Advertisement
Published: August 17th 2009
DSC02370 221
Tori and Josh.Hello again.
On Sunday we got up early and headed into Pennsylvania to meet up with Trish and the kids as they stayed the night in a lodge up in the mountains called Great Wolf Lodge. Tommy stayed home as he hurt his back.We got there about 10am. What an Amazing place,Its a 3 stories high Hotel that has a forest theme.Like fake racoons in the rafters and scuptures of wolves all around the place. Then we went into the indoor water park that is joined onto it. Tori and I teamed up and went on every ride we could. Josh and Ethan's friend teamed up and went on the rides as Ethan wasn't too keen on going on some of them. We had a ball. They had 6 tube rides of different thrill factors plus a wave pool, 2 spa pools, a huge water playground, another pool with animals to play on in. It rained on the way up there so all the outdoor pools were closed until in the afternoon the sun came out and we went out there too.On the way home we stopped at a IHOP for tea.We had an amazing thunder storm go over while we
DSC02339 190
Josh, Ethan, Grace and Tori playing in the water fountains. were in there.
Got home about 9.30pm to find Ross had been gardening during the day and we walked thru it all and bought it all inside the house in the dark. OOpps. Ross's gardening is pulling just about everything out of the front garden!!! So we said our good byes to them as they get up and go before we ever get up.
Monday morning Josh and I went down for a hair cut as Tori and Kylie went and stocked up on groceries.Then we hit the road.We headed across the Delaware memorial bridge into Pennslyvania for the 6th time in the last month. Heading west our 1st stop was at Hershey, Pennsylvania. Yes its a town named after Milton Hershey who founded the chocolate factory way back when. Navigating the trailer thru the streets to the factory is always fun, then we got preferential parking in the bus lane so that was a bonus. We went on a conveyor ride thru the history of the Hershey products, then thru the gift shop. Tori went and worked on a production line packing Hershey kisses that you can buy for $8 afterwards. While also paying to get your photo taken
DSC02315 166
Great wolf lodge. while doing it , No thanks. I just took a photo of her doing it and she left the box there when she had packed it. After there we kept heading west until we got to Bedford, PA. Found a campsite on the GPS and stayed there the night.
Tuesday we packed up and headed to Washington, PA just out of Pittsburgh, dropped off the trailer and went into town. Found a science center for kids which was pretty cool. They had all these interactive things there, I played against a robot at air hockey and beat it 1-nil. Until then no one had beaten it, 1 guy had scored a goal against it but the robot got 2 against him. So I thought I was pretty good anyway. Tori went on a trampoline while connected to some large bungy cords. She was able to do flips and stuff. Then we walked around the center of Pittsburgh. There are 3 rivers that join right in the middle of Town , so we just sat there on the water fountain and watched everyone rushing to go home. They have 2 large stadiums right on the river for Baseball and Football. I
always thought of Pittsburgh as a industrial town which they said it was back at the turn of the 19th century , but that has all ended now. Tori went for a swim when we got back to our campground just before dark.
Wednesday we packed up in the rain, Typical!! and headed southwest through into Ohio. For the 1st hour or so we were still in amongst the hill country. Trees everywhere you look. Went through some big tunnels at the top of some of the hills/Mountains.The mighty Dodge just drops down a gear and we still go up there about 60 MPH. Nothing like the roads at home thats for sure. Then we hit the flat planes of Ohio where we drove past Corn for hours and hours. We got to our campground in Cincinnati about 4pm. Weve found the state run parks are a lot flasher than the private ones. This one is beside a lake, Ashphelt driveways that the kids had a ball on with the ripstick. After tea we went for a bike ride around the lake as there is a biking/walking track all the way around that alot of people were taking advantage of
DSC02416 150
A Big kiss !! it. Josh and I were being silly buggers and Josh tried to take a short cut but got stuck in the long grass on the side of the track . He was laughing until Kylie told him to watch out for the snakes that live in that sort of long grass. Its the fastest weve seen him move in ages. We had a fire in the fireplace provided beside every section in the camp.We bought our 7 pieces of wood for $5.00 and it comes wrapped in glad wrap with a handle stapled to it. We cooked the last of our marshmellows on there. It really was a nice night to sit outside, these Canadian Geese flew over in formation just above the tree tops. Ross said he has them at the farm too . They only just lift off as he jogs along with the horses.
Thursday 13th , We got a phone call from my uncle Graeme who lives in Madison, Indiana which is about 1 1/2 hrs from here .So we went over there for lunch . Caught up with him and his wife Beth at a very nice little cafe place along the main street. Madison
DSC02414 148
Hershey kisses being made. is the largest historic area in the U.S. Most places have a few houses or a block, they have just about the whole town !!. So they took us on the walking tour of the town after lunch, Through the church where they got married. Past alot of very old houses and buildings etc. Good if your'e a contractor in the town as there will always be work fixing them up as long as you are prepared to jump thru all the hoops that go along with a historic building !!Permits etc. On our way back into Cincinnati we drove into the downtown area. We found Fountain square right in amongst the tall buildings of the business area and hotels where they were having a Salsa night. Hundreds of people were dancing, to performers singing and playing Salsa type music. One lady was up there teaching everyone how to dance but none of my family wanted to get up and make a fool of themselves with me. So we bought some Mexican food and sat and had a bud light lime with our tea and enjoyed the atmosphere. The evenings are really nice as the temperature is around the 80's
DSC02432 107
A typical barn in Pennsylvania. still and no wind. As it started to go dark we walked down towards the river and found a baseball game going on. Everytime the home team would score they would let off fireworks and it echoed thru the buildings.
Friday we packed up and headed for Nashville , Tennessee. On the southern side of Cincinnati we crossed a river into kentucky.One City , 2 states. Heading southwest we stopped just past Louisville for lunch. One good thing with the trailer on is we just pulled into a rest area, put the slide out and cooked ourselves a very nice healthy lunch, had a yogurt and a drink. I had a quick lie down then off we go again.Kylie found we were going past Fort Knox. So we made a slight detour and did a drive by. Fort knox is 100,000 acres on either side of the road.The bomb-proof bullion depository, on Gold Vault road, surrounded by security fences, machine-gun turrets, patrol guards, and huge floodlights, stores nine million pounds of the Federal gold reserve behind doors weighing 20 tons apeice. Funnily enough there are no visitors, and if you stop on the road longer than 5 minutes , you
DSC02458 094
This is a common site for us. will be moved on.
We got to Nasville about 4.30pm but it was only 3.30pm as we had crossed over a time zone along the way. Got set up and while Kylie cooked tea we went for a swim. Yes its a bit hotter down here. 96 degrees is about 36 C, the water felt like bath water it was so warm but still nice to jump into. Funny there wasn't many people sitting around the pool. After tea we headed just down the road to The Grand Ole Opry to pick up our tickets from the Hotel. What an amazing place !! Its huge with 2 arboretums that the hotel rooms open out onto. They have bars and restaurants in the middle of the huge trees and plants. The lobby is a buzz of people, Fancy shops selling really nice Country and Western clothes.We caught the shuttle bus from the hotel to the Opry. We found our seats in Row Z, the place was sold out, so lucky we booked our tickets earlier in the week. Its a radio show that goes out every Friday , Saturday and Tuesday night and has done since 1925. It goes out to
DSC02454 129
Tori running around the water fountain in Pittsburgh. millions of listeners across the states and its now on the internet too. 4,400 people in there watching the show. Most of the performers are old timers as its classic Country and Western but they encourage the younger Country guys to perform as well. There was some guy who was doing his Opry debut there, he used to be a world champion bull rider.One old guy ' Little Jimmy Dickens' should have stopped performing years ago, he was 88 and still singing badly .Between songs they go to an ad break, which is a guy standing on the side of the stage reading out the ads, then when hes done he says now its back to Barry whoever, the guys standing right next to him but I guess you don't know that when your'e listening to it.The only one I knew up there was Vince Gill, he's pretty big over here and he really showed the others up . They kept him till last, so everyone stayed I reckon.The kids enjoyed it except for some of the old croony singers. The kids didn't get the jokes but laughed there heads off at the old couple in front of us who
DSC02465 101
Our campfire in Cincinnati. thought the jokes where just hillarious !! One group played a song with just guitars, banjo's, fiddles and yukalali (no idea how you spell that ). That was pretty cool. It went for 2 hrs broken up into 4 1/2 sessions then they break for a long ad break. So it was good.
Saturday,Josh and Kylie headed over to the office area as they were having a $4 pancake breakfast, Sounds like Josh ate his fair share and some. So Tori and I just made our own Gluten free ones here.
Well we had a bit of an issue with the laptop during the week. Someone closed it and there was something in the middle and it cracked the screen. So you couldn't see the bottom half of the screen.So you couldn't use it. So I took it to a place called Best buys, its like walmart. They have a department called " The geek squad " and they look at everything from computers to vacuum cleaners. He showed me the screen and what had happened and said it will cost $600 to fix and it will take 3 weeks !!!!!!!!! Bugger. So neither of those were a good
DSC02478 077
Inside Opryland hotel. option, so I had to go off and have a think about it. I went back and said if I buy just a normal monitor , can I just plug that in and use it as the computer is still working fine just can't read whats on the screen. Yes was the answer, $100 bucks for a 20' wide screen was the cheapest I could find, so were back in action and thats why this is a weeks worth. We won't go into my 1 1/2 hrs of writing this last night till 11.30pm then clicking the save button for it to come up please log in, yes everything I had typed when sailing off into space. F..........en Computers !!
We went and found the Cooters shop not far from us. Thats Cooter from ' Dukes of Hazzard'. It has memorabilia from the show plus Daisys car, police car and the General Lee. The General Lee wasnt there, it was at some military thing but will be back Monday morning, so we will go back to see it.They had a clothes line hanging up with about 5 pairs of daisy's short shorts on it. Right next to that is Willie
DSC02483 082
Rooms open out onto the open gardens. Nelsons place. Quite tacky! but I still got my photo taken with his life sized poster.
The kids went over to the arcade area by the office where they can play video games, air hockey etc. Well I gave them $1 each( yeh, last of the big spenders !!) and said way you go. About 1/2 hr later they both come back laughing away and excited as. Tori put her money in one of those games where you have to operate an arm and try and push the toy over and down the shute as it goes round and around. Well normally you can never win on them but for some reason it gave her heaps of credits , so she just kept trying and trying and she came home with 3 x MP3 players. 1GB ones, 2 pink and 1 silver. Jammy little girl!!! After tea we went out for a ragey saturday night !! yeh right, we went to Walmart. Kylie did the grocery shopping while the rest of us went looking. The kids found another rip-stik for $40 this time. They have loved using the other one so its been really good and it gets them outside
DSC02500 071
Me and my mate Willie. doing some exercise. They're getting pretty good at it too.
Sunday we got up and drove out to Lynchburg Tennessee. Population 361. Yes to the Jack Daniels distillery. They have got a new reception area now and the tours are free. Takes you around the site and tells you how Jack started it all at the age of 16 and why he started there due to the fresh clean water that comes out of the hill behind it. Once they have made the whiskey they drip it through charcoal , thats where it gets its flavour from. On the tour the guide lifts up the top of the vat and if you take in a good sniff you can taste the whiskey, take in too much and it will burn your throat. Yeh baby.and he gets paid to work there.They make a green label , that the rougher , sweat tasting whiskey .Gentleman Jack that gets dripped through the charcoal twice which gives it a smoother taste.It takes 6 days for it to drip thru 14ft of charcoal and come out the bottom. But heres the best deal of all. You can buy whats called a single barrel Jack Daniels.When
DSC02501 072
Thought this was good. theyr'e sampling each barrel of whiskey as it comes of age, Jeff ( the master distiller ) sets a few aside,ones with the smoothest taste, richest colour and more intense flavour. These barrels are destined for something special:To be sold one barrell at a time, to our most discriminating customers. Less than five-tenths of one per cent of their whiskey earns this distinction. ( Can you tell I'm writing this straight from their brochure !!) You can go there and taste test with Jeff and pick your barrel. They will hand package it into 750ml bottles, usually about 240 bottles out of a barrel.Then they will give you a certificate and the actual barrel and send it to your place. Price range is somewhere between $9,000 - $12,000 USD.($35- $40 bottle) price depends on your local taxs and yield. Right so whose in with me to get one of these sent to New Zealand. They thought they might get a few people interested and it went nuts. Bikie gangs, sports clubs, Military clubs all signed up and they are doing about 20 times more than they thought they would. We went into Lynchburg for lunch. Basically its a town square
with shops selling Jack Daniels stuff. Alot of the Harley rider come out in the weekends over here. So a ride to Jacks place , have some lunch, talk a bit of shit with your mates and then ride home seems to be a pretty good way to spend a sunday to me!, and to hundreds of others by the look of it today.
Then we drove about an hour away to Cumberland Caverns. What an amazing display of caves.These are lime caves and as the water erroded the lime away it has left huge halls with flat ceilings.They look like they have been built not made over thousands of years. We walked for a mile and a half. But here are 32 miles of tracks in there. They have made them wide enough to get an old WW2 jeep in there as they have groups sleep down there. That would be really cool.They have put in toilets, a dinning room with an awesome chandelair and a pipe organ they scored from somewhere in Boston when it was getting pulled down. Came back to the camp for tea and a swim. This evening they had a band playing by the
DSC02507 004
Josh, Jack and I. pool for some ladies birthday,that was pretty good. Kylie sat there dinking her booze she had bought. The kids keep giving her a hard time about being an alcoholic as she keeps pointing out liquor stores around the country and telling them how hard it is to buy wine as some grocery stores dont have it like at home . LOL.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.202s; Tpl: 0.024s; cc: 11; qc: 53; dbt: 0.0958s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Lisa
non-member comment
Busy Busy
Well you Claridges have certainly been busy wee travellers!!!! O so jealous..... I got your card in the post today and couldnt wait till Sunday to open it!!!! So I opened it haha very cool card and darn right too, yes we will be definitely be rocking Vagas, Grace thought it was a hoot. And thanks so much for my Charms, they are just awesome. Wish you could be here to celebrate the BIG 40 with me, and I know you would look just great in a WIG!!!!!! should be a laugh. The celebrations start on Thursday so its going to be a long few days of drinking and eating.. Bring on the naughty 40's I say!!!! Well I'm off to do transport for Jamp Jam now. So will talk to you soon. Miss you xx