what so ever. When one is driving everyday you hardly notice this but when transitioning right and left with on and off-camber corners you feel - NOTHING. Seriously it would be easy to over or under-correct and I think the tendency would be over-correct for turns (i.e. turn in too tight). There is no feedback on road conditions or adhesion limits so one has to work extra hard concentrating on what the "F" they are doing. I am so glad I had a standard though if you compare 400 KM of interstate driving I might do 20 gear changes in total but on this run I must have done 500. Remember to that the higher in altitude you go the less power a car has (unless turbo or supercharged) so my 'Ol Accent had to be flogged often in 3rd or 4th gear up even minor grades.

Pluses of the Route:  Fun to drive! Scenery! Engaging! Never a Boring Moment! Did I say Fun to Drive? Little Traffic!

Negatives:  No or little guardrails. Cliffs. Rock Falls. Trees 5 feet from road. No shoulder to speak of. Blind corners. Blind rises. Death at every turn potentially. Far from medical facilities. Fun to Drive as in one can be tempted to be a little to Jackie Stewart on the road. Little Traffic so potential to go off the road and have no one know.

Eventually I dropped down into a valley that opened up and followed 25e south towards the Cumberland Gap National Park. The drive into the park from my entry point and up to the lookout was almost as hairy as the drive down 421 but well worth it. I have long heard about the Cumberland Gap and know some of its history.

It is hard to imagine the barriers that geography placed on the pioneers with our modern roads and transit options. The discovery of the the Cumberland Gap was a major step to opening up the Ohio Territory and other points west. The Appalachian Mountains is one major barrier to travel in the 1700s, 1800s and even the last century and even now. The whole topography of the area impacts how one travels by car, train, and plane. Sometimes you have to drive a 100 miles north just to head west depending on your starting and termination point.

One can see from this satellite composite of the north-east of the US that the big purply band of stuff is the Appalachian Mountain Chain. You cannot discern the Cumberland Gap from this map but imagine if someone told you that there was a way through the mountains other than around it you would be interested. Especially if you had to walk the entire distance.

I have flown over the Appalachians many times and until you get on the ground, as it were, one does not appreciate just how impressive this range is and how it influenced North American history. For those that do not believe that Canada was (and is affected) by this geography the Bi-Centennial of The War of 1812 is coming fast so read up and learn.

Some Shots of The Cumberland Gap

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