We left NJ on our way ultimately to our winter destination in Elsa Texas 2000 miles away. The question for us was what route are we going to take on our way south? We have made the PA Turnpike / I 70 route many, many times so that just wasn’t appealing. We have also traveled the I 80 / I 76 / I 70 route many times too. The only other routes would have to be more southern. So we picked the I 81 / I 64 route to St Louis and then south west to Branson MO.
We also decided we would head to Branson Missouri as a major destination stop. Now that we had a major destination we added Lexington and Louisville Kentucky as other major destinations for us along that route. However, Louisville didn’t work out because we couldn’t get a site anywhere near Louisville. We searched within a 30 mile radius and just couldn’t find a campground. It’s really weird that in October and in Louisville KY there are no vacancies! This Baby Boomer retirement thing just has to stop!
Our first stop after leaving NJ was where we stayed coming into NJ last week, the Dogwood Campground in Newville PA. We were going to walk around the town of Carlisle PA but we couldn’t find a parking space anywhere close to the historic district. So we drove up and down the streets checking out the town and looking for a parking space. It was really OK as this area seemed it wasn’t so much to see by foot anyway. I was, however, amazed at how nice of a place and clean Carlisle is.
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| We got a good day at a local golf course. |
I had only driven through Carlisle on my way via the turnpike before. I always thought of the town as something like Binghamton NY, an old depressing rust belt town. Well no, Carlisle is a very nice place. The town has done a great job of preserving its old character. We may still stop and walk around more at a future time.
We had rain enough that I got to test the leak fix I did in NJ. I had sealed the top of the slide with EternaBond tape when we were in NJ. The area still got wet, but less so. It seems that I am going in the right direction so I spent the afternoon on our one day here sealing the bedroom slide seam. So now I put silicone caulk all down the entire length of the side seams on both sides of the slide. Now I need to wait again for rain to see if this fixes the problem.
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| The edge between the slide wall and the screwed in piece is where I put the silicone caulk. |
After leaving Pennsylvania we headed south-west on I 81 through Maryland and into West Virginia. We stopped after about 200 miles near Morgantown WV at the Mylan Park RV Park. We stayed here our usual 2 nights and moved on to our next stop. It was cold and rainy here and Patty was not feeling well so we didn't do anything really. I did get in a nice 5 mile interval walk (fast walk with intervals of running) around the park. A rock show was going on while we were there so I walked over to check it out but that is about all we did.
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| Our parking lot type site. |
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| This T-rex was at the rock show. |
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| A view from my interval walk of our site. We are in the middle. |
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| That's us in the middle of the lot. |
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| A local place we had to got to! |
Now for our destination stop in Lexington Kentucky. We arrived at the Elkhorn Campground in Frankfort KY, the state capitol, on October 11. Frankfort is just a few miles west of Lexington. Again, we couldn't get a site any closer to Lexington as they were full!
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| This was a cool truck. At first I thought it was a semi truck pulling this 5th wheel. As I passed by I noticed that the rear looked like a Ford truck. Then we found the guy who owns the truck and found out he made this truck from scrap parts. It is a Ford F-550 with a Freightliner cab and has a small Cat 6 cylinder diesel engine. He painted his 5th wheel to match. |
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| Elkhorn is dressing itself for Halloween. |
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| We were backed up to the Elkhorn River so we had the view of the river out the back. |
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| The signs have been here for awhile! |
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| Our Halloween decorations. |
We are staying here for the next 3 nights to do a little exploring in this area of Kentucky. We planned to see a horse race, tour a Distillery, and to tour a horse farm. We accomplished 2 of our goals but didn’t get to the horse race. We were just a little too ambitious with just 2 days to spend here.
We toured the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort. Buffalo Trace is the oldest continuously operating distillery in the country. It was definitely worth doing! It is pretty cool how they make bourbon but I really don’t like the taste of it. I can say that finished bourbon tastes better than the stuff they first put in the barrels though! That stuff tastes like rocket fuel!
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| The oak barrel storage buildings. Some of these buildings are original to the distillery in the early 1800's. |
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| Our tour guide was great! He has been here his entire life. His father worked here his whole life too. |
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| Inside of one of the barrel rooms. |
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| We are in the packaging room. |
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| We were surprised that they still do the filling and packaging by hand. |
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| This is where they are drawing the bourbon from. |
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| Our guide and his father at his father's retirement party. His father was around for every batch that has come out of this distillery! |
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| Now for the tasting room! |
The horse farm we toured was more like a museum farm. The farm is owned by the state and run as a show place for horses and their upkeep. It was costly at $35 a person for the privilege of walking your ass off to look at loads of horses. We are happy we did it but wouldn’t do it again.
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| Entrance to the Kentucky Horse Farm. |
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| They had a very cool mechanical horse at the entrance. |
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| They were setting up the Christmas decorations at the horse park. |
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| A statue of the Man of War horse. |
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| They were having a Corvette convention in the area. We have never seen so many Corvettes in one place! |
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| A state police Vet! |
After our 2 days and 3 nights in this area, we off to Branson Missouri, 567 miles west.
Stay tuned!
