Westward

     Harrisonburg, Virginia, was a pleasant break from New York and DC. We stayed just outside of town where there is lots of corn, chickens, Mennonites, and the occasional horse drawn Amish buggy. In town are several universities which doubles the town's population during the school year. The house we stayed at had four animals, maybe more. An overly friendly dog and a herd of cats only one of whom was the least bit interesting. I walked the nearby Appalachian Trail, or at least 0.1% of it.
    Then west toward Kansas City. We got as far as eastern Kentucky. The weather was glorious and we camped at a state campground and Matty toured one of several caves on site. He said the tour included a lot of scientific background delivered by self-styled hillbilly. "We can get the columns to glow in the dark. The science guys call it phosphorescence, but I like to call it redneckery." He probably has more science degrees than Matty has molars, but he puts on quite the downhome show. After the tour everyone had to walk through a Lysol bath to prevent the spread of the bug that causes white nose syndrome, the disease that has killed many bats by basically growing over their faces and suffocating them.  The guide says that the good news is that many bats who get the disease are now surviving it.
    The next day while stopping to visit the Cedarhurst Center for the Arts in Mt Vernon, Illinois, our run of perfect weather ended. Tonight we are motelling fifteen miles east of the Mississippi River.