09 June 2012

White Mills to Utica KY 81 miles (TransAm 992)

Gina and Wendy are readying themselves to depart the Fordsville, Kentucky diner where they just savored a smoke-tainted lunch.  According to the lone review of The Diner on Yelp, “it’s a pretty decent place to eat.”  I guess that reviewer is a smoker, as anyone with a desire to light up in this greasy spoon can.

Regardless, before they get out the door, a friendly female Kentuckian says to them “Be careful on the roads out there and watch out for the black cat.”  Standing there politely listening, our girls are now completely perplexed.  Black cat?  What black cat?  Gina, with her unyielding faith in people, is thinking this woman did not make it out of the first grade.  “Cat, dog, maybe this gal’s been nipping’ at the moonshine and is getting her words mixed up” she thinks, “kinda like how I get my saying’s mixed up, like ‘easy as pie’, ‘off the cards’, ‘running at both ends of the candlesticks’ … maybe she’s just confused … four legs, furry, tails, same difference. Okay, it’s a stretch, but she must be trying to tell us about another nasty dog on the route.”

Meanwhile Wendy, who likely has a bit more faith in the human race, is thinking “Black cat? Is she talking about some feral, savage animal?  Panthers in Kentucky?  Am I living The Jungle Book?”

“Is there some large wild animal ahead?” Wendy asks.  Our girls are not getting it and really, can you blame them, after everything that Kentucky has thrown at them for the past nine days?  This black cat business sounds serious and they need to get to the bottom of it.

As it turns out, at the bottom of it is an empty glass, for the Black Cat is a bar, the last bar, in fact, for one to throw back a stiff one before crossing the line into this particular dry county.  Beware loose dogs and now the Black Cat.  And I gotta say, after taking a peek at this Black Cat with the little map guy on Google, that Kentucky woman was spot on – there ain’t gonna be nothin’ I wanna pet walkin’ out of this joint:

Steer clear, girls. You definitely don’t want this Black Cat crossing your path.

And since we’re talking about maps and paths, we might as well take a moment to review “Where In The World Is Gina?”:

I’d say she’s about two stick pins short of Illinois.