This was the summer we sampled Shoofly pie in the Amish County of Lancaster, Pennsylvania and feasted on lobster in York Harbor on the coast of Maine. At Ben and Jerry’s ice cream factory in Vermont we tasted new flavors, and mourned the demise of old flavor favorites at the ice cream graveyard. We toured the Makers Mark Bourbon distillery in Kentucky, makers of fine sipping bourbon for more than 200 years. We saw Niagara Falls at night with lights and fireworks, and the next day took the Journey Behind the Falls, getting throughly drenched on the deck of the Maid of the Mist, and seeing the falls from the bottom. We saw soul stirring handmade quilts in the Amish country and the tall ships in the harbor in Halifax, Nova Scotia. We sat on a brand new 2005 Harley after touring the Harley Davidson Motorcycle plant in York, Pa. We were awed by the natural wonders of Acadia National Park on the coast of Maine and marveled at the longest arched bridge in the Western Hemisphere in West Virginia. We sampled chocolate at the world famous Hershey Factory in PA. and saw the newest design for the 2005 Corvette while touring the factory in Bowling Green, Ky. We ate fish and chips at a little Scottish settlement on the Bay at Pictou, Nova Scotia. We watched ladies make maple candy by hand in Vermont, and we bought salt water taffy in Maine. We saw where the pilgrims really landed on Cape Cod, all that Plymouth rock stuff came later!

We cried at Getteysburg when the living history soldier took us on a walk thru the cemetery remembering his fallen comrades. We had a guided tour of the archaeological dig being conducted at Jamestown, Virginia. We toured Harper’s Ferry, where the abolitionist, John Brown, was captured and hanged, and the Thomas Jefferson visitor center at Monticello. We loved the picturesque covered bridges in New Hampshire and Vermont, and we crossed so many rivers, we lost count, rivers with flowing water! At the Bay of Fundy we cheered when the tide swept UP the river during the Tidal Bore at the Salmon River.

We loved the morning spent at the Kentucky Horse Park, but we are still skeptical of the tunnel under the ocean leading to Virginia Beach, and only waved as we passed the St. Louis Arch. We stopped at every available produce stand and farmers market, we may have eaten our way across America.

You ready ski cat? Hit it Jackson! This adventure included Mattie, the newest member of our family. Mattie, is a chocolate standard poodle that masquerades as a wooly bear, she just celebrated her first birthday. She was a delightful traveling companion, she has a warm, friendly face and everyone wanted to talk to her. She is a ‘chick magnet’ and Monty was constantly surrounded by women of all ages asking about the dog. I finally suggested I take the dog and he carry the camera. He wasn’t having any part of that deal. It seems everyone has a dog story and wants to share it, we never imagined she would allow us to meet so many people that we might otherwise have missed. It was just great.

First destination on this trip was Snowmass, the ski resort just outside of Aspen. This is a great setting for one of the Mountain Bike Regional Races. Monty’s daughter, Noel has always been an outdoor gal, mountain biking and trail runs are two of her passions. This mountain bike event is one of several she has done this year. It was fun to be involved even if our part was just the cheering. At that altitude we were lucky to manage that after climbing to the various view spots along the race way!

Noel & Monty Race Day

The following day we were off to what ended up being an 11,000 mile adventure towing a 24’ camp trailer. First we had to buckle up tight to tackle Independence Pass. I seemed to remember seeing a small sign announcing ‘not suitable for trailers’ but Monty assumed it must be in error since he used to ride this mountain pass on his dirt bike. Hummm dirt bike or a dually truck pulling a camping trailer, what’s wrong with this picture. But we managed the mountain curves without incident and loved the view from the top of this 12,000 foot pass. The expression, it was worth it, is something we will use often in our travels.

If you ask Monty, he will tell you one of the highlights of the trip was a stop at the Cabelas store in Kansas City. I wouldn’t exactly call it a vacation destination but he bought a fly rod and was a happy camper. Would you believe this rod came with its own case AND a video!! A verrrrry long video. The store was an experience in itself with an aquarium of freshwater fish, to show you what you can catch with your new fly rod, I guess. They have a scaled down mountain inside the store displaying stuffed critters from grizzly bears

Independence Pass

and mountain goats to peacocks and squirrels. This place is a taxidermist dream! When Cabelas first opened in Phoenix, my daughter, Tricia, took her kids searching for tennis shoes. Her comment, she didn’t realize it was a sporting goods store for people who’s only sport was killing things. What happened to soccer, tennis, volleyball? I love that girl.

We crossed the Mississippi on the suspension bridge we have seen many times on PBS. It was quite striking and very different from the usual bridge. Our trip up along the river from Alton, Illinois through Grafton was very scenic and enjoyable right up until the flat tire. I thought Monty was going to melt into a puddle, the temperature was in the 90’s, nothing for us desert dwellers, but the humidity must have matched the temp. It was really awful, but he got the job done and we were off in search of another tire, just in case. These couple of days were the only really hot humid weather we encountered.

Our good friend Susie Bowers grew up in Carollton, Illinois. When we told her we’d be traveling in this area she wanted us to stop at the hamburger stand in her old neighborhood for a California Burger. So of course we did, and I might add the burger was worth the trip! Thanks, Susie.

Our trip was part back roads/scenic byways and part interstate. We just let spirit move us, we saw a lot of beautiful rolling hills, huge trees, charming farm houses and everything was green. And yes, it’s true, the Midwest has corn as high as an elephants eye!!

We had interesting experiences on toll roads. Out in the West we aren’t too familiar with toll roads so that was an adventure in itself. We soon learned to avoid them, if possible, since they charge by the axle. Once we forgot we were on a toll road and decided to stop for lunch. We got off the highway into the construction zone from Hades, we finally spotted a Home Depot and turned into the parking lot only to discover it was a parking lot only suitable for Mini Coopers, not trucks with trailers. We ate lunch squeezed between two landscaping trucks. We were appalled to find out we had to pay another toll to get back on the highway. That was one of those “Oh well, moments”

We abandoned the toll road and picked up the scenic route next to the Mississippi further north and headed across Illinois toward South Bend, Indiana. We zipped around Toledo and Cleveland, Ohio, and stayed at a beautiful state park in Geneva by the Sea. It was a little off the beaten path but the trip through the lovely small town of Geneva was worth it, this park was right on Lake Erie and had a marina, cabins for rent and hiking and biking trails. Mattie is checking out the lake with Monty.

We headed on through Erie, Pennsylvania to Niagara Falls. By this time we were a little weary of driving so we signed up for a guided tour of the falls area the next day. We couldn’t resist the temptation to drive to the American side of the falls on our own that night to see the lights and the fireworks display. The tour was nice and our tour mates were an eclectic group from Minnesota, Costa Rico, Australia and Washington, DC. No trip to Niagara is complete without putting on the blue rain coats and venturing out on the Maid of the Mist for a close up look at these magnificent falls. This is a once in a lifetime experience. I had an OMG moment when I walked into the men’s room by mistake and

Looking at Lake Erie

discovered several Japanese tourist who were as surprised as I was embarrassed. Really who would think they would put the doors right next to each other!

We left Niagara Falls on a Saturday and the next park we stayed in was so crowded it was like one big tail gate party. On Sunday we headed down to the Finger Lakes area of New York and found a park with ninety-five spaces and only six occupied. It was a wonderful place with a lake, swimming area, beach and acres of grass and trees. This whole area was very nice with lovely homes on the lake. Down the road, in an older farming community we bought produce from an odd couple with a stand in their yard, good tomatoes and berries and homemade raspberry jam.

We had some trouble with a sensor in the truck in the town of Catskill outside of Albany. We couldn’t believe our luck to drive into this small town and the first thing we see is a Dodge dealer. They were friendly and helpful and took the truck right in after we parked the trailer in their lot. We had lunch in the trailer while they fixed the truck and we were on our way again. The sensor problem was something Monty was familiar with and he said the price was reasonable and the service was great so we felt good about the experience.

We did a kind of zig zag up thru Vermont, down through New Hampshire and over into Maine. The Vermont piece was interesting in that they have about a dozen signs pointing different directions all on one post.
You can’t read the signs fast enough to know what to do but it didn’t matter because when we drove past it our turn was always right where the sign was posted. I don’t know how many times we passed a sign before we figured out that was the turn. If we were driving a Porsche it wouldn’t matter but looking for a turn around while hauling a trailer tends to make the driver crabby. We followed one road for almost two hours, we were concerned it was not the correct road but there was absolutely nowhere to pull over, turn around or even stop to check the map. It was one of our most frustrating afternoons of driving. Oh, it was the wrong road! The strange sign convention of Vermont extends beyond road signs. Even in the campground, a sign advertised activities in the nature center but not the times or where the center was located.  Out of curiosity we took several long walks in the area but never found the nature center.

Niagara Falls

We stopped for lunch in Montpelier, at an Italian restaurant with a covered deck out over the river. It was a warm sunny day and beautiful. We walked around the town and stopped at the Maple Sugar House. The Sugar House was started by two neighbor women decades ago and they still employ their neighbors to hand press and inspect the candy. They recently branched out to syrup and salad dressing, as well. We enjoyed a tour of the candy making process and the country store was delightful.

One thing we learned on this trip, the people in the Northeast take their ice cream seriously. There are ice cream shops every couple of blocks, the big thing here is an ice cream parlor combined with a donut shop. Apparently the healthy snacking memo hasn’t arrived here yet. Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream was one of the best tours we have taken. It was fun from the very beginning and we loved the samples at the end. We had to chuckle at the ‘grave yard’ for the flavors that didn’t make it. The welcome sign read ‘Ice cream flavors, like everything else, have a beginning and an end. While some of our flavors have proven to live long and happy lives, others were cut down before their time (or in some cases just in time). Here we pay tribute to our dearly de-pinted.’ Grave stones with stories about the flavors were laid out in neat rows. A few of our favorites were, Wavy Gravy, Turtle Soup, Fossil Fuel and my personal favorite Vermonty Python. There were lots of people on the great porch enjoying ice cream. No donuts in sight, thank goodness.

Flavor Graveyard

We are looking forward to stopping in New Hampshire to see Mattie’s birth place. Crabapple Downs Kennels is located in Colebrook, New Hampshire just five miles from the Canadian boarder. It was a fun time, meeting all of the dogs and I finally got a chance to meet Arlene. Monty met her when he flew back here to pick Mattie up, Arlene won’t ship her puppies; she wants to meet with each new family before they take their bundle of joy home. Mattie looks a lot like her dad who has the more square face and body. We are happy about that, we think Mattie is beautifully proportioned. We also saw puppies four days, ten days and two months old. I held a little red poodle just four weeks old. She was a sweetie. No, no, no, I keep repeating, one dog is plenty to keep us busy.

We left Colebrook looking for a camping spot for the night, on the drive we saw a beautiful resort nestled in the mountains on a lake. It was so striking and unexpected that we stopped to look and read the historical marker. We were thrilled to discover we were looking at the hamlet of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire where the first Presidential votes are counted for the nation. Dixville Notch opens their polls at midnight to be the first voters in the nation. Since 1960 newscasters have declared the winners from Dixville Notch voting. One of the places we’d always heard about but never thought we’d see. Just an added treat of the trip. On the way out of the area we saw several moose standing in the fog on a swampy lake.

Resort, Dixville Notch

We are now heading down toward the Conway area of New Hampshire we stopped at the Blackberry campground to stay for a couple of nights. There is another larger park across the road that has a covered bridge and a great walking path. We stayed in one campground but used the other one to walk Mattie and enjoy the stream and covered bridge. We had some rain one night and later the next day, we used the sunny time to drive up to Sabbath Falls and around in the mountains, down to Concord. We drove by the race track where the NASCAR race was being held in a couple of days, it was really a zoo, lots of people, venders, etc. We stopped at a Shakertown thinking we might have lunch and look around but the place just was not comfortable for us and we didn’t stay. We’ve discovered sometimes we just don’t get good vibes from a place and this was one of them. It all sounded too much like some kind of cult. We were happy to move on. We drove back by Weir Beach along the Winnipesakee Lake. Isn’t that a fun word to roll around on your tongue! Beautiful houses and lake resort area. This is a way of life that is just so different from ours. Good to see.

New Hampshire Covered Bridge

We traveled into Maine and camped at a Red Apple RV park near Kennebunkport, Maine. The older couple parked next to us were from Quebec, she only spoke French and he spoke French and Italian. Needless to say we didn’t have too much conversing going on. Kennebunkport has a population of about 10,000 and a pretty typical tourist place with candle, candy and t-shirt shops, lots of tourist trinkets. We enjoyed walking around, Mattie was a treat, everyone wants to stop and talk to her. There was some beach area here and we finally found a parking spot and walked on the beach and enjoyed the area. We stopped in at an old barn that was now an antique store, it was fascinating, loved all that old stuff, felt right at home there. Hummmmm.

Perkins Cove and Ogunquit were picture perfect, with wonderful old homes on the cove, and lots of people walking to the beach, the harbor was lovely.

We went into York Village to meet a friend at her home. What a wonderful place, built in 1748, she has restored it to perfection. The walls didn’t have wall paper but actual fabric, it was really something. The attached carriage house has been redone to house her quilt shop. The back yard is tiered and the wall that divides the tiers is over 200 years old. Driving these narrow winding roads and finding parking for this dually truck is a challenge. When these roadways were established and the houses tucked in the trees no one thought people would be driving around in rigs like this. Maybe we really do need a Porsche!

We’re off to Acadia National Park, stopped along the way at Freeport, Maine and Monty went to L.L. Bean for a fly casting workshop. It was great fun and only $12 for an hour and a half lesson. There were only four people in the class so he really felt he got a lot out of it. I looked around at the stores since the whole town is now outlet stores. It was kind of fun, L. L. Bean was certainly the mainstay of Freeport with three large stores in the same area.

Cadillac Mountain – Acadia National Park

We arrived at the Bar Harbor campground just outside Acadia Park and found a spot for a couple of nights. The campground is large with lots of RV’s, tents and everything in between. We loved Bar Harbor, the town is mostly small shops and restaurants with a charming harbor. We had croissants at a little outdoor café in the morning and then clam chowder and blueberry ale for lunch at Getty’s. Getty’s is a great restaurant/bar with a nautical theme, maritime memorabilia covering the walls. Naturally there is a voluptuous mermaid over the bar. We enjoyed a great table in the front window and watched all the activity on the street. We had to chuckle when we saw the bathrooms doors were marked ‘inboards’ and ‘outboards’

We went up to Cadillac Mountain, famous for being the first place in America to see the sunrise, but it was shrouded in fog and there was no sun to be seen that day. The coastline is unbelievably rugged, black rock of every shape and size, this isn’t a beach towel sort of beach. We visited the Biological Research Center near the park entrance and enjoyed the tour and learning about the unique blue lobster that was found off the cost near here. It was especially enjoyable because the young man holding the lobster looked like Patrick Swayze. Funny, Monty didn’t even notice that, he was impressed with the lobster though, lobster, what lobster?

We have Canada in our sights. We crossed the border at the small town of Calais and headed through New Brunswick on our way to Nova Scotia. We enjoyed this experience, the first stop was a quick over night stay and we didn’t have any accommodations. We wondered if the Walmart just across the border let RVer’s use the parking lot for overnight stays. We figured since it was already getting late we’d cruise by and see what the status was. We needn’t have worried, when we pulled up into the Walmart lot there were already several rigs there and not only did they look like they were going to spend the night but they had a BBQ grill out and were cooking out for dinner. We stopped and visited with them, one couple spoke English the other only French. They assured us it was OK to stay here so we walked Mattie and picked up some groceries. The checkers saw us walking the dog and wanted to hear all about Mattie. We felt pretty much at home here and decided this was a good idea.

The RV park we selected further down the road was nice and the people were great. As we checked in the lady reminded us to stop to see the Tidal Bore at the Bay of Fundy in the afternoon. Even if you’ve never been to the Bay of Fundy, you may have heard about the phenomenon known as the tidal bore: outflowing rivers flowing back upstream as the tide comes in. I believe this bay has the largest tide change anywhere on earth. It is not unusual to have a fifty foot tide swing. It is an incredible experience. People gather around the mouth of the Salmon River to watch the river actually reverse itself and flow back up stream. Everyone starts hollering. ‘here it comes’ and then the cheering starts. We were absolutely amazed at this phenomenon, it was one of the special treats of this trip.

We spent some time exploring some of the small  fishing communities and seeing entire mud flats where just a few hours earlier the bay was full of water. We saw boats turned on their sides right where the water left them, when the tide comes in they will be floating again. This whole thing was amazing to us and we loved it.

Welcome to Nova Scotia 

We spent time driving around the bays and enjoying the scenery. We heard stories about people walking out to an island in the bay only to find when the tide came in they couldn’t get back to shore and with the tide fully in the islands were not even visible. Common sense prevails here just like in the desert.

We lucked out seeing the tall ships in port in Halifax, Nova Scotia. We heard the area would be crowded with thousands of people because of a reunion celebration for the Acadian people. The Acadian people were run out of Nova Scotia in the 1700’s. Many went to British or French colonies and many then migrated to Louisiana, that’s where the term Cajun comes from in the South. This was a reunion of the Acadian people and many came back to celebrate their heritage. We walked around the dock area and loved seeing the tall ships along with the entertainment and so many people speaking French.

One of the funniest things we saw were two girls wearing hydrators on their backs, like the ones mountain bikers wear, only these were full of sun screen. They walked around with a squirter in each hand and gave out free samples. It was really odd. This is the first time we had seen a DUCK, a two ton amphibious truck. This one was all painted up like a big rubber duckie and was used as a tourist attraction. For a small fee you could ride from the hill above the harbor right down into the water. It was quite popular and every time we saw it the people
appeared to be having a great time.

Tall Ships in Halifax

We count ourselves fortunate to have been here for this weekend and to actually get to the harbor area. We were concerned with the parking and it was suggested people stop at a local mall and pick up a bus/van to the harbor. We didn’t know if Mattie could ride the bus but we stopped at the mall anyway. We didn’t see any bus or van transporting people so Monty approached a young lady and her kids and asked if she knew anything about the bus. Her husband actually worked at the harbor and had something to do with the event. She suggested we just drive down to the dock area and check out a certain spot and surely we’d find a parking place. She was right, we found one just a few blocks from the harbor. It was nice walking down to the harbor, a challenge to walk back up hill, there are some really steep hills in this country. Crossing paths with helpful people is the icing on the cake of our travels.

Of course we stopped at Peggy’s Cove to see the lighthouse, all the rocks and enjoy the ocean breeze. This cove is one of many picturesque fishing villages in Nova Scotia and probably one of the most photographed. It was really windy, ( Mattie’s ears were standing straight out!!) We were there the day a bagpiper was playing in front of the lighthouse. It was such a totally different experience and enjoyable. Although a little bit of bag piping goes a long way. I’m just saying . .

Windy at Peggy’s Cove

We left this area and headed over to the small fishing village of Pictau. We found a campsite in the Provincial Park over looking the bay and headed out to explore the town. There is a lovely harbor there and a replica of a Scottish ship that brought immigrants over to Pictau from Scotland. In this charming village there were shops and offices, one of the offices had a beautifully carved wood sign identifying the occupant as a barrister. Unless you watch BBC you rarely hear that term.

By far the most memorable moment of our trip to Pictau was the little old lady on the pier. There was a family enjoying ice cream while sitting at a picnic table on the pier, grandma, children and grandchildren. Grandma looked to be in her 90’s, she was sitting bent over with her head down, not paying much attention to her ice cream until she spotted Mattie. She raised her head and her sudden smile melted our hearts, she put out her hand motioning us to come over and see her. She was eager to see Mattie up close. We spent some time with her while she petted Mattie, to this day we can’t recount this story without tears in our eyes. She was so appreciative and happy that we stopped to talk to her.

 

The other interesting experience we had in Pictau was a couple we met in the park. The fella was a really big guy and he wanted to befriend Mattie. Mattie was a little funny, in that she was a bit put off by big people. I guess she was used to us and we aren’t too intimidating, but sometimes big people can be scary. He wanted to play with her and he was not going take no for an answer,
but Mattie wasn’t buying it. Maybe she knew something we didn’t, but we finally had to make an excuse to go in for dinner so he would back off. He seemed nice but. . . .

Lighthouse at Peggy’s Cove

When we left Pictau we had a decision to make, left or right. Left took us to Price Edward Island and right took us back to the States. Oh, how often have we been in this dilemma. It was a tough choice but we chose the States. Of course now we can’t remember why we made that choice when were right there at the door to PEI. But that was then and this is now, yep, it’s the hindsight thing agai

One of the highlights of this trip was a stop at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. We enjoyed seeing the displays and the map recounting the history about the battle. The most meaningful part of the day though was meeting the school teacher who was a living history docent. At the beginning of the tour he told us that after we passed the oak tree he would become John Downey, a Sergeant in the Union Army for the rest of the tour. We were intrigued when he explained he was a Union soldier returning home and stopped at Gettysburg to pay his respects to his fallen comrades. As he stopped at each grave he recounted stories about his fallen friends. Oh my gosh, it was so touching we were mesmerized by his story telling and learned so much about the people and the different reasons they went to war. We talk about it to this day as one of the most memorable experiences we’ve had traveling.

Our Living History Guide

From this very emotional and moving tour we took on a lighter tone for a tour of the Harley Davidson Motorcycle factory in York, Pennsylvania. We loved sitting on the next generation bikes in the lobby, the only thing that would have made it better would have been a wind machine, and some bugs might have made it more realistic! The factory has a few robots in use but mostly guys that look like old bikers are building the Harleys. We didn’t realize that every bike is made to order.
They even have special order colors, blue specifically for police officers and red for firemen. You can’t get the special order colors unless you qualify. Everyone seemed to be working hard and appeared happy in their work. It looked like the guy sitting on the bikes, running them through their paces for final check had the best job.

Visiting Intercourse and Paradise in the afternoon makes us smile. Of course we are in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to visit the Amish Country. This was a lovely area, the farms were pristine and the buggies bringing families to the market were charming. We loved the music on the market square and of course the jams, jellies and fresh baked bread was irresistible.

Down the road a bit was the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum. This is a huge place with full-size locomotives under cover along with replicas of trains from the past and every kind of railroad gear imaginable. The model train towns were cheerful and fun.

My Sweet Ride

We met some people from Connecticut in the campsite next ours and we shared information about the West and they had good information about Connecticut Parks and the Washington DC area. When we went through Connecticut we stayed in a wonderful park called Kettletown, to this day one of our favorites. Just driving to this hideaway was a treat, beautiful old homes with huge yards, grass, trees and flowers. The park had a boardwalk along the creek, huge trees, a lake with swimming area, grass everywhere. Monty toyed with his new fly rod and we tried to coax Mattie to swim. We kept in mind the park they told us about with good access to Washington DC and in 2009 we stayed in Cherry Hill Park and it was everything they promised. We love traveling like this and sharing with the people along the way.

Our tour in Gettysburg wetted our appetite for some more history related stops. Monty called an old work buddy who had moved to this area of Virginia and lo and behold his wife was the person leading the dig at Jamestown. Jamestown was established in 1607 and the first permanent English colony. Recent changes in the James River led to the discovery of several more structures long buried by the river. We were able to get a private tour of Jamestown and learned about the new finds and the digging they are currently doing. Along the way we sat in on several living history talks and throughly enjoyed the day.

We checked out Colonial Williamsburg and although there was not much going on the day we were there it is a nice area. We drove by the College of William and Mary and were impressed by the beautiful campus. I didn’t realize Wm and Mary is the second oldest institution of higher learning in America, Harvard is the first.

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

We went to Virginia Beach, just because we’ve heard a lot about. Getting to Virginia Beach was an ex per ien ce because the fr eeway tur n s in to an underwater tunnel. When we were completely surrounded by speeding traffic in this closed tube under the ocean, I hear Monty mutter ‘Now what could possibly go wrong here’? Virginia Beach was nice but no dogs on the beach, so we walked on the sidewalk near the beach and laughed when a group of sorority girls gathered around Mattie to pet her. I just stood back and let Mattie and Monty bask in the attention. Later an older woman was excited to see Mattie and came over to bend down and pet her. The only problem was the low cut swimsuit she was almost wearing. Monty kept looking out to sea while she was talking to him but bent over to pat Mattie. It was so funny I tried to keep from laughing out loud.

Continuing on the historical theme we stopped at the Monticello Museum and enjoyed all the displays and articles about Thomas Jefferson. We didn’t go the Monticello. Could be another hindsight moment!! We stopped at Harpers Ferry, in West Virginia, along the Potomac River.This is where John Brown, the abolitionist, was hanged, it was a very moving testimonial to his life and the plight of the people of the South.

In Kentucky we took the advice of our friends, Ruth and Charles, and stopped at the Kentucky Horse Park. What an outstanding presentation of horses, from the huge English Shires, Clydesdales, Percheron, to the small Welsh Cob, Belgian pony, and even a mule. There was a magnificent horse from India that is being rescued from extinction. All of the horses were presented with riders in costume appropriate to represent their breed. One Two Step Two, is a beautiful horse and now a famous movie star, having appeared as one of the horses who played Sea Biscuit in the movie. When we were walking around the park One Two Step Two was walking around the grounds with his handler and when he went by he stopped and bowed to us. The horse was quite a show off and the handler wasn’t bad either. Man of War is buried at this park. Many past champions are in retirement at the park and can be seen during the Parade of Champions. It was a very enjoyable and educational day.

We enjoy factory tours and while we are here in Kentucky we decided to stop in at the Bowling Green Corvette factory and see how they are made. This time we hit some down time for the workers while the factory solved an engineering problem, this was disappointing since we didn’t see the assembly line in action. They did have some sweet Corvettes on display though.

The trip to Makers Mark Bourbon in Kentucky was one of our favorites tours. The grounds were beautiful and the tour was very informative and the smell was sooooo good. You gotta love the neat bottles with the red wax top.

Last stop, Nashville to see Ruth and Charles, we had a good visit and we are heading west with Tucson on the horizon. Gosh this was a wonderful trip, we saw so many different things and everything was so new to us. It was just great.

I saw the St. Louis Arch out the side window of the truck. We had it scoped out but by the time we drove by Monty suggested I look quick because these stable horses were on the way back to the stables.

This was a wonderful trip.

Niagara Falls Maid of Mist

Looking’ Good on that Harley

The Chick Magnet