Opinion : From the trail to the Appalachians...

Rain -- or at least a few drops and a rainbow -- greeted us in Indiana. Or was it Ohio?

Blessed Hope volunteers including Editor Dean prepare to leave for Kentucky.

I am not sure whose idea this was at a Burger King in Illinois...

My allergy medicine is missing -- which is not the best way to start August.

All of the caps that keep the sun from putting wrinkled raccoon-like red circles on my eyes are hanging on the rack 530 miles to the northwest.

And my underwear is pink.

It does not help that in northern Kentucky, we are close enough to the "swing state" of Ohio that there are as many annoying presidential campaign ads interrupting the Olympics as we saw in Iowa.

I am in Kentucky for the first time since 1999 as part of a team of a dozen people from the Blessed Hope Church in Vinton. We will be spending this week helping the Christian Appalachian (yes, I am learning the proper way to spell Appalachian) Project. Most of us will be doing what I learned to do in the spring of 2009 -- replacing a roof, siding a house and installing windows -- for an elderly lady near Parkers Lake, KY.

The problems I whined about at the beginning of this column are spectaculary minor. Caps and capsules are readily available here, and as long as I keep my suitcase shut nobody will have to hear me explain how the red tablecloth ended up in the washing machine with my whites.

I didn't announce my departure from Vinton for this week earlier because I wanted to make sure that any federal search warrants, bomb threats, or other major news stays away at least until August 13. While phone service and wireless internet could help me keep in touch with Vinton in my spare time, I won't be able to take any photographs this week.

I will be back next Monday with a few stories and a new blue Kentucky cap -- and an important story about why I waited 13 years to buy it.