Our last day of driving was a long one. We only made one photo-op stop along the way, at the Buffalo Bill bronze sculpture in Oakley, KS. This is a twice size sculpture, standing 16 feet tall and weighing 9,000 pounds. It sits high on a bluff and is pretty impressive! They also have a small exhibit in the welcome center.
We have two more driving days before we reach our Colorado destination. We got an early start and left our Bull Shoals campground to head north into Missouri and then Kansas.
Checking out Atlas Obscura, we found out that Laura Ingalls Wilder’s homestead was just a few miles off our route. I watched the TV series back in the 70’s and read a couple of the books, but knew nothing about Laura. The stories took place during her childhood in Walnut Grove, MN. She moved to MO with her husband and daughter and built their life on a 200 acre farm, Rocky Ridge. It wasn’t until she was in her 60’s that she started to write her stories, and everything in those stories is true to her life.
Continue readingThis morning we left Kentucky, drove through a corner of Illinois, along southern Missouri, and then dipped down into Arkansas, ending up at Bull Shoals State Park for our penultimate night of camping on our westward journey.
Along the way we stopped at Mammoth Springs State Park in Arkansas. This is the largest spring in Arkansas, flowing at just under 10 million gallons/hour. There’s a nice small lake behind the dam (which used to power a grain mill), a restored train depot, lots of picnic areas and a trail around the lake. It was the perfect spot for our lunch stop.
We spent the day in Paducah today and visited the National Quilt Museum. When I hear museum I think old things, but this is a different sort of museum. Their mission is to honor today’s quilters and inspire future quilters. There are three main exhibit rooms and all of the pieces on display are modern quilts. There are several quilters featured with many of their quilts displayed, other individual quilts and a competition exhibit. All of the quilts were amazing! They ranged from more traditional to very abstract. You can get up close and check out the intricate piecing and stitching on each quilt. I think they succeed in their mission.
We left Natural Bridge State Park on a rainy morning. Better to have the rain when we drive than on a day off! And isn’t a rainy day a good excuse to find some tasty pastries and tea? We found just the place in Lexington, KY – European Delights Gourmet Bakery. And we got extra pastries for tomorrow morning!
Driving through Lexington brought us past beautiful, picture-perfect farms. We didn’t see many horses, but I bet those huge, pristine barns were full of them. We weren’t far from Louisville – maybe we should have stayed for the Derby. Perhaps another year.
Our mid-day stop today was Mammoth Cave National Park. This cave system truly is mammoth! There are over 400 miles of connected caves, and more areas continue to be discovered. We took a 2 hour tour and got to see some of the most prominent features. Unlike our kayak tour, there were over 100 folks on this tour. They offer about 10 different tours with many departure times throughout the day – and they were sold out for the day (luckily, we had reserved tickets ahead of time). The cave system is on multiple levels. As the nearby river continued to erode the earth, the water in the caves would drain through a lower level, leaving the upper chambers dry. Our tour took us to a depth of over 300 feet. Tours have been given in the cave for over 100 years, and those early tours were by oil lanterns and lasted 8-16 hours. They didn’t have the smooth walkways that exist today, so there was a lot of scrambling over the rocks. The guide at the back carried a large pack and halfway through the tour would lay out a large picnic for the group. It sounds fun to me!
We settled into our campsite in Paducah for the next 2 nights. This is an urban campsite – a small family run business. We can hear the highway and some noises of the city, but it’s a good spot to let us explore Paducah. Tomorrow’s highlight will be the National Quilt Museum. Stay tuned!
Today is our first day of local adventuring. We have 2 no-travel days scheduled along our route to Colorado. There’s so much to see along our way, but we really do want to get to Boulder!
In the morning we ventured down the road to go kayaking in an old limestone mine. The cool thing about this trip is that the kayaks are clear plastic and have lights on the bottom. There are also lights in places under the water. It’s very cool – and very cool – 50o in the mine with 38o water. We had a small group of about 6 kayaks and 2 guides. The limestone was mined for almost 100 years, until they hit an aquifer and the mine flooded. There was no way to pump the water out, so the mine was abandoned. Now there is a thriving business of Kayak and stand-up paddle board tours – we were told that tours will almost always sell out.
We had another leisurely morning before setting off from North Bend State Park to Natural Bridge State Park in Kentucky. We didn’t have any set stops along the way, but found a nice spot for lunch at the Grayson Walking Trail in Grayson, KY.
As we got closer to our destination, we stumbled upon Broke Leg Falls in Wellington, KY. It’s a little hidden spot, and I’m sure most people drive by without knowing it’s there. It’s a nice little gorge with a waterfall that you can walk under, and there is a trail going down along the gorge. Broke Leg Falls was in the path of a tornado that went through the area in 2012. The walkway structures have been rebuilt, but the damage to trees is still very evident.
Continue readingWe have fairly short drives most days on this trip, so no need to leave super early. Today we were on the road at 8:35am.
Yesterday and today we could see that spring is well under way as we drive through the countryside. The trees have the soft glow of greens and reds as the buds are beginning to emerge. And I have never seen so many redbud trees! As we drove along the Ohio River, the bright pink was popping out everywhere. I think it may be the tail end of the redbuds since there’s almost as much pink on the ground as on the trees. Our redbud at home was just beginning to pop when we left for our trip.
Our first stop was for breakfast in Binghamton, NY. Since we bring our kitchen along with us, we just need to find a pleasant spot to take a break. I use Atlas Obscura whenever possible to find unique places for our breaks. We have visited the largest ball of twine, the largest ketchup bottle, and the Grand Kugel on previous trips. Today it was the carousel that inspired Rod Serling to write the Twilight Zone episode “Walking Distance”. There is also a plaque in the gazebo that is dedicated to him. It turns out that this was very fitting, as some towns we will later drive through are definitely in the Twilight Zone.
Continue readingWe settled into our camping spot, which had the perfect view for the next day’s eclipse viewing. We met some fellow campers and invited them to join us for the big event.
After finishing off our BLT’s, we brought out the cribbage board – a now routine evening activity when we travel. Tonight’s game was as close as you can get – we finished a hand with each of us one point away from a win, and Rachel got that point.
