Lee and Elaine's RV Adventures: One Day Here, Two Days There. . . And Then We're In Kentucky

After leaving New Orleans, we headed northeast through Mississippi and Alabama toward Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, before really heading west. We stopped in Marion (Meridian), Mississippi, for just a night then continued on the Hidden Cove RV Park (part of our Thousand Trails campgrounds) in Arley, Alabama. Arley isn't really close to anywhere but we did go to a covered bridge and a private Civil War Museum that TT friends had told us about. We're glad we went. Since there aren't a lot of tourists at this time of the year, we got a private tour from the owner of the museum. An enjoyable day.

There have been a lot of days we wished we were still in Florida because it has been cold just about everywhere we've been since leaving Florida. I suppose the weather is typical of spring, one day warm, several days cool to downright cold. But, we have to go home and we can't put it off forever.

Somewhere in Alabama on the way to Arley. Hurray, blue skies!!!

Clarkson Covered Bridge, crossing Crooked Creek in Cullman County, Alabama, was built in 1904 and destroyed by a flood in 1921. It was rebuilt in 1922.

Vinemont, Alabama

The museum in a "hands on" museum for a number of items, including the hats and guns.

A little fog on the Lewis Smith Lake at Hidden Cove RV Park, Arley, Alabama

March 11, 2014
We arrived in Nashville on a beautiful warm day, 79ºF, and we were loving it. Then, we checked into the Two Rivers Campground and were told we would have to disconnect our water the following evening because it was going to freeze, which it did, and it rained and the wind blew. We were thankful it wasn't a driving day. We just had to go to a performance at the Grand Ole Opry since we were in Nashville. So we heard a mixture of old country, new country, gospel, plus a variety of performers.

The Grand Ole Opry began as a radio show in 1925, the WSM Barn Dance, and is now the longest running live radio program in the world and is heard around the world. It was interesting to be part of a live broadcast. To hear the commercials in a live performance was certainly different, it was as if the announcer wasn't really talking to the live audience. One had to be there to get the whole effect!

A couple of days later we were on our way to Kentucky.

Diamond Caverns, Park City

It's a little early in the year to be in Kentucky, but we had to leave for home some time, so here we are freezing. The first morning we were here, the temperature was down to 27ºF. A couple of days later, it was down to 25ºF. I can only imagine how beautiful the scenery is when the grass is green, the trees have leaves and the sun is shining. We're just a couple of weeks early. I have high hopes for warmer weather as we travel further west!

The campground is just about empty. But, it is the "off" season. In one respect it is nice because it things aren't crowded. Once it warms up, I'm sure it will be packed because Mammoth Cave National Park is a few miles down the road.

Cave City

A unique motel in Cave City

Clermont, Kentucky

There are eight member distilleries on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail but we only visited two of them, Jim Beam and Maker's Mark, because we were staying 80 miles away in Southern Kentucky and it was a long drive. One thing we didn't know is that the state of Kentucky is divided into two time zones - the southern half observes Central Time and the northern half observes Eastern Time - so we were an hour late to begin with!

At Jim Beam, because we were pressed for time, we took a self-guided tour instead of a factory tour. It gave us time for lunch at their cafe and bourbon sampling in their tasting room. There is a room where they display Jim Beam decanters that I was looking forward to seeing since I have a few decanters at home but it wasn't until we were in the tasting room that I found out it was only part of the factory tour.

Master Distiller's home built in 1911 served as a boarding house for distillery workers and visiting businessmen. In 1934, after prohibition had ended, T. Jeremiah, son of Jim Beam, renovated the house and it became home to generations of Beam distillers.

Jim Beam American Stillhouse

"In 1787, Jacob Bohm arrived in the lush bluegrass hills of Kentucky armed only with a copper pot still, a good knowledge of farming and distilling, and one heck of a work ethic. Later, he changed the family name to Beam, and an american dynasty had begun." From the Jim Beam American Stillhouse brochure.

Fred's Smokehouse, a cafe at Jim Beam, had delicious food.

Whisky Creek bridge at Maker's Mark Distillery, Loretto, Kentucky

Maker's Mark Fire Dept.

On their way to being boxed for shipping, Maker's Mark

Above and below, just a couple of their signs on the wall!

Adding the final touch! Maker's Mark, Loretto

National Corvette Museum, Bowling Green Kentucky

National Corvette Museum, our next car? Ha! Getting in was like sitting on the ground and getting out was even more difficult!

National Corvette Museum

On February 12, 2014, a 40 foot wide, 30 foot deep sinkhole opened in the floor of the Skydome area at the Corvette Museum and swallowed eight Corvettes that were on display.

The sinkhole at National Corvette Museum

One of the cars that fell into the sinkhole, a1992 Corvette. This one was the 1,000,000th Corvette.

The Skydome, National Corvette Museum

I'm not sure what year this Corvette is. National Corvette Museum

1962 Corvette

1993 40th anniversary Corvette

Mammoth Cave National Park

On Sunday, March 16, 2014, we visited Mammoth Cave National Park and took the Historic Tour. It was a two mile tour with a total of 440 stairs and took us down 300 feet below the surface. Flash photography is not permitted so I don't have a lot of pictures. Currently, there are more than 400 miles of cave passageways but tours only cover about 12 miles. Exploration continues and so more passages will likely be found.

Pathway to the entrance of the Historic Tour

Entrance to the Historic Tour, it's the only natural entrance available to visitors.

This part of the cave was aptly named! It was a very narrow path with a very low ceiling and rocks jutting out everywhere.

Back in the day, writing on the ceiling was done by using candles. Anything written prior to 1943 is considered historic grafitti, anything after that is considered vandalism. There were only of couple of acts of vandalism, dates from 2010 and 2011.

The area where saltpeter was mined during the War of 1812. Mammoth Cave produced a large quantity of the saltpeter used in gun powder.

We went back to Mammoth Cave National Park on Wednesday, March 18, 2014, to take another tour called Domes and Dripstones. There were domes, pits and dripstone formations. This part of the cave took us 250 feet below the surface and down and up 500 stairs. It included the Frozen Niagara Tour which I thought was the prettiest part of the cave.

I took a picture when we first entered the cave but I never saw anything with these colors so I was surprised when I downloaded my pictures to see all this red!