August 6, 2013 - Tuesday

Chris and I were excited to get up early and go to the Kentucky Horse Park. We were able to purchase discount tickets at the camp store and we walked about a mile to get to the main gate-it was a nice walk through a cross-country course. Our first stop was the Saddlebred Museum. We learned a lot about this breed which has been a popular breed in this area and Saddlebreds had been sold here in the past. Trying to make good time, we did not eat breakfast before leaving. We were lucky to hitch a ride on the KHP golf cart to the far corner Farmhouse Café. It's nice that there is cart to move people across the 1500 acre park. Breakfast was relaxing and we consumed a lot of caffeine to power us through the day, healthy-I know.

We watched the Horses of the World show where they parade different breeds around this arena and talk about each one and you can visit with the horses and take pictures before and after-I guess you can tell who was excited about the KHP and visiting with the horses ;-)

Everything was very hands-on and Chris and I really took advantage of all the kid-friendly activities(as you will see below). The in-house farrier was there and it was interesting to talk with her. There was a very small tack shop on the grounds. The kids' barn was neat and a kid really could learn all about a horse here. We walked through The Big Barn which is considered the largest in North America. This barn is over 75 ft. wide and over 450 feet long. The inside was beautiful. They used to hold auctions in the center and there were less stalls than you'd imagine; they were all at least 15 x 15. However, the barn was made this long so horses could get up to full speed down the length of the barn during auctions.

Another neat show we saw was in the Champions' Barn. This barn housed five or so famous racehorses that were in retirement. Our favorite horse was Cigar. Cigar held the record for most money won for over a decade-he won 10 million during his racing career-wow! Funny Cide, the Kentucky Derby winner lives there but was elsewhere for the week. It was a small barn from the early 1900s. You sat around a small ring and a man would tell you about the horse getting ready to come in, show a video of his wins and then the horse would be brought in and walked around for a couple minutes so people could take pictures.

We took a ride in a horse-pulled trolley and walked through the International Horse Museum on the grounds; it was enormous. It's interesting to think that so many breeds we have today including Percherons-a huge draft horse, come from the Arabian. There was a rather large section on the Arabian.

Our last stop was Man o' War's final resting place. Now, I've always been interested in this legendary horse because he was owned by a man named Samuel Riddle. Sam Riddle lived about 5 minutes from where I grew up and rode horses with my great aunt who lived in the same area and shared similar interests. There is a development now where his farm stood and all the streets are named after his famous horses as well as other famous horses like, Secretariat, Whirlaway, Man o' War, War Admiral, etc. Man o' War was so impressive that when he died, mourners came to his casket four days after he died and gave him one last "pat" before they lowered him into his grave, yes, the horse had a casket, and a funeral. The flags were flown at half staff in Lexington after he died. Man o' War's jockey and a couple of his sons are buried around him, too. The burial area is beautiful and very peaceful. Hopefully someday, we'll stop breeding racehorses to have such thin bones and we can have greats like Man o' War and Secretariat again.

I can honestly say, Chris and I had a great time-I may have enjoyed it more though.

We walked back to our campsite, although we were really hoping someone would give us a ride back after walking all day!

I didn't find any type of souvenir at the tack shop in the KHP, their selection was small, so I wanted to head into one of the Lexington tack shops to find something special for Teddy! We made it to one before they closed at 5 and had a really nice conversation with the owners. I bought him treats and we conversed for awhile longer. They work with eventing and told stories of people who come in and cannot purchase anything without texting pictures to their trainers because they don't know what to buy and they all have Hispanic workers who do everything for them. A couple girls in this category came in while we were there. It's a shame. Kids need to pick up poop and feed horses, groom them, watch the vet, farrier, dentist, etc. and learn everything they can about their horse. They should really get into the nitty gritty to appreciate what they have as well as work for their money or lessons or what have you (in my opinion). I think it's safe to say only a small percentage of kids are like this today when it comes to horses.  We saw a lot of kids out after 10 or 11 PM, young kids, driving golf carts with a bunch of kids on them, in the road and they just didn't care and neither did the parents. A lot of the kids around the KHP did not seem to appreciate what they had. Oh well :) We had a couple good laughs and left the tack shop.

We ate dinner at a sushi restaurant east of Lexington; it was very yummy! This was our last night. We had a campfire and went to bed to get up and leave at 6 AM. Tomorrow will be my last post :-(

August 7, 2013 - Wednesday - The Final Day...

Today we ironically got up earlier than the last several days to leave. It was difficult to wake up early on our trip while we were sightseeing but easy when it was time to go home! We figured, at this point we just wanted to get home. We didn’t want to waste any time. There was a month’s worth of packing to unpack, laundry to wash, a camper to clean, etc. West Virginia was beautiful The mountains made us feel like we were home. They looked fluffy and green, plentiful with trees-unlike the far west. It felt really good to be getting close to home.

                We stopped in Cumberland, Maryland at our first Sheetz! As you all know, Wawa is my choice convenience store, but this was the first time seeing one in a month so I was happy. We kept driving and I got really excited around Waynesboro, PA…familiar sights at last! We got back to the Waybrights’ to unhook the camper. We plan to unpack the camper tomorrow. The tahoe was packed to the gills with gifts and suitcases so we only planned on unpacking the tahoe the first night.

                Our first night home was supposed to be about unpacking and organizing and eating our favorite pizza since we were going through withdrawal. However, the mice visiting our home had a different plan for us. I won’t describe in too much detail, but we had caught a mouse that had then been sitting in the trap for over week. The house smelled and there were little mouse presents all over everything in our kitchen. This night turned into bleaching and scrubbing our entire kitchen, every square inch, and ordering in. Oh well, it was wonderful being home, even if we did have to clean the kitchen from top to bottom.

                Looking back on our trip….

As we start to fill people in on all the details, we remember more and more of what we actually did. We accomplished a lot over the course of a month. Most people visit some of the destinations we visited spending a week or more there. Places like Disneyland, LA and Las Vegas we only spent a night. There was something we liked about each location, but there were things we didn’t like about some locations, too. The good outweighed the bad by far, so I’ll touch on a few of the “must see” places. I started listing these places in order and remembered others along the way and suddenly they got out of order, so I apologize!

®     Lake Erie(The Great Lakes): We only spent about two hours here and we didn’t mention a whole lot about it in our blog, but it was very pretty. We were lucky enough to eat right next to Erie and enjoyed the view in Sandusky, Ohio. The town was cute and there was a good amount of things to see throughout the area.

®     Yellowstone National Park – Everything about Yellowstone was amazing. The animals wandering in the middle of the main road, the cool, crisp night air and lack of humidity, as well as the little towns at each entrance into the park. Not to mention, the two million acres within the confines of the park could keep anyone busy for a couple weeks. We spent three nights here and couldn’t get enough. The crystal clear blue springs and spurting geysers(esp. Old Faithful) are sights to see.

®     Oregon Trail wagon wheel ruts. We saw one of the longer paths in Oregon. Since the ground is so dry, the tracks have been preserved. It was quite humbling being able to walk the path the pioneers walked as they traveled out west unsure of what life would be like. Would they find gold or be able to make money when they arrived? How would the Indians treat them? Who would not make it the whole trip? How many animals would die? Would they lose anyone along the way? Do they cross a river or take a longer, dryer route through rough terrain? These people had no idea what to expect and often times animal and people perished. Life was hard and the road was long but they all hoped to find a better life and more land out west. The museum was part of the National Parks deal we got after purchasing our N.P. pass and it was an awesome museum.

®     Keystone, South Dakota/Black Hills area- Mount Rushmore was neat, but not as absolutely amazing as Crazy Horse. We spent hours at Crazy Horse when we only intended to stay about 20 minutes. I read you could only look at the memorial and there wasn’t a whole lot else to do. Whoever wrote that review, lied! There was a huge museum and we had a tour guide who is part of the Lakota tribe and she is going to college at the American Indian University which will someday be housed at Crazy Horse. The original family who started the memorial still lives on the property. The wife of the mastermind of Crazy Horse lives on the other side of the memorial. They have never accepted any government funding and continue to work on money donated and collected through ticket sales, food sales and gift shop sales. Most of the merchandise in the gift shop has been donated. All of Mount Rushmore would fit in Crazy Horse’s head; it is a MUST SEE!!!!!

®     Columbia River Gorge, Oregon. You can take US 30 here to get the best view. The gorge is massive and the view from the Vista House is beautiful.

®     Pacific Coast Highway(1)- Beautiful, but do not travel in anything other than a sports car. There are hundreds of twisty turny sections of the road and hills. It follows the Pacific Ocean the whole way and the view is spectacular.

®     Yosemite National Park – The sequoias were worth seeing. We took a trip to Glacier Point, the best view in the park, and it was a breathtaking moment. We were a few thousand feet off the ground, the sheets of granite around us were pretty and the cars looked like dots on the pavement. We even biked several miles in the valley area of the park. This biking area is manageable and just about anyone would be capable of riding a bike in this area.

®     San Francisco/Sonoma County – The wine is reasonably priced, the weather is superb and the city is fun. The Golden Gate Bridge is a famous, must-see. We had a lot of fun in Healdsburg visiting wine shops and a brewery(Bear Republic).

®     Disneyland (Anaheim, Ca)- Who wouldn’t want to see the ORIGINAL Disney park? It is much smaller than Disney World, but well worth the visit. We only went to Adventureland, mainly for Cars Land, and it was the perfect amount of park to tackle in one day.

®     Las Vegas, Nevada – this is a must see just because! We want to go back and spend a few days. But I can’t put it in my top five. This may be because we didn’t see enough in the few short hours we were there, but it was awesome staying a night in the city that truly never sleeps. Each sidewalk seemed to lead us right into another casino and restaurants and stores were open 24/7. I agree with what my dad once told me. You really need to see AC first. Because once you see Las Vegas, AC will look tiny!

®     Amarillo, Texas – We wanted to see more of Texas, but the panhandle was pretty beside the fact it was so flat. There is a lot to do around Amarillo and the KOA we stayed at had the most genial hosts and the restrooms were clean and newly redone.

®     Hoover Dam – Definitely take the power plant tour. It cost about 14.00/person but we got to take an elevator 500+ feet below the ground to see the pipes pumping thousands of gallons of water/second and the generators providing electricity to Las Vegas and parts of Az.

®     The Grand Canyon – Call it cliché but it really does look like a picture. It looks like it can’t possibly be real. The Canyon is so vast and wide. The colors of the Canyon are beautiful and it is even more beautiful from the bottom! Our whitewater rafting trip out of Peach Springs and the Hualapai Lodge was one of the best parts of the trip.

®     Gatlinburg, Tennessee – This is a touristy town but worth the visit. Pigeon Forge is where the Titanic Museum is located and that town is cool, too. Gatlinburg has a really neat mountain/country feel. We stayed about an hour outside Gatlinburg in a town known for the rafting around.

®     Nashville, Tennessee- We didn’t know what to expect from Nashville. It may have been so awesome because we didn’t have any expectations. The town is small and manageable if you have a single day to explore. However, you could spend a week here and have plenty to keep you busy. We saw some unique art deco style cars from the 20s and 30s, the original Grand Ole Opry, listened to country music coming out of speakers at every street corner and listened to some great live music at lunch in a three-story restaurant. Nashville is based around Broadway, the main street, which is what makes it manageable for a day trip. There is an exorbitant amount of history here as well as more recent country superstars’ stories. We’ll definitely be going back!

There is a lot we missed, but also a lot we saw. We hope to visit more states in the future and revisit our favorite places!

August 5, 2013 - Monday

We left the campground later this morning and started to head to our final destination before home, Lexington, Kentucky.

There has been a lot to see at each stop on our trip back, but not a whole lot along the way. Chris drove for about two hours. There was a sign that caught Chris' eye as we drove. It said something about an Appalachian museum in Tennessee. We decided to check it out. When I think of Appalachia, I think of whiskey stills. There was a lot more to these people than whiskey stills! The museum was extensive and set up like a little village rather than just a museum. Each building had a story as each one was taken from some place near the museum in the foothills or heart of the Appalachian Mountains. They were all log, some teeny tiny and some large. We also ventured through two museums full of materials from the heart of the mountains. There were countless banjos made out of items ranging from toilet bowls to bake pans. There were different crafts and practical items from these people and a section of items from the Nez Perce people. Overall, it was an interesting experience. These people were the pioneers of this area and many still live simply and in solitude. One man’s house was moved to the museum not too long ago. He never married and didn’t need much, so his house was about 10 x 10 and had a cot and woodstove with a small porch-he said he didn’t need any more than these few things and his gun. There was even a still made on-site by Popcorn Sutton, the famous whiskey maker.

After looking at the museum and grounds, we were hungry! There was a small restaurant inside the building which we decided to eat at. Your choices were meatloaf or roast beef with two sides and cornbread for 6.95-what a steal! We both had meatloaf and a lot of the veggie sides came straight from the garden outside the building. This was one of the best meals we had. Everything was homemade and it was one of the least expensive!

I drove the last hour or so to Lexington. Kentucky was beautiful and the campground was literally on the property of the Kentucky Horse Park; I was in heaven! Chris and I checked in and the man at the counter told us we had the best site in the campground. We had a 100ft by 100 ft. area all to ourselves. We were right next to the pool/laundry/bathroom area and across from the camp store. It felt like we had a private lot and there was green grass and trees! It was so peaceful we decided to have a fire, cook over it and enjoy the night air.

August 4, 2013 - Sunday

We slept in way too late today. At 10:30 we got ready to start our day. Chris and I made breakfast and he wanted to check out Pigeon Forge, so that’s what we did. Our plan was to come back and tube the river later that day. Our drive was scenic through a really nice state park; we around the mountains following the river. There were a ton of people out tubing and enjoying the river today. The weather was a little cloudy but still pleasant.

Chris and I got to Pigeon Forge and it was unreal! I never expected Tennessee (Smokey Mountains) to have a place like this. There were a lot of shops like you see on the boardwalk, The Dixie Stampede, Dollywood and a bunch of other really neat touristy attractions. Since we were already in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg was only a few more miles, we kept driving to Gatlinburg. Gatlinburg was not quite as built up because there isn’t as much room along the road like in P.F. but there were still a ton of shops, some neat, some gaudy. We ate lunch outside in Gatlinburg and found some really cool places to stop. We smelled dozens of spices in a spice shop, perused a Celtic shop and drank whiskey at the Davy Crockett Whiskey Tasting Room. Whiskey is not my cup of tea but a couple of them were really delicious. They also had signs discussing the whiskey making process. The entire place smelled of yeast, so you knew they did some serious whiskey making! The whole trip was a pretty neat experience for us. Chris wanted to make a stop at the Dukes of Hazzard garage, Cooter’s-that was fun!

Pie-iron pizzas, hamburgers and hotdogs were getting old, so we traveled to another infamous Walmart for something different. On our way to Walmart, we passed a couple cool buildings and I saw a huge Titanic ship outside one! Turns out, there is one of the two largest Titanic museums in the world in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee! The museum was worth the 24.00 to get in.

I could write a couple pages about what we saw-I’ll try to keep it as short and sweet as possible. However, if you enjoy ships or the Titanic or Titanic(movie), you should make a stop. They rope you in because the employees are dressed up and they hand you a passport as you “board the ship.” Your passport gives a brief description of who you were, your age, where you were going and background information. At the end of the tour, you find out whether you lived or died-each passport contained the name of a real person aboard the Titanic. The museum is a tribute to the survivors and the deceased.

Each room was decorated as the ship would have been. Third class had rooms that looked just the movie and even had a gate with water flowing in behind it like it was going to fill the third class section of the ship. We explored each class(1^st, 2^nd, and third) as well as the outside of the ship. We got to stand and gaze at the stars outside the titanic and the next room was extremely cold(we were outside on the deck of the ship) and there was a frozen block of ice looking like an iceberg. There was a pool of water off the side of the deck that was kept at 28 degrees  so you could stick your hand in and feel what the actual water felt like to the people who didn’t make it onto lifeboats. I kept my hand in for about five seconds before it started to hurt. It’s really hard to imagine what it was like being on this shop. We learned that there actually was an author who wrote about a ship called the Titan 14 years prior. The story tells of a ship sailing through the Mid-Atlantic in April. It hit an iceberg and sank. There were not enough lifeboats for all passengers, so many perished. This is a crazy story! This was a 100% true forecast of what actually happened!

There were over 400 artifacts in this museum from the actual ship. Some artifacts were from family members or survivors and some were from the bottom of the ocean around the ship. The man who owns this museum funded the second expedition down to the Titanic in 1987. There is another museum in Branson, Missouri owned by the same man. Some of the artifacts were really touching when you read the stories behind them. Each year the museum takes on a different theme and this year they chose to honor the children aboard the Titanic. There was also an exact replica made from the actual blueprints of the grand staircase in the Titanic. We got to walk up the stairs; it was magnificent. I found it very interesting the amount of “old money” folks from Philadelphia traveling from England back to New York. My passport told of Emily Ryerson, a lady traveling to Haverford, right near my parents’. There were people traveling home to Radnor, Ridley Heights and The Widener family was also aboard and the father and son perished while the wife/mother survived.  Wow! This museum was awesome! Oh, and the only downside was not being able to take pictures inside the museum. You’ll only see pictures from the outside, so go check it out for yourself!

We grabbed dinner at a local grocery store, got back to the campsite around 9 and cooked out.

(This replica is 1/2 scale-The actual Titanic would have been twice the size of this.)

 

August 3, 2013 - Saturday The "Hole" Day!

We woke up and left Nashville at a decent time. We were headed to Gatlinburg area to the KOA. This drive was nice because it only took us a few hours. We stopped for breakfast soon after leaving Nashville and were on our way. We had about 2 hours left and things were going well. Chris had been driving the first part of today’s trip and then all of a sudden….pop!

We knew that was not a good sound and since I could get out away from traffic and look at whatever the pop was, I did. We blew a tire. Coincidentally, it was the same  exact wheel that had the razor blade in it earlier in our trip(Yosemite). The funny thing is, it’s the second tire of the trailer, so the tire before it has been unscathed each time—I bet that tire is counting its blessings! Anyway, we crept toward the next exit which was very close and pulled into a church parking lot. The tire was all torn up, possibly from driving on it, and the little pieces of wire in the tread were sticking out all over the place. We changed the tire pretty quickly and were on our way.

Except for that slight bump in the road, all was well. We stopped for lunch and I drove the rest of the way to the KOA-only about an hour(I got lucky today)! This KOA was nice and the office staff was friendly. We got set up in our site and finished checking in at the office. We realized we were about an hour away from Gatlinburg and this town(Townsend) was known for the tubing. We may go tubing down the river tomorrow since Gatlinburg is so far away.

 Since we got there at a decent time, we decided to get a fire going, make dinner and relax by the campfire. It was a good night.

 

August 2, 2013 - Friday

After almost a month on the road, we've figured out we need at least 2 nights in any one place to really sight see. If you spend one night in a place, you're basically there to sleep, pack up in the morning and leave. Chris did a good job of making sure we would spend 2 nights in all the big spots and three nights at Yellowstone and Yosemite. There were a few unexpected places we loved that we wished we could have spent 2-3 nights in, these are the places we hope to return to. If you haven't had the chance to travel to these places-I recommend you getting there at some point. I'll list them in my final blog(August 8).

Luckily, we got a good night's sleep last night and woke up pretty refreshed today. We have done a lot of driving and it really does make you tired. We've also driven almost 9,000 miles and gone through well over a dozen states.

We finished checking in at the campground and headed in to downtown Nashville. This is a city we could spend a week in and really enjoy ourselves. Our first stop was The Frist Center for Visual Arts. This was a recommendation from a friend and it worked out well. We parked in the parking lot there and got to explore the Center where there were some extremely rare cares we'll probably never see again. They were 1920s and 30s Art Deco style cars-beautiful! This building was an old post office and the architecture was really pretty as well. Now, only a small section is still a post office. Next to the P.O. is a really old train station that was also very pretty. We stayed parked in this parking lot and walked right down Broadway to the main part of Nashville. We made a stop at the visitor's center and kept on moving. The temperature was hot but there wasn't a lot of humidity. Once we got to about 7th street, it turned into a big honky tonk. There was live music coming out of every bar and restaurant and many restaurants were open air. It was close to noon at this point. We heard country music coming out of little speakers at each street corner. There is a ton of history in this city from the early to mid 1900s. The greats like Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Hank Williams, etc played at the old Grand Ole Opry(The Ryman Center) and then took breaks at the local bars. From what we read, The 80s and 90s were not the best times for Nashville. It sounds like it wasn't the greatest place to be during this time period. The person who owns the famous bar, Tootsie's, described it as a place where homeless people roamed and there were hookers and pawn shops and there wasn't live country music at all times like it is now. Anyway, we stopped at Honky Tonk Central for lunch. This was a 3 story restaurant/bar. We listened to the two hopeful country singers play familiar tunes and had a delicious lunch-this is the life.

We stopped in a few different boot shops just to check out what they had. Since we're in the heart of country music, everything was marked up about 50%. The original boots I wanted and thoroughly researched were 200.00 more and the only thing we could chalk it up to was the fact they were being sold in Nashville. Chris found the exact cowboy hat he bought in Wyoming and that was being sold for 50% more than he paid for it-wow! Luckily, we found our boots/hats elsewhere. We walked to the riverfront and sat for a few minutes watching the water and boats.

One of the coolest things we saw was a "Pedal Tavern." This is seriously what Bloomsburg needs-whoever starts one there will surely prosper. Basically, you get a group of 8-12 people and there is a driver who has a brake and a steering wheel in the front. There is a keg on the "Pedal Tavern" and music as well. Everyone pedals, the driver steers and brakes and everyone has an individual cup holder for their cold cup of beer! This thing was awesome! You pedal around the streets of Nashville, drinking beer and listening to country music and the best part is, all you have to do is pedal-no harm done!

We walked up the other side of the street and stopped at a homemade candy and ice cream shop. The ice cream and gelato was all made in-shop and tasted delicious on this hot day. We headed back to our car. We had decided not to tour The Ryman and maybe save that for our next trip. It was pretty expensive we thought for a tour. It cost 14.00/person and we were more interested in browsing and seeing downtown Nashville. Anyway, parking only cost us 5.00 since we had the discount coupon from The Frist. Chris and I planned on going back to Nashville to check out the night scene. On our way back to the campground, we stopped at The Parthenon. This is the only full scale replica of the actual Parthenon in the world. Thanks to our math-loving teacher friend, Catherine Orleski, we ended up having a really nice time at The Parthenon. We didn't know it even existed until she told us about it before our trip. Anyway, it was pretty cool to see what The Parthenon looked like-what an amazing structure.

The two of us were exhausted driving back to the campground. We took a much needed couple hour nap and headed for the pool. I really didn't feel like going out in Nashville. This could mean one of two things: either, I had so much fun during the day I wore myself out, or the more likely option-I'm getting too old for days and nights like this :( . Hitting a quarter century is really taking its toll on me. Anyway, we had a really great night of sitting at our site, cooking pie-iron pizzas and hotdogs, listening to country music coming from the camper speakers and drinking corona with lime. We had our lights on our camper set up and it really was a much better choice and a relaxing night. Tomorrow we head to Gatlinburg, TN. We only have 4 nights left until we go home.

It's bittersweet. We are excited to get home and sleep in our bed again and spread out in our humble abode and have Gimley back and get our new kitten(well, I'm excited about this one), but this trip has flown by and we have made so many memories that I don't want it to end...