54. Hodgenville, Kentucky

Day 54:  Friday, August 14, 1981
Falls of Rough to Hodgenville:  55 miles

We were going to make this a 90-mile day today, and spend the night in Bardstown, but we slowed down along the way.

Jack left at 7:30.  I talked to the neighbors some more, and didn't get away until 8:30.  Choo Choo was left behind again.

Name these flowers!

Jack made a wrong turn at Madrid, and ended up going to Leitchfield.  We arrived at Four Corners within five minutes of each other, and bought groceries for lunch, which we ate in a churchyard near White Mills, amid a swarm of bees.  They're called "steady bees" by the locals, but they looked like sweat bees to me.  That's all they were after.  They didn't sting, but they tickled, and drove us crazy.  We wolfed down lunch and moved on.

Steady bees everywhere

Sonora, a few miles down the road, was a quaint town, with interesting storefronts and an unusual layout.  From there it was about 15 miles to Hodgenville and Abraham Lincoln's birthplace.

Well, actually, it was built 30 years after his death.

And it's inside this building

I had stopped there about 15 years ago.  It had not changed much, except that the great white Boundary Oak, which was 150 years old in 1809 when Lincoln was born, had died.  Jack and I spent several hours there, then went to a nearby motel that permitted camping.  We found that Choo Choo had just arrived there, so we decided to stay, even though they charged $3.15 per person.  After all, this is only the second night since Denver that we have had to pay for lodging - and last night was only $1 each.

Just a scenic overlook

We decided to eat out again tonight - at a nearby restaurant, it was only $2.95 for meat, salad, two vegetables, and drink.  Not bad.  For dessert, we split a half gallon of ice cream.

And, as Samuel Pepys would say, so to bed.