I have left the big fields behind for good and I'm now in the land of mountains and high trees. Lots of green and brown.

I had a terrific lunch today in Bardstown Kentucky and I bought a book of poetry by Keats. I never really read poetry but I'm really enjoying this. It was nice to sit alone in a restaurant in a small town where I don't know anyone and to read a book of poetry while I ate soup and a sandwich. I started to realize, as I sat there, that this trip will be over soon and it made me sad. In one way I'm glad because I miss my wife and baby terribly. But the fact is, It's been a really great time for me. A bit of a ridiculous time, when I think of it. What a wrong period of my life for this to be taking place. I'm married, I'm a father and I am the middle of a major proffessional transition. What an insane time to be wandering across the country with my dog, taking pictures and long walks. Doing this weblog has made it great too. It's made it the best out of the four trips I've taken with Loona across the country. The other three times, I just blazed across. Even when I wasn't in a hurry, I would always tell myself, when I started, that I would "See the country this time." But I never did. I was just too lazy and unmotivated. I would start exploring but then I'd think "What am I going to just stand here by myself and look at things? What for? Let's just get the hell going."

But this time, because of this weblog, I've been eager every day to see something or go somewhere, in hopes of getting a few shots or having somethign to write about at the end of the day.

The end is coming soon, though. Tomorrow I will get into Pensilvania (way off spellling. Sorry) and I hope to be in Philadelphia by Friday. I want to spend a day there because I have a friend who lives there and I recently read (listened to) John Adams and Ben Franklin's biographies and I'm really dying to see all the historical sites there.

But there probably won't be many pictures to take there. I never take pictures of landmarks or anything like that because it just feels like you could buy a postcard. Maybe Loona and I will find some photogenic neighborhood or we'll go down to the docks or something.

After Phili, we'll be heading right up the coast to New York. Not much to do or look at on the New Jersey Turnpike. So tomorrow will be the last day out in the country side. I will, however, faithfully continue this travel blog until the very end of the journey.

By the way, I got an email from a fellow who is the travel editor for a newspaper in Florida. He says he wants to print some of this weblog, with pictures, in his paper. I don't want to say which paper yet because it's all very unofficial, but it sure was nice to get that offer. I love being in print. I am a huge sucker for seeing myself in any paper.

Oh well, I'll get on with what little happened today. It was raining so we only made one stop. We pulled off somewhere in North Eastern Kentucky, very near West Virginia, and found a nice dirt road to walk on. The landscape was beautiful. I felt like we could be anywhere, Italy, South America, or any time, like the 1600s when America was unspoiled.

Then a grey Chevy drove by real slow, with like nine guys in it. It sat really low to the ground from the weight. They were all white guys with dirty faces and ripped shirts and they were just stuffed in this shitty car with no muffler. They all looked at me as they drove by with this mean, aggresive expression. As they drove away, one guy who was impossibly smashed up against the inside of the back window screamed something hateful that I couldn't hear, while giving me the finger. We walked on. A few minutes later, another shitty 80s car, chuck full of all the exact same type of guys, drove by slowly and again they gave me a dirty look. And AGAIN, there was a guy in the back yelling somethign at me. I swear to god this was repeated about four times as we walked.

I was confused, but then I remembered that last time I drove through this part of the country was back when I was doing miserable road gigs as a standup comedian and living out of my car. I always found that this one area, in West Virginia and NOrthern Kentucky, people are really really nasty and shitty and automatically mean. Before they even size you up or make any judgement of you as a person, they are pissed off at you. It's an amazing form of prejudice. They are prejudice but not even based on race or religion. You could be behind a door, before they even see you or smell you, if they know you are there, they know they hate you. It's so weird. It's something I'm not used to these days but it's funny because the one other region of the country where I've encountered it before is in Boston, where I grew up. In Boston, pretty much every guy that lays eyes on you is half thinking about that maybe he should kick your ass. Cause you're probably some faggot anyway.

Loona and I didn't let them get us down, however. We walked on. I did meditate on what I would say if one of the cars stopped and things got ugly. I went over options like "hey, come on, fellahs. We don't want any trouble." Or maybe "What? I'm just.... Why are you?...." Or maybe "Now why don't you boy just get back in your car and drive on before someone gets hurt?" No one stopped so I never had to pick one.

After about half an hour of walking we reached this old wood and iron bridge. We took some pictures on it.

I enjoyed standing on this bridge and looking down at the muddy looking river it spanned. It's funny because there was a time in my life when I couldn't have crossed this bridge on foot without having a major anxiety attack. I was deathly afraid of heights when I was a kid, even in high school and at some point, I don't know when, I just got over it.

Then we walked for a while longer and there was another identical bridge...

We walked over that one and then I realized that Loona was very thirsty and I had forgotten to bring a bottle of water for her. So I thought we'd go under the bridge, to the river, so she could take a drink. The ground was very wet and steep going down there and we both had to be careful. I stopped half way down and just let her go by herself. Loona stood on a rock, right at the shore, and carefully stuck her snout in the water for a drink.

Loona is careful around water. Then I did something stupid. I had been walking with a long stick in my hand and I threw it into the water. Loona is not much of a stick chaser (sounds like a gay metaphor) but I'd forgotten that if you throw a stick into the water, she likes to try to go after it. She won't dive into the water but what she does instead is that she'll get in up to her ankles and then bark at the stick as it floats away. So when I threw this stick, she tried to step into the river, but it was immediately really deep and her whole front half was submerged. She still had her back legs on the rock, though, and she was trying frantically to push herself out with her front paws, but they just were splashing ineffectually in the water and slipping over and over on the muddy, slippery, steep side of the rock that went into the river. It was a ridiculous sight but also scared the shit out of me because she was panicking and splashing and couldn't get her head out of the water. I freaked out and started running to her. Of course I slipped right away, fell on my ass and slid all the way down, expecting to fall right into the water myself, but I just missed doing that and by the time I caught myself, she'd figured out on her own that it was best to go ahead and jump her back half into the water and then walk out, front and back, all together. She was pretty wet now and I laughed at both of us.

Loona, of course, did not give up on the stick and found a better spot in the water to go in and bark at it.

I like this picture because it kind of looks like Loona and the dog in her reflection are connected at the beard.

So that's what happened today. We walked back to the Navigator, cleaned up and drove until I got too tired and now I'm in West Virginia. I will really try tomorrow, if the weather is fine, to make something else happen so I can have a better weblog entry before this all ends. See you then.

That's all for now, my friends...

Thanks for reading,