Horses and Baseball Bats

Today was a fun day. It started pretty late but that’s ok. We slept in until about 8:30 which is very late for us. We had some mundane business stuff to attend to, but by noon we were on our way. I’m not much of a sports fan but was looking forward to seeing the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum. The tour was about a half hour long and no photography was allowed in the factory. They were making bats for the Yankees today. It was interesting to learn that they only use ash or maple for all bats and that wood comes from northern PA and southern NY. It used to take a person 30 minutes to craft a bat on a lathe by hand, now they make one in 30 seconds with machines. And baseball players are soooooooooooooooooooooooo picky! It’s not uncommon for them not to use a bat because something is off by 1/100th of an inch. They store the players preferences in a computer so when they need more bats, they enter the model number, put in the wood and poof! 30 seconds later a bat is born! Most players use about 100-120 bats per year.
The streets of downtown Louisville reminded me of NYC, they are one way streets, 4-5 lanes wide and BUSY!!!, but with a southern hospitality spin to them. Yup, they actually stop at red lights. And the artwork is pretty cool too. Buildings with pink penguins on them, a car body with feet under it and horses lying in the streets.

Horses and Bats VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

From there we drove to Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby Museum. It was getting late, so we skipped the tour this time and just did some Christmas shopping and took pictures outside. It gives us something to look forward to when we come back this way.
No crazy drivers on the interstate tonight so we had an uneventful drive back to Grandma’s RV Park. This is a nice quiet place and we will definitely return when we’re in the area. Thanks for traveling along with us on The Thomas’ Trails…till next time.

Elkhart, IN to Shephardsville, KY

Wow, we have been busy driving and sightseeing. We left Elkhart on Monday and drove to Anderson, IN. We only stayed one night at this campground, but there was a store we wanted to visit in the area. Len enjoys Southern Gospel and Quartet music and wanted to check out the Gaither Family Store in Alexandria, IN. It was just like any other Christian Book Store, they just featured all their musicians. We asked the clerk for a good place to eat and she suggested The Lemon Drop. She told us it was a local place that could be featured in Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives because it was, well, a dive! But let me tell you, the food was fantastic! We both ordered the “onion burger”, their signature dish, we shared an order of onion rings and an order of fries and topped everything off with a chocolate milk shake. Man, I haven’t eaten like that in a while. If you know my doctor…please don’t tell him. LOL. It was a cute place with counter seating, some booths and a train circling overhead. We would definitely go back there to eat.
Most campgrounds are near railroad tracks and this one was no exception, however, it was also near an airport. Not a major airport, but boy were they flying low over our heads. The next day we continued on to Kentucky. A new state for us! As we neared the border of the Indiana and Kentucky traffic began to build. We had to cross the Ohio River and I felt like we were crossing the Hudson. The traffic was horrible, the only difference is we didn’t have to pay a toll. Driving down I-65 we saw the craziest thing we’ve seen yet. The pick-up truck in front of us was being held together by bungees! Now I know you wouldn’t believe it, so I took a picture. But wait…that wasn’t the craziest thing I saw in KY. I had to go to the store and on my way back to the campground I was on a four lane road. Coming towards me, in the middle of the road was a man on a tricycle (the pedal kind) being powered by, YUP…A LAWN MOWER!!! This one you have to take my word on because I was alone and driving and it all happened so fast. But alas, I will not say I’ve seen it all yet because there are still so many states to visit and back roads to drive, you never know what will be coming down the road. Enjoy the pictures and thanks for traveling along with us on The Thomas’ Trails…till next time.

RV Hall of Fame

 

What a beautiful day here in Elkhart, IN. We’ve met a few folks here at Elkhart Campground who were at the Gypsy Journal Rally last week in Celina. It’s always fun seeing people we’ve met along our travels. We treated ourselves to breakfast this morning at The Golden Egg Pancake House. Not much to speak of, a bit pricey. Our waitress reminded us of Len’s niece in Florida, and she had the same name! Wow, must have been her evil twin. I say that only because she didn’t write our order down correctly so we didn’t get our food the way we wanted. I should have sent it back, but it was too much of a hassle so we enjoyed what we had. Then it was off to the RV Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN. WOW! Words cannot do this place justice. So many RV’s, and all in great condition for their age. I won’t even try to express in words, I’ll just post the pictures here for you to see for yourself…and mind you, the lighting was not the greatest, so not all the shots came out great. We found more Elk Art there and later in our day. It’s becoming a game for us. There are about 30 of them around the area and I think we’ve found about 6. We leave tomorrow, so I doubt we’ll find any more. It is funny to see Lenny try to get into the left turn only lane from the right lane when I yell “ELK” and throw my hand in front of his face pointing in that direction! After the RV Hall of Fame, we drove into Michigan to see our friend, Michele Henry of Phoenix Commercial Paint. If your motorhome, 5th wheel or travel trailer needs a new paint job…this is where you want to come. She does a top notch job at an affordable price. We met her through Nick Russell and she gave us advice over the phone about our class c. This year, we finally met face to face at Nick’s rally last week. Her place is five min. away from the campground we are staying at so she invited us to her shop to see her operation. We’ve seen a couple of her jobs. She’ll even repaint your car to match your rig! We’ve already sold our class c to friends, so I can’t wait to get my A, so I can come back here and have Michele paint it for me. Are you tired yet??? I am. After we left Michele’s, we went RV shopping. Well, what else would you do in the RV capital of the world? Actually, there are not as many dealerships here as there used to be, thanks to the economy. We didn’t find anything that wowed us, so we’ll keep looking. We’re on our way to TN and I’ve found a few on line I’d like to see in person. Thanks for traveling along with us on The Thomas’ Trails…till next time.

Baby, It’s Cold Outside

 

We left Celina, OH about 10 am today. It started out cold, windy and overcast. We took it easy till the wind calmed down. We drove alongside acres and acres of corn and soybeans. Then finally, we come across a whole different kind of farm! Yup, we did! A windmill farm. Dozens of windmills peppered amidst corn stalks for miles. Those things are huge! Before long it was back to seeing corn and soybeans. Then we saw a Christmas tree farm. It was a very easy ride. There wasn’t much traffic and the sun finally came out. About 155 miles later we were pulling into Elkhart Campground. Once we got all set up we decided to explore the area. At one traffic light I told Len to turn left and he did, but it was on the wrong side of the concrete curb divider! Thank God there was no oncoming traffic. He pulled into a parking lot and made his way around to the right side of the road. We saw some really cool Elk statues on corners. They were painted in  various designs. I have read in other blogs about cities named after animals that have these types of statues around the town, but have never seen any. Now I can check that off my bucket list. We also decided to drive into Michigan. After all, we were only five minutes away and I wanted a picture of the welcome sign. Another state checked off my list, but we will have to return and camp there because we only add stickers to our map if we have slept there in our RV. This year, we will be adding the states of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee so far. We’re still not sure how far west we’ll be going this winter. Lenny wants to get to Texas, but we have two babies due in Florida. Lenny’s niece is due in February and my cousin is due in March. We want to be there to welcome the new additions to our family. Also, my cousins husband was just diagnosed with a terminal illness and given about six months to live. Please remember them in your prayers. On a cool note, it’s supposed to drop into the LOW 30’s tonight and our winter coats are in storage back in NJ. At least I have my winter jammies with me…I just have to get them out from under the bed, open the space bag, then after taking them out, close the space bag and put it back under the bed. That sounds too much like work, but hey, at least I’ll be warm at night! Tomorrow, we’ll do some more exploring around the area and go to the RV Hall of Fame on Monday. Not too much is open here on Sunday’s. Have a great day everyone and thanks for traveling along with us on The Thomas’ Trails…until next time.

Goodbye Celina

 

Well, the Gypsy Journal Rally has come to a closeand now our travels will take us farther west before heading south. We had a wonderful time here at the Mercer County Fairgrounds in Celina, OH. Two nights we had won door prizes, one for a restaurant in the area and the other was a CD of 7 different publications from Nick Russell. It is amazing the power of Facebook. We finally met in person a few friends we had made because of different contacts on Facebook. There were very many interesting people we met. The man parked next to us is an 82 year old retired pharmacist. He and his wife are so sweet. Another couple we had finally met are from TX. He used to work for NASA and his wife’s name is Jan. I follow Greg’s blog too. He gave a couple seminars on computer security and what not to do with your computer. You can never learn too much. It was also nice to see people we knew. Santa was there with his wife. We had met them this summer at Timothy Lake. And it was great to finally sit in on some seminars given by Geeks on Tour. Jim and Chris have been teaching computers for over 28 years, now they teach in campgrounds and rallies. There were so many different seminars available. Lenny sat in on one seminar about RV History. The weather this week pretty much sucked, but we were told we would not be charged extra for the now, lake front views. LOL. This morning as people were preparing to leave, some had to be pulled out by tractors and heavy duty tow trucks. We decided to stay an extra night and go sightseeing today. Thanks to Nick, we found out that Annie Oakley is buried not far from here. The more I researched it, the more in common I found with her. Our birthdays are the same, separated by only 100 years, give or take a few years. OK, so that was the only thing we had in common. I’m not a sharp shooter, or world traveler. We drove down Rt. 127 to Greenville, OH to see her grave. On our way there, Lenny saw a sign pointing to the Eldora Race track. A dirt track owned by Tony Stewart (some NASCAR driver), so of course we had to go find it. I sat in the car while he walked around and took pictures. Tonight, we went out with two other couples from the rally to a local VFW hall that was having a fish and shrimp fry. The food was good and the company was great. Tomorrow morning we will drive to Elkhart, IN for a couple of days and finally get to see the RV Hall of Fame. Thanks for traveling along with us on The Thomas’ Trails…until next time.

GO WEST, YOUNG MAN, GO WEST!!!

It was another long day. I woke up at 5:30am and decided it was way too early to put my feet on the floor! So, I did the next best thing...I rolled over and an hour and a half later my other half is waking me up! Me, who is usually up by 6am was actually sleeping in and he had the nerve to wake me up! Well, we did have a 323 mile drive ahead of us. We left the laurel highlands of PA by 10am and started driving west. An hour later we were entering West Virginia, ten minutes after that we were in OH. We probably picked up speed going down a 6% grade on the highway. LOL. For some reason, I though Ohio was mostly flat. Today I found out differently. We drove up hills and down hills. I-70 was a nice drive then we took 470 around Columbus. Both of us decided, we really don't like that highway. Before long, we were on Rt 33 headed straight towards Celina, OH and the Gypsy Journal rally. We met Nick Russell years ago at a Life on Wheels four day conference in PA. He and his wife, Terry, are full-time RVers who publish a bi-monthly newspaper on their travels. He holds two rallies a year. One in the east in the fall and one in Arizona in the winter. This is the first time we are able to attend one of his rallies. We subscribe to his publication, have read many of his books and religiously read his blog and that of his alter-ego Bad Nick. We have been looking forward to this rally for months. As the afternoon dragged on, I contact a friend here at the rally to see how late we could arrive today and still be able to get a site. The rally itself doesn't start until Mon., but we wanted to arrive early so we could see old friends, make new friends and just chill out before it begins. I found out that as long as we were here by 5-5:30 we'd be good. It was getting close. The GPS kept telling us we would arrive at 4:59pm and for once she was right. It was a long day on the road, but we had finally arrived and I'm glad we're here. We said hello to Jim and Chris Guld of Geeks on Tour, found a site and got settled in. Tomorrow, I'm sure we'll see more friends and explore the area a bit.  I'll be sure to post some of the funny things that go on here this week. Thanks for traveling along with us on The Thomas' Trails...until next time.

Flight #93 Memorial

Today started out overcast and cool. We went to a local restaurant for their Sunday brunch. Then we hopped on the PA Turnpike towards Somerset, on a quest to find the Flight # 93 Memorial Chapel and National Monument. Well, we followed our GPS so far, then started following the signs. You know how that goes, YUP! We ended up on a gravel road going over a ONE LANE covered bridge. You guessed it…on the other side was more gravel road! Less than a half mile later we were back on black top and headed toward the chapel. It was very somber. We were supposed to be here last week when they had the dedication service for the 10 yr. anniversary but thanks to Tropical Depression Lee flooding the state of Pennsylvania we missed it. That’s ok though, because I really don’t like crowds. Today we were able to take our time, looking at the memorials and remembering the sights 10 years ago. The memorial chapel was a beautiful memorial to those who gave their lives that day to save others. From the chapel we headed towards Shanksville to the National Memorial. Words cannot express the sanctity you felt stepping out of your car and gazing at the vast expanse of land then laying your eyes on a boulder in a field where flowers and flags had been placed. This is the crash site we were told and only immediate family members are allowed to walk there. The rest of the general public walked along a path along a black stone fence to a wall of white granite engraved with the names of the passengers and crew of UAL #93. If you are ever in the area this is a MUST SEE. Click on the link below to see the rest of our pictures. I tried to embed a slide show but it wasn't working. Thanks for traveling along with us on…The Thomas’ Trails. Till next time.

 

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