{"id":446,"date":"2011-10-14T18:33:39","date_gmt":"2011-10-14T18:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blamming.wordpress.com\/?page_id=446"},"modified":"2011-10-14T18:33:39","modified_gmt":"2011-10-14T18:33:39","slug":"20-jackson-another-dry-county","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ehomba.ro\/blamming5\/20-jackson-another-dry-county\/","title":{"rendered":"19. Jackson: Another Dry County"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday, October 13, 2011<\/p>\n

East of Beattyville, just off Hwy 52<\/p>\n

Across a grassy field from the road, right above the North Fork of the Kentucky River. Lovely spot. A bit noisy, but the traffic will subside later in the evening. A steady drip of rain is falling, but it\u2019s not too cold, and the new fly on my tent will keep the moisture off of me, even if it rains hard tonight \u2013 which I expect it will, at least one more time. Most of the afternoon was very wet, after I left Irvine. There were spells of heavy rain. The sun is supposed to be back out tomorrow afternoon. So maybe I\u2019ll let myself sleep in, not push against the elements. I\u2019ll get far enough if I get a lazy start.<\/p>\n

Leaving Stanton late yesterday afternoon, I encountered the longest and steepest climb so far. I had to get off my bike three times, when traffic approached from behind on the narrow highway, then lean my weight into it and push my two-wheeler up the steepest pitches at one mile an hour. I might have been able to peddle all the way up, had it been safe \u2013 don\u2019t know. My heart was pounding faster, and I was breathing harder than at any time I can remember recently. Glad to know I can still get pumped up like that at 62.<\/p>\n

But I was gloomy and sad as the day ended yesterday. Just a normal progression of moods, I suppose, with certain bleak memories from the past weighing on my mind. My old army pal had left a message for me, which I recovered after setting up camp in a rather awkward spot, on a steep hillside. I called him back, and he made me laugh, which felt good. But I still had troubled dreams \u2013 somehow, somewhere (New York?) I was waiting for flights to arrive, connecting with England, but there had been three crashes involving the same airline, killing over 700 people, including one of the many females in my ex-wife\u2019s family, with whom I had some kind of a pending amorous encounter.<\/p>\n

I listened to a bit of the St. Louis \u2013 Milwaukee playoff game on my little Sony radio. Exciting as it was, I got sleepy around the 4th<\/sup> or 5th<\/sup> inning, possibly due to the exertion of my climb out of Stanton. So I turned off the radio and went to sleep with the Cards leading 4 to 3. I was gratified the next morning, when I logged on in Irvine, to see that my team had won.<\/p>\n

I would consider it a big waste of time to follow baseball closely. The last year I did so was in 1964 \u2013 when the Cardinals had a powerful team. In fact, their whole infield played on the allstar team that year, plus their ace pitcher, catcher, and at least one of their outfielders. But something dire happened to me in the early spring of 1965, and I never followed baseball closely after that. I still love the game, though. If I stumble on some people playing in a park, or see a game in progress on a TV screen someplace, I almost always stop and take in at least a moment of it. It almost mesmerizes me. And whenever my childhood hometown team ascends to the upper extremes of baseball glory \u2013 which is not all that rarely \u2013 my emotions get engaged, and I cheer them on.<\/p>\n

I got a very early start this morning. It sprinkled rain as I was packing up, but then it desisted. I\u2019ve never been chased by dogs so fiercely or so frequently as I have here in the hinterlands of eastern Kentucky. I can\u2019t remember how many times I pulled my stick out of its scabbard today. At one point in the morning, several large ones came after me, snarling and barking. Luckily, I was on a rather long downward stretch, and I outran them. I\u2019m packing an 8-inch Bushman blade, which I\u2019ve kept discreetly in my rear right pannier. I think I\u2019m going to load it in my handlebar bag now, in case one of those fiends ever gets its teeth into me, and I have to seriously defend myself.<\/p>\n