Kentucky

The weight of Scotty has been reduced by 65 kilos hence the fuel consumption has improved to 9 MPG as Jaime III has gone already back to Paris ( just joking 😂). But yes, the three of us are continuing our travels to the next state, Kentucky.

We will definitely miss the moment when the four of us enjoyed a “healthy” breakfast at Ihop…

But speaking about food, it was by chance that the first campground that welcomed us ended up being just 15 minutes from the home of KFC!!. We’re not overly crazy for eating this chicken too frequently but yes, one order every now and then isn’t that bad so we had to pay a visit to the venue where Colonel Harland Sanders created the recipe of the world’s most acclaimed fried chicken in a small town called Corbin, KY.

Born in 1890, Harland Sanders held a colorful variety of jobs in his early life, including firefighter, insurance salesman, and ferry boat operator. It wasn’t until 1930, at the age of 40, that he began cooking fried chicken for hungry travelers at his gas station in Corbin, Kentucky.

Over the next decade, Sanders perfected his signature recipe featuring a secret blend of 11 herbs and spices. To cook the chicken faster without losing its juiciness, he pioneered the use of a pressure cooker. In 1936, his fried chicken had become so popular that the Governor of Kentucky officially bestowed upon him the honorary title of “Colonel”.

In the 1950s, a new interstate highway system was built that bypassed Corbin, drying up Sanders’ restaurant business. At the age of 65 and facing bankruptcy, he packed his pressure cookers and a bag of his secret spices into his car and hit the road. He traveled from restaurant to restaurant, offering to cook his chicken and pay him a 5-cent royalty for every bird sold. Legend has it that the Colonel faced 1,009 rejections before finding his first franchise partner

The franchising model quickly took off. By 1963, at 66 years old, Sanders had over 600 locations. Because managing the rapidly growing empire became overwhelming, he sold the company in 1964 to a group of investors for $2 million. The sale stipulated that Sanders would receive a lifetime salary, maintain quality control, and remain the official face of the brand

Colonel Sanders passed away in 1980 at the age of 90. Since 1986, the brand has been owned by Yum! Brands (originally PepsiCo). Today, KFC is the world’s most popular chicken restaurant chain, operating tens of thousands of locations across more than 145 countries

Our lunch for the day

From there we headed to Lexington, the land of horse racing, something similar to Ascot in England…. you can see that the horse culture is embedded in the community; many horse statues, racing courses and the ranches!!! wow…

But, there was something else that called our attention… The Ark Encounter, a full size replica of the Ark of Noah which is worth visiting

Story tells that God was furious about the bad behavior of the people at the time ( 2250 years BC or 4300 years ago) and for that reason, God commanded Noah to build a massive ship to save his family and pairs of every animal kind from a catastrophic, world-cleaving flood. God wanted to save only the animals and Noah and his family and a few men and women who believed in him.

This thing is humongous!!

Based on biblical accounts, Noah was instructed to bring air-breathing land animals and birds onto the Ark, which means fish and other sea creatures were not included. Because the purpose of the flood was to destroy life on land, aquatic animals were able to survive in the water.

The replica depicts a few of the animals included in the mission; you can hear noises of animals as well. A full display of diagrams, drawings, etc explain how everything was planned to survive the 40 days and 40 nights of rain that sucumbed over planet earth, but actually the effects took around a year from beginning to end, meaning when the flooding started to cover the surface of the earth until the water flows down to rivers and seas and the mountains and valleys resurfaced. Interesting fact: Noah was 600 years old when the ark was finished and his father died when he was 900 years old.

The company that made this well presented replica is Answers in Genesis, a Christian creationist organization which based this model in the readings of the Bible to the best of their understanding of the sacred book.

This is the access door that gave way to the thousands of animal ( around 7000) and a few people to the ark.

Now, back to tree planting.

Allan from the campground helped me do it this time! We had a good chat, he is also retired from the Oil & Gas business and now managing his parent’s camping grounds. This is tree number 43

And this is how the Kentucky chapter comes to an end and it is here where Erika says “bye for now” as she returns back to Netherlands and these tow cats continue with their journey eastbound.