Monday we went to the Rock and Roll Hall of fame, which was built on the waterfront in Cleveland on Lake Erie in 1995. Many cities lobbied for the Hall of Fame but Cleveland was picked. Although many people in and out of the industry were polled as to where it should be built many think Cleveland was picked mostly because they were willing to put up the most money. Interestingly, there’s also a 2nd Hall of Fame in New…
Sunday we headed to the West Side Market, an indoor market recommended by someone from the campground. It’s similar to Reading Terminal market in Philadelphia or Pike’s Place seafood market in Seattle, two places we’ve been to and posted on our blog. What’s pretty cool about this market is it’s been around since 1859. 100 years longer than Jim! We had lunch at one of the breweries next to the market then headed off to do some shopping. The first…
The next day we left for Cleveland, stopping on the way to have the oil changed and engine serviced on the rv. We were very fortunate to travel Thursday because Friday it rained the entire day and we spent all day inside reenergizing from our hectic schedule past and coming up. Friday we went to the NFL football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. That was a very motivating and enjoyable visit for both of us. Along with the obvious…
Back to West Virginia. One of the places on Jim’s list was the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. Yes, we all know Jim is a little warped. But in my defense Jamie likes these things, too. Maybe that’s why we’re compatible. This place was actually closer to Pittsburgh than Charleston, WV so we held off on going here while in WV. This was another creepy, paranormal place that offered a nighttime tour and overnight to experience the paranormal but we only did…
We got back from the BVI and Jim was nice enough to give Jamie one day of rest on Monday before resuming out sightseeing. Who says I don’t have a heart. But Tuesday it was right back at it. We went to the Heinz History Center. It’s hard to describe this place other than a museum that doesn’t really specialize in any one thing but has a hodgepodge of different types of displays. They obviously have all kinds of Heinz…
I’m jumping ahead because I’ve had some requests for photos from our BVI trip. Guess the rest of our rv trip isn’t exciting enough, lol. On May 13 we left Pittsburgh to join 3 other couples for a boat charter through the British Virgin Islands. This would be our first trip on a larger private boat. We first flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico for a night to make sure we wouldn’t have any problems getting to Tortola, BVI. The…
Monday we left for Pittsburgh. We found a campground just north of the city that was very similar to the one in Charleston. A long, narrow, winding road up to a mountaintop but a very nice campground. Our plan was to spend two nights in the campground, catch up on some laundry on Tuesday, then on Wednesday we got tickets to a Pirates day game. We would spend Wednesday night at a hotel near the airport then head out for…
The next morning we set out for a tour of the West Virginia Penitentiary and the Grave Creek Mound right across the street from the penitentiary. I’ll start with the mound. “Mound Builders” were prehistoric Indians that were around from 3500 BC to the 1500’s who lived mostly throughout the Midwest from the Great Lakes region down to the Gulf of Mexico. They built these mounds as a way to bury their dead during religious ceremonies. There are about 25…
We got up in the morning and headed for some caving. Jamie found a place called the Lost World Caverns that were discovered in 1942. A couple of cave explorers had heard about a large hole in the ground and decided to check it out. They lowered one of the explorers 120′ down to the bottom of the shaft and he discovered the cave. We’ve explored many caves during our trip and this one was one of the more beautiful…
From there we headed to a town called Lewisburg which was supposed to be some historic town. There were 2 things of some interest there but otherwise an insignificant town. The 2 things of interest were an old confederate cemetery and a Carnegie Hall. The cemetery was a bit interesting because it had grave sites dating back to the late 1700’s. Carnegie Hall was only interesting because prior to seeing this we thought the only Carnegie Hall was in New…
After giving Jamie a short night’s sleep Jim had her up and at em in the morning for some touring spots between Charleston, in northwestern West Virginia, to southeastern WV. We had an overnight booked in an exclusive hotel in White Hot Springs called the Greenbrier hotel. More on that later. Our first stop was the New River Gorge Bridge in Fayetteville, WV. It’s a bridge that was built in 1977 to get people across the New River Gorge in…
We left Louisville the next day for Charleston, Wv. We booked a campground just outside of Charleston that was beautiful but what a ride to get there. Off the highway we travelled about 2-3 miles up a long, narrow, winding road that had Jamie on the edge of her seat. But we survived and arrived at Rippling Waters campground. It was a beautiful campground on a lake with a cute little chapel sitting on the lake. We set up and…
After our hearty breakfast we were off for a day of bourbon trail touring. The day before we had called numerous distilleries to try and book a tour and every one we called was booked solid. And this was on a Tuesday! We decided we’d go to a few anyway and if we couldn’t sneak into a tour or a tasting, we’d just go to the gift shops. Our first stop was Barton distillery which was right there in Bardstown….
Jamie had done some research the day before and found a couple of interesting things to do on the way home from the Corvette museum. One was Abraham Lincoln’s birth home along with the home he grew up in and the other was the Old Talbott Inn, a tavern in a town called Bardstown, that’s been open since 1779. They also have a hotel upstairs that has accommodated many famous people like Abraham Lincoln and Jesse James. The Lincoln stops…
After the caves we headed another half hour south to the National Corvette museum. Jim has always been somewhat of a Corvette enthusiast so this was a stop he wanted to make. It turned out even more interesting than we expected and Jamie really enjoyed the stop, as well. The museum opened in 1994 and along with cars from the very first design, in 1953, they had every model made along with some unique concept cars and cars owned by…
Our time in Kentucky was coming to an end and Jim still had lots for us to see. So we planned a two day adventure starting with the Mammouth Caves about an hour and a half south of Louisville. These caves are the longest cave system known in the world with more than 400 miles of charted passageways. They were discovered in the late 1790’s. As far as caves go, which we have toured many, it wasn’t the most impressive…
Sunday we took a ride to another attraction that Jim found called The Ark Encounter. It’s a life size replica of Noah’s Ark created by Ken Ham, an Australian religious visionary based on an interpretation of the bible. It was created to teach the religious beliefs that God was unhappy with the direction man was going and had Noah build an Ark to preserve man and animals while he created a flood to wipe out most of mankind. The belief…
We headed back to Churchill Downs Saturday in time to take advantage of our Derby VIP tickets for lunch. It was another beautiful day and once again, Jamie put her fashion skills together and dressed us up appropriately. Enjoy the pictures, folks, last time you’ll see me in clothes like this. Not a whole lot to say about this day. It was pretty much identical to Oaks day. We spent a good combination of enjoying our VIP clubhouse and watching…