Saturday, June 30, 2012
Monday, June 25, 2012
St Louis Missouri and Springfield Illinois
Once again,
we are catching up on friends this time Christine from La Jolla, CA who has
just moved to St Louis her old home town after living for 10 years in La Jolla;
her son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren live here. One evening we went
to see Christine’s 5 year old granddaughter play in a softball game and met the
family.
St Louis is
called after King Louis lX who was also a Saint; not too many of these - King
and Saint! The city was established by the French as a trading post and is
where the Missouri and the Mississippi rivers converge into one big wide and
busy river with tugs pushing barges in all directions on the river. Christine
was our tour guide on our first day when she drove us to Forest Park, which is 500
acres larger than New York’s Central Park; set on top of a hill overlooking the
park is the Palace of Fine Arts, originally built for the 1904 World's Fair - the
inside of the building is beautiful art in itself - we did a speed walk through
the German art collection which is superb. A marvelous statue of St Louis IX
overlooks a downhill sloping formal garden with magnificent fountains that are simply
breathtaking. Afterwards Christine drove us around very nice residential area where
we had lunch in a lovely neighborhood cafe.
Christine
is a wonderful cook and we had two excellent home cooked dinners at her home.
Hard to imagine that a week before we arrived she had no counter tops and no
running water in the kitchen as she was in the process of moving in; we think
she was just about in the door the week before we arrived.
The next
day we went to the St Louis Arch – as it is more than twice the height of the
Statue of Liberty - it is visible from miles away. Also known as the Gateway
Arch or Gateway to the West - it commemorates the Louisiana Purchase in 1803
and was unveiled in 1965. Made of stainless steel it shimmers in the sunlight
especially early morning and at dusk. We took the journey to the top which is a
capsule (5 people in each) ride up the inside of the arch (not for anyone with claustrophobia)
to an enclosed observation platform; needless to say the views were magnificent
with St. Louis looking very small from up there. Once again, the Arch is in a
very nice park along the river that has been renovated to cater for tourism.
Shopping
was how we occupied ourselves the next day, clothes shopping to be precise
which is something we don't do much of at the moment due to lack of space in
the RV. However, as we both needed something new in the wardrobe a-shopping we
went and it was good.
Springfield
IL was our next schedule destination and, while we did not intend to - we cheated by not taking the RV!
Of course, we had many reasons the principal one being that there was an RV
service garage right next door and we decided not to miss a good opportunity to
have the RV serviced. So having made appropriate reservations, we got in the
car and drove to Springfield where we booked into the President Abraham Lincoln
Hotel right in the middle of town. When we arrived the day was really hot so we
spent the afternoon visiting the Lincoln Library, a veritable treasure throve
of Civil War memorabilia, had dinner and then explored the town. Springfield is
the Capitol of Illinois and looked it; everything is so clean and well kept. The
Capitol building is just like an enormous French Chateau transplanted straight
from the Loire Valley.
After
breakfast the next morning we walked to the Lincoln Museum our reason for going
to Springfield was to learn more about the American icon that President Lincoln
became. Opened in 2005 it is a 40,000sq ft. recollection of Lincoln's life from
the cradle to the grave. In the entrance hall are wax figures of the Lincoln
family, a great photo opportunity. Next is a replica of the White House where in
a long corridor, from floor to ceiling is covered with reproductions of
cartoons and comic strips depicting the range of insults, opponents derogatory
remarks and insults all aimed at Lincoln. To us the press was far worse at that
time than they are now. From there we
drove to his grave which is very beautiful monument. One can enter into the Mausoleum
and view the marble sarcophagus where President Lincoln lies at rest. Thoroughly
educational and enjoyable…well worth the trip. Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Mammoth Caves & Land between the Lakes, KY
Heading
south from Lexington there are many Cave attractions, the most famous being
Mammoth Caves which has 365 miles of cave trails under a surface area of 44 square
miles of the national park - so all is very well set up; nice visitor center
and shelters for people waiting for buses. We took the four and a half hour Grand
Avenue tour through many different kind of caves, from very narrow passages where
one needed to mind ones head, to great big caverns; there was even a cafe
underground where we had our lunch. We had a lady guide (about our own age) who
marched us at a quick pace for the four and a half hours. At one stage she
turned off all the lights and asked us to be silent – it was amazing standing
in absolute blackness listening to the sound of silence…a world without light
or sound! The NPS Rangers issued many health related warnings before we set off
about heart attacks, asthma and various other conditions. There were many other
tours from an easy one hour tour to an eight hour caving tour.
From there
we drove west to Land between the Lakes - to those in the know - LBL. LBL is a very long inland peninsula in North
West Tennessee and South West Kentucky between the Tennessee River and Lake Kentucky. The land is managed by the Forest Service for
the Department of Agriculture. A trace (which to us means no commercial traffic)
intersects in a North/South alignment, along which a revival and regrowth program
of prairie grass is ongoing which supports a herd of buffalo and elk in a large
enclosed area. In Nature Station there’s a wild life compound with red wolves, deer
and many wild birds. We visited at feeding time which was interesting as we watched
a turkey vulture run back and forth and bully a vulture by taking whatever
piece of food the other vulture had. A 27 year old bald eagle and 4 owls were
also housed there - at 5pm we had a parade of owls before being set free for
the night in a large barn. Needless to say the owls and one osprey were perched
on a handler’s gloved arm! The following day we went for a canoe trip on a Kentucky
Lake that had a veritable forest of water lilies that we had to struggle
through to get to open water. We were enjoying communing with nature when we heard
a rumble of thunder; we quickly head for the pier to return the canoe and the
half mile back to the car. Just as we were driving out of Nature Station the
heaviest rain we have ever encountered started, at times our vision was no more
than 10ft – we would like to have pulled over to wait the storm out, but as all
the windows in the RV were open – we had to push on!
We were
about 20 miles from the RV and although things were a bit wet but not soaked we
dried up and thankfully dodged a disaster.
A lot of
our driving is now on secondary roads so we see much more than when on the
freeways – we pass through towns and see houses along these roads whereas the
Interstates are lined with trees put there for noise abatement yet eliminating
any view. We like these byways but sometimes our GPS puts us on roads not
suitable for an RV – the GPS is clearly designed for cars.
Now that summer
is here and RV Parks fill up at the weekend we have to be conscious of ensuring
that we are booked into Parks at least 3 weeks ahead.
Springfield,
Illinois, St Louis, Osage Beach (in the Ozarks), Branson, MO, Eureka Springs, Little
Rock and Hot Springs, AR are our next destinations.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Kentucky Horse Park
Having descended from the mountains of West Virginia we
entered the beautiful rolling hills of Kentucky… replete with white fences,
horses everywhere, prosperous looking farms and large houses.
After diligent research Tom discovered the Kentucky Horse
Park RV facility on the outskirts of Lexington where there are wonderful
facilities for horses; horse boxes galore, outdoor arenas, an indoor arena, a
three day eventing course, polo fields, museums and a Hall of Champions where
among others we saw the famous horse Cigar – Adele had a chat with him! The RV
Park itself has about 200 sites; there’s a large swimming pool, tennis courts,
volleyball court and basketball court. However, the most popular game is called
corn hole - for those of you who never heard of it - it comprises of two boards
(two feet by four feet) tilted at an angle and one pitches a sack of corn
weighing about a pound the object of which is to get it into the hole at the
top of the slanted board. Quite large groups
of people get together to play - Adele tried it and realized it takes some
practice.
On our first day we drove to a Shaker Village in nearby
Pleasant Village 25 miles south of Lexington. We had a very interesting day, learning
that the Shakers were a group of dissenting Quakers founded and led by a
Manchester, England lady named Ann Lee. Having departed England they set up
numerous villages throughout the Northeast of the US and spread south into
Kentucky. After having joined and signed a covenant men and women (some of whom
were husband and wife with children) lived separate celibate lives in large
groups called “families”; there were separate hall doors to the large houses,
one for men and one for women, women lived on the right, men on the left again
separated by two sets of stairs. The original village had 34 building on 300
acres. In the various houses "faker Shakers" as one of the period
gowned women informed us practiced the different skills of the Shakers – they
were self-sufficient; furniture making (which is still popular), straw bonnets,
hat boxes made from wood (now a collectors’ item) and weaving. However their
biggest business was in vegetable and flowers seeds.
The Industrial revolution was the beginning of the end of
the Shakers as people migrated from agriculture to factory jobs in the cities,
of course the celibacy requirement did not help in attracting new
recruits. Similar to the Moravians
they believed in equality of the sexes and considered honest work as a prayer. They had no ministers or preachers - if
someone was inspired to stand up and say something at Meeting they did. When
they sang songs they twirled around and shook their bodies hence the name
Shakers. Some of their hymns are still
sung today, "Amazing Grace" and "Dance, Dance wherever you may be" among them. Most of us know of the Shakers from the line
of furniture they designed. They had 44 miles of dry stone walls surrounding
the 300 acres and Adele remarked on this to one of the women to be told it was
the Irish who built the walls. As we learned in other places, once again this Shaker Village was saved by a
group of people who got together to preserve this historic place when plans
were proposed to build Highway 68 by razing the village.
On another day we took a walk in downtown Lexington which
has some nice old buildings, especially an old indoor shopping area and Mary
Todd Lincoln’s House. To complete our day we went to the movies in a lovely
old, beautifully renovated cinema in the center of town and enjoyed The Best
Exotic Marigold Hotel a very funny movie aimed at our age group featuring among
others Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. Go see it. We both just finished a good
book on the life of Lilly Langtry “Because I loved Him” by Noel B Garson which
gives a great insight into Victorian/Edwardian England and the US.
On the recommendation of the Visitors Center we took a drive
along Harrodsburg Road to view Keeneland Racecourse and some immaculately
manicured famous horse ranches where many Kentucky Derby winners were bred.
Bluegrass Kentucky is most definitely a beautiful State.
Friday, June 8, 2012
Monday, June 4, 2012
Fancy Gap, Virginia
After
having driven from coastal sand bars, through swampland and agricultural land
to the mountains we left North Carolina and arrived back in the Blue Ridge Mountains
staying in a little place called Fancy Gap, VA. And…what a change? We had been
in the Blue Ridge Mountains last November when the weather was so foggy that we
had to get off the Blue Ridge Parkway after 20 miles of slow dangerous driving;
we were very happy to be back at this time of the year. The weather was
beautiful - it is a great time to visit - the hills really do look blue in the
distance, the new grass is a fresh green/blue color, the leaves on the trees
are several shades of green and there are lots and lots of wild flowers everywhere;
it all looked so pretty.
The next day we turned North on the Blue Ridge Parkway to visit Mabry Mill (originally built and operated by Ed and Lizzie Mabry in the late 19th century) now visited by over 3 million people annually – the Mill Wheel is one of the most photographed places in Virginia. In their original home a lady was carding wool, while another was spinning it and making balls of wool. Ed’s Forge was built of wood except for the fire place, as you can guess sparks set the forge on fire quite often; not to worry with the abundance of trees in the area it took little time to build the next forge. Mabry Mill is a combination timber, grist and woodworking mill (band saws, lathes etc.) the water for which is channeled from the many nearby streams (remember this is at the top of the mountain) into a small canal and then over the large mill wheel. It was fascinating to see how people managed before electricity and how clever and inventive they were.
Memorial Day we drove to Hillsville a relatively big town in the hills where they were holding an enormous Flea Market - as we have little room for chotskies we decided to go for a walk along the river bank which was very pretty, we crisscrossed the river many times.
Once more
we were lucky, as on our first day we went to the Blue Ridge Music Center to a Blue
Grass Music Festival – mostly for school age children aged 8 to 18. The Music
Center is set in a natural amphitheater with the mountains around as the backdrop;
this is in a lovely setting. There’s a covered stage, bring your own seating is
in the tall grass on the side of a hill. First up was a little fellow called Carson
aged 8, a very talented musician on the fiddle, he was accompanied by his
father on guitar and another adult on bass; check him out on his web site www.Fiddling
Carson.com Carson introduced all the
music and sang a couple of numbers - we were amazed at this very talented
little fella.
Following
acts were: 4 girls who had just graduated from High school, also excellent with
a second CD due to be released soon; a family – father, sons and a daughter who
were great and four very good dancers. We had a lovely day full of traditional
music which we thoroughly enjoyed as the music and dance is similar to our
native Irish; just like Ireland we heard songs that told stories - most of the
songs seemed to be about lost love or broken hearts. And, you know what they
say of the Irish “All their wars are merry and all their songs are sad!”The next day we turned North on the Blue Ridge Parkway to visit Mabry Mill (originally built and operated by Ed and Lizzie Mabry in the late 19th century) now visited by over 3 million people annually – the Mill Wheel is one of the most photographed places in Virginia. In their original home a lady was carding wool, while another was spinning it and making balls of wool. Ed’s Forge was built of wood except for the fire place, as you can guess sparks set the forge on fire quite often; not to worry with the abundance of trees in the area it took little time to build the next forge. Mabry Mill is a combination timber, grist and woodworking mill (band saws, lathes etc.) the water for which is channeled from the many nearby streams (remember this is at the top of the mountain) into a small canal and then over the large mill wheel. It was fascinating to see how people managed before electricity and how clever and inventive they were.
Memorial Day we drove to Hillsville a relatively big town in the hills where they were holding an enormous Flea Market - as we have little room for chotskies we decided to go for a walk along the river bank which was very pretty, we crisscrossed the river many times.
Our next
destination was Huntington near Charleston, West Virginia; as we had a steep
climb up to Fancy Gap (3000ft) we were hoping that we had no higher to go – no
such luck, there were lots more mountains to come. This was an interesting trip
– first off we had another flat tire (caused by valve extensions coming
loose), then on the road we went through
an absolute deluge which lasted for 40 minutes or more, followed by an hour
long traffic backup (a semi had overturned) we traveled ONE MILE in an hour! The
people of West Virginia have a saying “if West Virginia was ironed out flat it
would be bigger than Texas” we’re inclined to believe it having driven up and
down mountains all day.
Learning
from our Memorial Day panic of having no reservations we spent the next day
planning our journey as far as Little Rock, AR which we should reach on July
6th.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)