Lexington, Kentucky, Sept. 28 — After two big days of travel, today was half history, half football.
Route: KY 61 to Hodgenville and US 31E to Lincoln Home site, then back; Bluegrass Parkway with detour on 31E/62 to 62/150 junction; US 60, KY 4, US 27
Visiting the Lincoln Birthplace NHS in the morning was the right time sun-wise. The log cabin is inside this monument. The park building (not shown) also shows a film and has exhibits.
I spent the morning at the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site near Hodgenville. The magnificent monument holds a replica of the Lincoln cabin, the one “he built with his own hands.”
In downtown Hodgenville is a pair of statues, Lincoln the boy and Lincoln the president, as well as a small museum that chronicles the president’s life with exhibits and dioramas. Another Lincoln site, the boyhood home, was very small and not necessarily worth the trouble unless you’re a completist.
Downtown Hodgenville
I return up US 31W to follow the entire length of the Bluegrass Parkway, one of the few toll roads in this country that actually became a free road after bonds were paid off (almost all in Kentucky).
The scenic Bluegrass Parkway does not make it all the way to Lexington, coming up short at US 60 west of the city. However, even if it did, it might not be able to be grandfathered into the interstate system. If they could, the Western Kentucky and Blue Grass parkways combined would make a good I-56 or I-58. (The proposed I-66 in southern Kentucky is out of numerical sequence already.)
Along the way, I pulled off in Bardstown after seeing signs for what looked like a very interesting Civil War museum, but believed at the time that I would not have the time to see it.
I got to Lexington in mid-afternoon, my earliest “end” to a trip day. But it was only sort of an end, and sort of a travel day; I had a football game to attend.
New counties so far: 17 (2 IL, 7 IN, 3+5 KY)