It was wild, but I am back after a 6-day odyssey in the backwoods of southeastern Kentucky. Barry and Carolyn Swenson picked me up at 7:30 am and we arrived at church about the same time as Mike and Ellen. We said a prayer with Pastor Roger and Kim McCart and headed south towards I-88. We picked up Nancy in North Aurora and drove on 88, south on 355, east on 80 and then south on 65 through my "beloved" Indianapolis. We stopped for lunch at a Cracker Barrel just south of that city and it took a half hour for us to get seated. So we did a little shopping in their souvenir store and the only thing I would have considered getting would have been a jar of fried apples. They sell plenty of solid CD's, but nothing that I don't already have. I also played that tee game and got it down to 2 tees before the food arrived. I ordered chicken fingers, and for my 3 "veggies," I went with steak fries, green beans, and fried apples. I guess 1 of 3 ain't too bad.
Soon after we got back on the road, we passed by Franklin, IN, home of Franklin College, the alma mater of the great Joseph Arthur Benigno. We took 65 down to Louisville, where we turned east onto 64, before taking 75 from Lexington to Berea. Now Berea, KY is a small, artsy town, that was built around Berea College. I found out later that the town name was based on Acts 28. Founded in 1855, Berea College was the only integrated and coeducational college in the south for nearly forty years. Also, it provides low-cost education to students from low-income families; every admitted student is provided the equivalent of a four-year, full-tuition scholarship, about $25,000 per year.
From Berea, we took 421, a winding two-lane road through the hillside that passed through several town that were too small to even be considered small towns. Waneta, Sandy Cap, McKee, and others. We drove 45 minutes through Jackson County and I realized that there isn't a lot of zoning in the south. We would see a nice house that looked it came out of a Hinsdale subdivision and right next to it, a trailer that looked like a tornado had run through it. Old rusted cars that could never be driven again, broken toys, scraps of wood, on and on. We also saw tons of churches. It seemed for every town we passed through, they had at least three churches. It's very obvious that God and religion plays a very foundational role in these people's lives. I was especially struck by the sharp colors in the trees. In Illinois, I admit, the land is flat. It doesn't bother me too much. But the landscape takes on a more notable depth when these colors are stacked on top of each other. Reds and golds and tans formed all these little rainbows in the trees. It was quite a sight.
We arrived at the Christian Appalachian Project house in Gray Hawk, a town of maybe 400 people at around 6:45. We immediately unloaded out luggage and sorted through the 7 enormous duffel bags we had brought along. They were all filled tight as can be with kids clothes that had been donated by First Baptist Church of Geneva. We sorted them into garbage bags and though I never saw any kids get them, I really think they will help the community a great deal.
For dinner, we walked across the street to the local mini-mart and picked up a couple Hunt Brothers pizzas. There was a poster of Richard Petty on the wall saying he liked it, so I guess it was ok. While Mike and I were waiting for the pizzas, we also found out what a flossie was (fried bologna sandwich with egg and cheese) and a metro (a port-o-potty).
We got our orientation from two women. Jane is from Wisconsin and has been volunteering with CAP in the Jackson volunteer house for a few months now. She made dinners for us as well as two breakfasts. She had a very warm and welcoming spirit. Now Jen has been down there for about nine years, so her roots are pretty much set. They showed us a wacky safety orientation video and by the end of that, it was 10 PM or so.
We were all about done for the night. Yet, thanks to one of the two guys who I won't mention, I could not sleep. I was warned ahead of time that he was a loud snorer and he even gave me earplugs ahead of time. I can't say that had ever happened to me before. I have a hard enough time sleeping in a new bed, but throw in the abcense of a window and the snoring at the volume of a locomotive and I did not have a chance. Despite 10 hours on the road, I was never out cold all night long.
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