Kentucky Bucket List...

When we move to a new place, we tend to spend all spare time we can being tourists in that area. This helps you to learn about the area and feel a part of it all. After living in a place for a while, your calendar starts filling up with all that stuff you deem important and the touristy thing kind of gets pushed to the back burner.  It has happened here in Kentucky just like other places we have lived. But there is still a little list of places you want to be sure you see...someday.

One of the places that has piqued our curiosity is the brown sign on I-75 as you head north that reads Big Bone Lick State Park.  I do believe that would pique any one's curiosity. Over the years we have learned it is named that because dinosaur bones were found there.  Any place with the word 'Lick' in the title is a place where salt naturally comes out of the ground or on the rocks and the animals go there to 'lick' it to get their salt intake.

The beginning of this week we realized if we worked hard and we could get all our chores accomplished, well, at least to the point where we could leave our home and not think about them for a bit, we had a Saturday we could claim for our own. Hallelujah. We both committed to filling the week so we had a Saturday to get out just the two of us for a bit. We both felt like it would be a great time to find out about this Big Bone Lick Stake Park.

This morning I awoke when an enormous clap of lightning hit right by our home.  I sprang out of bed and called out, "What was that?"  Not sure if it hit our home or a neighbor's home or what, I checked outside by looking through all the windows and didn't see anything hit. Clearly it was pouring rain with very bad lightning. This was not conducive to an outing in the out of doors. Yuck.  We both putzed around the house doing little things and then the skies cleared. I hurried into Claude's office and said, "I think we should go while there is some clear sky."  We both got in gear and prepared to leave for the day.

Our first stop was in Florence for something to eat.  It was 11:30am and we had not had breakfast in anticipation of a meal together to start our day. Bob Evans serves breakfast all the time so we enjoyed our pancakes and bacon before our tourist event. Yum.

While at Bob Evans in Florence we realized we should have seen that brown sign about the park on I-75 and had not seen it.  I pulled out my cell phone to check for a map to the park. Then I hesitated.  What would I get if I wasn't careful about what I Googled?  Claude chuckled as he realized my dilemma. I carefully entered Big Bone Lick State Park KY and it fortunately gave me their link at the top of whatever list there was there. Whew!!  Map found we realized we had passed where the sign probably was but the Bob Evans was right on the Hwy. 42 that would take us exactly where we needed to go. Fortune was smiling on us. 

We drove through the countryside and found Big Bone Lick State Park. We opted to go to the museum first. Inside were mastodon bones

and a mastodon tooth

and a bison bones.

We looked in two displays. At the top of each was the skull and the horns of a bison. As we walked past Claude and I both commented that would make a GREAT Facebook post.  Back we went. I put away my camera and pulled out my cell phone. Then Claude did the pose while I snapped the picture. My caption on Facebook:  "My Great Sadieville Viking (bison)".

There are lots of hiking trails at the park. The longest appeared to be one mile. Now, it was 89+ degrees out there. It was hot and muggy and we opted to take one brief walk behind the visitor's center and then take the .2 mile walk to see the bison. Even with that we were both dripping with perspiration by the time we got back to the car even though we tried to walk in the shade of the trees.

The spot behind the visitor's center was a representation of a bog area that the animals would have come to for water.  Since a mastodon can weigh 11,000 pounds, they step into the bog and get really 'bogged' down and can't get back out. They simply stay stuck till they die. This is how they found dinosaur bones at Big Bone Lick Stake Park.

Claude is standing to the side so you can get perspective on the size of the animals. There is a bison partially buried in front. A mastodon knee deep behind him. To the left of the mastodon is an animal almost completely buried with two birds feasting on his remains. A mammoth is at the back left coming out of the bamboo. And the large creature at the back right is a giant sloth.

I loved this shot of the giant sloth looking as though it is trying to escape out the open gate.

We opted out of the 1 mile walk that went from this bog representation in favor of a tree covered .2 mile walk to the bison. I love these shots of Claude walking ahead of me. I found him once turned around looking. He thought I was right behind him and, of course, I was taking a picture of the butterfly and much further behind him that he thought.

The herd of bison is small. However, it featured a two day old baby. The baby was laying in a low place that was just dirt. I'm thinking it was cooler there. The poor mother appeared to be nudging it repeatedly trying to get it to stand.  I got closer and watched and realized she was just licking it to keep it clean.

 

We hiked back to the car via another road. I tried to get water bottles out of the soda machine but it would not take my money. I had some water in the car and we enjoyed that. Then we pointed the Jeep back out of the park.

 

There were signs along the way for Rabbit Hash, Kentucky. This is a historic little town along the Ohio River with a colorful history. We decided to drive to this little community and find something to quench our thirst at the General Store. Alas, the road was blocked because of a Labor Day weekend event. We opted to wait to tour this little town when there are a lot less people around.

 

We drove back to where we started our day only down the road a bit from Bob Evans. There is a McDonald's there and we both wanted a smoothie really bad.  Smoothies consumed we pointed the yellow Jeep back toward Sadieville.

 

As I type this Blog entry it is pouring down rain again and the lightning is fierce. Life just goes around. We started out with rain this morning, a late breakfast in Florence, KY, then a ride and touring, then a light afternoon thirst quencher in Florence, KY, then back home to more rain.  Life is truly a cycle.