Reunited and it feels so good

 

We were so inspired by our unexpected but very pleasant hike to the

It's good to be back
amidst the greenery

Natural Bridge the other day we decided to go for a hike in Mammoth Caves National Park. Just as we were thinking we were the only tourists who visit one of the largest cave systems in America to go for a hike above ground we met George from New York (and his very well behaved Chihuahua).
  

Taking a wee break - we checked
for trolls first

Nice chatting to you George and look forward to meeting you and your wife in New Zealand one day.  Just got back to the car where we were planning on grabbing our food and having a picnic when the heavens opened (we know why Tennessee and Kentucky are so green).  We had our picnic in the car.

I'd be looking grim too
if someone pinched
the drink out of
my hand

After lunch we stopped at Hopkinsville and wandered around the King Arthur’s Round Table Literary Park at the local community college.  The round table is there with seating for King Arthur and 24 of his trusted knights along with a sword in the stone – neither of us could remove it, an amphitheatre and some Greco/Roman ruins.  A very nice setting for study and/or eating lunch.

Enough seating for everyone

From Hopkinsville we travelled along the very scenic Land Between the Lakes area on our way to our overnight stop of Paducah.  This is definitely

Crossing the lake to get to the
Land Between the Lakes

a location to earmark for future visits – plenty of forest area to go hiking in and plenty of water (pick a side) to go kayaking or fishing.  Just before Paducah we stopped at the Apple Valley Hillbilly Garden &

Keith's tribute to Cadillac Ranch
- he wrecked every one of these
mowers when tidying up
the property

Toyland.  Had the guided tour by the owner, Keith Holt who, when we started to get attacked by mosquitoes, concluded his spiel in double speed so that we still got to see everything.  Was quite funny to listen to as he talks a lot and quite fast anyway.

No evidence of any ghosts so it's
now a ghot tour - didn't see
any of them either

Paducah is on the Kentucky side of the Kentucky/Illinois state line (and Ohio River) from Metropolis, home to Superman.  One of my childhood heroes, this town has really taken on board the Superman theme.  

Who didn't love Superman as a kid?

Visited the super museum – trivia question here – without googling, who was the first actor to portray Superman?  Chances are you won’t get it so you may as well google it.  I’d never heard of him either.





Felt decidedly weaker when in the proximity of this kryptonite

The Castle - kids playing the same games
we used to at Fantasyland
pre-Splash Planet days

Made our way north through a town called Carbondale, stopping off at the Jeremy Rochman Memorial Park.  Jeremy was only 19 when he died in a car crash and his parents created this park across the street from where he lived basing it on his passion for Dungeon & Dragons. 

Luckily for us this dragon
 is benevolent

This is a great playground albeit for younger children (we just had to use our imaginations - we may be kids at heart but we're not weirdos).

Following on from the Superman theme of Metropolis we then visited Chester where the town has taken on board all things Popeye.  The creator of Popeye was from Chester but it’s only been in recent years that the concept has taken off and become a tourist attraction.  There’s statues all

Olive Oyl with Swee'Pea
and The Jeep

throughout the town with plans to create several more – even the local fire department has incorporated Popeye in their logo.



Chester Fire Dept with their Popeye logo - that's the logo above right, I haven't figured out how to put arrows on this blog yet.

Back in Missouri we stopped off at Bonne Terre.  Bonne Terre Mine was one of the first mines in Missouri and, at one stage, was the world’s largest producer of lead ore. 

It was shut down in 1962 and, with the pumps no longer working, 3 of the 5 levels are now submerged.  They offer scuba diving here – we settled for the boat and walking tour.  The clarity of the water is quite amazing and in places you can look down and see abandoned equipment.  Nature continues to reclaim her own and you can see the beginnings of cave formations.

Looks a bit like Nifty Mine when the pumps stop working
- except this one has 2 levels below flooded completely

 

Just a couple of stops on our way back to Belton, Missouri to pick up the RV.  Checked out some of the murals in Cuba – they really do brighten up a wall and most have a Route 66 theme. 

Take me to Cuba
- I need to see some
 Route 66 murals

Stopped in at the Totem Pole Trading Post in Rolla.  They are one of the last Mom & Pop stores on Route 66.  The store itself has been operating since 1933.  Here’s hoping it’ll go on for many years yet.  Had an overnight stop at Jefferson City.
 

Trying to get gas out of
these old pumps was a nightmare

Folks there have a family festival every Thursday night during summer that we got caught up in.  Finally, we have timed something right.  One final stop, this time at Burgers’ Smokehouse in California – did the video tour then stocked up with some of their products as we’ll be able to cook again from tonight.  Yay!

 



Enjoying the family festival - there were kids there too,
they were off playing in the huge sandpit

Then it was a straight run through to Belton where we were reunited with the RV after 3 long, hard weeks (nah, they weren’t really but it sounds good).  Tomorrow we head north.

  

Whiskey v Bourbon

Contacted the RV repair shop to find out that our axle isn’t ready so we have another week of living in motels.  This means we get to stay a bit longer in Tennessee so we’re off to Chattanooga.  It also meant we could have stuck to our original game plan and headed north.  Ah well.  We’ll be there in a couple of weeks.  Of course no trip to Tennessee would be complete without a visit to the Jack Daniels distillery in Lynchburg so guess where we went...

Outside the Jack Daniel Visitors Centre

The tour is over an hour long and is full of interesting history about Jack Daniel himself and the Prohibition years.  Was tempted to buy my own barrel at several thousand dollars but remembered at the last minute I

One of two working fire trucks - the second truck is out promoting Tennessee Fire

was a rum drinker not a whisky drinker.  Didn’t stop us from buying a bottle of Tennessee Fire when we were out of Moore County.  They can

Some of the original bottles

distil the liquor here but it is illegal to sell it as Moore County still has Prohibition. They do have a work around for one of their whiskeys

With a mere swipe of the credit card
this barrel could've been mine

where you buy an expensive bottle and they give you the whiskey for free but not the Fire. 

From Lynchburg we headed to Chattanooga, home of the Chattanooga Choo Choo (another railway song from our childhood years).  I must confess, I didn’t realise that the Chattanooga Choo Choo was an actual train – it evens looks like the trains we used to draw as children too.

Chattanooga Choo Choo - who remembers drawing trains like this?

It is housed at the old Railway Station that has been converted into a hotel – you can even stay in some converted rail carriages.  Probably just

One of the converted carriages -
they come with ensuite bathrooms

as well there were no rooms available the 2 nights we were in Chattanooga – we’d be fighting over who got to sleep in the queen sized bed and who got the trundle.  Who do you think would win that fight?  J

Ruby Falls

While in Chattanooga we also took a ride on the Incline Rail and visited Ruby Falls, an underground waterfall.  Really enjoyed both activities although I thought both were too expensive for what they were.  Ah well, beans for a week.  Ruby Falls were discovered quite by chance in 1928 when some people were drilling an elevator shaft to the closed off Lookout Mountain Caves and drilled into a rift with strong airflow.  A return exploration journey of 17 hours which, at the start, had them crawling through gaps 4’ wide x 2’ tall brought them to the underground waterfall.  The waterfall by itself isn’t overly impressive but the sound and light show that goes with it really sets it off. 

Sue - is she really going to take off and not wait for the guide?

Jean - is she really going to press the button to start the sound and light show over
 again when there's another tour group on their way to get their turn?

Yep, it's steep

After the falls we went for a ride on the Incline Rail.  A short trip, about a mile all up, down a very steep hill.  At its steepest point it reaches an incline of 72.7%.  It’s been in operation for well over 100 years and still going strong. 

A gentle incline then ...
straight up

More than one person was heard to say on the trip back up “wouldn’t it be neat if this was a rollercoaster and they let us go now”.







Relaxing with a couple of ales after a hard
days touristing

 It was time to leave Tennessee (we’ll be back) and head north into Kentucky.  First though we had to have a stop in Gatlinburg for a round of Hillbilly Golf.  That was a bit of fun.  It’s on a hillside so you have to take

Hillbilly Golf - Yee Haw!

an Incline Rail (another one) 300’ up the hill to the start of the course then make your way down amongst various stereotypical hillbilly accoutrements (thinks stills, outhouses, rustic farm equipment) to the finish.  Can’t remember who won.

We stayed the night in Pigeon Forge which is to Tennessee as Branson is to Missouri.  We were parted from some of our tourist dollars when we went to the Lumberjacks Feud dinner show.  Have no regrets there – it was great entertainment with a lot of audience participation.  Jean was meant to join the camp cook and others in some dancing on stage but the invite got lost in translation – southern accents can be hard enough to understand at the best of times but camp southern accents (he was the camp cook after all) are even harder.

Dawsons (blue) and McGraws (red) battle it out - we were part of the Dawson family

Cumberland Falls

Next day we hit Kentucky, our 18^th state (sure, Arizona was only 29 miles, New Mexico a few footsteps at Four Corners and Georgia was only a toilet stop when we visited a café that was half in Tennessee and half in Georgia, but it’s still 18).  Visited Cumberland Falls just outside Corbin.  They are touted as Kentucky’s Niagara Falls and, when the conditions are right (clear skies, night time and not summer), you can see a moonbow.  We missed on all 3 counts so will have to settle for google photos of the moonbow but the falls were lovely.  And yeah, a kinda smaller version of Niagara.

At Corbin itself we called into Sanders Café.  Familiar name?  No?  Try Harland Sanders.  Still haven’t got it?  Put Colonel in front and here we have the kitchen that started it all back in the 1930’s.  Yep, Kentucky Fried Chicken.  It had gone 6pm by now so, for posterity and only for posterity, we stayed and got an order of KFC for our dinner.  Hate to say it, it even tasted nice.

The café where it all began

McHargue's Mill with some
of its dozens of old millstones

Spent the night in London.  London, Kentucky not London, England in case you’re confused – this part of the USA has a very European feel (Paris, Milan, London, Versailles, Glasgow to name a few) and visited a reproduction 1800’s style working mill in the morning.  The mill was one of the many projects the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps)

You can buy the milled flour

undertook during the Depression years.  We’ve visited quite a few of their buildings now and probably driven over many of the roads they built.  Also at the mill is a “library” of millstones that have been used at different American mills throughout the years.

Headed eastwards to Slade where we hiked to a natural bridge.  Less than a mile to the bridge only we didn’t realise it was mostly up.  Not too happy with that – it’s been ages since we’ve done a proper hike.  But we survived, albeit extremely red-faced when we got there.  In our defence it was over 30 degrees.  Made our cold drinks even more enjoyable when we got back to the car.

Natural Bridge, Slade

Jean didn't dive and Sue didn't push her over the edge
 - love that there are no guard rails on the bridge

So now it’s time to turn west and make our way back to Missouri and be reunited with our RV.  Called in at Louisville, home of the Louisville Slugger and other big bats before heading to our overnight stop in Shepherdsville to prepare ourselves for the next mornings visit to the Jim Beam distillery in Clermont.

This one's a Louisville Slugger

... and this ones, well, a giant bat

Went on the guided tour that finished up in the tasting room (of course). 

Jim Beam's American Stillhouse - part
of a multi-million dollar revamp
of their distillery tour

Had a couple of samples of their wares then crossed to their Smoke House for lunch – Devil’s Cut Ribs.  They just melted in your mouth.  Mmmmm.  Brought some Jim Beam Kentucky Fire for comparison purposes with Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Fire.  It may take many samples to get a decent comparison.  Reluctantly left the distillery and headed to Horse Cave.  Visited the American Cave

The original visitors centre
- now the tasting room

Museum at Horse Cave but passed on the cave itself – 3 caves in 3 weeks is enough for us non-spelunkers.  Looked pretty interesting though with the entrance being through a sinkhole and zip-lining and rappelling as enticements but we couldn’t be enticed.

Finished the tour with lunch washed down with ... a ginger & fruit soft drink

Whisky v Bourbon? – I’ll still take the rum