Kentucky and Tennessee

So currently, J and I are sitting in a hotel in East Nashville watching a movie about birdwatching featuring Steve Martin, Owen Wilson, Anjelica Huston, Jack Black, and a whole slew of other notables, none of whom seem to be helping this poor movie. We just flipped it on so I can't be sure, but it is possible we're being Big Bounced.

Anyway, that's really neither here nor there. The past few days have been great! We drove through beautiful Kentucky, including Muhlenberg County complete with John Prine Ave.


(On a side note, we've been trying to play the songs of the places as we visit, so if you have any recommendations please do share. Today we did Tennessee Jed, Rocky Top, East Nashville Skyline, and Tennessee Pusher. Now back to Kentucky.)

We've been in Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. We took the cave tour, which was pretty freaking sweet. Our tour group was only six people instead of the usual hundred or something, so we got special attention from our weird, old, nerdy guide, Steve including a sneak peek at parts of the cave that are normally untourable. Mammoth Cave is crazy. As the longest cave system in the world, it has about 400 mapped miles of tunnelage and our guide told us they expect there to be as many as 1000 total miles down there. At our deepest we were 320ish feet (Justin describes this as a football field's worth) underground at the level of the water table where a huge river has cut through the limestone. The cave has both gigantic, cavernous hallways and small, crouch-y passages. Tons of adorable little bats hanging around. Signatures and initials dating back to tours from 1811! A cool, 55ºF all year round down there. Shoof. It was awesome.

The second part of the national park is across the Green River (where paradise lay) where you can backpack through the forest. We took one look at the crowded, expensive car campgrounds and headed that way. Loaded the little Honda Accordion onto the ferry and then hiked off away from the throngs. We camped in a remote little site, by an adorable little stream, in our sweet little tent. My mom (god bless her) insisted on stuffing our car to the gills with about a year's supply of food and drinks, but let me tell you we ate like kings in the woods last night. Drank beer and champagne by the fire and ate fettuccine alfredo noodle packets with crab added! Plus, of course, snacks on snacks. It was beautiful, serene, and filling. AND I accidentally set up our tiny tent on a verrrry slight hill and that combined with our slippery sleeping bags meant that while I was sleeping, I kept sliding over on top of Justin and smashing him against the mesh. Heehee. I slept great.

Back to today. We got to Nashville, checked into this super fancy Knights Inn, and had a beer at this cool little bar called 3 Crows. I think Todd Snider drinks there, but sadly no sightings (heh. birdwatching phrase). We are going out tonight to try and see the sights and eat good food without spending too much money. Tomorrow we'll trek out to try and find Ryan somewhere in Tennessee or Virginia and hike around for a few days with him and Rockie before meeting up with Rebekah in Raleigh for a bit. Katia, look out! We're coming for you, Hawk, and little Lio after that - we'll be in touch soon, lady!

East Nashville, put a bird on it

Oh yea before we forget, here is a peek at our map (though only through southernish California).