Well, we’ve covered a lot of miles this month.  We left a week ago last Saturday for Charlotte and more or less took our normal route.  Since Jim was driving we stayed on Hwy 41 until we got to I-24, then took I-40 at Nashville, switched to 77 at Statesville and got off at exit 18 to cut across town on Harris Blvd.  It took us a little longer than it would have if I’d been by myself because Jim stops more often, but we were there in plenty of time for dinner.

Everyone but Steph went to the movies Saturday night (she had to work).  We saw Karate Kid.  It’s an old favorite and I was interested to see how different the remake would be.  It really wasn’t like a remake of the same story, more like a new episode of the same concept.  It was pretty good, although I still don’t believe a scrawny kid geek of a kid could learn Karate well enough in just a few weeks to beat older kids who’ve been training for years.  But that has never stopped me from enjoying the story before and it didn’t this time either.  Total reality is not a requirement as long as the plot follows a logical path.

I finally got to shoot a picture I’ve been wanting for years.  The Hickory Grove Baptist Church has a tall steeple with stained glass that is lit at night.  While we were waiting for showtime, we went over and shot several photos.

On Monday, we trekked down to the old Independence Colosseum (It has been renamed Bojangles) for Stephanie’s graduation ceremony.   Considering the fact that Davie counted 590 names in the program, it went really fast.  She was beautiful, as usual and we are all very proud of her.   Afterward, we all went to lunch at a new Japanese place.

College street after dark...

That evening, Jim and I went downtown to do some more shooting.    He wanted a time lapse of the light rail train that runs from seventh street out to the southeast side and I tagged along because I always enjoy spending time in Charlotte’s downtown area.  I sat and read for a couple hours at a sidewalk cafe type place beside the tracks while he worked on his project, then we walked around the block and got some street scenes.

We left early the next morning on our planned  round about journey home.  Kenneth supplied the traditional “Are we there yet?” dialog as we looped up through Virginia, then took surface roads to Cumberland Falls where we spent the first night.

Cumberland River above the falls.

Jim and I got up before dawn to catch the morning light.  Davie took Kenneth to the pool when it opened and we had lunch in the lodge dining room before we started on the second leg of our odyssey.

Although the two-story cabin was nice, the beds comfortable, and the scenery spectacular, we weren’t impressed with the food.  I think the lodge at Dawson’s Pennyrile Park has a better selection on the buffet and the menu was almost identical.  I guess I expected Cumberland to have a more elaborate dining room since it’s a bigger attraction.  If we go back again, we’ll stop at a grocery store before we get there and cook our own food in the full-sized kitchen which is stocked with dishes, pans and everything else you need for an average meal except the food.

It is just a few hours from Cumberland Falls to Richmond, Ky which is the closest town to our next planned stop, Fort Boonesboro.  We checked in to the hotel, then drove out to the park.  Of course, like most state offices, they close at 5pm and we wanted more than an hour for our money, so we decided to return the next morning.

Back at the hotel, we lounged around the pool while Kenneth swam with some kids around his age.  Proving once again what a small world it is, their mother used to live in Madisonville as a kid and attended Pride Avenue school.

Exploring along the way the next morning, we discovered a suspension bridge and Natural Tunnel State Park.  I managed to choke down my fear of heights long enough to take a few shots from the bridge, but the lift down to the tunnel was more than my nerves could stand.  Jim and Kenneth rode it down while Davie and I waited for them above.

I knew going in that Fort Boonesboro was a reconstruction.  Of course, it was impossible for the original logs to survive more than 200 years.  However, I thought it had been rebuilt on the original site.

Gunsmith explaining the art.

I was disappointed to find that it wasn’t, but the original site is inside the park and there are markers to show where important historical spots were.  The dimensions of the new fort are not exact. The walls match, but the cabin roofs are higher.  You can’t go upstairs in any of the blockhouses either.  Only two of the cabins are authentically furnished, while the others are used for offices, storage and little historical demonstrations of candle making, gunsmithery, spinning and weaving, etc.  Even though the fort wasn’t what I anticipated, it was interesting.  Not very authentic or photogenic, but certainly educational.  Kenneth didn’t seem to know much about Daniel Boone before we got there and I think he enjoyed the visit.  The park also has the Kentucky River Museum, which is mostly a house that was home to the locksman and his family.   All in all, we enjoyed the visit, the hotel was comfortable and the lectures of the tour guides were interesting.

The next morning we headed for home, finally getting back on the Interstate system.   Except for a quick stop at My Old Kentucky Home, we resisted all impulses to extend our adventure and got home Thursday evening.  This past weekend we took off again, headed north to Ohio for a family reunion.  But that needs to be another post.  This one is already too long.

Along the way to trying to get some structure in my life without making a full time commitment, I’ve signed up for a couple of classes this fall, joined a study group and a CWF circle.   The past week or so there’ve been to many distractions and I haven’t been able to follow the new schedule I made for myself, but it looks promising.

The key is to start over every day until I manage to make it a routine.  After all my motto for years has been: “You haven’t really failed unless you stop trying.”  I will keep trying until I get it done.  Then I will make another commitment to lose the extra weight I’m carrying.  I don’t want to try doing both at once.   I remember when I was trying to stop smoking.  All the experts said don’t try it when you are under too much stress or when things are in an upheaval.

Soon things should slow down again.  Ashley is almost ungrounded.  Chris will be getting off suspension in a week or so.  Tracy’s problems are slowly working themselves out again.  The weather is clearing up.  Some sunshine and warm temperatures would go a long way to making me feel more like buckling down to work.

I am also working on a photography project to get myself motivated to shoot every day.   A pictorial guide to Madisonville.  I am deciding on categories, like schools one week, then churches, parks, historic buildings, and so forth.  When I’ve made out the list, I’ll start getting numbers and addresses.  I figure it should keep me busy for quite a while.   More structure to my life.

I still need to find time for working on David’s website, redesigning the Madisonville Design site and studying Flash.  It’s just a matter of setting priorities, then keeping to them.

We are still working on resolving the gallery issues.  It is a learning process.  Tonight I have uploaded some of Jeanne’s photos.,  learned to create thumbnails for them (but there should be an easier way) and made a link for the gallery on the menu bar.   I still need to work on sorting them though.  The software seems to just throw them out there randomly.   Some of them kept the dates they were originally posted and others changed the date to today.  Very confusing.

We still aren’t happy with this way of listing the galleries.  We will need way too many to list on the menu bar.  Jim thinks, when we run out of room, it will just drop down another line.   At that rate, we might wind up with half a page of menu bar.  We need to figure out a way to make them drop down from one menu listing.  Jim says it may require a different template, but I’m very fond of the tree and the blue bars.  We’ll see.  I intended to change templates every month or so…it may be difficult to do if the template is going to limit what we can do with the galleries.

They say learning new software helps to keep your brain healthy and stave off Alzheimer’s.  This process seems like the equivalent of lifting 300 lb. weights.

The previous post has been re-entered three times, so far. Hopefully, this will be the last, it’s getting kind of tired.

We have decided to use the blog as the front page. The site will still have some of the features from before, but the look and functioning will be much different.

Jim has installed a totally different gallery package. During the next week or so, we will re-create everyone’s galleries and upload the most recent photos. If you haven’t posted any new ones during the past couple of years, your gallery will be one of the last ones set up. Priority is going to those who use the site the most.

So far, we’ve only made email addresses for me, Jim, Jeanne, and Kenneth. No one else appeared to be using those either. If you want an email address here, let me know.

I will be adding more pages along the way as well. Comments are invited.