We made the decision to not drive all the way to Asheville last night so we can enjoy a leisurely drive through the Smokey Mountains today. It was such a beautiful drive during our last visit here and we didn’t want to do it in the dark. We woke up at the Walmart parking lot in Newport, Tennessee and headed east into North Carolina.
Today was a sad day for us all. We were going to have to say good-bye to our good friends. No more reminiscing about ice cream in Croatia. No more late night talks about sailing across the seven seas. No more jam sessions with a splash of wine. No more cupcake baking with an extra cup of flour thanks to Mila. No more bouncing travel ideas off of each other.
Our stay at the Nashville KOA has come to an end. We are glad we came here instead of skipping it even though we are pretty ready for some warmer weather. Today, we are actually not quite leaving Nashville. We have a lot of online friends who are from this area or are very familiar with it so we have a couple of places we need to check out after we hitch up and drive off.
There is a certain guilt I feel when I am revisiting a town that I have previously been to. It seems that we should be trying harder to see new places during these trips but we just can’t help ourselves but to retrace our steps to try to relive something in our memory. We have done a pretty good job of visiting new places and starting today, we are going to indulge ourselves and find our way back to some of the best spots from our last trip.
We got a late start today but we can’t blame it on yesterday’s ghost hunting or the consumption of alcoholic beverages at the old tavern. It’s how we roll. We decided to leave My Old Kentucky Home campground today and head to Mammoth Cave National Park to see what the fuss is all about. We unfortunately did not even go see the Home itself. Something about a song plus we were running late and hungry equals next time. And since our good friend Carrie lives in Kentucky, we know for sure that there will be a next time.
Bardstown is one of the oldest European settlements in Kentucky dating back to the 1780s. Our campground, My Old Kentucky Home State Park, is the site of the old plantation owned by the cousin of Stephen Foster, also known as the Father of American Music. He is of course the writer of the song that serves as this state park’s namesake.
Today we checked out of the Kentucky Horse Park campground and headed southwest towards Bardstown. Even though we are traveling just a little west, it feels wrong somehow. We should be driving east until we hit the east coast, right? I know, we’re weird.
The Kentucky Horse Park has been good to us. It gave us just the right kind of stay we needed both times we have been here in the last two weeks. It is quiet, spacious, well-maintained and priced well below what you would expect for a place like this. We have stayed here 3 nights while using it as a staging location for our various explorations around here. Today we are finally going to visit what most people come here to do, visiting the Kentucky Horse Park.
This morning we woke up to overcast skies and light but persistent rain. Last night we came to Lexington and met up with Doug and his family of Troutstream who hosted us at their home a couple of weeks ago in Ohio. When we left, we had made tentative plans to meet up again in Kentucky to do some Kentucky trail hiking: The Bourbon Trail.
Today is our last day at Carrie’s house. We’ve been living large for the past 10 days and it is time to hit the road again. The girls are sad that they have to leave their buddy. “We just got here!”, they screamed. We told them that Carrie will join us for a few more days on the road but they know that this part of our trip is coming to an end.
Now that Halloween is over, the girls are going through a little bit of post trick-0r-treat depression. It might have something to do with the massive amounts of sugar they consumed last night or the fact that we will be leaving Louisville tomorrow.
Today is Halloween and we have a full schedule so we started the day off right with breakfast… at breakfast time. I know! It was a miracle that we were up and eating out before lunchtime. Probably because we left Dan at home, still snoring away after a late night of working. Carrie took us to a Louisville staple, Wagner’s Pharmacy.
