September 1st - 4th I took a little drive through Eastern Kentucky. I drove the back roads through Cynthiana and Paris to I-64. From there to Cater Caves State Park. 
I was a nice little cave system quite different from Mammoth Cave (where there were 120 on the 
tour, here I was just me and the Ranger). You can get right up next to the formations. Plenty of little soda straws, stalactites, stalagmites and a new one (too me) helicites. They can’t decide if they want to form up or down. After a night in Ashland I took US23 to Whitesburg. I drove through most of the towns (Paintsville, Prestonsburg, Pikeville) on the way, they all had very small streets. Not a lot of room in the mountains for roads. On day three I got up early enough to still catch some fog in 
the valleys, from a pull off on US119, around Whitesburg . I also made a stop at Kingdom Come State Park. Some beautiful overlooks and trails there. After that I tried to find the top of Black Mtn. but, the road got too rough for the Mustang. The drive on US 119 to Middlesborough was beautiful. That maps had US 23 from Ashland to Whitesburg colored as scenic. It was nice. If you enjoy refineries. But I will take US119 any day. I took a quick detour to Harlan, just to say I had. I really wanted to make Cumberland Gap at Middlesborough before the visitors center closed. Middlesborough is the only US city in the middle of a meteor crater. How about that? I knew there no alcohol sold here when I didn't see any beer advertisements at the gas stations 
windows. Plenty of cigarette signs though. No blue laws against that. I went to Harrogate TN to visit the Lincoln Memorial Museum on the campus of Lincoln Memorial University. Interesting but, most of the displays were down for refurbishing. Friday morning the park opened early enough to get some decent clouds in the Gap shots. The road trip ended in Lexington with a lunch my friend Keith Combs. I’ll have to make this in the fall, one of these years.
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