Road Trip from Arizona To Maryland And Everywhere In Between

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

I'm really enjoying your pics, kgirl. Love the foodie ones, but the one of the little guy asleep on the raft got me....looks like my youngest grandson and that would so be something he would do. Thank you for continuing to share your travel pics and stories!

Mahalo, thank you Cheryl!
That little tike is our grand-nephew, he's the youngest of our gang, he's four years old and just a hoot.

Now don't go away ... we still need to drive back home to Arizona ...

 

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

Check Two More Off Our Bucket List

#1 Louisville Slugger Museum
#2 Churchhill Downs

WOW!!

We decided to stay across the Tennessee River from Louisville in Clarksville Indiana. Much more calm (that's one crazy town!), less expensive accommodations and minutes away.
We were able to hit the Museum,













as well as take the tour of the Race Track and it's inner workings

 

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

... continued from above ...

While we were strolling from the parking lot over to the Louisville Slugger Museum, and back again I noticed this next door

 

[larry_stewart]

#1 Louisville Slugger Museum
#2 Churchhill Downs

Will be passing through in late October to check them both out ( on our way to nashville) to celebrate My B-day. They are both on my list of things to do during our travels.

Any tips ( for either of them) while visiting ?

 

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

A Check Off MY Bucket List, For Sure!!

This is really from my own personal Bucket List, not DH's (above was his )

#3 The Brown Hotel in Downtown Louisville Kentucky
DH: What the H are we going here for?
Me: It's historic, indulge me
DH: Okay :grumble grumble:





I was afraid that we had to dress up for lunch, nope!


DH ordered the Turkey Club


For myself, the Lobster Mac N Cheese


Can you see how BIG those nuggets of Lobster are?

And no, we did not order the famous Hot Brown, not our cup of tea, but we admired everyone else's plates around us.
What a beautiful room, the J. Graham's Cafe was just perfect for our lunch after all of our touring around.

DH:That was delicious! One of the best Clubs I've had and what a nice place!
Me: YUP

 

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

Will be passing through in late October to check them both out ( on our way to nashville) to celebrate My B-day. They are both on my list of things to do during our travels.

Any tips ( for either of them) while visiting ?

So sorry Larry, I was posting another "continued" from Louisville.
I highly recommend that you stay over the river in Indiana.
I'm sure that you could find a hotel/motel that would suit your needs.
We had several restaurants around our hotel that served the purpose.
On our first night in town, we were tired from the road, so it was salads in our room with fixin's from the local grocery, maybe a mile away.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Nice, nice, nice, K-Girl! I'm really enjoying your photos and story. That's a pretty cool baseball glove bench that your DH is sitting on, and is that his own personalized bat in the box that he is holding? That would be a pretty great souvenir if it is.

 

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

Nice, nice, nice, K-Girl! I'm really enjoying your photos and story. That's a pretty cool baseball glove bench that your DH is sitting on, and is that his own personalized bat in the box that he is holding? That would be a pretty great souvenir if it is.

Isn't this just the coolest place CG ?

HARDLY do I ever see my husband get so giddy, he was like a 10 year!
"Come on, come on, hurry up!" as soon as we got out of the car... they hadn't even opened yet!! I'm all, looking up in the air, checking out all of the old architecture, the buildings downtown were fabulous!

I tried to get him into the batting cage with the other kids, but all I got was,
"I'm a pitcher, I can't hit, and do you know what that would do to me at this age?"


And yes, he bought one of these for himself and Mister Dear Friend...



... I was going to show y'all our souvenirs at the end of the thread... we brought back some interesting things

 

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

Just A few More Stops Til We're Home

As I mentioned, DH and I are US History buffs, and my husband is a nut about the Civil War. One of the battlefields that we've not made it to has been Shiloh ...

until now



There are many, many memorials, but I found this very touching.



I got a very cold chill down my spine here




Not very far away is the home/museum of Sheriff Bufford Pusser
of the Walking Tall movie fame

Both interesting were places.

Oh, food, well, there wasn't much to write home about there ... we stayed in Savannah Tennessee where Cat Fish is King and I found it just okay. I didn't take any photos, it didn't seem like a place that tourist come to much, so I kept it very low key.

 

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

Home Again, Home Again ...

We must have changed our plans four times
prior to leaving The East Coast to head home.
We were going to go on from Savannah Tennessee to
OK City, Oklahoma and then Albuquerque New Mexico,
but stopped instead in Van Buren AR and Amarillo TX,
then made a beeline for home!
We were pretty much done.
BUT we made it in one piece, even driving on Interstate 40,
geez, those big trucks are brutal man!

I wanted to share some of the souvenirs we brought back...
(in no particular order)



Duke's Mayonnaise
I bought this at one of our grocery store runs for supplies,
somewhere on the back roads of Virginia...
I haven't cracked that baby open yet, but I will.
I'd heard so much about Duke's and always wanted to try it ...



From the Gettysburg Museum and Visitors Center,
that was fabulous!



This is from a small wine and cheese shop on Chincoteague Island Virginia



The Kentucky Derby Museum, and the gift shop, was our last stop after our tour of the grounds at Churchill Downs
They have a Cafe that we had planned on having lunch at, but it's only open during racing season...



I found these in the Kentucky Derby Museum, how cool is this?!



As I paid the check for our lunch at the Brown Hotel,
I, as we say in Hawaii, cock-a-roached the pen! oops, it just sorta, kinda, fell in to my handbag

I have one more really big souvenir that we got in Maryland,
but I'll have to show that one to y'all later ...

 

[larry_stewart]

Great Trip!!
I love road trips.
Actually in the process of planning our trip for my birthday this October.
Its nice to see other parts of the states and some of the off-beat stuff.

 

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

Mahalo, thanks Larry!
We just love road trips, in fact, we're also in the process
of planning another one ...

One thing I meant to say about the Louisville area,
we missed going to a Horse Farm, I really wanted
to do that, but we just ran out of time... need better planning, DH!!

 

[larry_stewart]

I hear ya, we have a few timed events that we have to be at a certain place at a certain time, the rest is just getting there and pit stops on what we think will be fun and interesting. %50 of the trip will be new, the other is a repeat, just doing different things that we missed last time around. Planning is part of the fun, and then at the end of the trip, looking back and seeing how and where you deviated from your original plan is fun too. But like you, there comes a certain point where you just want to get home.

 

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

I also wanted to add to my post,
some interesting, thought provoking and darn right funny
signs we saw along our road trip across the Country:

I never heard of the Kickapoo Tribe
Prague Oklahoma
Meemaw Shelby Park
Okie Trading Post
Branbar Cattle Resort
Toad Suck Road
Deaf Smith County Line
Bucksnort Tennessee
On a Cracker Barrel BillBoard Ad: "Biscuits are spoons you can eat"

And lastly, the majority of the Rest Stops/Areas through out
Tennessee were like beautiful parks... it was so pleasant to
have our picnic lunches and relax for a bit before hittin' the trail again

So, where we will we we go next?
Or better yet, where are you headed off to?

 

[larry_stewart]

Or better yet, where are you headed off to?

For my 50th we will be heading to Muscle Shoals Alabama to tour the Muscle Shoals Recording Studio ( Im big music fan). Since Im not a fan of flying, a road trip it is!!! As of right now, we will be passing through Pittsburgh PA, Louisville KY, Nashville TN, Muscle Shoals AL, Huntsville AL, Chattanooga TN, Atlanta GA, Charlottesville and Mount Vernon VA. Still in the planning stages, but things are booking up pretty quick. Planning these trips is almost as fun as going on them. I also like looking back after the trip and see how much we deviate from the original plan. ( we will be passing through Columbus and Cincinnati OH, Lexington KY, DC and Baltimore)

 

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

For my 50th we will be heading to Muscle Shoals Alabama to tour the Muscle Shoals Recording Studio ( Im big music fan). Since Im not a fan of flying, a road trip it is!!! As of right now, we will be passing through Pittsburgh PA, Louisville KY, Nashville TN, Muscle Shoals AL, Huntsville AL, Chattanooga TN, Atlanta GA, Charlottesville and Mount Vernon VA. Still in the planning stages, but things are booking up pretty quick. Planning these trips is almost as fun as going on them. I also like looking back after the trip and see how much we deviate from the original plan. ( we will be passing through Columbus and Cincinnati OH, Lexington KY, DC and Baltimore)

Chalottesville -- Monticello for sure!

Mount Vernon, I don't know how many times we've been there, take your time! Take a picnic

D.C. oh my GAWD! Another place that we've been to more times than I can count and I know that there's still more to see. DH and I agreed that we'd buy a trolley pass as well as a Metro Pass to get around and taxis or Uber if it rains, but mostly we walked everywhere. DO NOT DRIVE!! Although DH said if you're from NYC or downtown Philly, go for it.

Baltimore is a bit dangerous now. We love the Inner Harbor, but wouldn't go there again. What we did was take the train to goes right to Oriole Park at Camden Yards, but then baseball is over by then ...

 

[Cooking Goddess]

...( we will be passing through Columbus and Cincinnati OH...)

I was excited to see this, since I really wanted to suggest you dine at Schmidt's Sausage Haus in Columbus' German Village...until I remembered that you guys are vegetarian/vegan. You'd probably be limited to sauerkraut. I can suggest, however, you avoid Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream. It's pretty *meh* for a $4 very small scoop. We were not impressed, although I do tip my hat to their creative flavor blendings. I know if we go through Cinci again, I will hunt down a Graeter's shop. We love their ice cream out of the cartons I buy locally at a grocery store. I wonder if it's even better when you're eating a scoop from a tub in a shop close to where they make it. Oh YUM!

I hope you post your travels in a journal here at DC when you take your road trip. I've really been enjoying K-Girl's account of their trip.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Chalottesville -- Monticello for sure!...

As amazing as Monticello is (and it IS!), we actually prefer it's little sister, Poplar Forest, 11 miles southwest of Lynchburg, VA. Jefferson built it as his summer home, his get-away from the bother of Washington and politics. It's a less ostentatious home, a rather cozy dwelling considering his status in the country, and a very pleasant history lesson. Then again, we haven't had a chance to stop there for about ten years. I do know they've modernized the Visitor's Center and access to the main house and dependencies, but I can say the same about Monticello from our first visit (probably mid-1970's) until our most recent (maybe 1988?). Once we stumbled upon Poplar Forest, we haven't visited Monticello. Hmm, maybe it's time...

 

[larry_stewart]

I was excited to see this, since I really wanted to suggest you dine at Schmidt's Sausage Haus in Columbus' German Village...until I remembered that you guys are vegetarian/vegan. You'd probably be limited to sauerkraut. I can suggest, however, you avoid Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream. It's pretty *meh* for a $4 very small scoop. We were not impressed, although I do tip my hat to their creative flavor blendings. I know if we go through Cinci again, I will hunt down a Graeter's shop. We love their ice cream out of the cartons I buy locally at a grocery store. I wonder if it's even better when you're eating a scoop from a tub in a shop close to where they make it. Oh YUM!

I hope you post your travels in a journal here at DC when you take your road trip. I've really been enjoying K-Girl's account of their trip.

I too have been enjoying this thread!, Its like reading a good book,always wondering whats going to happen next. Ill be sure to start a thread when the time comes. Probably giving you guys a head start, just so there's time to consider suggestions and changes things up a bit. The last road trip I took had more of a " we have to get there" theme, just doing what we could that fell exactly on our path. Still was great fun, but we had more limitations. This one Ill have more freedom to deviate a bit, although Im a planning / follow the itinerary freak, so going off schedule freaks me out a bit .

I also enjoy seeing this thread just to see how others do the road trip thing, learning a few things along the way.

 

[GotGarlic]

Chalottesville -- Monticello for sure!

Mount Vernon, I don't know how many times we've been there, take your time! Take a picnic

D.C. oh my GAWD! Another place that we've been to more times than I can count and I know that there's still more to see. DH and I agreed that we'd buy a trolley pass as well as a Metro Pass to get around and taxis or Uber if it rains, but mostly we walked everywhere. DO NOT DRIVE!! Although DH said if you're from NYC or downtown Philly, go for it.

Baltimore is a bit dangerous now. We love the Inner Harbor, but wouldn't go there again. What we did was take the train to goes right to Oriole Park at Camden Yards, but then baseball is over by then ...

The historic Michie Tavern is another fun place to visit in Charlottesville. With all the veggie sides and peach cobbler for dessert, you can have a nice vegetarian meal: https://www.michietavern.com/michie-taverns-menu/

I'd suggest not driving in DC no matter where you're from. It's difficult to find parking and it's expensive. We like to stay in historic Alexandria, VA and take the train to DC. The hotels are less expensive, Old Town Alexandria is pretty, and the Mall is about 15 minutes away by train.