a Sunday day of rest

Today is a day of rest and grocery shopping.  We found a WM Supercenter and stocked up on a few things, mostly fresh fruit and veggies.

We both really enjoyed last evenings show better than the Friday night big name performers show.  Last night it was a large cast of local musicians and performers that gave us a wide variety of entertainment.  There were three or four male singers that each did their couple of numbers and also that many female singers that did the same.  They had a very good clogging dance routine by a couple of young sisters plus there were banjo and fiddle solo acts.  All were very talented and made the evening go by very fast.  This Saturday night barn dance has been continuous for the past 70+ years with new people added as older ones leave the cast.  The back up group of musicians, the Renfro Vally band, was super.

more bourbon fun

Another day, another two distilleries visited.  This morning we visited the Four Roses distillery and then after lunch we toured the Woodford Reserve.  This last one was the best tour of all four, two yesterday and two today, but they were the stingiest with their tasting sample.  The other three were glad to let us sample two of their best brands while this last one only let us have one sip of their lesser label.  Still we have had fun with these tours.  While each one has many of the same processes as the others they each proudly describe something that is unique in their operation that makes their brands "the best."

To be called bourbon they all have to meet certain standard requirements which includes a minimum percentage of corn in the grain mixture and the use of a new white oak barrel for aging.  We had been told several years ago that to be called bourbon it had to have been made in Kentucky but now they tell us that it can be made anywhere in the USA as long as the minimum guidelines are met.  However, 95% is still produced right here in KY.  That is primarily because of the availability of corn grown in this area plus the spring fed water is limestone filtered for purity.  Also white oak is plentiful here so some barrels are made here but a lot are shipped here from Lebanon, MO.  They can only use the barrels one time so they then sell them to other types of alcohol production or to the Louisiana hot sauce producers.  The left over grain mash is given to the local farmers for free to use as livestock feed.  With all the producers in this area that means there is a whole lot of happy cows and pigs.

Tonight we have another music show to attend.  This one is what they call their Saturday Night Barn Dance which will be a group of local musicians performing and entertaining, it should be fun.

Sorry no pictures today.  Just look at yesterdays again and you can see what we saw.

Oh the sun shines bright...

.... on my old Kentucky home.  This morning we drove to Bardstown, KY where just south of there is a state park located at the homestead that inspired Stephen Foster to write this Kentucky State song.  We had a very nice lunch at the "Old Talbott Tavern" which is right downtown Bardstown and has been declared an historic building that Abe Lincoln had been there.  We're sure that he had the same lunch that we did.

After lunch we toured two bourbon distilleries and while most of them have a similar process they all have a different recipe and story to tell.  These pictures are mostly from one of them and it was interesting to know that they mostly get their oak barrels from Lebanon, MO.  This first picture is the vertical still and looks nothing like the (next to last) picture which is in the lobby of the other bourbon maker.

 

Tonight we have tickets to a music show and will be walking that way soon.  The headline performers are Moe Bandy, Janie Frickie, and David Frizzell.

Kentucky Museum of Music

This morning we visited this museum that originally began with it's main interest as Kentucky Blue Grass music.  It has been expanded to include all forms of music by folks from this state.  We enjoyed all the great displays which included many references to Bill Monroe who is considered as the father of blue grass music.  This portrait of Bill is one of the first displays that we saw.

 

This location in Rock Castle County, KY is the site of a radio broadcast of country music that started around 1935 by business man John Lair jointly with Red Foley and one other man.

 Red Foley was driven to several performances by his brother that owned this car.  Later in his career Red moved to Springfield, MO to headline the Ozark Jubilee.

This small model Martin guitar was played by Loretta Lynn.

This display of the Everly Brothers was  a must for a photo because their hit "All I have to do is dream" was popular while Jo and I were dating long distance between Columbia and Springfield.

There were three pump organs in their displays but we got these two pictures the one is quite ornate and the other had a lesson on shape notes on a black board above it.  The third one was very small and looked home-made so not very photogenic

 

 

Renfro Valley

It was a short drive today except for crossing the time line where we lost an hour.  We just played like we were still on Central time and had lunch after we got setup in the campground.

We are in a campground in the Renfro Valley Music Complex and it is just a short walk to the music shows that we have tickets for on Friday and Saturday evenings.  This will also be our base doing any other tourist thing while here at the foothills of the Appalachian mountains.

It's good to be on the road again

... even if we didn't get away this morning as early as planned.  I had an appointment with my dermatologist yesterday and she was supposed to send a prescription to our pharmacy yesterday afternoon.  I checked with our pharmacy just before quitting time and found that it was not there which meant that we would not get an early start today.  I called my doctor's office as soon as they opened this morning and a nurse then called the RX to the pharmacy.  I was at their door when they opened this morning and we were on our way only an hour and a half later than plan "A".

The drive today felt good to be rolling again even if we have seen the scenery along this route many times before.  Jo usually likes to keep a road map unfolded so she can check where we are but today she just read her book and left her maps alone.

Juror number nine

Back at the ol' Martin Manor and all is well.  Our night blooming cerius did bloom sometime in the past few days and we don't see any more buds at this time.  We have lots of pictures of those blooms from previous years so just have to hope we will be here the next time it opens up.

In the mail we did get Jo's jury notice for the two weeks in mid August as we were told earlier.  Her Juror number is 0009 so now we will just have to call in each week of that time to find out if she has to report to the court house.

We also had a check in the mail for the rest of our roof replacement from our insurance company.  Now we will need the final bill from the roofer and then we should be good for another 30+ years.

Now I have a full month to finalize plans for our September outing.

Almost in Missouri

We are set up for the night in Nebraska City, NE which is only about 12 miles from our entrance into MO.  We used to stop in Rock Port, MO in a KOA but that campground went downhill and lost their KOA association and I don't know if there is even a campground there any more.  We found this one in Nebraska City that is very nice.  It's a Good Sam park and not a KOA but it still make for a good stop on our way home with tomorrows drive only 300 miles which is about a 5 +/- hour drive.

Yesterday was a quiet day and we only got out in the evening to fuel up the truck, find some BBQ for supper, and stop at the grocery store for a few essentials.  In the past few years we have found a few "Famous Dave's" BBQ restaurants and found the food to be very good.

Falls of the Sioux River

This morning we drove to the Falls Park in downtown Sioux Falls.  We visited this park 12 years ago and I'm sure if we pull out our photo album from that trip we will find many of the same pictures as today.  It is a great park with the granite boulders adding color to the green lawns and falling waters.

Falls Park Pictures

southbound

Once we turned south on I-29 we had a tail wind that sure helped with the fuel economy.

Tonight we are back in the Sioux Falls, SD KOA.  We were here 12 years ago tomorrow on our way back to Springfield because Mom was in the hospital.  The morning we planned to leave one of our slide-outs wouldn't pull in so I went next door to an RV service shop for help.  They weren't open on Saturday so we had to stay put for the weekend but we were able to get some help on Monday and were on our way.  We are here for three nights this trip so plan to revisit some of the local attractions that we enjoyed on that forced stay.

At the beginning of this trip I found a problem with our hitch in the truck that forced me to manually alter the hitching process.  While in MN I searched the net for a dealer for my brand of hitch and found one here in Sioux Falls.  I called them and ordered the necessary part so it would be here today.  I just now picked it up and replaced the broken part so now we are as good as new in the hitch department and ready for continued travels.

ahoy mate

This morning I let Jo paddle me around this small lake by the campground.  They have three paddle boats for campers use and we took the one that everyone told us was the easiest to peddle, not the one in my picture.

The lake shore line is covered in lily pads and reed grass and the hard part of the peddling was just to get through that out to the open water.

This is looking back toward the dock.

This is a beaver lodge in one corner of the lake.  The small black dot on the left edge is a loon that was one of a pair we saw as we approached this spot.  We can listen to the loons from our campsite in the evenings.

The lily pads all over the lake are covered with these large snails.  I told Jo that we could pick up a bucket full and she could fix them for lunch.  She didn't think that was too good of an idea so we left them alone.

It was a fun short ride with some good leg exercising.

Game, Set, & Match

Okay! State t-shirt number 50 of 50 has been bagged.  This morning we drove to Fargo, ND and found the last State t-shirt of Jo's collection.  Now we will not have to stop on Friday as we travel south and homeward bound.  Friday's journey will take us to Sioux Falls, SD for a couple of days before we continue toward MO.

Mississippi Headwaters

This morning we took a drive to the town of Bemidji, MN which claims to be the first city on the Mississippi River.  While there we visited with Paul Bunyan and Babe his blue ox and had a nice lunch before we took a short drive to the headwaters of the Mississippi River which flows out of Lake Itasca.  There are rocks that sure footed folks can walk on to cross but for us older folks there is a nice log bridge.  Some folks just chose to wade across.

today's Pictures

Nice drive

Today we moved across the State of Minnesota to the western side near Detroit Lakes, MN.  This campground is on the banks of a large lake and away from any major highway so it should be very quiet.  We are here for four nights and will just have to see what we might do or explore.

Cool

It's in the lower 50s temperature wise here in upper MN right now (7:00 am) and that requires the heat pump to be on for a change, nice.

We really enjoyed the music show last evening.  It was 2 1/2 hours of good entertainment with a house band composed of lead guitar, drums, bass guitar, and steel guitar.  The traveling performers for the evening were Roger Tibbs and Naomi Bristow who did two sets each.  Roger Tibbs is from New Zealand and has a real good voice and an outstanding yodeler.  Naomi is 15 years old, from Canada, and calls herself the yodelin' cowgirl.  She has a strong, good voice and does a great job with the yodelin'.  They both did a good variety of country songs that showed off the range of their talents.

St Croix River boat tour

This morning we drove to Taylor Falls, MN and took a river boar tour down the St Croix river.  It was fun and the weather was great.  I did get a few photos as can be found in the link below but I missed the biggest landmark picture.  Just a short way down river from the dock the captain told about a formation in the rock walls of the dalles (river canyon formed by glacier) that looked like a very large cross.  I could see the image in the stone but was on the wrong side of the boat to get a picture.  It is this landmark that gave the St Croix river it's name.

St Croix River boat tour

If you zoom in to picture #5 you can see rock climbers on this rock face.

Tonight we have tickets to the Midwest Country music show in Sandstone, MN which is just a few miles north of our campground.

day of rest

After two days on the road we made it a quiet day of rest.  I did spend most of the morning on the phone finding a part for our hitch that is broken.  The hitch does work and is secure but the broken part requires an extra manual force applied when hitching up.  I was able to find an RV service in Sioux Falls, SD where we will be staying next weekend that could order the part and have it there for us then.

We have plans for tomorrow to take a boat ride and then tomorrow evening we will attend the Midwest Country Show.

BINGO

Bagged one of two so now we only need a ND t-shirt for our goal.  We had a little bit of fun on our way through Saint Paul.  We were northbound on I-35E and there were signs that told us that loads over 9,000 lbs were not permitted ahead of us.  I assumed they would have an overweight detour but that wasn't the case and we finally came to an exit that said all loads over 9,000 lbs must exit.  Since we are about 24,000 lbs I did exit and ended up on some city streets.  Ms Navi tried to help us and found a route that connected back to I-35E northbound a few miles further ahead so I thought we would be fine.  When we got to the on-ramp there was a sign that said no loads over 9K so that was not an option.  We resorted to paper maps and found a numbered state route over to the outer, outer loop which allowed us to get back on track with only a little delay.

We are settled now for four nights and will find something to do to enjoy this area, hopefully with some cooler temperatures.

The final hunt is on

We're on our way northbound in search of the final two t-shirts to complete Jo's 50 State Quilt.  She will then be able to wrap herself up in her 50 State quilt while drinking coffee from her 50 State coffee mugs.

Tonight we are in Story City, IA which is just a few miles north of Ames, the home of Iowa State University.  Ames is also where the Iowa DOT headquarters is located and I have been there many times in the past for business reasons as we always worked very close with our northern neighbor.

New shoes

I took the trailer into town this morning and had new shoes installed so now I feel more comfortable in starting out on any new trips.  The old tires were only a little over two and a half years old but were showing some strange wear patterns.  One of the internet forums that I read has a thread about my old brand of tires that listed several with the same wear patterns that I had plus they have had several blowouts on the road which I hope that I have avoided.  It's a known fact that trailer/RV tires don't wear out from miles on the road but usually have to be replaced due to aging from the sun.  Four 17.5" 16 ply tires aren't cheap but worth it for peace of mind.