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Published: September 17th 2010
Mural at Cape Girardeau
One of many murals here. This one was of an earthquake which did a lot of damage to the area!August 20-21—I left Branson, Joy and Dan and headed across southern Missouri. Spent the night in a small town called Mountain View, then headed upstate to Cape Girardeau on the Mississippi River. I couldn't find the RV park I was looking for, so went to another one that was way out in the woods. It was very shady and away from everything!
August 22—I drove to one little park with a hill that overlooked a bend in the Mississippi River, then drove on downtown, Cape Girardeau has lovely turn-of-the-century homes. There is a great park along the riverfront with a very long wall of murals. Unfortunately, the downtown area is run down. I hope they are able to revive it. It really is a pretty area. I stayed for awhile watching the “tug” boats pushing huge barges up and down the river. I took some pictures of the murals, then drove on up to the bridge. Once I crossed it I was in Illinois. I crossed the southern tip of the state, going through Cairo and by Ft. Defiance, where the Wabash River empties into the Mississippi. I went down into Kentucky and headed to “The Land Between the Lakes”
Mighty Mississippi
Barge and bridge from the banks of the river at Cape Girardeau, MO National Recreation Area. I spent the night in a Corps of Engineers Park there.
August 23—I explored the “Land Between the Lakes” or LBL for short. This area intrigued me on the map, because it it a “no man's land” between Lake Kentucky and Lake Barkley, and it goes from Kentucky into Tennessee, but doesn't belong to either state. It is a national recreation area.. I think the lakes are from dams on the Tennessee River and the Cumberland River. My Corps of Engineers Park was on the Barkley side. I drove down the main road, called “The Trace” to the visitors center. The best part of that stop was watching the hummingbirds at three different feeders. The lady at the gift shop said she though they must be migrating, they were so hungry. I couldn't count them, but I am sure there were at least two dozen.
I bought a ticket to bison and elk prairie area and drove the circle around that enclosed park several times. I was disappointed that I saw only two elk and one bison. I had really hoped to see a small herd of each. They just didn't want to cooperate that
Churchill Downs
Home of the Kentucky Derby day. It was too hot. I did take pictures of several butterflies on a thistle bush, though. On the drive back to camp, I saw two deer grazing along side of the road.
August 24—I left LBL behind and drove on up to Louisville, to visit with a friend there. I met Betty through Joy and Dan. My trusty “Tom-Tom” got me right to her house, although I came within a hair's breath of an accident about five blocks away. I was in the right turn lane of the freeway when I heard the squeal of brakes. When I looked up there was a car skidding across the lane right in front of me. I don't know where he came from, but he was skidding sideways. If I hadn't slammed on the brakes and swerved a bit, I would have hit him in the passenger door! He did some tricky maneuvering, also, crossing at least two lanes of traffic, jumping a curb and plowing through a bush before coming to a stop on a grassy area. When I slammed on my brakes, everything in the RV came forward. I looked to see if the guy was okay and he
MIA Memorial
This memorial is at the National Cemetery near Louisville. was. Since we hadn't touched each other, I drove on to Betty's house to calm down
Bootsie—I don't know what happened, but I'm glad I was on the bed under a pillow. All I know is we came to a sudden stop and me and the pillow slid a little bit over the bed into another pillow. It sure woke me up. After a few minutes more of driving, we stopped again. When I was sure we were totally stopped for a while, I jumped off the bed to check on Marty. I had to hope over all kinds of stuff on the floor to get to the front, though. Actually, it was mostly books from the bookcases, the fold up table, the coffee pot and a vase that fell. It looked a lot worse that it was. I had most everything strapped down. I was very careful when I opened all the cabinets, though! After I cleaned up, Betty and I went out for spaghetti.
August 25-26—Days are somewhat blurred together here, but I know we did some sightseeing! First we went to Churchill Downs, the famous horse racing stadium. One could buy tickets for
Want to See Tanks?
Part of one of several rooms with tanks at the Patton Museum. a tour of the whole place, but I was content to take pictures of the entrance and tour the gift shop! I was impressed with the bronze sculpture Barbaro, the horse that stumbled, fell and broke his leg during the Derby one year. I remember watching that awful moment on TV. They tried so hard to save him, but finally had to put him down.
There were several interesting things in the gift shop. One was all the different decorated hats for women. Of course it is the style to wear a fancy hat to the derby. The other interesting thing to me was all the lapel pins in the racing colors of the winning horses all the way back to the first Derby in 1875! After buying my pin souvenir, Betty drove me all the way around the grounds so I could see all the stables in the back. We had our own tour outside the fence!
After that, we drove to the military cemetery where Betty's husband, Charlie is buried. This national cemetery has not been opened but a few years. The grounds were very well kept and it is always moving to see the white
Hussein's Head
Remember the statue that was toppled in Baghdad? The head is on display at the Patton museum near Ft. Knox. crosses perfectly aligned no matter which angle is viewed. There was also a poignant memorial for the MIAs.
After leaving the cemetery, we drove past Ft. Knox. Security is so tight there they wouldn't let us on the base, even with my military ID, unless Betty registered her car. We had also stopped just outside the gate to take a picture of the white depository building which supposedly holds the gold. The gate guard told us it is illegal to take pictures of the depository and told me to delete my pictures! Being the law-abiding citizen that I am, I deleted the pictures.. Naturally I wouldn't dream of sneaking a picture from the highway as we left, either!
Next stop was the Patton Museum. In addition to being the US gold depository, Ft. Knox is also the home of training for armored divisions of the army. Patton's Museum is actually a museum to tanks and other armored vehicles as well as Gen. Patton. I never knew there are so many different kinds of tanks! In addition to American tanks there were some German, Russian and British tanks in the display. They were grouped by the different wars, including
Vietnam Memorial
A traveling replica of the memorial wall in Washington, DC. Very impressive. the war in Iraq. One of the interesting displays was the head from the downed statue of Saddam Hussein.
After exiting the museum, we wandered the grounds and discovered a mobile replica of the Vietnam Memorial Wall on display. There had been a special “Welcome Home” celebration for Vietnam Veterans that day and we just happened to be there. About time those vets started getting the recognition they deserve. Too late for a lot of them.
August 27—We did more sightseeing today, heading out of town to Bardstown, This is a quaint old town with a beautiful courthouse and many other 18th and 19th century buildings. We went into Talbott Tavern,a 19th century tavern, and decided to have lunch while we were there. We split a "hot brown"--a special dish known only around Louisville. It's a unique open-face kind of sandwich that was delicious. We also shared a piece of “chess pie”. To me it tasted like a cross between egg custard and tapioca. Very good. Bardstown also claims to be the bourbon capitol of the world, so naturally we had to tour one of the distilleries. We went to Heaven Hill distillery where I learned some history
Bardstown Courthouse
Another beautiful old courthouse about bourbon and got to taste some. Bourbon is not my favorite, but I seldom turn down free liquor! This distillery is one of the largest, currently housing over ¾ million barrels of aging bourbon in large white warehouses.
While in Bardstown, we also toured “My Old Kentucky Home” State Park. Stephen
Foster wrote this song and some others while staying with friends in their palatial home in Bardstown. The house has been restored to its grandeur of the 1850s.
August 28-29—Our plans to tour the downtown area of Louisville were cancelled when we learned an “Iron-man Tri-athilon” was going on. Betty thought it would be too crowded and no parking there. I think she was right. We mainly stayed put and visited. We went out to eat at another local favorite called Kingfishers. We ordered a box of fried fish and sat out on the Ohio riverfront to eat. It was a beautiful day and cool for a change.
The restaurant is next to an old water works plant with an elaborate building in Greek-style architecture which was being restored. There was a lovely tower decorated with—get this—nine statues of the Greek muses and one Indian
My Old Kentucky Home
The home Stephen Foster wrote the song about. Located in Bardstown, KY with a wolf!! Oh, yes, I got photos. Need you ask?
Also while there we watched several men with their remote operated planes. It looked like fun.
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