Now That's What I Call Music VII

I'm Still Standing

Hello, it's me.  It is many days since my last confession.  Using an I credibly clever and sophisticated formula that takes account of distance ridden and hills climbed, today has been the hardest of the trip by a country mile.  91 miles and 7000ft since you ask.

I am pleased to say that I did it with only moderate whimpering.  We have just 1 more day in Kentucky and fewer than 600 miles to go.  No poultry counting but the end is in sight.......

Lets Twist Again

.......unless Hurricane Florence has other ideas.  We are trying to make sense of all the weather reports but we still have no idea whether any of our route is now under water.  I suppose, technically, so long as we ride to the edge of the flooding, we have reached the 'coast' (though not where it used to be located).

It is certain that we are going to get wet and this appears to start tomorrow, with heavy rain forecast.  Bugger.

Tobacco Road

Kentucky and Virginia are tobacco growing states and we have seen two manifestations of this:

1/  Tobacco products are very cheap and heavily promoted.    You can buy cigarettes, rolling tobacco, chewing tobacco or snuff depending on what sort of cancer you would like to die from.

2/  The raw material can be seen growing or hanging to dry in special barns.

Elected

For weeks now we have been passing through area that are contesting local county  elections.  It seems that just about every post in local government is a political appointment and I am surprised to see really dull jobs such as 'Recorder of Deeds' being fiercely contested.

My favourite post is 'County Jailer'.   I have watched a lot of movies and the jailer is always a dull-witted chap who gets outsmarted by the hero and ends up locked up in his own cell.  Presumably they need a stout belt to which they can attach a large iron ring full of keys.

Prohibition Blues

Yesterday was a rest day.  As part of our normal rest day chores I popped out to the supermarket to stock up on beer.  "That's odd" I thought, "no beer aisle".  While I reflected on this puzzle a feeling of cold dread seeped through my body...."oh crap, don't say we are in a 'dry' county".

It turned out we were in a 'moist' county, one where alcohol sales are banned but with some exceptions.  The 'exception' meant driving 10 miles to Richmond - an island of sanity in the madness that is Madison County.

Intrigued to better understand the system I turned to Google.  It seems that in Kentucky there are dry counties, wet counties, moist counties and golf counties.  In a golf county you can't get booze.....except at a golf club.  This is so completely insane I quite like It!