Over the River

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July 1st 2019

Published: July 1st 2019

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3TravelingSisters

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checking out our route this morning. We can take the 90 minute drive or an alternate that is 50% longer. Why????

Day 3 – East Louisville, KY to Ashland, OH (332 miles)

We started our travels later today because there was no breakfast to be had until 7:30 at the hotel when it opened. What hotel breakfast opens so late??? We’re usually on the road by then. Since we were already out of sync, Pam kept forgetting things and having to leave the table: she forgot to get her drink, needed salt & pepper, then realized she had left her eggs sitting on the counter. And, just to add a little fun to the morning, Claire and Susan hid her oatmeal while Pam was up getting the missing eggs. Oh, sisters!!!

With no stops planned before Cincinnati area, Claire worked on the blog while Susan and Pam tried to entertain themselves as Pam drove the busy interstate. We can always come up with some funny stories from our childhood when there’s nothing else to do. When we reached Covington and toured through its historic district, we could see Cincinnati right across the Ohio River. Pam told us about the pedestrian bridge across the river between Cincinnati and Newport that she had walked on with her daughter a couple of years

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The Purple People walking bridge

ago, so in no time, we were across the river in Cincinnati and ready to go. The bridge is called the Purple People Bridge (made us think about the Purple People Eaters). The old steel beams of the bridge provided just enough shade along with the accompanying breeze off the river that it was a pleasant walk even in the mid-90s. From the bridge, you could easily see the Cincinnati Bengals and the Cincinnati Reds stadiums nearby. Afterwards, Pam and Claire wanted to get some extra steps so Susan said she would meet them as they finished. They walked on, while she went and found a bench. Yet, when they finished, Claire and Pam somehow ended up past where she was sitting and totally missed her because they had walked back on the smaller bridge just for pedestrians. So, they walked all the way back to the van thinking Susan had gone on. Nope, no Susan there. Where was she?? Ring . . . They called her on her cell phone and she snapped, “Where are you? Did you forget me? It’s hot out here?” She was still on the bridge and getting heated. Oops. Oh, sisters!!!

To cool

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Claire at one of the exercise stops on the bridge. This one was triangle pose in yoga.

Susan and the rest of us off, we drove up, up, up, and down, down, down all-around Cincinnati looking at various things: a book fountain and mural at the public library, the enormous Union Station building, and Findley Market. We kept rinsing and repeating (3 times) by the ornate Cincinnati Music Hall with its antique brick through cobblestone streets to get a picture of the building and of a crazy sign with a person falling off their bike that Susan just had to get. We ended our Cincinnati tour at Eden Park where we ate our lunch high atop the hill overlooking the river.

Back on the road, more interstates, and this time the only scenery around was flat farmland. Did we say flat?? We could pull out that, “This land is flatland, it’s really flatland” song we wrote from last year’s trip, but you get the idea. Miles later and we were in Wilmington, OH where we went to look at a giant Adirondack chair that we couldn’t even get in. Wasted trip. Back to more flat land. The GPS said we could take another route that would take us an extra 50% longer. And, why would we

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The sisters on the Kentucky / Ohio state line in the middle of the bridge

take that???

We reached the Capital, Columbus, OH, and drove over brick roads, saw a pretty Buddhist temple from outside, a giant gavel behind a construction fence, a deer on the bridge, the Capitol building, and a lighthouse on top of a church. Our final stop was in Hayesville, OH to see a Sunken Volkswagen and to mail some postcards at the post office. We bedded in Ashland, OH for the night in the Holiday Inn Express where from the moment we arrived it was wonderful stay (totally opposite of the previous night). We’re happy campers again.

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