Cincinnati and Run For The Roses - #70

As our adventure continues... We arrived in Cincinnati on Monday 10/24; travel from West Virginia was one of our longer driving legs (212 miles).  Our two nights at Tuckers Landing RV Park was pretty amazing!  It is more of an urban style park, only 3 years old and built right behind a marina on the Ohio River. It is fully paved with level, spacious concrete pads and a spectacular view of the river.  The weather was a wonderful 78 degrees, sunny when we arrived. We couldn't wait to finish setting up to enjoy the day! 

 

 

 

Our one full day in the area on Tuesday, was spent at the famous Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens; it is easy to spend a whole day there! The zoo is beautifully landscaped and arranged in a circular plan. We strolled along the main walkway and were able to see everything. The animals were animated and the exhibits really interesting! We even saw Fiona and Fritz - the two most famous hippos! We loved this place!

                             

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Once again, Wednesday morning we slowly packed up to head for Louisville, Kentucky. This was/is our shortest driving distance between two stopping points, so we took our time. It was a straight shot with no rest stop. We arrived early at a pretty KOA just outside of Louisville and had the whole day to relax. (Which was good because the weather was rainy and coldish, and we were tired!) I spent a couple of hours doing laundry, talked with a fellow camper from Arkansas, and worked on my writing. (I'm trying to catch up!) I couldn't wait to have dinner, crawl into bed early and watch TV. It had been a while since we had television or WiFi and we were taking full advantage of it! Minnie, in the meantime found a couple of new spots to get comfortable!

Thurday,10/27 which is today - we visited Churchill Downs! Our stopover in Louisville was actually planned around seeing this iconic home of the Kentucky Derby! It is a beautiful place with real Southern charm! The museum is wonderful, and we enjoyed a short historical tour. Our guide knew everything!! Probably the most fascinating fact I learned was about Secretariat. This Triple Crown winner had an unusually large heart (3 times the size of a normal horse). This is most likely what enabled him to increase his speed at every 1/4 mile, rather than slowing up from fatigue, which is more common among racehorses.  Louisville really impressed me as a big city. It is beautiful, spread out and has a lot going on!

  

Tomorrow morning, we gather up our stuff and continue on Route 65 South - first stop Nashville, and then further down to Birmingham, Alabama, I can hardly believe we will be in Bay St. Louis in 5 days! 

Heading West - #69

We had a very special meet up with my big sister and brother-in-law in Mill Run, our fourth and final stop in western PA. Anne and Jerry live about 3-1/2 hours southeast in Maryland; they drove up on Thursday morning, 10/20 and we agreed to rendezvous at Fallingwater. This famous home, built by genius architect Frank Lloyd Wright, has been on my bucket list to visit for close to 40 years. Apparently - it was on my sister's list as well! I was first introduced to this house when I studied art in college. I was fascinated by its beauty and how it embraced the natural elements all around it. I never forgot it and my visit did not disappoint! The tour was wonderful; I enjoyed learning some of the design intricacies and the stories behind them. It was a dream come true!

Mill Run was (is) our longest stay over - 3 nights. We called Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park Campground home for the duration. This is a huge park built in a rather mountainous area and designed mostly to attract young families. They have wonderful pools and water slides, a train ride, hayrides and all kinds of activities for the kiddies. The first couple of nights of our stay were extremely quiet; then Friday night rolled around and all hell broke loose! RV's piled in, golf carts driving like mad all over the place, kids screaming and adults who probably had a few too many beers. We were glad to be taking off Saturday morning. 

We made plans to meet Anne and Jerry again on Friday 10/21 (they stayed over in a nearby hotel) at the Flight 93 National Memorial. This tribute will definitely be the most memorable stop for me on our trip. It is hard to describe just how beautiful and well thought out this monument is; it really needs to be experienced!  Everything about the design of the memorial has special meaning. The visitors center reconstructs a timeline of the events of this flight. I was surprised there were actually only 33 passengers and 7 crew members on a flight normally of about 100-150. I placed the hand-painted rock I made as a remembrance and marker by the observation area, view of the crash and debris site. (Rocks are typically left when visiting a gravesite in the Jewish religion) We walked the 3/4 mile trail to the Wall of Names- heroes of 9/11.  Again, the weather had been so generous; we enjoyed the peacefulness, serenity of this site. On our way out of the memorial, we stopped at the Tower of Voices. A most amazing concept! This 93' tall wind chime, tuned in 40 unique pitches to represent each of the passengers and crew. The fact that they were tuned in dissonance which creates a feeling of disharmony, further represents what these people were experiencing. Unfortunately- there wasn't quite enough wind to really hear the chimes, but the silence represents the peacefulness of this area of PA before it was suddenly shattered by the plane crash.  We were all glad to have had the opportunity to share this experience together. 

Saturday morning, we hooked up the trailer and headed for West Virginia. We stayed just on the outskirts of the city of Charleston. It is always a surprise when reaching a camping spot you've never been before. (Reviews are usually helpful however, since you are dealing with people's perspectives, sometimes they may not be up to your personal standards) Lazy K was not quite what we expected but we can be pretty adaptable- especially when we know it's only a couple of days. I hated leaving a not so great review when the owner was so nice- but I know I rely on this information to make my decisions so I wanted to be honest. To begin- there was the narrowest of dirt roads entering (and exiting) Lazy K. Thank goodness there was never another vehicle coming in the opposite direction; one of us would have had to back up. We were directed to site 1 - a pull IN site. This meant our truck would go in front first toward an embankment; we had to do a lot of maneuvering to get in and out of this site. Okay, we could do that. Once we were hooked up- we discovered the water didn't work. We called Ted the owner and he came right over and fixed the situation, however- I noticed the water was really rusty. Luckily- we carry a lot of bottled water for drinking but I was shocked to find in a matter of hours, the water has stained the inside of our toilet! Took a bit of muscle and soft scrub to clean it off! The only upside to this campground; it was off the beaten path so it was very quiet at night. (Most campgrounds are near main roads and there can be a lot of road noise at night.) On our one full day in West Virginia- we visited the Capitol Flea Market and the Capitol (Farmer's) Market. Always fun to browse. We came home with some goodies to eat and especially some delicious sushi which we had for a late lunch. It was exciting to add West Virginia as a new state to our map! We will be in Ohio next and then Kentucky- also new states for us! It would be exciting to visit all 50 states eventually!