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…
Friday was the beginning of our derby experience. As I mentioned in the previous post, after we booked our stay in Louisville we realized we would be there during the Kentucky Derby. Totally unplanned. So about 3 weeks before the derby we researched tickets for the derby and found they were still available! Not only that but they had VIP tickets that included good seats and access to a clubhouse that included open bar, lots of food, and live entertainment….
Thursday was another rainy day so we stuck to more indoor things. We started out going to the Brown Hotel for lunch. They make a “famous” sandwich called the Hot Brown which was a runner up on the show “Best Sandwiches of America”, one of Jim’s list of things to experience on our journey. The Brown Hotel is an historic hotel built in 1923. It’s hosted many famous people here for the derby and the movie Elizabethtown was filmed here…
The next day we left Tennessee and headed for Kentucky. We had a campground booked that was actually across the Ohio River from Louisville on the Indiana side because it was the closest campground to Louisville. So I guess technically, we will have completed our trip without staying in Kentucky. Can’t win ’em all. Funny thing was, as we pulled in to the campground Jim realized we had stayed here before. We searched all over the blog to find out…
Sunday we headed for Gatlinburg, Tn and the Smoky Mountain National Park. We didn’t realize what a tourist trap that area is. Two towns, Gatlinburg and nearby Pidgeon Forge are full of amazing things to do. They have an incredible amount of attractions with things to do for both kids and adults. This is definitely a place we’d like to bring the kids and grandkids to in the near future. We bypassed Pidgeon Forge and went straight to Gatlinburg with…
After our down day on Friday, we headed out to explore downtown Knoxville on Saturday. Our first stop was for lunch at a German beer garden called Schulz Brau Brewing Company. It had a nice outdoor seating area and have a great beer selection. They make about a dozen types of beer and have won awards internationally. We had a couple of brats and some spaetzle and a good beer. Next up was Knoxville’s world’s fair park, where they held…
Day 2 in Knoxville was a trip to an attraction called the Lost Sea. It’s a set of caves that were discovered in 1905 by a 13 year old boy. But by the time he convinced people of his discovery the entrance was covered with water and they went unexplored until several years later. It’s been discovered to have been used by Cherokee Indians and civil war soldiers. The cave has a lake 14 stories down that measures 800′ long…
We arrived in Knoxville and set up camp with barely an hour left of daylight after driving 2 and a half hours from Ashville. That meant we got a day of rest the next day, right? Not with Jim playing tour guide. Thursday, I let Jamie sleep in a bit and we hit the road around 11am for the tail of the dragon. For anyone not familiar with this attraction it’s an 11 mile drive between Tennessee and North Carolina…
April 16, 2021. Over a year since we put our tour around the country on hold. And today we are finally back on the road again for what will be the final leg in this journey. We left Fort Myers for Knoxville, Tn with a couple of detours. One was to Myrtle Beach to clean out our owner’s closet in the condo we sold. The second stop was in Ashville, Nc to visit the Biltmore Estate. This home was built…
Not part of our RV trip but a day to remember. Ashley and Brent gave birth to their first child and our first grandson, Arden on March 26! The birth went well and mom and baby are doing great! We flew up from Fort Myers to meet the little guy and I have to say, he really seems to like grandpa the most! But maybe I’m a little biased. Anyway, a day to remember for us so had to include…
We were originally going to stay in Marathon until the end of December but we had such a good time there we extended it until the beginning of February. But come February Jim was starting to become concerned that he was growing roots so he had to get moving, lol. We left Marathon for Fort Myers, Fl since we’ve never been to southwest Florida. We booked an over 55 community for a month with the intent of continuing further north…
It’s been exactly a year since I last posted. 2020 will be a year to remember for everyone in the entire world due to Covid. While there is no way to know how many people have died worldwide from Covid that number is in the millions. For an entire year people were restricted from going out. And when they did they were required to wear mask and stay 6′ away from other people. Who knows, maybe this will be the…
More and more states are now closing down and telling people to stay home. We could have stayed at Stone Mountain long term but since our Myrtle Beach condo wasn’t allowing any rentals and was vacant we decided that we’d be better off putting the rv in storage and staying there while we ride this pandemic out. For one thing storage only costs $100/month while staying in the rv park was 700. For another being stuck potentially long term in…
Since the Corona virus showed itself our trip has been focused on outdoor and nature type outings. Sure should be in better shape when this thing is finally over. Today we headed for Tallulah Gorge State Park, which has a pretty intense walk of over 1000 stairs from the top of the gorge to the bottom and up again. There are six waterfalls to view along the way. Not a whole lot to say about the park except two tight…
After hiking around the park and climbing the mountain I was getting golf withdrawals and the golf course in the park looked really nice and challenging. Jamie hasn’t been able to play golf since August due to her shoulder surgery and a few days before she hit some balls on the driving range and decided she was ready to give it a go. True to my form of making her play on challenging courses this one was right in line….
Along with the hike up the mountain there are also multiple trails around the mountain. Anywhere from a half mile to 5 miles. Unless you’re Jim and Jamie, who get off track and end up accidentally wander off the trail. Then the 5 mile hike turns into a 7 mile hike. We needed the exercise anyway, lol. One interesting exhibit is the 732-bell Carillon, which is a bunch of bells in a bell tower and played from an organ. This…