Travel Day

Arrived at Lewis & Clark State Park near Rushville, MO (north of Kansas City) in time to do 2 loads of laundry and cook burgers on the grill.   HOT......98 when we arrived ... 85 now at 10 EDT.    Planning another travel day tomorrow but not sure yet how far.    Got to make our Labor Day weekend plans and reservations.    Haven't had any trouble getting a place so far but the holiday weekend may be different.   Hope everything is good with all of you!!!!

Just a few signs ............

Travel Day

In preparation for leaving Hermann City Campground this morning.  Tom & Beau had made the final walk around the trailer and were ready to board the truck to start another day of travel.    Planning to cover some ground today 'cause we're ready to get closer to "some silver & turquoise Indian jewelry".   :-)

The riverfront on the great Missouri River in the little German settled
town of Hermann. It is such a sleepy little place ......but the day was
saved by a lovely German meal at The Vintage Restaurant next door
to a winery. The skyline at dusk was lovely. Amtrak tracks run
alongside the river. Train pulled in and out while we were taking
photos.

Lewis & Clark Statue

Statue of Meriweather Lewis, his dog Seaman, and William Clark in the Missouri River directly in front of the Gateway Arch.

St Louis MO

This morning in St. Louis, it was raining hard. Stopped a bit before we got to the Arch but with the visibility being so limited, we decided to skip going to the top. Looked pretty scary to me anyway.

ST. CHARLES, MISSOURI

Caught the trolley to the Boat House & Nature Center which houses a full scale keelboat like Lewis & Clark used on the Missouri River.    The photos in the collage depict parts of the exhibit in the museum and a couple of historic locations on Main St, St. Charles.     The street and sidewalks are brick in the 10 block section of Main Street designated on the National Register of Historic Places.    Quite an interesting town with lots of history......this being the starting point basically of the Lewis & Clark Expedition.    Daniel Boone was also one of the historical characters in the history of the town after losing his property in Kentucky when KY became a state.    Eventualy he lost his property in St. Charles in the same manner.    Don't forget to click on the photos to enlarge if you are interested in seeing them more clearly.  What a nice breeze this evening.........much better than last night.  

Today was a travel day ..... leaving Lexington KY at 9:00 o'clock this morning, going through Louisville, crossing the states of Indiana and Illiniois, crossing the mighty Mississippi River as well as the Missouri River before reaching our destination in St. Charles, Missouri (just a ways past St. Louis). St. Charles was the first capitol of Missouri and has a lot of history relating to Lewis & Clark and Daniel Boone. Tomorrow we plan to take the trolley through the historical section of town as well as going into St. Louis to visit the Gateway Arch.

"When you are on a great horse, you have the best seat you will ever have."    
                                        - Sir Winston Churchill

We left the campground yesterday about 9:30 and were transported via golf cart to the visitor center in the horse park.   First of all, we were given a Clydesdale drawn trolley ride to become acclimated to the park then we were on our own two feet to see whatever we wanted to see.    We visited the Hall of Champions first and met four retired race champions.   Check out http://www.kyhorsepark.com/ and meet them for yourselves.   Our favorites were Da Hoss and Cigar.    Beautiful animals.   The handlers were quite interesting as well.  The little black man is 84 years old and his first experience with horses was when his father tossed him up on Man O' War when he was a youngster and he was hooked.   Has worked in the horse business ever since.   We then saw a show of breeds followed by a visit to the museum.   Gifts of the Desert is a temporary (on loan) exhibit from Saudi Arabia portraying the history of the Arabian horse.   The exhibit was heavily guarded and no cameras allowed ....because of the high value of some of the pieces on display.   In our opinion, the permanent exhibit owned by the park was incredibly interesting.   Tom's ready to go to dinner ...... willl send photos later.    Love to all.   

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard

The first posting of photos is NOT perfect but I hope to improve as time goes on.   Enjoy!    Tomorrow we tour the horse park itself and leave for St. Louis on Saturday morning.   Weather is wonderful here.   High 80 today;   tonight's low expected to be 55 degrees.    Low humidity.    Beautiful rolling hills and horse estates.   Today we passed the Retirement Farm for Thoroughbred Horses with lots of beautiful horses in the pasture.  :-)      

Kentucky

  2nd Day, Aug 25th, 2010

Entering Kentucky from West Virginia ……nothing dramatic at all. Kentucky Horse Park Campground taken from our campsite showing hardwood trees and part of the pavillion.    Very nice park and weather is perfect – about 80 degrees today and expect 55 tonight.An overly rich man and his wife traveled to England, where the wife said she would like to own a castle.   Upon their return to KY, the man had this house built.     Duh!!!!! Tom entering the Four Roses Brewery.    Beau waited in the truck.   We had a very nice tour beginning with a short film showing the process, then a live tour of the distillery, followed by a tasting of 3 of the Four Roses brands (ranging in price from $24-$36 for a fifth.    A curved piece of granite atop bourbon aging barrels.  Outside the actual distillery.   Lots of petunias in barrels and lots and lots of roses about the grounds.   

  Inside the brewery.

The Capitol of Kentucky located in Frankfort about 20 miles from where we are staying.   This is a slightly to the side view of the front.

This is a straight on shot of the front of the capitol.

Beginning

“There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it.” – Charles Dudley Warner

We had a great day today.    One place of interest was the Tamarack center for West Virginia artists and artisans and was quite interesting.   We took photos of some of the very expensive art work but I'm having trouble posting photos tonight.   Another was the state capitol in Charleston which has a dome of 14K gold leaf.   Spectacular!   We drove past twice (lugging the trailer behind) and were able to take photos ....all of which I will post as soon as I can.  

Tired ..... :-( ...but... Ready :-)

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.   So throw off the bowlines.    Sail away from the safe harbor.     Catch the trade winds in your sails.   Explore.     Dream.      Discover."    ~  Mark Twain    

Tomorrow is the first travel day........ Tuesday, August 24, 2010  ......  From home to  Fox Fire RV Park near Charleston West Virginia. 

A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip;     a trip takes us.         
 ~ John Steinbeck

This is an interesting thought......we'll see if our coast2coast trip offers us fun, excitement and adventure.

PRAISE

One doesn't get very far on a journey without a grateful and appreciative attitude.     PRAISE is an expression of gratitude.     We are grateful and praise God for the opportunity to make this trip to see more of His creations.

Starting packing the trailer last night with food and clothing... I guess it's really going to happen.    I did NOT sleep well ....I'm the worry wort.   

So let's see if this photo of the Airstream adds to the trip blog. This was taken in May 2010 when we were camping with the Telephone Pioneers in Virginia Beach. My newly found cousin, Dee Smith and her husband, Glen, invited us to join their group for this trip. We found them to be delightful and fun.

Continuing to plan trip and learn to use blog. 

Wow!   Creating a blog is an experience in itself but I think I've done it ....... yay!!!!!