Travelog July 2017

On the Road Again, love being on the Road Again, seeing things that we have never seen and best of all, traveling with my best friend.  No more Workamping, the rest of the summer is just fun fun fun. Wow, July has been very busy.  Started out with a journey through Tennessee on the way to our first stop in the Renfro Valley KOA in Kentucky.  We stumbled on to the little town of Berea KY and learned some amazing history.  Founded in 1855 as the first interracial and coeducational college in the South, Berea charges no tuition and admits only academically promising students, primarily from Appalachia, who have limited economic resources.  Berea’s cost of educating a student for four years is nearly $100,000. Berea College offers rigorous undergraduate academic programs leading to Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in 28 fields. All students work at least 10 hours per week in campus and service jobs in more than 130 departments.  About one in three students represents an ethnic minority.  The surrounding community is flush with artists of every distinction, from sculpting to knitting.  We were lucky enough to be there on the weekend of the 36^th Annual Craft Festival and were treated to an amazing display of music and art and great food. 

Recycled soda cans

Then we were off to the 96^th Family Motor Coach of America (FMCA) rally in the Indianapolis State Fairgrounds for four days of RV seminars, entertainment, vendor displays and camaraderie with fellow RV’ers.   We really enjoyed the nightly entertainment, meeting new friends, and of course spending a few bucks on stuff we absolutely needed (LOL) for the Motorhome.  Especially our new camping sign since we hung our last sign in the Signpost Forest on our way out of Alaska last year.

 
 

Then we headed back to KY and stayed at South Louisville KOA for a week as we explored the infamous “Bourbon Trail” as well as a few area wineries.  We really enjoyed learning the history of the bourbon in KY and sampled many many bourbons with our favorite tour and smoothest bourbon found at Maker’s Mark. 

 

 

 

 

 

We toured the horse racing shrine aka Churchill Downs home of the Kentucky Derby which has a grandstand that holds 50,000, for the Derby they also put 100,000 in the infield.  We were not permitted on the track or in millionaire’s row but I did manage to put my foot on the track.  I do have a special memory of the Derby as I won $50 on a $2 bet in 1967 at the ripe age of 15, on a horse named Proud Clarion, long story, but my mother made me place the bet, but I was very happy with the result.  That was the last time I ever place a bet on a horse race…LOL.

 

 

 

 

After the track we headed into town and visited the Louisville Slugger Museum and factory where they make baseball bats for Tballer’s to Major Leaguers.  They make bats from mini to supersize which is displayed outside the museum.  The Vault inside the museum holds bats of great historical value from the past through the present.  Next to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, this is the neatest place of baseball nostalgia. We arrived too late to tour the Ali Center which commemorates the life of the Greatest of all Time Mohammed Ali, but enjoyed the view of the center as well as the urban Bourbon Trail in Louisville.

 

 

Next we headed south to Mammoth Cave to visit the biggest cave on Earth.  There are currently 400 miles of mapped passages and an estimated additional 600 miles of yet to be explored passages including underwater passages.  We took two tours of the underground matrix and were amazed at the length and breadth of the caves.

 

 

 

While in the neighborhood we took a ride some 25 miles south to visit the Corvette Museum which was amazing and we don’t even like Corvette’s.  We were a bit disappointed that the factory tour was closed until 2019, but we really enjoyed seeing the classic Corvette’s and learning the history of the brand.  We also learned about the sinkhole that swallowed eight classic Vette’s in 2014 of which only three could be restored. 

 

 

These are two of the six that could not be restored

 

These two where restored after falling in sinkhole, white one was 1 millionth Vette made.

Our final stop in KY was the Daniel Boone National Forest including the Red River Gorge and Natural Bridges.  We started out with the 1.5 mile hike up and down to the Natural Bridge, which was both amazing and exhausting.  On day two we decided to visit the other features of the area the easy way, we took the sky ride up to visit Observation Point and Lover leap on the opposite side of the Natural Bridge.  Our other adventures of the area included some hiking and horseback riding the Red River Gorge area.  It is really a beautiful area which is probably more amazing just before or after the foliage fills in as it is a heavily forested area.