Carter and Bath Counties, Kentucky

You might think I was too exhausted from travel to Canada to leave again six days after our return for my sixty-second county within three hundred miles of Morgantown, in this case Carter County, Kentucky. You would be wrong.

This project has become more than an obsession, as Zack Hample, my (half) bother-in-law said recently about his catching baseballs. I have to do this, and I like it.

Carter County didn't seem promising. Grayson, the county seat, is small,  2.700 people, just really an exit off I-64 two counties west of West Virginia, and only thirty miles from Huntington. There aren't a lot of historic places, no Jewish community, no mall. It's 234 miles, downtown Morgantown to downtown Grayson, which means two nights.

Looking at the map, I realized that Bath County, two more counties to the west, was still within three hundred miles of Morgantown. Alphabetically, I should have been there in August, 2014, when I visited Bath County, Virginia. I figured I could spend an afternoon there. It had a few more historic places, at least.

I left later than I planned Sunday, not unusual, and arrived in Grayson about four. After a nap, I went out to buy a swimsuit at K-Mart, just down the road, and dined at one of those seemingly ubiquitous Chinese buffet restaurants.

The main street connecting I-64 to Main Street (U.S. 60), about a mile apart,  is Carol Malone Boulevard, a jumble of fast food restaurants, gas stations and motels. I had to research to find out that Carol Malone was an opera singer from Grayson. Kentucky Christian University is along Carol Malone Boulevard. Wikipedia says they had a great choral program, but deleted the music department to focus on athletics.  Ouch. I drove a bit of Main Street, and walked two blocks west of Carol Malone to find the 1907 County Court House.

Kentucky Christian University, just off Carol Malone Boulevard

Carter County Courthouse, 1907, West Main St. (U.S.60) They are reworking the landscaping.

Statue of a World War I soldier, Courthouse lawn, Grayson

West Main St., Grayson

Monday, I tried out my new swimsuit in the motel pool, then headed out to explore Olive Hill, the other town in Carter County, fifteen miles west of Grayson, and then I planned to visit Owingsville, the county seat of Bath County, fifty-three miles west of Grayson, across Daniel Boone National Forest.

Monday, August 21, was a red-letter day, the day of the solar eclipse, 93% in Grayson at 2:33 P.M. I figured to be at Grayson Lake State Park, south of town, to see the eclipse through the trees.

Olive Hill looked like more of a town than Grayson, only half vacant. There is a rail trail along a creek, and a historic railroad station, not used by the railroad.

"Downtown" Olive Hill

Historic train station, Olive Hill

Owingsville, two counties west, and the county seat of Bath County, was founded by Thomas Dye Owings. The plaque in front of his house states he came from Maryland, so possibly from Owings Mills, near where I grew up in Baltimore County. This is an older town than Grayson, and is more picturesque, even though it only has 1,500 or so people. It lies 43 miles east of Lexington.

Bath County Court House, Owingsville

The center of this block is the original Owings House, c.1800

Downtown Owingsville Historic District

Monument to Confederate soldiers from Kentucky, 1907, Owingsville

J.J. Nesbitt House, 1878, Owingsville

I ate lunch at a family-owned pizza place, just off I-64, and thought I found a shortcut to the lake to get me there in time for the peak eclipse. As I was driving, I thought something was wrong with my eyes, as the light dimmed on a bright sunny day.

My shortcut wasn't, typically, and I was about seven minutes late to the lake. The temperature had dropped from 89 to 81 F. in the middle of the afternoon and the light was still dim when I snapped a pic of the marina.

The marina at Grayson Lake. The light is slightly dimmed; this was seven or eight minutes after the peak of the eclipse

I drove back to my motel for a nap, then ate at Shoney's a not-favorite coffee shop place. There is a supermarket in town, and I thought I could get a plate there, but all they had was fried chicken, with two sides. The sides were mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, baked beans and green beans, the latter two both with pork in them. Shoney's has a salad bar at  least.

I was happy to get away, but it didn't seem like much of a place to visit. Before dark Monday, I walked from my motel across I-64, and the mile or so down to Main St. There is a little park with a playground, a new, old-looking log house, which is home to the tourist agency for the county, a covered space with picnic tables and benches under a few trees. The street behind Carol Malone Boulevard is lined with some older homes. There were kids on the playground, two women chatting and eating carry-out from styrofoam boxes at one picnic table, a woman looking at a cell phone at the other picnic table, a man stopped on a motorcycle talking to a friend on the street behind the park. It was still warm out, the temperature having gone back up after the eclipse passed. I could hear and smell diesel trucks passing by. It wasn't much, just a scene, comforting, somehow, of a small-town in America.

I sat on a bench for a few minutes, then walked back to the motel, stopping for a frozen "treat" at McDonald's.