Straight to the track this morning ! The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Track, where they run the Indianapolis 500 each May, the biggest event on the American Racing calander. The Formula One was also run there. We took a drive around the track in a bus, the tour guide gave us a good run for our $3.00 entry ticket. The museum has many of the winning cars from the previous 500 races. All in pristine condition, Geoff's favourite were the cars from the 1930's. The whole complex is fully enclosed and is the size of a suburb at home. We drove into [View Full Entry]

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We did a drive through tour of Lexington City, passed Transylvania University on the way to the Bluegrass Airport War Museum, where Geoff took a personal guided tour, with a retired pilot. It was a very cold morning about 5c. Off to Pleasant Hill Shaker Museum, which is a complete Shaker township, we met the broom maker, the cooper, the shaker box maker and they all showed us their skills. Too bad I couldn't fit a broom in the suitcase..... I would of had one ! I did get a shaker box ! The workmanship of the shakers is down to [View Full Entry]

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A beautiful southern style breakfast awaited us in the dinning room.....Yum ! It was a very warm morning, beautiful sunny day. We then went to the Shaker Museum, it is the living quarters and meeting room of the religious Shakers, built in the early 1800's. It is set up as it would of been when the Shakers were there. They left this settlement in the early 1900's. We spent a good morning there, and then wished Marilyn and Tom a safe trip home to Rockford. On our way to Lexington we had a couple of stops at Franklin (Amish area), Bowling [View Full Entry]

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Our last day in Paducah today, Marilyn and I went to the American Quilters Society Museum. Geoff and Tom went to Bluegrass Downs a race track just out of town. We all met up for lunch at the rotunda in the centre of town. The quilt museum was spectacular, a pleasure to be there. We made our way south east, to Sth Union Kentucky, to stay at the Shaker House Tavern B&B. It looked like a great southern mansion with large white columns at the front, with shaker rocking chairs on the porch....... For the next hour after arriving I took [View Full Entry]

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Happy Birthday Geoff XXXX A day out in Paducah ! From Kentucky Lake to Paducah, is an hours drive through the green, green grass of Kentucky ! Paducah is a lovely country town on the banks of the Ohio river, it's also the home of the American Quilt Society Museum ! The place to be at the moment as the "Quiltshow" is on this weekend. Marilyn and Tom joined us from Rockford, Marilyn and I hit the shops and the show, Tom and Geoff hit the museums, the railway and the river museums ...... a good deal for all of us [View Full Entry]

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Today we stepped back in time and spent the morning touring the Amish farms and business's. We did a self guided tour with a mp3, it was very informative. We visited Drygood, hardware, fencing, quilt, garden & grocery business's. We purchased fruit and nuts, pumpkin bread, oat and raisin cookies, fabric and a deadblow hammer ! and a few other bits and pieces ! The fields are bare at the moment, the men and boys are working with their horse and ploughs sewing their fields. The ground is just starting to warm after the long cold winter. I had a find [View Full Entry]

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Today we left the"windy" city, that's what they call Chicago..... we didn't have any wind, just lovely warm sunny skys. We made our way south to Arthur, a lovely little Amish settlement.... and guess what ? The local quilt show just happened to be on ! The ladies were very happy to have a guest from sooo far away ! The quilts were great, there were antique as well as new ones. We stayed at a great B&B called Marsha's Vineyard, lovely accomadation and very friendly hosts. A glass of red wine and a soak in the bath made for a [View Full Entry]

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Another busy day ! This morning we were taken by our gps lady to US Cellular Field, home of the Chicago White Sox. We parked the car, picked up our tickets for tonights game and then went to the train station. With the help of a very nice station attendant we bought our $2.00 train ticket and took a ride into downtown Chicago. We took the loop train, which was great, it took us right through the streets above the roads..... just like you see on the movies ... we were so impressed, we did the whole loop and came around [View Full Entry]

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Today we did very well..... we didn't get lost ! The gps lady and Geoff did very well, getting us there, the traffic was fast and scary but.... we did itl ! We drove into downtown Chicago and parked at Navy Pier, a great entertainment and restaurant area on Lake Michigan, we spent time taking in all the views before having lunch on the boardwalk. You can tell it is spring, the birds are nesting and the bulbs are flowering, the trees are in bud. It was a lovely warm spring day, hazzy in the morning and late afternoon.... but [View Full Entry]

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It has taken us 26hrs travel time and we have arrived here at Hillside, Chicago and our white Chevolet Cobolt is parked in the carpark out front ! We checked in at midnight (3pm Monday your time). We had a delayed flight out of Auckland 2 hours late ,so we were rushed through customs and immigration at LAX to catch our Chicago flight. We just made it after running from one side of the airport through the carpark to the other side with all our 4 suitcases.... it was a good workout after sitting on our bums for so long. Hotel [View Full Entry]

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