US Road Trip, Part V
19 November 2008 – 11:43 pmKentucky is one of the few states that actually matched the concept implanted in my head by books and movies: wide-open spaces with small horse farms on rolling hills covered in bluegrass… and nothing else to do.
Louisville
There wasn’t a whole lot to do in Louisville and it felt like a 9pm curfew was in affect for the entire city.
After spending the day in Mammoth Cave I just wanted to find a place to grab dinner but it took a while before I found a place that was open. I end up on Bardstown Rd which had a bunch of college-esque type stores and restaurants, actually it felt a lot like Park Ave in Rochester.
Sleeping until noon the next day, I headed back down to Bardstown Rd again to try Mark’s Feed Store and wander around the area a little before I head off to the Smoky Mountains.
It was a cute area and the small blue Scientology house with a crappy sign was a complete departure from what I’m use to seeing in the Bay Area. Maybe I’d like it here more than I originally thought. 
Kentucky / Tennessee Border
Time to visit new places, to quote Dorothy, “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas any more.”
Fireworks Super Store and Playground
I’ve see fireworks stores before, but this was a first, a fireworks store with kid rides and gasoline.
Fireworks Super Store had a ferris wheel, clowns, animal rides, and oh yeah, M80s, roman candles, and multiple other ways to blow up your kids.
I have no issues with adults having fireworks but the combo of kids, fireworks, and gasoline doesn’t seem completely thought out.
Smoky Mountain Knife Works
Nearly to the Smoky Mountains I started seeing signs for the world’s largest knife store, the Smoky Mountain Knife Works. It’s the world’s largest so of course I have to stop.
Massive, this place had multiple levels with galleries, stuffed animals, and nearly ever kind of bladed item you could think of: bayonets, hunting knives, counterfeit Nazi knives, Star Trek Bat’leths, medieval swords, et al. It even had Confederate bikinis.
While I can understand that the hunters are “proud” of their kills, I never understood the reasoning behind stuffing animals. Why not just take a picture as proof?
It just disturbing to see dead animals mounted in fake positions covered in dust and fur/feathers faded in the sun. Even more unsettling are the combo animals… like the mouse / longhorn mix they had hanging on the wall.
In any case, I did end up buying a slingshot and we had a blast trying to hit trees and bushes in Shoreline park when I got back to California.
