Don't worry, I've never heard of Haubstadt either. Granted I'd never previously heard of a lot of the towns I've ended up staying in. It's near Evansville, which is slightly larger, if that helps anyone. Or if anyone is interested. I'm not, really. I just know it's somewhere between Louisville, KY and St. Louis, MO. Hopefully closer to St. Louis, but who knows.
The day started today with a lot more interstate driving. But we finally made it into Kentucky, which is another state I've never been to. Yay! My stomach was angry with me for all the crap I've been eating lately, so I had to make an extra stop along the way for a bathroom. Thankfully it didn't turn anything beyond that. I've been drinking water like crazy, so hopefully that'll help.
We finally stopped in Louisville, KY to have lunch and wander around for a bit. Louisville has a surprisingly nice downtown. I really liked it. It was just really nice and cute. And totally random. There were buildings of all sorts of different colors, and one with little red penguins on top. We learned from a nice old lady at the tourist info place that a lot of the buildings are still the original cast iron. She even gave us an official "tester" magnet that we could attempt to stick to buildings to see if they were iron. Fun (and rather random) stuff. There was also a giant art museum downtown so there was a lot of random artsy stuff around. In one place there was a tent you could walk through right on the sidewalk that had little glow sticks made to look like pond plants that I can't think of the name of, along with little cricket noises. Then there were randomly painted horses in random spots on the sidewalk. But my personal favorite was the bike racks. Each one had been individually hand made in crazy, artistic fashions. One was three crazy colored poles, another was one giant tangled pole, along with a few others. It was stuff like that that just made it a fun place to hang out.
We found a nice little sandwich shop for lunch, and thankfully my stomach was finally up to eating. From there we were off to the Lousiville Slugger factory and museum, also home to the world's largest bat. After the prerequisite pictures in front of said bat, we went in for the factory tool. It was pretty crazy to see what actually goes in to building a wooden bat, as well as how different each player's bat can be. We got to see and hold a lot professional players bats, and see them being built. And better yet, we got a free mini bat as a souvenier. Because we all know Lacey needs more random stuff! It was a fun tour and museum though, and i'm glad we did it. It's just one of those signature Louisville things.
Speaking of signature Louisville things, we also stopped by Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby. I didn't really care much about seeing the tour or the museum or anything, I just really wanted to stand at the location of the "most exciting 2 minutes in sports." The museum was closed due to flood damage, but we were hopeful that we could still see the track. We stopped in the gift shop to ask, and were told that we couldn't see the track without a guide, and the last tour had already left. Thankfully they allowed us to join up with the tour already in progress so we got the best of both worlds: a chance to see the track without having to listen to the entire tour. I really don't have much interest in horse racing and didn't want to learn about it...I really just wanted to stand by the track and take a picture. And I got to do that, and now I'm fulfilled with my Kentucky experience.
From there we got on the road for a bit, but it was slow going to say the least. It's not that we were moving that slowly, it's just that we've hit the very long, very flat parts of the midwest, that just aren't interesting no matter how you slice it. I will say we've seen some very beautiful fall colors. And I'm glad I'm not in New England looking at the fall colors there because it sounds like it's FREEZING there! It's semi cold here, but not bad. Too cold for camping though, unfortunately. And of course I still really miss the sun. It seems that nowhere in the country is seeing the sun these days. I'm sort of getting used to it...though it still makes me sad when I wake up in the morning and it's just as dark as it was the night before. Jody and I held a small celebration this afternoon when we actually saw the sun. And it was still covered in clouds, but at least bright enough through the clouds that we could tell where it was in the sky. And based on what we've had lately, that was enough!
So we drove and drove, and finally exited at the sign for an Amish Buffet, that sounded like an interesting dinner spot. Actually, the sign was about 13 miles before the restaurant, which gives an idea of how sparse of an area we're driving through. When we finally found the exit, we couldn't find the restaurant (it was right there on the road, but neither of us spotted it). Instead we ended up at a Chinese buffet, which was actually pretty good. It was probably a good thing we got off the highway when we did because it was getting late and it looks like there wasn't another hotel for a looooooong ways. Tomorrow we're going to work on getting started a bit earlier.
Once settled in to the hotel, Jody gave me a most impressive back rub. She is one heck of a copilot! And I even let her drive today! :) She's now telling me that I'm taking too long to blog, so I better go. After all, I need to read her blog. I'm not the only blogger anymore!
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Hmm, I diidn't hear the cricket noises. But then again, as you're finding out, my hearing's not all that it should be. But, I did like the little display. It was odd how it was set up, though; almost seemed like a tent where construction workers were keeping their stuff. I loved the bike racks, too, but to a non-rider (ok, to one who only rides very locally and doesn't leave her giant, old fashioned, heavy silver bike anywhere yet), they were just really neat sculptures.
ReplyDeleteI liked the factory tour, too. I'm always interested in seeing how things are made, and there's apparently a lot that goes into making a baseball bat. Who knew?
I also enjoyed Churchill Downs, mostly because I've seen it so many times in movies. I actually was surprised by how big it was; I thought it would be much smaller. It also had that kind of air of being some place kind of important, where big things happen. And it seemed much cleaner than the couple other horse racing tracks I've been to were. (Granted, there were no horses there, so that's a major reason.) The tour guide seemed pretty into what she was talking about, in contrast to the Louisville Slugger tour guide, who sound kind of over-rehearsed to me.
I actually found the drive rather nice. Not terribly scenic, but some of those hills and valleys with the leaves on the trees changing color were absolutely spectacular -- perhaps moreso than the ones we used to go up north in MI to see. But then again, you've been on the road a really long time, and I've just started.
I'm glad my back rubbing skills haven't gotten too rusty; I haven't done it in a long, long time. But I'm smart enough to know that it's important to keep the pilot in good shape; after all, a co-pilot is only as good as the pilot. And it was fun driving, too. I'm good in either spot, but it made me feel good to let you be able to just kick back and navigate. As a co-pilot, that's really a skill I should learn.