Because times of travel are typically atypical, I’ve decided that it would be a good practice to record here various observations from whenever I’m out in the highways and byways. The “travelogue” category of TruePravda will consist of notes from journeys both past and present.
- The trip from Louisville, KY to Kingsport, TN takes just over 5 hours—when you’re not driving with an infant. A seven-month old baby certainly adds a new dimension to a much-traveled route in the last few years. We stopped thrice on the way down, and thrice on the way back. When the baby needs to eat, the baby needs to eat. Not terribly bad.
- Gas is cheap in Corbin, KY. I paid $1.97/gallon. I never thought I would call $1.97 cheap.
- Corbin also sports a billboard featuring a larger-than-life headshot of an attorney. Beside him, in equally giant letters, are the words: DIVORCE $399 COMPLETE PACKAGE. So much for divorce being stigmatized anymore. I would have taken a photo, but it was too dark on the way back.
- July 4th is a great time to drive at night. Starting at about dusk until we arrived home at 11:30 PM, there were fireworks erupting constantly. Everywhere you looked, whether to the left or right, colorful displays appeared in the sky. Fireworks are bigger money than I thought.
- This trip’s audiobook, of which we still have a few hours of listening to go, was Tom Wolfe’s A Man in Full, narrated by the mesmerizing David Ogden Stiers. While Stiers could make the phone book sound interesting, Wolfe’s ability to put the reader/listener into the characters’ emotions is stunning. Can’t wait to go on another trip just to finish this one.
- The trip is fraught with landmarks. Worth mentioning is the mile-long Cumberland Gap Tunnel, the walled city of Pineville, KY, and the failed Phipps Bend Nuclear Power Plant Site, where construction was begun but never completed. Of course, the king of all landmarks on the trip is the church whose name is in the front yard in 8-foot tall letters: PREPARE TO MEET GOD. Some go to First Baptist, some go to Second Presbyterian, but only a few go to PREPARE TO MEET GOD. A photograph of this place is on my list of things to do.
That’s all for the premiere edition of Travelogue. Stay tuned for more harrowing tales of travel.
Shouldn’t they put a big red arrow pointing in the ‘direction’ of God on their sign? Oh, wait, they already have.
I seen your site from Kevin Young’s. Sadly, I know the divorce sign in Corbin you are talking about. If you went through Corbin and the tunnel, then you went through Barbourville, my hometown 🙂
dj
Thanks for the fun post, it was much needed and enjoyed. Being from / living in Knoxville I have been to all the cities you describe (my wife is from Elizabethton,TN – about 15 miles from Kingsport (where my future brother in law lives), TN).
Long and short thanks for the break from the rough and tumble world. Great post…
I threw a quick link up to it on my blog, so hopefully a few other people will enjoy it as well.
Hi jared! just stopped by to see if you had any fun new pics of Cooper up! i saw this and cracked up at all of your landmarks. i know them like the back of my hand. val and i always wait to buy gas in corbin. 🙂 at least the drive is more interesting than staying on the interstate the whole time!