Kansas - skyscraper silos. Corn fields. A Big Well. Wichita airplanes. Big Brutus. Clean roads.
Missouri - shapely barns. Quilt trail. Ozarks. Seafood buffet. Mountain Grove. Friendly people. Springfield traffic. Tall cornfields. Truman's birthplace. Wild purple statice.
Kentucky - gigantic barns. Intensive corn farming. Mississippi levees. Sycamores. Wild mimosa. Dense population. Land Between the Lakes. Bowling Green. Corvettes. Ancestors. Cumberland River. Queen Anne's Lace.
Surprising things about the trip so far are how clean the roads are in Missouri and Kansas. Missouri is clean. Kansas is squeaky clean, with lots of green spaces inside the towns. Missouri has great roads. Kentucky has poor signage. Nowhere have there been near enough rest areas. But Missouri's rest stops, even though they are few and far between, are the best. Kentucky is not as clean as either Kansas or Missouri but has taller trees.
Tomorrow morning we are going to go grave-hopping, looking for my Kentucky/Tennessee ancestors. These are my grandmother's people. And the more I study them they more they feel like my people, too. We are in Burkesville, KY tonight, in a motel on the banks of the Cumberland River. My 4th great-grandfather lived here in 1810, before he got his land grant and moved to the South Fork in Wayne County. He was granted 50 acres, and owned, in 1860, an appalling 11 slaves. He was married twice and had 13 children. I don't think he was wealthy, but he has a severe face in the single picture I have of him. They were hillfolk.
The Tennessee side has a moderate claim to fame. My fourth great grandmother's father was the brother of Gracie Williams, who at age 16 married Alvin York of Sergeant York fame. We will see his and her graves tomorrow, as well as those of the other ancestors -- cousins, uncles, aunts, grandparents with several "greats" along with their names. I bought some Deep Woods Off today to keep the ciggers at bay. I've already been bitten all around my ankles by the horrible things. I'd forgotten how buggy the south is. Also how muggy. 104 degrees with 65% humidity will really take it out of you.
Till next time---
Onward....
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