Tag: Campbellsville

One Last Look at Campbellsville

I thought I was finished with writing about Campbellsville, but I had a few more things I wanted to share.

First of all, they have the most welcoming library!

Some people I met at the first campground recommended it to me, and I am glad I stopped in. Not only do they have fast wifi that they are happy to share, they even gave me a library card so that I could check things out. Since the first campground didn’t have cable – or much of anything else, for that matter – I check out a few DVDs to watch.

But wifi and media are not the only things they offer. I happened to be there on Halloween, and they even gave me candy!

What is more, I needed something notarized while I was in town, and they handled that for me, too. They did it without cost. The last time I had something notarized, I was in Louisiana, and the notary charged me $25. Providing a free service like this was most welcome. I hope the people in town realize what a valuable resource they have.

There was a veterinarian about a mile from my second campground. I ended up taking Cora there twice. The first time was for her ears, yet again. I also had them trim her rear claws for me.

The claw trimming was especially good, as she got very itchy while I was at work one day. When I got home at – oh, 4:00 am – she had scratched off a big mess of fur!

When I woke up the next day, I was very concerned. That office was closed, but I managed to get through to another vet who recommended putting hydrocortisone cream on the itchy spot. That seemed to tide her over until I could get in to the vet who gave her a steroid shot. Cora’s fur is growing back in nicely.

As I always say, there is no such thing as a free cat!

I love seeing the different ways people honor their ancestors. In Campbellsville, they favor putting floral arrangements on top of the gravestones.

The overall effect when I would drive by is that there are a bunch of ladies wearing elaborate hats on Easter morning.

They didn’t go in for the markers of military service as I had seen in the northeast.

Noe Plaza is the entrance to Campbellsville University. If I were a really hard-core sleuth, I would figure out just who the Noes were and what they did, because there are many things named for them at the University.

One building not named for them, however, was the Winters Dining Hall. Believe it or not, it is the best place I found to eat in Campbellsville!

For about $7, these are your choices.

They call this section “The Grill”. One time I was there, they had a french fry bar. I think this evening’s offering was a nacho bar.

They have a lot of international students, and they offer a “cook-your-own” station, just in case the normal dining hall fare isn’t to their liking.

Here are some of the ingredients they have on hand.

Of course there is a salad bar.

There’s a made-to-order sub station.

Oh, and pizza and pasta.

Of course, there are also the entrees that were listed on the daily menu.

And hot rolls. They had garlic bread the other visit I made this year.

If none of those items struck your fancy, you could always have cereal.

If you managed to clean your plate – and even if you didn’t – there was dessert. Fresh, hot cookies, cakes, pies, soft serve frozen custard and an ice cream sundae bar, too.

It is amazing that the students all looked so svelte!

Right across the street from Noe Plaza was the courthouse square with a large mural and various memorials.

From information I found on the internet, this mural was by Joshua Mason, and it depicts Union Troops riding down the town’s Main Street on their way from Lebanon to Nancy, Kentucky in 1862.

According to the source I found, the three officers pictured were the three highest military officers to pass through Campbellsville during the Civil War. In the center is General George Thomas. Colonel Robert McCook, who later became a general is on the left. The man on the right is Colonel Mahlon Manson, who became general later in the war.

This courthouse was built in the 1960s to replace the one that was built after the Civil War. During the Civil War, the courthouse was burned down by General Hylan B. Lyon, CSA. I was amazed that the Confederates burned courthouses in Kentucky.

Is anyone else surprised that the Confederates were marching around burning courthouses in Kentucky? In this case, at least, the Union troops were using the building, so I guess it made strategic sense to burn it down.

In all, twenty-two courthouses were burned in Kentucky “as an incident to the war” according to the information on the back of the sign.

There is the War Memorial to commemorate the town’s sacrifices during the twentieth century. This one was dedicated May 30, 1987.

The police got to memorializing their veterans earlier, though. This one was erected by McKinley Monument Company in 1987.

And, I guess that is about all I have to say about Campbellsville.

Next stop, Fayetteville, North Carolina.

 

 

A Little More Campbellsville

Campbellsville is a small town. I think I’ve already mentioned that previously.

It was founded in 1817 and is named after Andrew Campbell, who moved there from Virginia. He owned a gristmill and a tavern and began selling lots in Campbellsville in 1814.

The population grew slowly. The earliest census data I found was for 1860, when there were 446 residents. It had periods of growth and contraction. The largest population was in 2000, when there were 10,498 folks living there. 9,108 folks were counted in the 2010 census.

I imagine the dip in population over the last few years is due to the Fruit of the Loom plant closing.

That plant closed in 1998.

The Fruit of the Loom plant wasn’t vacant that long. The Amazon Fulfillment Center opened there in 1999, and it replaced some of the jobs that were lost when Fruit of the Loom exported their jobs to the Caribbean and Central America.

This is why I came to Campbellsville. They hire seasonal workers with RVs for Peak Season as part of their “CamperForce.”

Part of the package is that they put us up in RV parks in the area. I imagine that it is quite a boon for the RV park operators to have an extended season. Rather than closing up after Labor Day as many places do, these folks have full occupancy until Christmas.

My start date wasn’t until the middle of October. CamperForce workers had started rolling in at the end of August, so I really had to scramble to find a campsite. I finally did find a spot at a place that I think was a person’s private campground that he runs for family and friends.

It was kind of an odd arrangement.

It was in the middle of a field and he had hook ups for maybe six or seven campers. There was no on-site management or permanent structures – unless you count open-sided shelters that seemed like places to hold a family reunion.

After about a week, I managed to get into a site at Green River Resort, where I stayed when I was part of CamperForce in 2014. The day I moved to my new campsite, I had an unpleasant surprise.

When I disconnected my power cord, I found that it had melted. In the words of Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent, “What The Heck?!”

Then I had to look to see what the power outlet looked like.

Man! I guess I am lucky that I didn’t have a fire.

But, it was an opportunity. Oh, those blessed opportunities! I sure hope 2017 provides fewer of these sorts of opportunities.

I started calling around to try to find a mobile RV technician that would be able to come help me. I left a few messages and then figured that I could go get the parts I would need.

In talking to the guy at the RV shop, I asked how hard it would be to do it myself. He said it was easy. When I got back to the RV resort, I opened the package and read the directions. It did look easy.

And so I did it myself! I got everything hooked up and working in about an hour.

Hooray for me!

Green River Resort has a loyal following of people who come back every summer, and I’ll bet people who are there for cookouts, campfires and splashing in the pool while on vacation have a grand time.

The CamperForce people are there to work, and they roll into the Resort in all manner of rigs.

This is one of the smallest units I’ve ever seen – outside of a tear drop trailer. I never met the people who belonged with this trailer. I would have liked to have met them, but when people work all sorts of shifts, you never knock on their doors. If you don’t see them out and about, you never meet them.

This is the largest get-up I think I’ve ever seen anywhere! A tractor that has its own small quarters behind the driver’s seat, a huge fifth wheel AND a Smart car wedged between the two of them!

There was this smaller sized Class C rig of indeterminate age that was a joy-filled place with seasonal decorations. It was customized by the owners with anime images they painted on the side. They had two or three children traveling with them.

At our first day of work, they took our photos for our ID cards. I still had the one I got in 2014, which is on the left. The on-the-road lifestyle seems to suit me, I’d say.

I haven’t aged a bit. (or something like that)

Amazon didn’t work out as well for me this year. I still enjoyed the work, and I got the department I requested. I had worked in ICQA last time and so I was happy to work in that department again. ICQA is what I’d describe as “quality control”. I am not sure what the initials stand for. No one seems to know what the initials stand for in any of the departments, but we all know what the departments do.

My job was to make sure that the right items were in the bins. I would walk around the huge plant and count whatever I was assigned to count. I actually enjoyed the work.

The part that didn’t work for me was that they had switched over to mostly apparel. All the items were wrapped in plastic and ready to ship.

I never really thought about it all that much, but clothing is HEAVY! The next time you are in a department store with a display of jeans, pick up a stack of them.

Then, imagine that those heavy jeans are individually wrapped in slippery plastic and that they are trying to slide every which way.

Further, imagine that you are up on a ladder trying to wrangle this shifting load.

After a few weeks, I decided that I didn’t really need the money badly enough to risk falling off a ladder and getting hurt.

So, I did something I’d never done before.

I just quit.

Oh, we parted on amicable terms. I went in to explain why I was leaving and to thank the people I’d worked with. I even took in cookies for break.

I had things to do and places to go!