No Title 1289

Supplement to “Ride, Joe, Ride”

The fund-raising for the Bert Combs project is nearly complete, and the original vision has been expanded to include not just one but two statues of Governor Bert Combs. There will be one at each end of the Mountain Parkway to honor the man whose efforts built the Mountain Parkway and connected the far reaches of the eastern Kentucky mountains to the rest of the world.

“This is the one thing that is dear, dear to my heart, and totally related to the children of the mountains,” Joe says. “Everywhere I go, I talk about the Red River Gorge. The young people there don’t have places to work. There isn’t any industry. But we can do tourism, and slowly but surely we’re beginning to build restaurants and hotels, so we can receive the people who come here.

“The tiny town of Bowen is located on the Red River Gorge National Scenic Byway. They put up the signs while I was bicycling through it. One of the most important things I do is to try to bring attention to that area.”

To read the Kentucky Living March 2006 feature that goes along with this supplement, click here: Ride, Joe, Ride