Aug. 3, 2013

Lincoln Birthplace, Wild Turkey, Candy ‘Factory’, Daniel Boone

First stop of the day – Birthplace of Abraham Lincoln.  Located on land owned by Lincoln’s parents and situated where historical documents said it was is a cabin, thought to be the place where Lincoln was born.  The cabin is protected by a mausoleum like building approached by 54 steps – one for each year of his life.  One problem.  They got the location right but it was found years later that the cabin was not the actual Lincoln cabin.  It is, however very representative of what the Lincoln cabin would have been so nothing was changed except for a descriptive add on.

Further up the road we took a tour of the Wild Turkey Bourbon distillery. Production is in hiatus for the summer (too hot) but the tour was informative. 

Next to Frankfort, state capitol.

First stop a candy ‘factory’ where Bourbon Balls were first developed.  I say ‘factory’ because it is very small scale.  Two small rooms and a somewhat larger room on the first floor of an old house in an older semi-residential  neighborhood.  It has all the elements though.  Metal table for brittles and other slab candies.  Candy made in large copper pot heated on gas burner and then cooled and aerated  in a special blender.  All three elements at least 75 years old and still working well.  Toffee pullers (hook and mechanical).  Chocolate enrober and cooling tunnel with two human box fillers at the end.  One guy to pack and ship.  Entire candy making staff is six or seven people.  They do make many types of candy though.

A visit to the old Frankfort cemetery yielded this find:

Last stop of the day was the capitol building to see this:

On our travels today we saw a number of pastures but no horses.

Aug. 2, 2013

Mammoth Cave

Fifty years ago, while on a trip with Jim Ritchie, we visited Mammoth Cave NP.  Sue had never seen it and the cave must have changed a lot in fifty years  () so I would see different things – right?

Things have changed.  Don’t remember much about the campground from fifty years ago (other than we had a large message posted on board when we checked in to call home – scheduling info.) but the campground now is very nice.  Large, level spaces with room between sites.  Primitive camping but that is not a problem with a full sized RV.  Very quiet and dark at night.  Nice.

The visitor center is modern and informative and there are rangers everywhere.  Tour guides, info., tour sales, naturalists, other specialties, etc.

There are a number of tours available to different parts of the cave.  Opted to take Historic Tour as I was pretty sure that was what Jim and I did.  Tour has changed.  Fifty years ago the group size was relatively small and as I remember lasted nearly four hours with lots of stops for information.  Today this tour is still the longest offered but is two hours and covers about two miles with a third of it being above ground going to and leaving cave.  Tour group size has also changed.  Up to 150 people per tour.  Moving that many people through the cave on schedule doesn’t leave much time for stops with cave info.  There were some but also a lot of hustle.  Also, several elements that I remember from last visit are not included now.  Good tour but we have been on better in other caves.

Entrance to cave

Called Bottomless Pit – 110 feet from grate to bottom.

Aug. 1, 2013

West Again

Forgot to mention in last post that we passed the Kitchen Aid production plant on our way south and west.  We were three hours too early for a tour.  Too bad.  Would have enjoyed seeing how small appliances are made.

Another western side trip.  This time to Illinois farm country.  We missed this one last time we were nearby and decided to see it.

Really had to work for it.  Small church and cemetery is literally in the middle of nowhere with nothing but farm land.  The farms are separated by a grid of roads one mile apart.  The roads are not much more than a lane wide and most are unpaved.  This spot was over two miles from anything that might be considered a through road. 

On our way, driving western Indiana country roads and small US highways, we went through a small town and found this two blocks off of the main street:

You don’t find this stuff if you stay on freeways and expressways.

Back east to southern Indiana and Lincoln Boyhood Home NHP.  (We stayed in Lincoln State Park located just across the road.)  Park is site of farm where Lincoln family lived during his boyhood and adolescent years before the family moved to Illinois.  Lincolns mother died here and is buried in small frontier cemetery on the site.

Stone foundation of Lincoln home redone in bronze. Color is due to oxidation.

Today we went west again (we’ll get east eventually) to Paducah, KY.  Location of National Quilt Museum.  Some amazing quilts on display.  Both in design and technique.  Sorry, no pictures allowed so you’ll have to take our word for it.  We can say “Been there, done that” but don’t need to repeat visit.

July 30, 2013

Short western interlude

Couple of things we wanted to see and do to the west so today we headed that way taking back roads as much as possible.  Not far along our way we passed a small brown sign with an arrow pointing up a small country road.  We had to follow it.  Had to drive on a half mile before we could turn the carbus around and return to the road.  About a mile down the road we came to a cemetery all by itself in the middle of nowhere (actually a pretty common thing in the mid-west).  We did a quick web search on our goal and found detailed instructions as to row and marker count.  Followed the instructions to this:

To the right was this:

 

The state of Ohio placed an historical marker next to Annie’s grave.

May be hard to read.

Never know what you will come across on the back roads.  Today we also passed the highest point in Indiana (similar in topography to Mount Sunflower in Kansas) and Wilbur Wrights birth place. 

We stopped in Indianapolis to visit the Verizon store that we bought our phones from and get paperwork that they did not provide at the time.

Tonight we are in a very nice state park with lots of hiking trails.  Unfortunately it started raining just as we got here.  Oh  well.  There will be others.

July 29, 2013

Airstream Tour

Side trip into Ohio to visit the Airstream Trailer factory.  Interesting tour in that tour of production building takes you right on the floor wandering among the workers.  Stepping into trailers on the line being fitted while workers are also in trailer installing things. 

Ultimate rainstorm

July 28, 2013

Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg Museum

Johnny Appleseed Grave

First a picture of the ultimate in aftermarket A/C for your pickup.

Todays first stop was in Auburn, Indiana at the Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg Museum. 

There are LOTS of cars by the three manufacturers and a large number of other historical makes.  Impossible to show them all so here are a couple of “Duesies”.

We camped in a city campground in Fort Wayne.  A couple hundred yards from the campground, on top of a grassy knoll, is the resting place of John Chapman – more commonly known as ‘Johnny Appleseed’.  He is a folk hero but was a real person.

 

Note trees at rear of grave site.

Apples naturally.