My plan was to stay in Kentucky until Wednesday, but when the guy behind the counter at Carter Caves asked me how long I was staying, my mouth opened up and “Just one night,” came out. By 1PM, therefore, I will be moving on, probably to West Virginia, because it’s not that far away.

I think I should have guessed that this park wouldn’t be for me, based on the size and the long list of things to do and maybe even the word “resort” in the name (although it feels like all the Kentucky state parks call themselves resorts.) But it’s crowded with trailers, campsites set close together… the kind of park where people come to let the kids play on the playground and do the events like the haunted trail and the best pumpkin display competition. If you’ve got three kids and are wanting a fun kid vacation, it’s probably terrific. But it’s not remotely what I had in mind as a place to write. Even now, at about 9AM on a rainy Monday morning, I can hear kids yelling and doors slamming and engines running above the noise of the rain and the faint chirping of what I think might be crickets.

In other words, this picture doesn’t represent this park at all.

But soon after I picked a spot — tiny, narrow, steep, not very convenient, but at least not in the congested part of the campground that felt like a parking lot — I got a neighbor. Another Travato. In this park of giant trailers with slide-outs and multiple vehicles, it amuses me that the Travatos are sticking together in the woodsy quiet section.

Yesterday I broke my current 17-day streak of working on Grace every day. Drat. I guess I should be referring to that as my last streak. My current one starts today, right? But I wanted to get on the road early. Between rainy driving, two stops for gas, one stop for groceries and lunch, one stop for walking dogs, a time change, and then setting up, feeding dogs, cooking dinner, talking to my neighbors… I looked at the computer around 9:30PM and thought, yep, not today.

The good news is, I think I’m in Chapter 11 now. Or maybe 12. I’m not 100% sure that everything in the first 10 chapters works the way I want it to, but I am reasonably sure that I am finally set up to move into a fun romance. It was really delightful to realize that Grace (the character, not the book) could respond in an entirely new direction to the current situation because I’d finally gotten rid of all the things in the first ten chapters that were limiting her response. And that probably doesn’t make any sense, but it’s good news. It makes me cheerful about where I’m going next. Well, going next in Grace. Where I’m going next in my travels is something I should probably figure out … well, now. Since time’s a-passin’ and I’ve got to get moving.