You can rent a car and go on a weekend crafts odyssey in the hills of Kentucky, but there are other things to do in what is still coal miners' country. You can visit the ultra-modest childhood home of country music superstar Loretta Lynn, perhaps with her brother showing you around. You can hike and look for elk; we were told there are 3,100 of them in the eastern region of the state.
You can stay at a lodge in one of the beautiful state parks, such as the Jenny Wiley State Resort Park, where a double room with all amenities costs $42 a night this time of year. At the park, you can play golf or fish for striped bass, bluegill, or catfish in large Dewey Lake. When the weather gets warm, you can go for a pontoon boat ride on the lake, get a lesson on resident animals -- including black bears -- from the park naturalist, or even learn to make a bluebird house or a bat house.
If you go after April 1, you can visit Mountain HomePlace, a mid-1800s farmstead with five original buildings, including a one-room schoolhouse, moved there from the surrounding area. You will meet the farm animals and learn that, in the old days, goats were considered family pets. This living-history museum will give you a good idea of the isolation and self-sufficiency of the mountain country farmers.
For my husband and me, though, the crafts -- the most beautiful we have seen in this country -- were a good enough reason for the trip. Even though we're not fond of brown gravy, an essential component in mountain country cooking, we'd go back to Appalachia any time.
Driving around the green countryside, we visited artisan cooperatives, galleries, and gift shops with the famous hand-stitched Appalachian quilts, wood carvings, and other handmade treasures. We spent the most time at the world-class museum of the Kentucky Folk Art Center, with its collection of more than 900 highly varied works by regional folk artists -- and a gift shop, of course.
