Year 5 Day 7

Our night was ok at best.  Will not be visiting the lodge at Cumberland falls again. But do it for the story, right. Anyway we enjoyed the actual falls so much that we decided to go back before sunset. We drove this time instead of hiking in the dark.

A fine mist rose and fog surrounded us, how peaceful and calm. All this humidity is making for curly hair (Becca is not a fan). A nice cool morning stop for sure. We were adventurous and at breakfast T the same place as last night...no where else to go. Same wait staff, same weirdness. Made it through, headed out, we had a train to catch. 

The big south fork scenic railway greeted us with bluegrass music (blue moon of Kentucky) one of my favs and a loud whistle. We rode into the woods where we stopped at an old coal mining town and ate a coal miners lunch. A little hiking and some bug issues later we headed back up the track. The bugs are thick here and not my favorite thing...but as long as the breeze is blowing buy all is ok. 

Next stop, coal, coal, coal. Heading north toward West Virginia the scenery turned black suddenly and smelled gross. Piles and piles of coal all around. I know this state is built on coal, but it's icky! We tried to see the pumpkin house in Kenova, WV located in a very not nice part of town, but nothing was up yet. They decorate the house with 3000 pumpkins...we imagined instead and stayed in the car. 

Our hotel is on the Ohio river again, almost full circle, almost another year done. Up early tomorrow for the "creepy weird day". Hoping moms friends from the other side stay away. 

For tonight, 

Traveling mama

Year 5 Day 6

Day 6. At this time it always starts to get a little drug out. We all start missing home and start getting tired of hotels and road food. BUT today was awesome!

We left our big city room and headed toward what I always imagined Kentucky to look like. Rolling hills, grass and ponies everywhere. It seems as though everyone has giant barns and a pond along with a black fence. So beautiful.
Our first adventure today was at whispering woods stables. Our guide, Jessie, was amazing. So welcoming and helpful. Grandma was a bit nervous, but she got the perfect horse and Jessie made sure we all were comfortable and happy. We rode for two hours out in a beautiful hardwood forrest. Lots of good conversations and tons of laughs. Chris had a horse named diesel that had a bit of an attitude. He ended up having to walk in front because he was too full of attitude. So much fun and such great hospitality.
Dismounting the horse mom nearly fell over. So far she's not hurt herself this trip. She did great, just sore muscles now.
Jessie sent us to town to Fava's restaurant for lunch, wonderful! She warned us about Paris, KY. I thought it would be a cool stop...you know, it has an Eiffel Tower etc etc....well no. It was on a corner and could barely be seen. When we found it it was only 7 feet tall and stuffed up against a building. Not cool.

So we quickly left and headed south. Corbin, KY showed us little except the original KFC restaurant...well, a museum and replica restaurant with a crappy KFC attached. Kinda cool, or at least better than Paris.

Our last stop and place for the night is Cumberland falls in Kentucky. The falls are beautiful and the outside of the lodge is great. Rooms, interesting and paper thin walls. Food, negative...hospitality, so so. If it weren't for the horse ride this day would be a strike.

Cross your fingers for a better tomorrow.

In Kentucky fashion...you uns have a good night.

Traveling mama

Year 5 Day 5

Onto a new state today. Indiana is an interesting place. Lots of interesting people and not so many interesting places. We checked this one off as somewhere to not go to again. We did however enjoy turkey run state park. We woke before sunrise today and stood at the doors waiting for enough light to start hiking. What cool canyons and beautiful scenery. It felt like Washington and not Indiana. Hard to believe that all of the state was like this place at one time. Now it's just farms. It was a great break to spend some time hiking out in nature instead of being cooped up in the car driving, but today was a short drive anyway.

After our brisk walk among the squirrels we took off toward Kentucky. Of course this meant more fields and the icky city of Indianapolis. Not a fan. Too much traffic and stinky weird people. Indiana does not care for California I don't think.
So we stopped at the falls of the ohio as our last stop in this state. It's a section of the River that has fossils of all kinds from long ago. The worst part was the sign saying to quickly move up from the river bed if a siren went off...apparently the river floods here often. Swell.
As we were crossing the bridge into Louisville Kentucky someone jumped...yep off the bridge into the river. Stopped traffic. Thankfully we didn't see them go over. So onto the Louisville slugger museum. Becca held Derek Jeter's game bat and took lots of funny pictures with all sorts of famous ball players. The factory tour was super neat too....and then an old person collapsed. Not sure of the outcome, but hope it was resolved.
We ate at a super cool place under the bridge called troll pub. Louisville is way better than Indiana but we are anxious to get back out of the city.

Traveling mama.

Year 5 Day 4

We left the little city of Ludington by the sea as I like to call it, in the morning. Again, Lake Michigan may as we'll be a sea. The weird thing about it is that just like the east coast you can't drive along the shore line. I'm thinking that only hwy 1 in California allows this. Quite frustrating.

Our first stop was in Holland, MI. Similar to Frakenmuth, this town is based off of immigrants from Holland. Windmill island houses a grain processing windmill...the only one certified in the US. To make it even more cool, it is run by a woman. She is the only American and the only woman to have Dutch certification to operate a windmill. She was there too when we visited. Took a tour of the 5 story windmill and saw its operation. Chris is set to build one now...he ran into the builder who built the brick base back in the 1950's. Very cool stop and the park was basically empty, perfect for this group.

Since the grain ground in the windmill is sold to a local bakery we had to visit...to our luck they serve lunch too. Best food so far on the trip. And we bought more sweets for the road. With treats in hand we set off south and into Indiana.

Of course a stop at a 100 year old dairy plant was necessary since the sell ice cream made there. It was delicious! And as if we hadn't had enough food and snacks yet, we went a hour down the road to the Albanese candy factory. Pretty much turned out to be an attempt  at Charlie and the chocolate factory, complete with a chocolate waterfall. Candy galore, some of which I hadn't seen in years. Gum cigarettes, neccos, all kinds of crap I ate as a kid.

We learned that basically Indiana has candy and fattening food to offer us. Heading south, it became clear that a bathroom stop was needed. The only thing for miles was a marathon gas station between two corn fields, I made Chris take Becca. Carl, the attendant was not super happy to see us. He gave a key that opened a door to what I'm pretty sure was a crime scene. Stained walls, sink etc, weird feelings and a horrible screeching bug in the nearby tree. Carl was not pleased that we were not buying anything so we bought some coke in glass bottles so he would let us all leave alive. Next time, were just going in the corn.  Miles later through corn, sweet peas, and a mystery crop that required a roadside stop so Chris could run into a field and snatch some, we made it to our final stop for the day. Turkey run state park. Suddenly trees appeared and as we drove out of the corn we found it cool and hilly. Apparently all of Indiana looked like this once...before being striped for farming.

The weather has been kind, no death clouds today. I'm glad because I was most worried about Ohio and Indiana. We are staying at the lodge here in the state park today. It's old, from the 1900's, but nicely remodeled with a large indoor pool.

Traveling mama

Year 5 Day 3

Greetings from the beautiful state of Michigan
What a beautiful place, at least so in the fall. Things around us tell me that it gets down right cold and snowy here in the winter. While eating breakfast we learned that a tornado touched down near Detroit...um that was during the downpours we got...Detroit was to our east. Close enough thank you.

We left the sleepy little German town and headed north west toward Lake Michigan. The first point of interest was the tridge in Midland..three bridges that meet as one in the middle. The converge over a couple "creeks" which means River to us. A very chilly walk over each section but a perfectly crisp fall morning.
Since we don't eat nearly enough, we made our way to Claire, MI to eat some doughnuts at Cops and Doughnuts. It's a 100 year old bakery that was about to go out of business until the police department of 9 officers purchased it and took over the management. Doughnuts everywhere and the employees dressed like prisoners. Super cute.
With our bellies full we made way to sleeping bear sand dunes on Lake Michigan. None of us had seen any of the Great Lakes before in person. It's basically an ocean. Appears to have tides, the waves crash on the sand, it's deep and cold, and you can't see across. Very weird feeling. The brain says I'm at the ocean, but the map says otherwise.
Many back roads later through tiny towns decorated for fall, and one completely glass house,  we found ourselves at the big sable point light house in lauding ton, MI. A three mile round trip walk took us down to the sandy beach to a light house constructed in 1896. We were able to climb all 160 steps to the top and walk around the outside. I reinforced that I'm not particularly fond of heights.  What a view though!
Lunch eluded us today...I've been hearing about it ever since that I'm starving everyone....I assure you we had enough reserves to make it through, still we are off to dinner and then some swimming at the hotel pool. Lots of walking, climbing, and using muscles today. A dip in the hot tub will do us all well.

Tomorrow brings new adventures.
Traveling mama

Year 5 Day 1&2

Hello all-
Sorry for the delay, slight technical difficulties...
Where to begin. Day 1 was filled mostly with flying. We left Sacramento at 6 am which meant we left the house at 3...always think this is ok until the morning we leave and get up at 2. Ick. Mom of course slept well on the plane, Becca claims laying forward on the food tray is the way to go. I got the middle seat and a seat mate, Alan, that is apparently wide awake early and chatty. My new best friend and we know each other's life story.
Short stop in Chicago and then onto Pittsburg, PA. It smells there but some very nice folks. Quick to get the car and get on our way. Our car attendant was sure to tell us that at least one of us had to behave...and he was pretty sure it wasn't going to be mom.

First stop, the worlds largest teapot Chester West Virginia. No parking, had to run across a busy street, people laughed that we took pictures. Guess it's not popular with the locals. Stop night one in Canton Ohio just over the boarder where it was college football night and the town was painted green. We were definitely out of place.

Day 2 we started off with an early morning visit to the outside of the football hall of fame..it was closed. More importantly we wandered through a moist quiet cemetary to section Z where Frankenstein's grave resides. Several of his family members too. Lots of miles of corn later we arrived at my grandmothers old high school, only that the "brick bread box with windows" she described had been torn down and replaced with a giant brick building down the street. Still neat to see where she once lived.

We wasted a bit of time in the cemetery so with old franky so we rushed up to Frakenmuth, MI for the Oktoberfest festival. It poured most of the way through Michigan and we found the festival closing up when we arrived...don't worry mom and Chris got plenty of beer at dinner. Speaking of which was awesome. Family style German fried chicken and all the fixings. Full and happy we walked the streets buying fudge and cheese to snack on later. We relaxed a bit in our German hotel overlooking a river full of what appeared to be fish (it was dark) but turned out to be a flock of ducks, maybe it was the wine at dinner...

Traveling Mama