You, Me, and the Dog: Stories From the Mobile Mojo Dojo Casa House: Week 2 – Pocahontas, WV to Fort Boonesborough, KY to Belleville, IL -- Part 2

The sign says it all

This particular stay in Kentucky was more rest stop than residency. We arrived at a sold-out state campground on Saturday evening. The streets were filled with chalk art and kids on bikes darting about like Tie Fighters around an Imperial Star Destroyer. Our site was in the back corner so we all got a good look at each other. They were mostly big 5th wheel trailers towed by massive 4x4 pickups, we looked like some old people who made a wrong turn with our big RV and dinky Cruze in tow. But it was a Chevy towed by a diesel, so we were okay.

We dropped the car and dolly and I pulled forward to back into the site. Our across the street neighbors rushed over to Renee to say they’d move their truck so I could get in. She assured them it wouldn’t be a problem and they watched in mouth open awe as I executed a perfect parking maneuver. Truth be told, it wasn’t anything complicated, but to our new friends, many, many, many solo-cups to the wind, I was – well, I’m not going to use any of the words they did, but they were impressed and it was a nice way to end the drive.

The next day we spent trying to find a replacement tire. Walmart was super friendly but couldn’t get me a tire before we left. The guy helping me suggested we go to Rural King. “It’s like a Walmart for Red-necks,” he said. I always thought Walmart was the Walmart for Red-necks, but I didn’t say anything. And after going to Rural King, I had to agree with his description. We liked Rural King. But no tires in our size.

We tried ordering tires from Walmart to ship to Sean but despite hours on the phone and literally 5 attempts following the customer service rep’s instructions, we couldn’t get our order through the automated fraud prevention system. Amazon needed more time to ship which pushed delivery against our departure from Scott AFB, but with no alternative, we took the chance. Worst case -- if we had to wait for the tires to arrive, it was more time with Sean.

On Tuesday we drove out to the Red River Gorge region of the Boone National Forest and hiked a couple of trails. The first was Tar Ridge Trail, a pleasant out-and-back walk through the woods with nobody around but there were so many leaves we couldn’t see much. The second was Natural Bridge Trail, a looping climb down into (and then up from) a gorge with mossy cliffs, undercuts, boulders, and children. The natural bridge was halfway around and it was a very cool spot with a small waterfall, a wide sandy swimming hole surrounded by high, smooth cliffs, and families who made us wish our grandkids were with us splashing around. Axel was a huge fan.

Before either trail though, we had to take Nada Tunnel Road. We passed Nada Baptist Church and drove through the Nada Tunnel. Despite the names, they were both very much what they were. This video isn't ours, we weren't on a motorcycle and instead of following a pickup truck, we were behind a garbage truck. That was scary.

The people we met in Fort Boonesborough we all very nice and treated us so much like family that we even got directions to a tire place that was “just up past where that ice cream place used to be.” So, not only do I not have a tire, apparently I can’t get ice cream anymore either.