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The sound of the shower in the room next door roused me from my slumber at about 6am, the shower in the room on the other side finished the job at about 8am, and I was awake..
We find ourselves in "Bowling Green" Kentucky opposite the Corvette museum of America, we knew the actual Corvette plant factory tour was closed on Saturdays but spent 20 mins looking for it anyway.. we failed. The Corvette museum, despite being next door to the Corvette manufacturing plant, has no financial ties to the Chevrolet empire.. so god knows where they got their cash. The place is HUGE, quite the piece of 90's architecture. |
 Fancy assed Corvette museum with awesome clouds.. |
 All cars look the same in the design sketch, then they build a normal car.. |
First up was a quick filmed history of the car, then into the exhibition proper.. now, riddle me this batman.. why do some folk buy a new 1972 Corvette, drive 5000 miles in it, (none in the rain) then keep it in the garage for 20 years before donating it to the museum..? sadder still is the chap who bought a Corvette last year, never drove it.. straight into the museum it went... loser.. I mean I love my car as much as the next FTO owner.. but really get a life, it's a Corvette, they aren't expensive, and they certainly aren't rare.
At this point I was considering buying a brick in the sponsors walkway and having "It's only a car" engraved on it.. Having said all that, it's a well laid out museum which will keep you occupied for an hour. Oh, and the gift shop sells everything from mouse mats to 5000 dollars worth of Wurlitzer CD jukebox with Corvette pictures on the front (whoopie). |
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Next stop, Mammoth Cave. We cruised up 31W to Cave City passed a beautiful abandoned motel and pulled into the Mammoth Cave visitors centre.. Craig had warned us we should have booked in advance, and he was right.. the only tour that started within 2 hours was 4 hours long and had 120 people on it... nah.. not our scene..
Mammoth cave itself looks fantastic, 6 or so different tours, 300+ miles of cave.. awesome.. we decided it would wait for another trip.. preferably booked in advance for a quiet mid-winter Tuesday morning. We then decided to go to one of the other privately run caves nearby. "Horse Cave" is about 5 miles up the road, we drove there on a very minor back road which passed all sorts of hillbilly types.. yard sales are quite the thing in Kentucky, everyone's doing it. Arriving at Horse Cave, we had about 45 mins to wait before the next tour, so we cruised the town high street, which had the feel of a ghost town, we were to find out why later.. RK noticed that the gift shop had no pictures of the actual cave, very odd, usually showcaves love to show off their formations, we started to worry about the quality of the cave, however when the tour started, all became clear. |
 Victorian cave ruins |
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The Horse Cave tour is more educational than most, focusing on the environmental damage done by farmers/factories who dump their waste into nearby sinkholes, which drain into the caves water supply and over time caused the whole area's water table to be poisoned.. 20 years ago the town above stank like an open cesspit due to this careless dumping and that's why everyone left.. Kerry the guide has lived here all her life, she's about our age and remembers walking through the stench, you needed a mask and oxygen supply to go into the cave in those days.
The cave is littered with abandoned victorian machinery, giant cogs, pumping mechanisms and pipes are scattered all around.. it's very surreal, kind of like the images in the PC game "Myst"... Thankfully the cave's new owners, the American Cave Association, have managed to persuade the local businesses to clean their acts up, and now the cave is open for tours again. In the past, water was pumped out of the cave to supply the town, there was also an underground dam with a hydro electric plant which enabled Horse Cave town to be the 2nd in the state with electricity. Dancing and tennis were played in the larger caverns.. quite the scene was played out pre-pollution. We were only taken down the 240 steps into the cave entrance and into the huge 1st chamber, they have plans to open up 3 more chambers, the largest of which is 4 times the size of chamber one. We really enjyed this cave tour it made a change from the usual "And here is Michael Jackson" patter. Quick mention of our Guide.. "Kerry" she was brilliant, really enthusiastic about cleaning the cave up and obviously proud of what they'd achieved so far. |
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Now it was time for the long drive to Memphis.. we'd already decided that tonite we would dine in Corky's, but somehow found ourselves in Sonic the drive in getting Burgers Cherry Lime soda.. appetites removed, we set off on the 5 hour haul to Memphis.
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 65 feet tall y`know...
We passed thru Paris Tennessee, Becca said they had a replica Eiffel Tower.. so obviously we drove around until we found it.. sure enough.. 65 feet tall, just inside the entrance to the memorial park, there it was.. shortest 65 feet we've ever
seen..
Onward past the tractor pull we went, don't know why we didn't go to that it looked cool.. maybe the scarey hillbilly quotient was a bit high. |
 The world best Bar-B-Q.. |
Arriving in Memphis at about 9pm, we managed to find Corky's straight away. I was last here about 8 years ago when I had sublime barbecue.. I was dreading it being not as good, especially as I'd just spent 6 years rhapsodising about the place to RK.. luckily nothing had changed, the bbq benchmark remains in place. We had a huge pile of food despite not being hungry.. The Corky`s franchises are another matter as we would find out later on the trip.. It's late, we failed to gain entrance to the Graceland Days Inn (24 hour Elvis movies, guitar shaped swimming pool) because it was full but have found a home in the Graceland Travelodge ($50 Pakistani staff from Wembly in North London..) trip reports sorted we can get some sleep.. G'nite yawl.. |
