Visiting a huge and otherwise empty laundromat early in the morning, we wondered why such a large facility was needed in a mostly rural environment and how it could be profitable. It was situated on a road like many others we had encountered, with continuous strip-development of shopping plazas over several miles. In reality these are vast surface carparks in front of a few shops, eateries and other commercial premises. They are almost identical and lack any aesthetic quality or charm. Most are largely empty, perhaps reflecting the depressed economy here.
We made our way to Berea, a small town with an unusual university and a thriving artisan community. Berea College was established in 1855 as a vocational college for black and white students from families of limited means.
Now a full university, it still operates on the same principle, whereby the students do not pay tuition fees, but are required to work at least 10 hours per week, in one of a large number of areas, including crafts, administrative work and PR. We were given a tour of some of the five craft workshops (broommaking, woodworking, weaving, pottery and metal work) in which students produce saleable items of astonishingly high quality.
A shop on the campus stocks a wide range of products, large and small. Following the lead of the College, many private artisans have set up workshops in the town. Most, like the dulcimer maker and the weavers we spoke to, are real enthusiasts as well as expert artisans and are happy to discuss their crafts with visitors.
Dulcimers are still widely played in Kentucky.
Eastern Kentucky is prosperous bloodstock land. Large houses with prominent (sometimes gross) pillars framing large porticos are set in lush farms, criss-crossed by miles of white or brown post and plank fences.
For the night, we booked into an Inn situated in a restored Shaker village at Pleasant Hill, just south of Lexington. Our very large but simply-furnished room was in one of the three communal “family” houses on the site, each of which originally accommodated about 80 people in 20 rooms. Each family house was a largely self-contained community, with communal cooking, eating and laundry areas and segregated washing and working areas for men and women.
This family house had two front doors, one to be used by women and children and the other by men.
The Shaker Village is a popular tourist attraction as a working village with a functioning farm, staffed craft workshops and exhibits. The Inn operates within it discreetly and professionally, with modern facilities and a renowned restaurant.
For some days, we had seen reports of an active weather front crossing the US from the west, with torrential rain causing serious flooding in Louisiana and other southern states. Overnight, the rain reached Pleasant Hill, but with much reduced severity
Saturday 31st Oct.
The rain had stopped by morning. We pressed on quickly through Kentucky (we admit to doing some ‘turnpiking’ from time to time)into Missouri, to ensure that we were within striking distance of our next arranged stopover with family members in Kansas. Western Kentucky appears to be less prosperous than the rest of the state, with poorer mixed farms surrounded by scrub and forest. The heavy cloud thinned and we entered Missouri in bright sunshine, as we crossed the Mississippi River. It’s not called the “mighty Mississippi” for nothing. At this point, the river is divided by islands. We crossed three consecutive bridges, each at least ten times the length of any of the Thames bridges. No doubt the heavy rains of the previous days had considerably increased the width of the river. The landscape flattened into alluvial plains. We headed up into the last hilly area before the Great Plains of the Midwest, the Ozarks, and found a cheap, basic, but adequate motel in Van Buren, close to Big Spring. Halloween is big in the US and as we ate in a local family restaurant, along with numerous locals (including what appeared to be the entire local police force of Van Buren), successive groups of small children entered, in costumes and accompanied by their parents, to collect “treats” of candy from the restaurant staff. Like much else in the US, this appears to have become standardised and automatic – the concept of demanding “trick or treat” seems to have disappeared, at least in Van Buren. However, we were also visited by two very effective ghoulish witches, who frightened the wits out of the children and unsettled some of the adults!
Sunday, 1st November
Van Buren is really (very) small-town America, but it has a few refinements and developments to accommodate the needs of visitors to the nearby Big Spring. This is the largest of several natural springs in this part of the Ozarks, which has been designated as the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. People come to “float” the rivers on everything from rafts to tyres, to hike in the surrounding hills and to enjoy the beautiful scenery. The locals all know each other and are somewhat rugged types, who nearly all drive large 4WD trucks (which, are, at least, justifiable in this area), but we have found them to be very welcoming, courteous and apparently God-fearing, in view of the number of churches in the area, all of which are well maintained, often set on large plots on the edge of town.
Our previous observation of the predominance of cars made by non-US manufacturers has changed. Since West Virginia, many more models by the major US manufacturers are evident. Apart from the 4WD trucks, though, they mostly still resemble European cars in both size and style.
It is interesting to consider why the US has (or had) such a poor record for motor vehicle accidents and resultant casualties. As we noticed on our last couple of visits here, the standard of driving is usually good, drivers are mostly courteous and speed limits (and driving speeds) are generally much lower than in Europe. However, although the standard of the roads is mostly high, turn-offs to the innumerable entrances to car parks, plazas and roadside premises are often badly designed and poorly controlled, and frequently require vehicles to cross considerable road widths. Intersections are often badly designed, with unclear signs and very poor lighting at night. There are huge numbers of traffic lights but, in towns in particular, advertising and other streetside lights create distraction and visual confusion. Drivers frequently use cellphones (mobile phones) when driving, but there has been little evidence of drunken driving. We have seen many cases of near misses, mostly not due to bad driving. Yet, in over 1500 miles of driving so far on the US part of this trip, we have seen only one minor accident. Perhaps the accident record has improved significantly here, as it has in many other developed counties over the last 30 years.
On our way to the Ozarks yesterday, we had noticed occasional signs of flooding from the recent storms which crossed the US, though it appeared to be fairly minor. When we went to see the Big Spring, we found that the area was closed, due to ‘emergency conditions’, but we parked the car and walked to the spring. The signs of extensive flooding were everywhere, with facilities, gates and paths under at least a metre of water, though it was clear that the water had been much higher very recently. We were able to reach the spring on an elevated roadway, which had obviously been covered a day or so earlier. At the spring, the mud and debris showed that the water level had reached 8-9 metres above its normal level.
The spring itself was not as impressive as it might have been, because it was under so much lying water. This is a mighty spring, the biggest in eastern North America, with an average daily flow of 286 million gallons.
Due to their peculiar geology, the Ozarks are reputed to have more “first magnitude” springs (with daily flows over 65 million gallons) than anywhere else on Earth. The Alley Spring, though much smaller than the Big Spring, with an average daily flow of “only” 81 million gallons, was actually the more impressive in the current conditions. From a large, relatively calm pool, with only a slight upwelling evident, a massive torrent of white water roared into the valley.
We ambled our way through the Scenic Riverways area, on largely deserted minor roads which passed through interesting small communities and attractive scenery. An armadillo, lying dead by the roadside, confirmed new knowledge that we had acquired earlier, that armadillos live in North America. They are apparently quite common in this area. [As a diversion, we have seen many road-kills over the previous few days, including deer, raccoons, squirrels and the first bear we have sighted since starting this trip! Later in the day, we nearly added to the total, as a buck sprang across the road just a few feet in front of us, and our wheels missed a startled squirrel by inches. We think we may have seen a couple of live bears scavenging carrion by the roadside in West Virginia, but we weren’t certain.]
At this point, we made one of our biggest mistakes on this trip. The Ozarks lakes area looked to be a nice place to find accommodation for the night. Branson, described as a resort area with a lot of family entertainment and C&W shows, was obviously a place to avoid. The Lake of the Ozarks looked to be a better bet - quieter, less developed... Anything but! It is a large artificial lake, made by damming at least 3 rivers to create a reservoir, a power generation facility and a water recreational area for the population of the central US. It has a shoreline of about 1600 miles, a large part of which has been developed for private properties and large towns have sprung up to service the tourist population. It may be a reasonable provision to make for a large number of people who are isolated from the sea, and it is still an attractive major water feature, but the towns are ugly. The only accommodation is in the towns. It was not where we wanted to be. We drove to the northwestern edge of the developed area to escape and found a reasonable motel in a slightly more pleasant location.
For the last couple of days, the weather has been superb - brilliant sunshine, about 20 degrees and virtually no wind.
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