KY State Capitol/ My Old KY Home SP

4/9 and 4/10 Happy Birthday Brad (30 years old today)! We feel so old! Left the Horse Park in the morning and headed west to Frankfort the capitol of KY. Stopped by the capitol which is considered to be one of the most beautiful in the country set between two bluffs overlooking the city. Very impressive and the tulips that they have all around it is stunning. Drove by the Frankfort Cemetery which overlooks the city where Daniel Boone and his wife Rebecca are buried as well as 17 KY governors. Then drove to one of the distilleries Buffalo Trace which is on the KY Bourbon Trail. Since KY produces 95% of the whiskey and bourbon in the US – this is a big deal. What a place! Friendly tour guide Fred and they give such a great tour and end it with tastings at the end. I swallowed some White Dog and almost passed out – it was like moonshine. George had to buy some and a glass.
Headed down south but stopped at another distillery 4 Roses and we were planning to stop at Wild Turkey but we had thunderstorms and hail. They were predicting tornadoes again so after 4 Roses we headed on the KY Blue Grass Parkway to Bardstown where we were staying the next two nights at My Old KY Home State Park. Once we were on the parkway heading southwest the sky turned blue and was clear as anything. Very hot when the sun came out! Drove past the campground to visit another distillery Heaven Hill and the Bourbon Heritage Center. Nice museum and great tour. The Bourbon Trail is a big tourist attraction here and they give out passports to get stamped every time you visit – very similar to the CT Wine Trail booklets. On Sunday we plan to visit My Old KY Home at the park where Stephen Foster stayed visiting friends when he wrote the song that everyone sings at the beginning of the KY Derby. Then we are going to visit another distillery on the Bourbon Trail - Maker’s Mark which is listed on the historic places – cute place and we were allowed in where the vats are and the yeast was bubbling away. They also allow you to dip any bottles of whiskey that you buy to seal the bottle. We wanted to visit the Jim Bean Distillery but they are redoing their visitor center in three parts and it will not be done until 2012. Jim Bean is also in a dry county so no tastings especially on a Sunday. Monday we will be headed out of KY towards TN and I hope the weather gets better. Even though we have had sunny days lately in the high 80’s there is always a threat of a thunderstorm, tornadoes and hail. Those who live around here are just used to it and the sirens that go off when one should go to a shelter. Beautiful state though and so much to see! The campground was cute with 31 sites and an 18 hole golf course is all around it. The club house is walking distance to our site and you can camp here and just walk over to start playing.
Just a note of thanks that the government is not shutting down on Monday so that we can camp at the COE, National Parks, and National Forest sites that we have reservations for next week and the rest of our trip. We were making alternate plans but when I heard that our President considered the Cherry Blossom Parade as essential but the military wasn’t we were a little upset. Where is this country going?

Blue Licks, Clayborne Farms/ KY Horse Park

4/6 Left Fort Boonesborough State Park and headed back to Richmond to visit White Hall which was restored by the State of Kentucky during the 1960’s thanks to Governor Dunn’s wife. She was able to restore this big, beautiful home in three years and at the same time restore two other historic homes. This was the home of Cassius Clay the politician and former ambassador to Russia during the 1800’s. It is a 44 room estate house and much of the furniture was given back by their relatives for the restoration. The tour guide we had was excellent and he just took the two of us around at 9 in the morning. He was soooooooooo good that George even gave him a $5 tip – so you know he must have been good.
We left there and stopped for some food shopping and headed up to Paris on the scenic byway. This route has one horse farm after another and many of the farms are those that you hear about on Derby Day! The fences stretch on for miles with so many horses just grazing on that Kentucky Blue Grass that is famous because of the lime which helps to produce some of the best racing horses in the world.
Arrived at Blue Licks Battlefield State Resort Park around 1 and ate a quick lunch before we started to hike up to see the battlefield site, the Inn, and the museum of the history of the area. The museum was very informative about the fights for the Blue Lick Salt Springs and Daniel Boone was a big part of this history. He lost one son here and a nephew in the last revolutionary war battle and then another when the Indians attacked a group he had guided to the springs. The Buffalo Trace goes through here – that’s the trail that they would make going from the springs to other areas for food and shelter. The Trace was used by Indians and those exploring the west. Really nice day again today in the 70’s with the sun out.

4/7 Left this morning for our tour at 11 of Claiborne Farms in Paris, KY where Secretariat retired after his triple crown to become top stud and where he is buried. Very interesting – one needs to call for the tour because they don’t have them everyday and they only take about 20 people at a time. The farm is on 1,300 acres with many houses and 80 full time workers. It has 93 miles of fence alone so they have a full time fence painter. Beautiful piece of property. Our guide who is a groomsman was named Rodeo and he had worked on many farms but has been at this farm the last five years. He took us around the farm showing us the stalls where their top horses live and the signs who lived there before like Secretariat and Bold Ruler. He explained the studding process and fees. Right now their top stud is Pulpit who makes over 6 million a year. He brought out Pulpit and then Blame for the group to pet and have pictures taken and then gave them peppermint candies for a treat. Rodeo explain how violent some of these thoroughbreds are and that they will also try to bite you. They each have their own pasture with a double fence between them so that they don’t fight. Beautiful horses! This tour was great and the farm is top notch – no wonder it takes over 6 million to run the farm per year. He also took us to the cemetery for their top horses (there are 5 total on the property). Secretariat, Bold Ruler, Secretariats parents, Riva Ridge and about 12 others are buried here. Horses are buried generally with only their head, hooves and heart but 5 of them at this cemetery were buried whole. Secretariat is not only buried in one piece – he is the only one that was embalmed. If one remembers how big he was and that at his death they discovered that his heart was 3 times the size of an average horse and that explained his ability to win by 32 lengths at the Belmont. Huge lung capacity!
On we traveled to KY Horse Park State Park where they have a farm, campground and resort. Big campground about 320 sites and we were able to ride our bikes to come in the back road of the Horse Park next door which we had already purchased tickets for our second day here. This park is huge and is laid out in two big circles and primitive sites in the grass near the drive in. Friendly checkin and very informative. There is a store, tennis court, basketball courts, volleyball, Olympic-size swimming pool and two huge restrooms. The farm is a working farm with 115 horses, 80 fulltime workers, 1,224 acres, barns, indoor and outdoor show rings, museums, films and depending when you go horse shows. One needs to check out the calendar because many times the campground is full and the horse park closed for some events like the World Championships. Interesting place!

4/8 - Walked over to the KY Horse Farm State Park today and went through the museums as well as some of the shows that they put on. The Hall of Champions Show they play some of the winning races for about 6 horses that they bring out for show. These are retired champions like Cigar, Funnyside, and Dahoss and can’t remember the others. Then we went to the parade of breeds. There are over 40 breeds living here at the park and they ride some of them into a ring for a show and informational talks. The History of Horse museum has so much information that one needs to spend two or three days to go through the displays. Overwhelming! We spent over 5 hours in the park before heading back to the camper for an early dinner, shower and time to relax. The weather was hot, sunny in the high 80’s. We were in danger of thunderstorms and tornadoes again tonight but the storm went to the east of us. Great day!

2. 4/3
We left Sunday morning from Stonewall Jackson State Park in WV on a foggy morning but with the sun coming out as we drove south about 100 miles on 79 to the capitol of WV, Charleston. Beautiful drive up and down hills like going through Franconia Notch in NH but that is only two miles and this drive is over 300. Stopped in Charleston at the capitol complex and walked around. This is a wonderful complex and it is huge. On weekends visitors can park free and visit or walk around this landscaped complex with dogwoods, tulips, many other flowers including cherry trees in full bloom. The State Capitol with its Vermont Marble and gold dome, the governor’s mansion, archives, state museum, cultural complex and other buildings are all on these grounds. The river runs by it with sidewalks for running and walking and there are a number of memorials to those who have died serving our country from WW1 to the present time. If you ever come by here it is definitely worth a stop – tours are given most days and most buildings are open but not on Sunday morning. George said he has a different view of WV after seeing this – it is the most outstanding and beautiful capitol complex in the USA. The architect who designed it, Cass Gilbert, also did the MN and Arkansas capitols, the first world’s skyscraper the Woolworth Building, U.S. Treasury Building and the Supreme Court Building in DC.
Left there and headed west on 64 with a stop in Milton, WV to visit the museum of the Blenko Glass Works. Small but interesting and they have designed the stain glass windows for St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC. They also have designed the Country Music Awards and many sports trophies. The gift shop shows their dinnerware, vases and everything else they make. The glass ornaments for $50 are something to see. Good stop!
Headed west from here through Huntington, WV where Marshall University is and
arrived at Grayson Lake State Park Resort in Grayson, KY around 3 in the afternoon where we spent the night. George is so mad he did not bring his golf clubs because they have an award winning golf course right next to the campground actually the first sites must find a number of golf balls coming right at them especially if Brad and George were playing. Kentucky has a number of State Parks with golf courses and they are very reasonable. State Park is nice with swimming, hiking, golf, swimming, boating, volleyball, basketball, hiking, horseshoe pits and picnic areas. We spent the rest of the day exploring this park. The best thing about this park was that after having hail and below freezing temperatures for the last two days – today was sunny and close to 80.

4/4 – Left Grayson Lake State Park Resort around 8:30 am to head west again on 64.
Only had about 50 miles to travel today before we got off the interstate. We were headed for Natural Bridge State Resort Park, KY near the Red River Gorge. Well, our GPS took us off the highway down these backroads to Stanton, KY and did we see KY. The old KY with narrow roads and most homes right on the road either mobile homes or small houses with porches. Saw a lot of men sitting and talking and waving as we went by. This is a slower pace of living. Once we got to Stanton we headed toward the Natural Bridge Area and it was very confusing at first to find the campground we were going to since there are a couple of them. Again this area reminds of Franconia Notch area in NH. We were assigned a great site backed up to the mountain with the river out our back door. There were little bridges to cross over to get to the restrooms and the ranger station. Since there was a storm coming we changed sites to get on the other side of the river for safety reasons. This storm is coming in late this afternoon with heavy rain and wind and there are some tunnel clouds reported touching the ground. Just what I feared – the weather in KY has been terrible this year.
We did take a drive around the byway to the Red River Gorge Area and Daniel Boone National Forest but we were lucky there wasn’t any other traffic. Roads are not meant for RV’s over 25 and there are a lot of curves but with pullouts for hiking, sights and National Forest campsites. Came back to the campground in the afternoon to wait out the storm. so if you don’t hear from us again this is where the tornado took us off to never, never land.
4/5 Well, we were lucky last night one storm went to the north of us and the other storm came through but the worse part of the storm with hail and tornadoes just missed us to the south. We left and headed south towards Berea where Berea College is. What a beautiful campus and none of these students pay tuition – they have to work for their tuition. This college has a huge endowment so that 80% of their 1,500 students come from Appalachia country and are low income with rest from all over the world. They work on the farm and with all the artists that live in Berea. The college gives tours and the small town has a really cute downtown with shops, inns and restaurants. There are tours around the town of all the artist studios are. Berea has arts and crafts of all sorts – paintings, glassware, jewelry, pottery etc. The Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea was built by the state for visitors to explore Kentucky artisan works and their stories, crafts from all the state, music and there is a cute little restaurant there showcasing foods from Kentucky. We really enjoyed our visit to this town and the Artisan Center. The workers there gave us so much information about visiting this area and the history of the college.
Left this area and headed back towards Lexington when we stopped in Richmond to visit the visitor center of the Richmond Battlefield. Found some parts of it but they do not open until May so could not get into the center but we could tour the battlefield which is what we did. Headed for Fort Boonesborough State Park where we were staying for the night. Set up camp and ate a quick lunch then hiked through the woods up a hill to Fort Boonesborough where Daniel Boone established the second settlement in Kentucky. This is a reconstructed site built up higher away from the Kentucky River. Interesting and we really enjoyed visiting the fort and reading the history about Daniel Boone. Everything around here has to do with Daniel Boone. He and his wife actually died in Missouri and were buried at one of his son’s homes but the state of Kentucky requested that they be brought back to the state to be buried in this area where he lived and had such an influence on this state. Today was partly sunny but a little cooler again but it wasn’t raining.

Pictures

Here are some pictures!

3/30- 4/3

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Spring Trip 2011

1. (3/30-4/2) Well, we finally got on the road an hour later than we wanted to because George still had a lot of minor things to finish up packing before we left. The day before he was told his mom was not doing well so he went to visit her and we didn’t know what we were going to do. He called me from her Hospice around 8:30 at night and said that an hour before she was dying and that now “she was eating like a pig and thriving” so our trip was back on. Left around 9:30 in the morning and headed out 84 through CT, NY, and PA. Interesting because in all the times we have taken 84 through Scranton, there has always been tons of traffic but this time we were in Scranton around 2 in the afternoon and there was hardly any traffic. There were a number of “snowbirds” with their RV’s or 5^th wheelers heading north towards NY and New England. They were headed home from their winter down south or the southwest and wanted to get home before the storm hit and by April 1. We must have seen on interstates 84 and 81 at least 400 plus headed home in these two days traveling. Also, 84 and 81 in PA are always under construction with pot holes everywhere but the construction signs were up but no one was working so we made good time. Arrived at the Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs in Wilkes-Barre, PA around 2:30 and went into the casino, ate at the buffet and then came out to take quick naps. We had planned to stay in the parking lot the first night but with the snow storm expected to come in that night and the next two days we decided to drive on at 6 that night to get below Harrisburg so off we went.

Down 81, the driving was good until we hit Harrisburg when a mixture of rain and snow started to fall so it was hard to see in the dark. Stopped at 8:30 p.m. at a 24 hour Super Walmart in Shippensburg, PA and stayed in their parking lot. Nice Walmart and there was another camper that stayed the night so we felt quite safe.

Right now 81 is under major construction from Scranton to the MD line – we were lucky because we drove during the night and when a big storm was expected so no one was working but I would not plan on traveling this interstate for a year or two.

The next morning (March 31) we left and continued down 81to MD and then picked up 70 and 68 heading west through the mountains of MD to West Virginia. It was cloudy with temperatures around 35 degrees. We were planning to stay at a Walmart in Cumberland, MD or in Savage River Forest where the sites are $5 a night but again because of the weather and the storm expected we decided to travel over to Morgantown, WV. Beautiful drive through the mountains with temperatures just above freezing but because this crosses the Allegany Trail and mountains – up/down the whole way. In the late spring and fall this drive must be beautiful and that is why it is a National Historic By-Way.

We stopped and drove through Hancock, MD. Cute town definitely still has the civil war look to it. Visitor center here for the bike trail and tow path. Also stopped in Cumberland, MD where we visited the National Park Visitor Center for the Cheaspeake and Ohio Canal Towpath. Interesting and well worth the stop with the museum, train station, canal, towpath and bike trails. There are two bike trails that meet here – one from Pittsburg (Great Allegheny Passage, 149 miles and growing) and then the C&O Canal Towpath that goes from Cumberland,MD for over 184.5 miles to Georgetown in DC. If you wanted to ride both trails the total distance it is over 320 miles. There are hiker/biker campsites every 30 miles along the way with water and restrooms and this trail follows the canal all along the way. One can even stay in Bed and Breakfast’s along the route. It is quite level but I don’t know how with all the mountains we crossed. In Cumberland at the National Park Visitor Center during the summer time, they still give rides on tow boats along the canal with mules pulling them and National Park rangers walks and talks. We also went across the street to visit the Allegany museum which is in the old court house (worth a visit). This shows the history of flooding in the area before the COE came in and it gives the history of the Goodyear Tire Company that started in the area and the many glass companies that were here and eventually all burned down. The museum is run by volunteers from the area and they explained all the town has now is one federal prison and one state prison to provide jobs. It seems the families of the prisoners come to the area and decide to stay and their crime rate has gone up with theft, murders and problems that they never had before when they were growing up. While we were still here a huge chartered bus pulled up and another truck and out comes about 40 bikers who were going to ride all the way to DC in about four or five days. They had their tents and sleeping bags tied to their bikes and were ready for an experience staying at the campsites every 30 miles along the trail. It took them about three hours to get ready – checked out their bikes, blow up tires and to make sure they had everything they needed water, food etc. The bus and truck then took off to meet them in DC and might have met them at other stops along the way. These bikers ranged in age from 20 something to some that might have been over 70. I don’t think I could do it!

Continued on to Morgantown, WV where we wanted to visit the University of WV where Justine has been going to graduate school in the summer for her masters. We were warned by many people not to take the RV through the campus. Morgantown is a typical coal mining town – dirty and hills, hills, hills everywhere. We drove through the downtown with the University on the right and it was so congested and confusing that after stopping on hills at every light we just got back on the interstate. Even the houses around here are on hills – the garage on one hill and the front porch on another. The University has a monorail system to take the students up and down the hills to their classes. Students love WVU but I don’t know if I could take it with those hills. We were going to stay at another Walmart in Morgantown overnight but still keeping an eye on the snowstorm we decided to drive another two hours to Roanoake, WV where we were planning to stay for the weekend at Stonewall Jackson State Park Campground and Resort. So off we went and drove 79 going over and through many mountains and hills and going by one coal mining town after another. Also went by Clarksburg where Stonewall Jackson was born and that is why everything is named after him here. We arrived around 5pm with snow just starting to fall our last six miles of driving and plan to stay April 1 – 3. On Friday it snowed, sun came out and then it snowed again. It’s beautiful to watch when you are not driving.

Stonewall Jackson State Park campground (Briar Point Campground) and resort is interesting. The state turned this resort over to a private group to manage and run so the price reflects that. On the medium high side for a campsite but we did have electricity, water, restrooms/showers and a great site overlooking a lake with views of the golf course and Stonewall Lodge. There are 40 RV sites all with water views and 5 walk-in tent sites overlooking the lake. The resort has a marina, an Arnold Palmer Signature Golf Course, spa, hiking, swimming pool, Lakeside Villas, Conference Center, Lodge, restaurants, fitness center, boat tours, and one can bike around the complex. There is a 10% senior citizen discount and WV residents over 62 get a 50% discount from after Labor Day until four days before Memorial Day. Sundays through Wednesdays are cheaper (not much). One can pay $15 extra per day per site for four to use all the boats – paddle, water bikes, canoes, kayaks and bikes, pool, fishing equipment, fitness center, and boat tours. Good deal in the summer! We did not do any of that but we did hike the golf course and walked to the lodge. The golf course is hilly and difficult, since the fairways are narrow, there are many sandpits and the lake winds it’s way through most of the greens. They have 5 places to tee up at most holes for women and then to expert. Tough course but beautiful! Toured the lodge – really quaint with big fireplaces, indoor-outdoor heated pool, outdoor firepit and many things to keep yourself occupied. Spent three nights here with temperatures in the low 30’s to high 40’s mixed in with a snow storm, clouds and a little sun. This was a good stop where we were able to relax, hike and catch up on some sleep. When we arrived there were seven other campers and more were expected for the weekend. A number of Canadian snowbirds come in for a night heading north. They can be home from here with one more day of driving. We would go back but in the spring, summer or fall. No TV reception here which didn’t please my husband since the Final Four semi-finals were being played on April 2^nd so we might hike to the lodge to watch it in their bar since we don’t tow with our 25ft Fleetwood Pulse.

First Day- March 30, 2011

Wednesday - March 30 - Heading out around 8 through CT and PA. Hoping to overnight at the Mohegan Sun Casino at Pocono Downs in the parking lot. Campgrounds are not open in the northeast yet so will have to enjoy the buffet and maybe play a few slots. Lets hope we have a safe trip!