CAVES AND CORVETTS

Today was a relatively long day mileage wise as I covered a little over 300-miles, which is more than I usually do. I try and keep my daily miles somewhere between 200 and 250 mile which gives me a chance to stop and see the sites along the way. 

Today, I travel from Louisville to Paducah with stops at Mammoth Cave, The Corvette Museum and a side trip to the small town of Rosin, Kentucky before arriving here in Paducah for the night.

I left Louisville this morning shortly before 8 a.m.as I wanted to get to the Cave early and hopefully beat the crowd. On the way from Louisville to Mammoth Cave I switch time zone, moving from the Eastern Time to Central Time so I arrived at 8:30 Central Time. 

I made my way to the visitors center and found that several of the more popular tour were already sold out.  Evidently most folks pre-purchase their tickets online in advance.  So I opted for the simple 30-minute self guided tour, which takes you through the historic original entrance and in to several large rooms.

Mammoth Cave is the larges cave in the world with more than 400 miles to explore.  I only explored about a half a mile on my brief tour but enjoyed the experience none the less.

From Mammoth Cave it was a short drive down to Bowling Green and the National Corvette Museum. The Museum features over 80 Corvettes including mint condition classics and several historic vehicle. 

On February 12, 2014, 8 of the classic Corvettes were swallowed up when a giant sink hole opened inside the museum. Today the damaged vehicle are on display in the same room over top of the repaired sink hole. Damage to the vehicle alone was estimated at over 1-Million Dollars but that is a conservative estimated as several of the vehicles were regarded as priceless.

Leaving the Corvette Museum I made a detour to Rosine, Kentucky which is the birthplace of Bill Monroe, who is regarded as the Father of Bluegrass.  Bill Monroe made popular a style of music that was played on front porches and in the hollows throughout the south.  He called this music Bluegrass.  Bill was one of the most popular stars on the Grand Ole Opry and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1970. 

Bill died on September 9, 1996 and is buried in the Rosine Cemetery just a few yard from Pendleton Vandiver who Bill make popular in a song called "Uncle Pen."

From Rosine it was on to Paducah where I made a quick stop at Oak Grove Cemetery. Here is buried Thomas Scopes, who was a school teacher at Rhea County High School in Tennessee.  Scopes was charged with having broke Tennessee Law by teaching Darwin's Theory of Evolution in his high school biology class.  Scopes was tried in 1925 with Williams Jennings Bryan as one of the prosecutors.  On of Scopes defense lawyers was Clarence Darrow, and after being found guilty and fined $100, the verdict was overturned on appeal. The "Scopes Monkey Trial" was one of the landmark court cases of the early 20th century. 

Following the "Monkey Trial" Scopes was unemployed for two years before he took a job as a geologist with United Gas Corporation working in Houston, Texas and Shreveport, Louisiana until he retired in 1963. He died on October 21, 1970 from the complications of Cancer.

My final stop of the day was at Mount Kenton Cemetery where I visited the final resting place of Alben Barkley, who served as the 35th Vice President of the United States under President Harry Truman. On April 30, 1956, Barkley was addressing the mock convention at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. While delivering his remarks, Barkley suffered a heart attack and collapsed and died on Stage.

After visiting the grave of Vice President Barkley I grabbed supper and checked into my hotel for the night. Tomorrow I am off to St. Louis and where I hope to visit Grant's farm and the Budweiser Brewery.