Travels with Moe

Moe and I recently took a trip. We were visiting some family out of town, and we took some side trips for fun.

Vader helped me pack. He loves my suitcase.

One place we went was the Carter Caves state park in Kentucky. I'm not necessarily fond of the state (sorry to you folks from there), but they do have some nice state parks.

Moe went on a tour of the saltpeter cave there. I would have gone, but there were a bunch of stairs and NO handrail. I can go up, but I gotta have a railing to go down. Bad balance.

This is in the saltpeter cave. This cave was used to make gunpowder in the War of 1812. Apparently  in the Battle of New Orleans, gunpowder created with the saltpeter from this cave was used up in a very few minutes. BANG!

Moe liked the cave and took a lot of pictures. And he gave no explanation. All I can tell you is that the saltpeter workers liked to add their mark to the cave walls. Graffiti, circa 1869.

Outside the cave, there was an area where kids could pan for fossils and different stones. It was a pretty day, and the children had fun.

Another day we stopped a a cool KY state park, Ft. Boonesborough. This was Daniel Boone's fort. The original fort was built in about 1775 to assist settlers in the area. In 1778, the fort was attacked by Shawnee Indians and the French, who laid siege over 13 days but did not prevail. We saw a cool film about the history of the fort.

There were a lot of cabins that made up the fort. Some had people in costume doing demonstrations and showing how people lived. Here's Moe in the tavern admiring a bison skin. It was really soft!

Here's a weaver demonstrating a 2 harness loom, weaving linen. I learned the difference between linen and linsey-woolsey and why the settlers preferred the later. (It didn't catch fire as easily!). I asked about the striped cloth to the left of the weaver and why it seemed crooked. It was because the warp was linen (which lays flat and doesn't stretch) and the colored weft was wool, which has a wiggle to it. She stretched it like it would be on the loom, and it all laid flat.

There was even history shown in the restrooms! Click on the picture for a better view.

We saw a craftsman working on powder horns - really nifty.

Also a blacksmith. Moe loved it all.

Being a settler was a hard, hard life. But we enjoyed learning about it.

We also stopped in Berea, KY at a great arts center. Berea has a lot of artists there, and we went into a neat shop and checked out lots of stuff. I bought a chicken! He's so cute.

And Moe had to have this huge hunk of chocolate. Which he woofed down that night.

We had a good trip!

What did you do this summer?