SharivilleLife stories from Shari

Hello from very beautiful Kentucky,  Everything here is colorful.  The grasses are green, green and the rolling hills are displaying their wonderful fall colors.  We’ve had our share off rain and it seems that the trees have peaked and are starting to drop their leaves.  It hasn’t gotten out of the 40s in quite awhile.  Thank goodness for my cozy trailer.

We drove up to Mammoth Cave Park, it’s about 15 min from the RV park. Despite the weather the place was jammed, they bring in buses of tourists and school kids.  They have limited the number of cave tours now as the main season has passed.  Mammoth Cave Natl Park has over 367 known miles of cave passageways running beneath these southern Kentucky hills.  That’s something to think about.  It’s known to be the worlds longest cave.  In 1981 this park was designated a World Heritage site and in 1990 declared an International Biosphere  Reserve.  This is a magnificent American treasure.  I sized up  the various cave tours and have pretty much made up my mind not to go in.  My last experience at Wind Cave in south Dakota may have cured my desire to plant myself underground for any length of time before the actual time comes. I think there is plenty to do above ground anyway.  The park sits in the middle of 53,000 acres of hardwood forest above ground and they are on fire, not literally, with fall colors of gold, red ,orange and yellow.  Really a site to see.  I can’t believe that even in the New England states it could be prettier. I had a feeling Kentucky would be beautiful and so far I’m not disappointed.

We drove thru Cave and Park cities, all of these little towns close to the park are fairly tourist oriented.  I’m not fond of touristy stuff.  We drove into the largest city in the area, Glasgow.  We went to the Wal Mart, of course, and while shopping encountered Mennonite people.   They were dressed in black and grey clothing, nothing brite or colorful.  The women had on huge black wool capes.  When we left we could see why, they had arrived in horse drawn buggies.  Wal Mart provides a  special area for them where they can unhook the horses tie them up and let them graze while they shop.  I took some pictures as I’ve never seen the buggies in real life.  They have even provided a waste container so they can dispose of the poopies. They have a Community near here where they live without electricity or gas powered equipment. I cant identify with that, people themselves seem to be very serious and intense. I didn’t notice any smiles  or facial expressions, no joy. I wonder if it’s difficult for some of them seeing the rest of the world so different or……….maybe not.

We came home and I made some veggie beef soup for tomorrow, and used my George Foreman to cook a steak and Hamburger.  Guess who had what?  We added a salad and some delicious sugar corn and rolls.  Cookies for dessert,  I was going to make some baked apples but ran out of time, we were hungry.  Tomorrows another day.

Glad to hear everyone and everything is OK at home,  I heard from Bonnie and Liz.  Despite the fact that Liz has been terrorized by the raccoons, they are mischievous little rascals.. I guess they were playing with her and turning on a sprinkle near the spa. But then Liz never met a problem she couldn’t handle and she outwitted the rascals by putting a bucket over the faucet.  No Raccoon will buffalo her.  Well more later.             Hugs S and J.