September 17, 2009 - Charles Town to Lexington

West Virginia is about as three-dimensional as a state can be. The roads, especially in the eastern part that lies on Virginia and nestles under the panhandle of Maryland, go up and down, around and around, anything but straight in the direction you want to go. Five miles as the crow flies can be twenty in the old bus. My bride and I left our hotel in Charles Town (and our cash in the nearby casino) in the rainy dawn this morning. Four hours later we still hadn't reached Interstate 79, but we had seen some of the loveliest West Virginia (and Virginia, and Maryland) countryside you could ask for, including a pass through the Monongahela National Forest:

Adjacent to the National Forest are an array of huge windmills--impressive from close up:

Once we finally got onto Interstate 79, the trip to Charleston, and the next hundred miles or so to Lexington, was a piece of cake.

You can't drive across this beautiful country without noticing that some folks have peppered the landscape with sets of three crosses in every other soybean field and run down farm. OK, we know what the three crosses represent for some. What we don't know is why they feel it's so important to promote it to the rest of us. Here's the only thing I know for sure about religion: the amount of effort people expend selling their metaphysical perspective to the rest of us is directly proportional to how ridiculous their theory was in the first place.

If you find yourself in Lexington, Kentucky, here's a good bet for a great meal: Columbia Steakhouse on North Limestone Ave. When we entered the place, it looked a lot like a somewhat worn neighborhood pub. What we got, however, was one of the tastiest steaks--the Nighthawk Special, named for a late local radio DJ--the best rolls, and the best martooni since the Brown Derby in Vegas ca. 1995. And great service, including saving the camera we left behind for our return. We highly recommend.

Great room at the Fairfield Inn in Lexington, which just opened in July. We almost hate to leave here for Bowling Green tomorrow...but we'll just have to suffer through it.

Tomorrow, a lot on our plate. Mammoth Caves, the horse farm, Abe Lincoln's birthplace, the Corvette museum...well, we'll do the best we can.