50 States Day 216

50 States, Day 216 Bowling Green and thereabout, 45 miles

 

"Leave nothing for to-morrow which can be done to-day."

~Abraham Lincoln

 

Well, if we had planned, we would have gone to the Corvette Factory Tour on Thursday and the Corvette Museum today, since the factory tour is closed on Fridays. D'oh! After going through the stages of grief, I decided we could add it:

To the list

Of things we've missed.

That list is getting bigger! 

We elected instead to visit a Shaker Museum, twenty miles out of town. The Shakers were (and still are, in some places) another religious bunch exercising their 'freedom of religion' in America. Founded by Ann Lee, she had marriage and miscarriage issues, so she took a bunch of fellow believers and started their community. Like the Amish and Amana Colonies, it was socialist (everyone works for the common good), but had some very different beliefs.  They built the community in the early nineteenth century and it took off, until they had 200 buildings, farms, furniture and broom manufacturing, and people were committed to its success. I had a couple of problems with it. First being a Christian sect, they believed in biblical principles and seemed to be enamored with Christ's return. Okay, but then they believed Ann Lee was Christ returned in female form. The historians in the museum said that Ann Lee would probably have turned over in her grave over that. 

Secondly, they eliminated families; men stayed together, women were separate and children too. Third, they practiced celibacy. See where this is going? Your sect is going to die out...literally. Being pacifist, when the Civil War came and soldiers blew through their town, they fed and cared for either side, essentially stripping themselves of food and goods. They never quite recovered from that.

Sure enough, in 1920 the last Shakers put everything remaining up for auction, and most took off with some real money. Buyers knocked down buildings and cleared land. Only half a dozen buildings remain very good quality buildings with simple aesthetic style.

We rode back to town and stopped at the Railroad Museum, better than I imagined. It contained only one locomotive and a few cars, but the museum was fascinating, and the tour guide took us through the cars (passenger and mail cars), and really made it come to life. Makes you want to hop a train and enjoy a white linen tablecloth dinner as you ride along. Oh, wait. Amtrak runs it. Not happening. Our guide had the deepest loathing for Amtrak, and didn't do a great job of containing it.

A great day and the weather (sunny and 61!) was great. Still licking my wounds over the Corvette Museum, but we gotta go. Ain't waiting until Monday.

And now, the lady that keeps me on track, Quilter Girl!

I suppose today is an indication that we should do a little more advance planning but I am finding it hard to regret today which was totally a result of a couple of mistakes.  Kevin already told about the factory tour faux pas, but the second error was the two nights that we paid for at this motel.  We had planned all along to do the factory tour on the way to Paducah, 150 miles away.  I am not sure why we both agreed at the desk that we needed two nights.  Some of our best things have happened as a result of mistakes, whether it is getting lost or this group of circumstances.  I had really wanted to visit a Shaker village, but we missed the one in Massachusetts and have not seen any others on our way.  To find a village so close when we have an extra day was so cool.  The train museum was also full of wonderful things, including an exhibit on the role of the railroad in the Civil War.  Fascinating stuff that I never knew.

Dinner was another serendipity as we were again having trouble finding a restaurant.  It was getting dark so we were reluctant to go far out of our way for dinner.  There was fast food available, but not really what we wanted.  We found a strip mall with a Mexican restaurant behind a Sonic (way too cold for that).  On our way, we spied a BBQ restaurant, Wild Hawgs, which sounded better to me.  It was a winner, local, great prices and good food.  Kevin had the Boss Hawg which was a plate piled with food, corn cakes on the bottom with baked beans, pulled pork with cole slaw on the top.  Very new to us and very good.  My dinner was a baked potato piled with pulled pork, cheese, butter and sour cream.  

It was also very good as was their variety of BBQ sauces on the table.  If you find yourself in Bowling Green, give it a try, along with the Corvette Museum, Shaker Village and the Railroad Museum.  We will be back to Kentucky sometime to see all the things we have missed.

 

QG

 

Tomorrow it's off to Paducah and a Quilt Museum. See you then!