Ever since the middle of August when we heard that the bonus photo with regular farm animals was worth 2 points, but if you could get one with emus in it it would be worth 3 points, we have been always on the look out for those elusive birds. The Emu Vigilance Alert went from Yellow to Orange for our driving vacation. If you weren’t driving or actively plotting a course on the paper map or GPS you were to be scanning the skies for emus.
On the first Wednesday of our trip we started in downtown Parkersburg, West Virginia with breakfast at the Crystal Cafe before crossing the bridge into Ohio. The bulk of the morning was spent driving, ever vigilant, through the Buckeye State until we crossed the Ohio River again, this time on a ferry, into Kentucky.
The next couple of hours were spent driving the back roads along ridges and though hollows, all the while with our eyes on the darkening clouds, expecting it to start raining at any minute. In between we squeezed in an easy visit to the 4th least populous state capital (and smallest of the 5 we have visited) before zeroing in on finding just the right spot for the Washington County Kentucky photo.
Some Washington County photos were planned in advance before we left home using an internet search & then GSV and some were planned the night before the same way. For Kentucky we had done neither, so we were relying on the Garmin Auto GPS by for searching the words “Washington County.” One of the results that popped up in Springfield, the county seat, was the county circuit court on the way into town, because the County Court building is usually a big ol’ impressive building I said, “Let’s go there first.”
The GPs wanted us to turn on the unlikely (for a courthouse) named street, Industrial Road, but because of my brain’s conversion error between 500′ and actual distance, I turned on the wrong road. We ended up in an Industrial Park one street parallel to where our GPS was telling us the County Circuit Court was. As we slowly made our way down the road, Donna pointed out the Washington County Cooperative Extension Service saying we should take that photo. I pooh-pooh’d it, intent on finding the court building. She tried to convince me to stop, pointing out that the sign had the word Kentucky on it in large letters. I would have nothing to do with it just now, my head was locked on courthouse even though I knew we were unlikely to find my ideal of one here in this section of town, I was still hoping for a one story place with lettering and maybe an official looking seal. “We’ll come back if the courthouse doesn’t pan out,” I told her.
The parallel street that the GPS said we’d find my courthouse of course held nothing more than another couple of manufacturing plants and their associated parking lots. A u-turn was executed and I made my way back to the County Extension Agent’s place. The lot out front was empty, figuring they were closed for the day, we parked right up front. I grabbed the Challenge Poster and Donna the camera. About the time she was going to take the photo, the front door opened, a woman popped out and said, “Whatcha up to?”
I launched into my 500 word or more explanation of the Challenge and close to my finish, the woman asked, “Can we be in the picture?” “Sure, more the merrier,” I said. Next thing I know I’m standing by with the County Agent, our original friend and two other ladies from the office who are pretending to be The Price Is Right models displaying the sign outside as if it was one of the Final Showcases. This was going to be one special picture.