Louisville, KY

Our RV was parked in Lousville for ten days. We went home to Philly for a week of that time frame, however, so I could help my mother with her big move. We moved her out of the house we grew up in and into an apartment that is more manageable for her. It's such a big change for her and an important time in her life, I'm glad I went home to share it with her. Andy went home too to see family and friends. During his trips home he usually spends one afternoon downtown at one of the local establishments with friends and family who work in Philly. So after these trips, he usually avoids alcohol for two weeks or more. Good thing we don't live there anymore! Especially now that another bad influence is working downtown - yeah, I mean you Rosie! Well, if you can call interning with the EPA 'work'.

It was a shame we didn't spend more time though with the RV. Otter Creek Park (actually in Muldraugh, KY, next door to Fort Knox, KY) is a beautiful park with hiking/biking/bridle trails, a creek to swim in or tube down, it borders the Ohio River, and is heavily forested with an array of birds. The camphosts had bird feeders out attracting many hummingbirds and goldfinches. The park offers many activities including caving and rock-climbing which we missed because they were only offered on the busier weekends. We were expecting the park to be mobbed for the Fourth of July, but were relieved it wasn't. On the Fourth we went and toured the Patton Museum which is on the Fort Knox Military Reservation. The museum included a large assortment of tanks, American or other countries; from different wars including WWI to Iraq; from 2-seaters to large 4-man tanks. There was also a display about Elvis Presley in the Army which I found interesting (I always assumed he did more PR than fighting, so I was totally wwwrrrong). And we also learned that Patton died from an embolism after breaking his neck in a car accident. Ironic that a man can earn so many medals and die from a car accident.
We drove past Fort Knox. Not only do they not offer tours there, but it doesn't look very inviting, either.
We did get to see a flame-thrower demonstration at the Patton Museum, though.

While we were at the museum, we learned that the base was providing fireworks for the Fourth. We were planning on driving the 45 minutes back into downtown Louisville, but decided we would rather drive 15 minutes and see the fireworks on a military base...and at Fort Knox to boot! Men in uniform and tanks on the lawn, all set a nice patriotic stage to celebrate the Fourth of July. The concert was good, but I always prefer patriotic music on this day of the year...give me the old traditional, big band music on this day to really get me in the spirit. But maybe the boys in camouflage preferred a respite?

We spent the fifth touring around downtown Louisville. We walked around Glassworks which has three different divisions of glass-makers: the architectural division which makes glass for buildings and large sculptures; the flame-workers which make the small ornate glass designs; and the hot-shop which uses the ovens to make vases, etc. We ate lunch at Andy's favorite restaurant, Skyline Chili, thinking of our other Skyline-loving friends in Florida (Hi Rod and Drew!).
Afterwards we toured the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory. The factory was surprisingly small and old-fashioned in the fact that the only thing that separated us from the workers was a yellow line taped to the floor. Machines now can make a bat in 30 seconds, versus the olden days of 30 minutes to hand-carve one bat. The tour and the museum gets you dreaming of playing baseball. Anyone up for a pick-up game on the old sand lot? Downtown Louisville is an interesting mix of old and new. Old brick buildings with old-fashioned signs hanging above the door, and down the block a new skyrise of steel and glass.

Since we took the trip home to Philly, we need to make up some lost time. We'll be hurrying through to Colorado now. But we also want to collect our stickers for new states, so we'll be spending one or two nights in each state along the way. It's a quagmire...we don't want to zoom past all this new territory and not stop to see things, but we also feel the need to hit the mountainous and northern regions in the next two months.