Playing Pranks in the Bath House

We woke to thunder and lightening and the pouring rain in the Kentucky woods and were glad that we were snuggled inside warm and dry but sad about our prospects for going outside. The storm left us without internet connection so we were relegated to the brochures found in the lobby for planning our day.

In fact, the storm was a blessing. It brought cool air and a gentle breeze with it and by mid morning, after an early nap and coffee at the lodge, we were on our way to Big South Fork Scenic Railway in Stearns for a three hour tour. The roads there were at turns beautiful and misty. Were we to work in the employ of the Kentucky Department of Tourism, we might suggest including the fact that the train doesn't run on Tuesdays in the brochure, but we did not despair. Instead we asked around town about the Blue Heron, an abandoned coal mining community outside of Stearns. Several winding roads later, we found ourselves there, at what is now an open air museum of sorts. Because coal mining communities were transient, the homes and bath houses and stores were not built to last and have either faded away into the landscape or were transported to other coal mining communities up or down the mountains. As a result, only bits and pieces of the original community remain. There is part of a tipper, a bridge and a sand house. Three dimensional outlines of the other buildings have been erected and, in each, visitors can hear the voices of those people who lived there, at least those 40 or so who participated in an oral history project run out of University of Kentucky. The voices tell of having to buy their own tools and explosives to extricate the coal from the earth and about the short shrift given to courtship and about the pranks played in the bath house and about how visiting was the primary form of entertainment. One woman said that her favorite pastime was reading Nancy Drew mysteries and that she considered the girl detective to be her best friend. I had to wonder how many of us have had that same thought in the last 80 years.

Blue Heron was abandoned in the early 60s and the museum was abandoned today, too. We were alone in all of the structures and then in the trails into the woods beyond. We tromped around on one of the trails for some time and it was calming to hear only the sounds of our own footsteps and the river water sometimes near and sometimes at a distance. The trail was slippery from the storm and there were some squishy patches that ultimately turned us back but not before we spent a couple of hours in that area of the Daniel Boone National Forest.

We retraced our path to a scenic overlook that was about 500 feet up from the Cumberland River. It was like God played all of his cards and used every single shade of green at the world's disposal in this one area. It was stunning. There were blackberries along the trail back from the vista so we had our eyes peeled for bears but saw none today.

Our plan after dinner was to sit on the veranda over the river, but alas the rains came again and so we were driven to the Great Room of the lodge for a spell. Chris is poring over the map now, thinking through the next leg of our trip... Tomorrow we set up our tent in the Smokies.