Paintsville, KY

Day 14, 15 and 16 of Caravan
May 11th, 12th and 13th
Moving to Paintsville Lake State Park
Paintsville, KY

We are part of the parking crew toda, May 11th, which means we leave early with the caravan leaders.  The others leave at least one hour after us so we can scope out the campground and assign rigs into the size spot that will be best for their size.  Everyone takes a turn being the parkers or the deparkers.

A beautiful state park on a very large lake with lots of boating, fishing, playgrounds and beaches, a very popular summer place.

The parking crew arriving at the park

 We traveled on Hwy 23 the Country Music Highway which is designated as a National Scenic Byway honoring country music entertainers who were born or lived along Route 23.  A few of the musicians are Billy Ray Cyrus, The Judds, Tom T. Hall, Ricky Skaggs, Hylo Brown, Loretta Lynn, Crystal Gale, Rebecca Lynn Howard, Keith Whitley, Dwight Yoakam, Patty Loveless, and Gary Stewart.  We were lucky to be able to visit Loretta Lynn's home in Butcher Holler and had a tour with her brother, unfortunately I don't remember his name.

This little girl made three trips down the trail to the grocery store, each time carrying one or two items back up the hill.  This time she is she has a six pack of Orange Crush in bottles.  She was a real cutie, note the red boots.

Loretta Lynn's brother gave us the tour

 We visited the Mayo United Methodist Church in Paintsville.  John Caldwell Calhoun Mayo came to Paintsville as a teacher but soon became aware of the regions potential in coal.  He began buying mineral rights, eventually becoming Kentucky's wealthiest citizen.  He built a mansion in 1905 - 1912, is three stories tall with 43 rooms.  Today the Mayo Mansion serves as Our Lady of  the Mountains parochial school.

The Mayo Methodist Church, across the street from the mansion was also build by Mr. John C. C. Mayo.  It is renowned for the stained glass windows, lovely store construction and organ with 1,006 pipes which was donated by his good friend Andrew Carnegie.  The organ is still in use today and is played during events and services in the church.  We were very lucky to have the organist come in and play the organ for us, and, is it beautiful.

 The stained glass is using a special technique of painting on the glass and then scrapping the paint to make the shading, it was so beautiful.

Our tour guide played the part of Mr John C. C. Mayo, the lady siting on the left is the third organist to play the organ and she has been playing for 30 years

 1,006 pipes

Until later, have a blessed day

Nancy and Joe