Wednesday 31^st March, Cruise Inn, Hodgenville, Ky Day 15

17.30

I suppose “gently rolling “ is one of those expressions that has a completely different meaning in the USA and England. Like “pants”. Or “delicious”. Anyway the first few miles out of Bardstown were pretty hard work. However it soon eased off after that and we rolled on, quite happily all morning. The weather was perfect, sunny with just a bit of a breeze.

Whatever the perks of being a town jailer are, Dorcas Figg obviously thinks they are worth having. I lost count of the number of cards and posters urging people to re-elect him. Dorcas is definitely willing. With him running the jail and Maynard Wimsett, another keen campaigner, as magistrate, I am sure the people of Nelson County will be in good hands.

More dogs today including a pack of three that really looked like they meant business for a while. Not a nice experience.

We stopped about halfway, at Howardstown to buy Gatorade at a liquor store. There was another one just next door, which struck me as odd in such a small place. The reason became apparent a mile down the road as we crossed the line into Larue county. Another dry zone. We couldn’t be bothered to go back, telling ourselves that we weren’t ruled by alcohol and it would be good for us to stick to soft drinks. Now, a few hours later I’m not so sure.

We had a stroke of luck just after this. About 15 miles from Hodgenville, we realised that if we kept on the, fairly quiet, main road rather than go on the ACA route we would save ourselves a few miles. In fact it saved us nearly ten which was a real result. We arrived at 1.30, just as it was starting to get a little too warm. We’ve had our share of minor setbacks with wrong roads and missed turnings so it was nice to end the day a little ahead for once.

Hodgenville is a tiny, pretty, little town, straight out of an Edward Hopper painting. The centre is dominated by a fine statue of Abraham Lincoln, who was born here, with commemorative stones quoting the Gettysburg Address and an extract from Lincoln’s Inaugural Presidential address. Both still very moving to read.

Inevitably Lincoln, dominates everything. The Lincoln Bank, The Lincoln Museum, the Lincoln State Park. And we ate in Abe’s diner. Southern Fried chicken and baked potatoes. Huge piles of food washed down with Mountain Dew, a slightly less sophisticated version of Tango.

Kentuckians are extremely friendly and three very nice people separately came up to chat to us, Inevitably, this can get a little wearing as you have to give the same explanation of where you’re from, where you’re going, how long you’ve been on the road etc. Not being the most sociable of men, I suggested to Mike that we had some cards printed and just handed these out. He didn’t think this was quite the thing. A bit miffed, I then said that I would pretend to be mute from now on and let him do all the talking . In that case, he said, he would pretend to be deaf. This is how we pass our days. Maturely, like adults.

Our motel is just outside of town, next door to Abes’ actual birthplace. The Cruise Inn looks as if it was built around the same time. It’s pretty basic but perfectly adequate. The 10 rooms are in a straight line, a little like army huts. The fire drill notice is just a line of square boxes, with our one coloured in, saying “You are here. In the event of fire go to store to report fire to owner”. Yes. I think I can handle that.

There’s no internet and no booze, so this evening I’m hoping to prevail on Mike to entertain me with some more of his war-time reminiscences or perhaps his hilarious “farmyard impressions”. These always make the hours simply fly by.