Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Day 14
A driving day. We drove through eastern Kentucky, through mountainous West Virginia, and through western Maryland home to Hampstead. Interstate all the way. (Except for a detour through Clarksburg, WV, to have lunch at a Dairy Queen).
It's good to be home, but we miss Meg and Jared and Shiloh already. Lots to catch up on; we unloaded the camper as soon as we got home (it's really HOT here) and started doing laundry. We were too tired and too hot to do much of anything last night, so after a quick supper of grilled cheese sandwiches and a bit of Public TV, we went to bed. Tomorrow it's back to our normal routine.
Keeping this blog has been fun. I hope you have enjoyed our trip as much as we have.
It's good to be home, but we miss Meg and Jared and Shiloh already. Lots to catch up on; we unloaded the camper as soon as we got home (it's really HOT here) and started doing laundry. We were too tired and too hot to do much of anything last night, so after a quick supper of grilled cheese sandwiches and a bit of Public TV, we went to bed. Tomorrow it's back to our normal routine.
Keeping this blog has been fun. I hope you have enjoyed our trip as much as we have.
Day 13
We drove about 2 hours from outside Nashville, TN to Mammoth Cave National Park in Southwest Kentucky, near Bowling Green. It was a very hot day (heat advisories were posted at the park) so we were glad to spend most of the day underground exploring the caves, where the temperature remains around 54 degrees year round. We signed up for the Frozen Niagara Tour which promised "deep pits, high domes, dry cave passages, dripstone area." Our Park Ranger, Bob, was a good tour guide and we spent about 2 hours exploring the cave, between 250 and 300 feet underground. My pictures don't do it justice, but here goes:
Crevices:
Limestone formation:
Exploring the cave:
Rockfall:
"Frozen Niagara" flowstone formation:
Flowstone:
After leaving the cave, we had lunch and then visited the "Historic Entrance" which was one of the original entrances used to view the caves. Even though the outside temperatures were in the high nineties, the cold air coming out of the cave felt like air conditioning.
We then resumed our trip northeast, traveling toward Lexington. We camped at a little campground near Salt Lick, near the Daniel Boone National Forest. It was several miles off the expressway, so we didn't have to listen to trucks all night, but it was a bit run down. Looked like a lot of folks were living in their campers, not just tourists.
One more day of traveling and we will be home.
Crevices:
Limestone formation:
Exploring the cave:
Rockfall:
"Frozen Niagara" flowstone formation:
Flowstone:
After leaving the cave, we had lunch and then visited the "Historic Entrance" which was one of the original entrances used to view the caves. Even though the outside temperatures were in the high nineties, the cold air coming out of the cave felt like air conditioning.
We then resumed our trip northeast, traveling toward Lexington. We camped at a little campground near Salt Lick, near the Daniel Boone National Forest. It was several miles off the expressway, so we didn't have to listen to trucks all night, but it was a bit run down. Looked like a lot of folks were living in their campers, not just tourists.
One more day of traveling and we will be home.
Day 12
In the morning we drove up into the foothills of the Ozark Mountains to the town of Hot Springs and Hot Springs National Park. Many of the bathhouses from the early 1900's are still visible on "“Bathhouse Row" but only one is still functioning as a bathhouse. One houses the National Park Visitors' Center and still contains many of the accoutrements of the former opulence of the bathhouses, including men's and ladies' changing rooms, baths, massage tables, etc. We wandered around town a bit, finding a couple of springs still visible on the surface. Most of the hot water is now underground, but there were fountains for filling bottles with the hot mineral water; we filled some of our empty water bottles with hot water. We then headed out of town, driving toward Little Rock. We found a gem store along the way and purchased some "Arkansas Crystal" for our garden pond (we like to bring back rocks from various places we visit to put around the pond). We drove around Little Rock and then into Tennessee toward Memphis. Our goal is to visit Mammouth Cave National Park (in Kentucky) tomorrow so we were hoping to make it to Nashville, but we couldn't quite make it so we are camping in Lorretta Lynn country at a crowded KOA just off Interstate 40. No WiFi here so I am writing this in Word in the hopes that I can get a connection tomorrow.
It's getting dark and I am sitting with the computer on the tailgate of the truck plugged into our exterior outlet and I’m beginning to feel the bugs coming out, so it's time to call it quits.
We haven't had any wireless connections at the last camp grounds, so I am posting these entries after the fact.
These pictures are of Bath House Row in Hot Springs. Only one of the bathhouses is still open to the public, Buckstaff Bath. The buildings are owned by the National Park Service and are being restored. The Fordyce houses the park headquarters and is open for tours, showing the lavish decorations of the bathhouses.
Bathhouse Row:
Buckstaff Bath:
More Bathhouse Row:
The men's area of the bathhouse was more lavish than the women's; here is the stained glass ceiling in the men's area:
Statuary in the men's bath:
Ken inspects the elaborate plumbing:
The opulent parlor:
A tiled bath, used for invalids:
The Gymnasium:
Ken tests the hot water, coming directly out of the ground. Ouch, it's hot!
Hot spring pools:
Art Deco architecture in downtown Hot Springs:
It's getting dark and I am sitting with the computer on the tailgate of the truck plugged into our exterior outlet and I’m beginning to feel the bugs coming out, so it's time to call it quits.
We haven't had any wireless connections at the last camp grounds, so I am posting these entries after the fact.
These pictures are of Bath House Row in Hot Springs. Only one of the bathhouses is still open to the public, Buckstaff Bath. The buildings are owned by the National Park Service and are being restored. The Fordyce houses the park headquarters and is open for tours, showing the lavish decorations of the bathhouses.
Bathhouse Row:
Buckstaff Bath:
More Bathhouse Row:
The men's area of the bathhouse was more lavish than the women's; here is the stained glass ceiling in the men's area:
Statuary in the men's bath:
Ken inspects the elaborate plumbing:
The opulent parlor:
A tiled bath, used for invalids:
The Gymnasium:
Ken tests the hot water, coming directly out of the ground. Ouch, it's hot!
Hot spring pools:
Art Deco architecture in downtown Hot Springs:
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Day 11
Today we begin our journey back to Hampstead. We've had a wonderful time visiting Meg and Jared and Shiloh and will miss them. Shiloh has "puppy school" this morning, so she is practicing her commands.
We pose for some final pictures before departing:
Shiloh poses for her picture:
Homeward Bound
We circled around the northside of Houston and then headed north toward Texarkana. We stopped in Nacogdoches (Jared’s friend Billy’s hometown) for a little antiquing and some lunch at Shelley’s Café. We then continued north toward Texarkana and then headed east. We had supper in Hope, Arkansas, birthplace of President Bill Clinton and continued on to camp in Arkadelphia, not far from Hot Springs.
We pose for some final pictures before departing:
Shiloh poses for her picture:
Homeward Bound
We circled around the northside of Houston and then headed north toward Texarkana. We stopped in Nacogdoches (Jared’s friend Billy’s hometown) for a little antiquing and some lunch at Shelley’s Café. We then continued north toward Texarkana and then headed east. We had supper in Hope, Arkansas, birthplace of President Bill Clinton and continued on to camp in Arkadelphia, not far from Hot Springs.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Day 10
We are going off with Jared this morning to see the Johnson Space Center here in Houston and possibly to Galveston.
We had a fun day with Jared, touring the NASA Space Center and then driving around Galveston. We took the tram tour at the Space Center and saw the area where astronauts test equipment, including the shuttle and the space station--the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility. We also toured Rocket Park and saw the Saturn V rocket and capsule that took astronauts to the moon. We experienced a simulation of a shuttle launch and had a preview of some of NASA's next projects. There were lots of activities for kids at the space center.
We then drove down to Galveston which is on the Gulf Coast. Galveston is like the Outer Banks with palm trees. It was nearly destroyed by a hurricane in 1900 and was basically rebuilt. Many of the homes are Victorian, reminiscent of Cape May, NJ. There were also a surprising number of buildings that survived the hurricane, dating back to the 1800's.
Jared and Ken aboard the Space Tram:
The Space Tram:
The Space Vehicle Mockup Facility:
Astronaut Memorial Park:
Rocket Park and Saturn V:
Downtown Galveston:
Paddlewheeler:
We had a fun day with Jared, touring the NASA Space Center and then driving around Galveston. We took the tram tour at the Space Center and saw the area where astronauts test equipment, including the shuttle and the space station--the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility. We also toured Rocket Park and saw the Saturn V rocket and capsule that took astronauts to the moon. We experienced a simulation of a shuttle launch and had a preview of some of NASA's next projects. There were lots of activities for kids at the space center.
We then drove down to Galveston which is on the Gulf Coast. Galveston is like the Outer Banks with palm trees. It was nearly destroyed by a hurricane in 1900 and was basically rebuilt. Many of the homes are Victorian, reminiscent of Cape May, NJ. There were also a surprising number of buildings that survived the hurricane, dating back to the 1800's.
Jared and Ken aboard the Space Tram:
The Space Tram:
The Space Vehicle Mockup Facility:
Astronaut Memorial Park:
Rocket Park and Saturn V:
Downtown Galveston:
Paddlewheeler:
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Day 9
July 27, my birthday! We woke up this morning at a very nice KOA Kampground in Fredericksburg, TX, in the Texas Hill Country. Fredericksburg looks like a nice town with a wonderful sense of its heritage. We watched a 9 minute video about the town and its people at the Visitors' Center. Unfortunately, we were in town too early to do much browsing--most shops didn't open until 10 and we had gotten an early start. We decided to start heading East toward Austin by way of Johnson City. We stopped by the LBJ Ranch outside of Johnson City which is now a state historical park. We didn't tour the ranch, but we did visit a working farm that is now a living history museum--The Sauer-Beckman Farm--which depicts farm life from 1900-1918. We had lunch at a cafe in Johnson City. It was a restored lumberyard; a glimpse of what Langford Mill might be.
We decided to avoid Austin; Ken does not like large Texas cities. Instead we drove from south of Austin toward College Station and Texas A & M. We found the Engineering School and the School of Architecture and took a few pictures.
We headed back to Houston and are back for an evening of birthday celebration with Meg, Jared and Jared's parents. I was even surprised by a birthday card from my sister Barbara who sent it to Meg and Jared's address in Houston so that it would arrive in time for my birthday!
After birthday gifts--thank you, Meg, Jared and Shiloh!--we headed to Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen where I feasted on cedar plank salmon. We all had wonderful desserts and my creme brule came complete with a candle and a serenade by the wait staff. I was serenaded again outside the restaurant when my family sang "Happy Birthday" to me. What a sweet way to end my special day!
I only have a few pictures of the day--one feeble attempt to capture the glory of the Texas Hill Country, a couple of photos of the Architecture School at Texas A & M, and my cedar plank salmon for my birthday dinner:
Texas Hill Country:
Texas A & M School of Architecture:
Cedar Plank Salmon:
We decided to avoid Austin; Ken does not like large Texas cities. Instead we drove from south of Austin toward College Station and Texas A & M. We found the Engineering School and the School of Architecture and took a few pictures.
We headed back to Houston and are back for an evening of birthday celebration with Meg, Jared and Jared's parents. I was even surprised by a birthday card from my sister Barbara who sent it to Meg and Jared's address in Houston so that it would arrive in time for my birthday!
After birthday gifts--thank you, Meg, Jared and Shiloh!--we headed to Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen where I feasted on cedar plank salmon. We all had wonderful desserts and my creme brule came complete with a candle and a serenade by the wait staff. I was serenaded again outside the restaurant when my family sang "Happy Birthday" to me. What a sweet way to end my special day!
I only have a few pictures of the day--one feeble attempt to capture the glory of the Texas Hill Country, a couple of photos of the Architecture School at Texas A & M, and my cedar plank salmon for my birthday dinner:
Texas Hill Country:
Texas A & M School of Architecture:
Cedar Plank Salmon:
