I'm writing this entry after the fact so I'll be brief as I know that those supporters who are aware of what happened are simply anxious to get to the end of the story. Stacey and I made it to Kentucky after a very, very long drive. The saving grace on the trip was her humor and Lisa Y.'s games that she sent along. Cow Poker was a big hit with 1 point per cow, 50 points for chimney's unattached to houses (i.e. the house burnt down), 500 points for peg-legged men, etc. If you saw a cemetary, your points were wiped out.
During the eighth hour of travel (as dilerium set in), we began to make up our own points...she who held a dirty child first won X points, she who contracted lice won Y points, she who was hit on first got Z points. Etc. Needless to say, my sister won the pegged leg man contest (although the man was on MY side of the car so we have to ask Lisa Y. for a verdict). Yes, she was giggling in the car (after I was filling up gas and singing a not-so-good rendition of Johnny Cash's Burn of Fire) and made me shut the windows as she pointed out the pegged-leg guy, sitting in a van, wiggling his stump as he gave his prosthetic a breather. Of course, this was after we were scammed out of $5 from the massively obese woman in a car who saw our "Myra or Bust" on the car windows and asked us for money to help with her gas because she was empty and had to get to XYZ in Pennsylvania. Stacey talked me out of giving her ten but OK'd the $5 with the idea that, how can we be on a charity mission and deny this chick money for gas. Immediately after handing over the do-ray-me, the woman peeled out (so much for no gas) and headed for the Burger King next door!
But I digress...
We arrived in KY and, much to our chagrine, our hotel room was really "icky". We had also stopped at a police station to assess our safety status. The police man was quite kind in saying, "Everyone is poor in Pike County. Just stay out of dem hollows and you'll be OK. Once you go into those hollows, dat's when dem problems seem to arise." Stacey can do an aces impersonation of this guy. Hilarious. Needless to say, my first comment was, "Whooo hoo, we are heading to dem dare hills!" which Stacey IXNAYED (but I won).
Up to this point, we had not been taken by the poverty and were actually asking, "Where's the poor folk?" as though looking for Amish in Lancaster. But we found them and boy-oh-boy, we should all hang our heads in shame that we live in this magnificient country and have so many people living beneath the poverty level.
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