It has been a wonderful week but we are glad to be headed home to Sampson, RockyNoel and the pigs, the cats, the chickens and most importantly to our own beds 🥱🤪. But of course we needed one more mealand then Leo and I became fascinated with this squirrel who suspended himself upside down to get to the birdseed

Bye Kentucky! It’s been so much fun. Two more states marked off our list.the drive home took about 6 hours, and the boys cracked us up with their singing and stories.And Mom’s Restaurant opened for one more meal before closing down until Summer… wonder where we will end up thenAnd now the only negative of vacation… laundry 🧺🥴

We spent our last day in Kentucky at 2 extremes – way down below and way up in the air. But first we started with foggy morning in the parkAs the sun burned off the fog, it got warmer and warmer. Our first adventure today took up into deep underground into an old mining cave that flooded back in the 80’s. As we entered, Mike said “you will find a d— cave for us to climb around in, won’t you?” 🤣and while we loved our guide, Acelynn, we couldn’t help say… “We all see it. We all see it.” 🤣So, we geared up with helmets, lights and pfd (personal floatation devices). Acelynn said they weren’t life jackets, those would save your life. These were just to keep the bodies afloat until they came back for you 🤣 She was totally sarcastic and hilarious to us!Everyone loaded up in their kayak and off we went into the mines…

We spent an hour or so under the ground just paddling around in the dark. The guides had lights under their kayaks so they were easy to find and so we all stayed between them and no one was left behind 🥴It was really cool in the mines. We saw the underside of a sink hole that had filled in, and what tree roots looks like underneath We only chose the 1 hour trip and I’m thankful we did, because after an hour in 55° air temperature and 38° water, my fingertips were starting to get really cold!As we neared the exit, it was crazy to see the light again! Leo said he bet this is what it looks like when you see Heaven!We left The Gorge and had planned to do horseback riding but due to the rain the day before their trails were too muddy. So instead we meandered around, just seeing what we could find.

We stumbled onto a lake where could rent fishing poles, so we wasted an hour trying to fish…We didn’t even get a nibble, but it wasn’t due to the freshness of the worms… they literally took a scoop of dirt, and put it in a container 🤣So we gave up on fishing and decided to just play in the runoff area from the lake for a whileShockingly, somehow “just get your legs wet” turned into being completely soaked.

The boys said this was one of the best things we did. I completely agree boys ♥️There were 4 things we had read that we had to do when we got into Slad, Kentucky:

The Gorge Underground ✔️

The Natural Bridge ✔️

The Skylift

And Miguel’s Pizza

So we headed to the Skylift… the website made it seem like a normal ski lift, and it was…

It was until about the last 150 yards of it. And then the incline was about 70° 😬😳it literally went straight up! Although the boys did enjoy trying to get their spit to hit the bullseye 🎯 Whew! Once we reached the top, we decided to go all the way across the Natural Bridge – we only went a little ways onto it yesterday because of the rain. There aren’t many things that Mike just simply can’t handle, but heights are his Achilles Heel. So he held it down on the side and we ventured across.It was really beautiful but you know it is dangerous when in the brochure for the hiking trails it says “every year several people die from falling…” yikes! That’s one heck of a disclaimer 🤪

Now we tackled coming up the Skylift and now we had to go back down… Sometimes I think not knowing what you’re about to face is better…but we survived

So now, Skylift ✔️… one more to go: Miguel’s Pizza.

The pizza was delicious! Although we had a debate whether it was better than Luigi’s in San Diego, which 3 out of 4 of us think is the best pizza we’ve ever had. And we got to have another round of Ale8, including Cherry which isn’t as good as the original.What meal would be complete without dessert? So we headed down to the Ice Cream Shop and General StoreNow we did agree that this was some of the best ice cream ever – Mike said this would be in the top 5 of the best ice cream in his entire life! This is HUGE praise!

What a perfect day! We’ve seen Kentucky from underground and high above. ♥️

You can’t go to Lexington and not see horses and eat Barbecue, and today we did just that!

We started today at the Old Friends at Dream Chase Farms. Old Friends is a retirement farm for thoroughbred race horses. They have a location here and in upstate New York.Some of the horses here are Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes winners, and some are just runners from other race. These horses aren’t ever ridden. They are just loved on and fed carrots, which is pretty much horse heaven!

Leo’s favorite was Silver Charm. He was a Kentucky Derby and Preakness Winner in 1997. Now at 24 years old (about 90 in horse years) she didn’t have any teeth but loved thinly sliced carrots

Michael loved Nicanor, who was the brother of Barbaro the winner of Kentucky Derby (remember the picture of boys in front of statue at Churchill Downs?). He loved people and came running when he saw us (or maybe it was the carrots 😀) but they did say when they had to shut down during Covid, he would stare at the fence like he was wondering where the people were.

The very first horse on the farm was Little Silver Charm, a miniature pony. The owner of the Old Friends Farm saw him when he was on his way to a slaughterhouse, and offered the man driving the truck $40. That was almost 30 years and a lot of carrots ago ♥️

My favorite was Sun King, because he was hilarious and full of attitude 🤣

They even had a quarantine area for new horses. All horses have to be quarantined for 3 weeks when they first arrive at Old Friends… so of course, I couldn’t resist 🤣🤣

These two horses were buddies and always stayed together. One of the them was one of 6 horses who played Seabiscuit in his movie. And the other had a trick… all horses are tattooed on their gum, like a brand. If you asked him to “show us your tattoo” here’s what you got 🤣🤣.Now of course, he expected a carrot after each trick and we kindly obliged 🥕🥕

We also fell in love with Patch, who lost his left eye due to an infection. He loved carrots and scratches ♥️

It was really a fun tour and we loved getting up close with these horses.

We left Old Friends and decided to meander through Lexington. Honestly after the Ark and Creation Museum, no one could really handle any more information or knowledge, so we made our own driving tour. We saw UK, and Transylvania University (didn’t know that was a place?)we went by Thoroughbred Park… pretty awesome statue

And then we decided to again stay off the Interstate and just take some country roads to our next stop. Kentucky is gorgeous with rolling green countryside and miles and miles of fence line! (Boys noted that these fences wouldn’t be strong enough to keep in a pig 🐖)

We decided to have lunch in the little town of Winchester and try a barbecue joint that Trip Advisor said “wasn’t for people who liked fancy but was for people who liked good barbecue.” Yep, that pretty much describes us. In & Out Barbecue was owned by Mr. Ken Allen who said God wanted him to serve barbecue and be a prophet of God. He said he did 2 things: loved Jesus and cooked barbecue. When he said he cooked barbecue, he wasn’t kidding… he literally cooked the barbecue on the street! If this smell didn’t get you into his restaurant, then your nose is busted!

He served homemade fries… by homemade, he means: you order the fries; he takes a potato from the bag; puts it through his slicer; puts it in the fryer; and 6 minutes later, you have fries!

Oh my word! The ribs, and the fries were out of this world! We were also introduced to a new drink: Ale8. So here’s how that happened… A man came in for a to-go order and said he “take an Ale8 since it’s made here.” We asked him and Mr. Ken about this, and turns out the company was started right there in town. The current CEO is the great-great-great nephew of the founder and creator. The formula is top secret and each batch is still mixed by the CEO so the formula stays secret. Here’s the kicker, the man who got the to-go order bought one for each of us! Winchester hospitality 😀 It’s like ginger ale and Mountain Dew had a baby – and it is delicious! Now we just have to figure out how to get it in North Carolina.

Before we left, we got to put a pin in Mr. Ken’s map so he would remember us. I know we will remember him 🥰

Bellies very very full, we headed to our last stop of the trip, The Natural Bridge State Park in Slade, Kentucky. Kentucky’s State Parks have resorts inside the Parks and it is so nice. They aren’t fancy but they are clean. They are also connected to the trails that run everywhere around here.

After laying around for a bit, we decided to try to work off our lunch with Mr. Ken and work up an appetite for dinner by hiking to the natural bridge. The boys loved the swinging bridge (reminded me of the middle school blog♥️), and loved trying to make it swing and scare Mike The hike up was really beautifulas we neared the top, the views were better and betterDespite a little thunder, we thought “we’ve made it this far, let’s go on up.” This trail is not for the faint of heartBut oh the view ♥️The problem with climbing up when you hear thunder is climbing down when the rain starts… we tried to wait it out in shelter 8And then decided it had probably stopped, so we tried again And that’s when, in the words of Mike Brown, it started “raining like a cow peeing on a flat rock!” 🤣🤣🤣that’s hail ⬆️… so we spent some quality time in shelter nine Mike kept us all entertained with the story of the Kentucky HellCat (Kentucky’s version of BigFoot) I told them they could tell their children the story of “you remember that time we got in a hailstorm and had to stay in a shelter on the side of a trail?” It would fit nicely when they tell the story of “you remember that Christmas we had a pig our sunroom?” 🤣

We made it down a little wetter than we started but laughing the whole wayAfter some warm showers, we enjoyed relaxing with no where to go other than dinner in the lodge – I think they’re happy to have some downtime One more day with a couple of fun surprises to go…

WOW! I’ve read the story of Noah’s Ark a hundred times… All the cubits and gopher wood were honestly just figuratively language until you see it up close. WOW is the only word I can think of and that doesn’t really do justice to the sheer size of this ship.

The only negative thing I could say about this whole day was the check-in process. They really need some Chick-Fila and Disney efficiency lessons. It took us about an hour from arrival until we got to the actual Ark. There were at least a dozen employees working the check-in process but only one had a scanner gun to read the online tickets (which 95% of people had). Then you wait in a single file line to board a trailways-style bus to the Ark… which means you had to get on the bus, move down the aisle, and then depart the same way… they need some open-air Disney trolleys. Get on, get off, spit, spot 🤪🤣…

One more detour from the Ark for a minute… one thing we didn’t get to do at the Creation Museum was zip-lining because they were full. Thankfully, the guy working at Creation Museum checked the signups at The Ark, and found a spot for us… this turned out to be great because by the time we got to the Ark on Wednesday, they were sold out there too. So once we finally got the Ark, the boys and I spent an hour in the trees zip-lining near the Ark…Oh the things we do for our children 🥰Back on the ground (thank you Jesus), we headed to the Ark.They tried to keep to the biblical instructions as close as possible, but had to take some artistic liberties with some things. For instance, in telling the story of Noah, there is no mention of the name of Noah’s wife or his daughter-in-laws, so they are given names to help with the story. Also, no one knows for sure what gopher wood is, so they used other types.

Our resident craftsman was very impressed with the workmanship!One of the main designers used to work with Universal Studios in Florida and tried to make the animatronics to that level. I think he absolutely succeeded!

Like the Creation Museum, there is so much information here, and so many things you never thought of… for instance, I always wondered how God could get so many big animals on the boat. But where does it say they had to be mature animals? Meaning, doesn’t it make more sense for the elephants on the Ark to be baby elephants? As long as a male and female… as we have learned from RockyNoel, little bitty ones can grow up to be very big! It is hard to describe the sheer size of the Ark but when you think about what it had to hold for approximately a year from when the rain started until the land was inhabitable again…With everything wrong in the world today, it was really nice to spend the last 2 days with people who all start from the common belief of the Bible and Jesus.

I strongly recommend good shoes when you visit! You are on a wood floor all day, so you definitely need a little cushion in your shoes! I would also suggest packing a few sandwiches and snacks to take with you. There weren’t a ton of food choices and what we found was pretty expensive. Since we had a big breakfast (thank you Holiday Inn Express), we opted for snacks and then a big dinner later.

Needless to say, we left the Ark with sore feet and hungry bellies…As you can see, these 2 were wiped!We headed to Lexington for dinner, choosing a local chain called Sedona Tap Room. Big steaks, fries and dessert later, the Brown’s were done. Tomorrow we head for Natural Bridge State Park for our last two nights.

Today was amazing- the Creation Museum was just incredible! We woke up in Indiana, packed up, loaded Mama’s Restaurant cooler with ice and headed back to Kentucky

The Creation Museum is in Petersburg, Kentucky which is in the northwest corner of Kentucky. It is just awe inspiring. As we entered, they recommended that we start with the movie The Sixth Day and then move through the Main exhibits. The movie was 4D showing of God’s Creation of the universe complete with 3D images coming at you, flashes of light and mist for rain and thunder and shaking seats when necessary. It was so cool!

The museum addressed each day of creation, the 7 C’s of the Bible (Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe, Confusion, Christ, Cross, Consummation) and SO MUCH information. Thankfully Don told me to take pictures of some of the displays because you just couldn’t read it all, and he was so right! But I loved watching the boys trying to take it all in They really loved reading about dinosaurs, and where they fit into creation. Every year in our Middle School Boys Bible Study that’s the number one questions “Where are the dinosaurs in creation?” Well now I’ve got pictures and a video to answer them!

We took a break for lunch – and look! Mom’s Restaurant has a location at the Creation Museum!There was so much information – famous people of the Bible, famous stories of the Bible, events, places, everything had a place with information about it.

We learned a lot about the first 6 days of creation and about the Garden of Eden. One of the things the boys always wondered about in the Garden and in the Ark was how the meat eaters didn’t eat the other animals? Because originally were all supposed to be herbivores. (Gen.1:29-30)

We went to a reptile show, and saw a geico and a leg-less lizard. And I loved that when they gave information about the creature, they told what day they were created ♥️Overall, it was just a fantastic day… but wait what about dinner?!? Well, we haven’t had Barbecue yet… so…

Tomorrow we head out to the Ark!

We packed so much into yesterday that I was too tired to post last night. Yesterday we experienced all things Louisville in one day!

We started yesterday at Churchill Downs home of the Kentucky Derby. We aren’t “horse” people so other than seeing a little history, I wasn’t terribly excited about this, but you can’t go to Louisville and not go to the Derby.

Our first questions was why is it named Churchill Downs? Don’t worry, there’s a plaque!!!

Churchill Downs is beautiful, and the museum and tour was really fun. 2021 will be the 147th running of the Derby. They haven’t missed one year, not even 2020 (although they didn’t have spectators last year).

We started with a 360° movie that gave a little bit of history of the Derby. It was great for the boys who couldn’t understand why a horse race was such a big deal. The museum had tons of interactive exhibits that kept all of us engaged and interested.

I think we have outgrown any hope of being jockeys

But we still enjoyed pretending … although when your big ol shoes get stuck in the stirrups, that’s a good sign that this may not be your calling in life 🤪

The tour around the track was really fun. We even ran into the official bugler for the Derby, Steve Buttleman, who plays the “Call to the Post” for every race at Churchill Downs since 1994. He treated us to a playing of the “Call to the Post” 🎶

We went to the track and watched a few horses running their morning laps, and learned a few facts: the Derby track is 25 feet deep; it is “watered” every day to keep the dirt in perfect condition; too dry or too wet, and it makes the horses run slow or risk injury.

We watched Secretariat a few years ago, and we were all amazed to learn that when they did the necropsy (animal autopsy) Secretariat’s heart was over 22 pounds – the normal horse heart is between 3-6 pounds! No wonder he was still accelerating when he crossed the finish line in the fastest time EVER for the Derby!

It was really interesting and I expect the Brown’s May dapple in a bit of betting for the upcoming Derby 🏇🏇🏇

We left Churchill Downs and decided to have a Kentucky favorite… and another stop from the “Food that Build America” show.

Think slider-sized McDonalds cheeseburgers. The fries and chicken rings were pretty good too, but we especially liked that they sold family-sized meals.

We headed back into Louisville for another “have-to” stop – the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory. Again, we really aren’t baseball people so we weren’t that excited about this tour either. And again, we had a great time! When we arrived we had a few minutes before our tour of the factory, so we wandered through the museum. We thought the museum was great, but if you were really a baseball fan, this would have been awesome! We got to hold the real bat of famous players: Leo chose Christian Yelich of the Brewers; Michael choose Kris Bryant of the Cubs; Mike chose chose Ricky Henderson of the A’s; and I chose Ozzie Smith of St Louis Cardinals.While we were using the bats, the lady working there asked us if we were from North Carolina (Mike had on his UNC mask) we said yes, and turns out she was from Snow Hill, NC which is near where Mike grew up. Her name was Renee and she had served in the military and moved to Louisville after her service. She was so nice and took care of us at the museum, introducing us to everyone she worked with at the museum. It was find a little bit of NC in Kentucky. We exchanged numbers and she made us promise to call her when we got to our hotel Monday night so she would know we had safe travels! ♥️We continued through the museum and I loved the display for the ladies league during WWII… It wasn’t a Rockford Peach uniform but still pretty cool. The factory tour was too cool. Each Louisville Slugger bat used to be hand made with tools and a lathe. It took 30-40 minutes per bat.

Now with machines, a piece of wood can go from this round piece of wood to a bat in 40 seconds!

From here, they move through different sanding and staining machines until you end up with a finished bat.

We left the factory and headed to the batting cage. And guess who was working there – Mrs. Renee from Snow Hill! We picked our favorite bats (I picked Stan “the Man” Musiel’s bat.) And away we went…

We finished with Louisville Slugger and decided we needed a little something sweet 🍦 Thankfully, Michael noticed a sandwich board on the corner up ahead for an sweets shop “Ah, Whatta ‘Bout Mimi’s”. Mimi and her husband were the nicest couple, and had the best ice cream 🍦🍨🍦

We strolled around Louisville for a while and found:

Some cauldrons where they cook teenagers who don’t listen to their parents (or at least that’s what we said 🤣)

A bedazzled limoand we realized that Kentucky may have gone a bit overboard with their mask protocols 🤣😷🤣😷🤣

Then we hit the road for state number 21: Indiana

Since our day was open, we opted for no interstates and stuck to some 2-lane roads. It was a beautiful drive to Madison, Indiana. We stopped for some hiking and waterfalls at Clifty Falls State Park

It was a huge state park with a Lodge, pool, playgrounds and lots of beautiful trails.

It was a warm day so boys took off socks and shoes and did a little rock balancing and some rock skipping (4 skips is the record).

We checked into the hotel and headed out for dinner. The hotel recommended a new Mexican Restaurant, Mi Viejo, and it was delicious!

Madison is a beautiful town right on the Ohio River. The downtown looks like something out of a Hallmark movie.We capped off our night with some swimming/wrestling for any remaining energy (from Michael and Leo not us 🥱)

And then it was back to the room to watch Baylor stomp Gonzaga for the NCAA championship! 🏀.

Today we loop back around to Kentucky for the Creation Museum 🌍

Our beautiful Easter morning started at Mammoth Cave National Park.

We’ve done some cave tours and caving before… some walking, some crawling, but they were always fun… and a little creepy when you think about exactly where you are 😬

Due to Covid, we could only do the Extended Historic Tour, but it was plenty for us. (Honestly, I think we all have a little PTSD after that cave tour in Tennessee where we crawled under rocks on our bellies😬). Two miles long and you could walk at your own pace, so it was perfect.

One of the most interesting parts were the TB houses. They were actual houses built miles underground. As tuberculosis swept the country, a doctor became convinced that Cave air would cure it. So families volunteered to move into the caves for 2 years for this “cure.” Not surprisingly, folks continued to die from TB, and the isolation and sensory deprivation from the dark caused most families to quit the program after 2 months.

We did see a little bit of Easter as we descended into the caves.

Since you are leisurely walking, you don’t realize how far down it is until you see it from afar.

After spending almost 2 hours underground, we decided spend some time outdoors and hike a few of the trails in the park.

And of course, climb a few rocks.

Our plans had been to travel to Hodgenville, Kentucky and eat in a little downtown diner, Laha Red’s, that was recommended by some friends… but like most small towns, the downtown area is shut down on Sundays… especially Easter Sunday. So, thankfully Mom’s traveling restaurant was open again, so Cajun Turkey Subs it is!

In Hodgenville, we visited the Lincoln Memorial built at Lincoln’s childhood home. His father bought the Sinking Spring Farm for $200 in 1808.

President Lincoln lived on this land until he was 2, and then they moved to an another farm about 10 minutes away. Inside the Memorial is what was originally thought to be the actual cabin that Lincoln was raised in (although carbon dating of the logs proved this wrong some time later).

After Hodgenville, we meandered to Louisville, taking highways instead of Interstates. We were disappointed to realize that we didn’t have a pool at the hotel to get rid of excessive energy but we wandered to NuLo (a revitalized area of downtown Louisville), and had a “hot chicken” dinner at Royal’s Hot Chicken.

Clearly it was delicious!

The outdoor area was constructed of old cargo containers which we all thought was pretty cool.

We wandered back to the hotel and after showers played a few rounds of Avocado Smash! (Like slapjack with a few extra rules and you get to shout Guacamole! every now and then 🤣).

We are snuggled in and ready for a big day at Church Hill Downs🏇 and the Louisville Slugger Museum tomorrow ⚾️

As we left Cumberland Falls State Park,

We stopped by the gift shop for our travel tree ornament, and boys found some Bean Boozled Jelly Beans. So if you’re not familiar with these, you and your opponents pick the same jelly bean to eat – for instance, you both eat a white jelly bean. In Bean Boozled, one of you would get vanilla flavor and the other would get spoiled milk 🤢. This is a game only boys would think is fun 🤣.

We made it through 2 beans before 😝

Shiracha bean for the win 🤣😂🤣

Next stop, Mill Spring Battlefield in Nancy, Kentucky. The museum is surrounded by cows and the boys kept trying to pet them… but the “quietly approach” them part of the process seemed difficult for these two 🤣

And yes! They had plaques

This was an early civil war battle called the Battle at the Fence because at times during the battle, the Union and Confederate Soldiers were sticking their guns through the same fence. It was an important Union victory to break the defensive line across southern Kentucky. The museum was interesting and thankfully they had a good sense of humor and were kid-friendly 😊

After the museum and video, we took part of the driving tour through surrounding fields. During this battle, there was so much fog and smoke from the musket firing that the soldiers got confused about who was firing at whom. Confederate General Zollicoffer rode out to check and crossed into Union troops. They did not immediately recognize him as a confederate because of his big winter coat… that is until one of his officers came running and yelling his mistake! Zollicoffer turned to fire just as the Union troops fired on him. Zollicoffer fell and died laying next to a huge tree, that became known as the “Zolli tree”. It stood until a Thunderstorm in 1995, and a seedling of the original tree was planted in the same spot in Zolli’s Field.

There are Union troops buried here in a sight similar to other battlefields

There is also a mass grave for confederate soldiers. The museum attendant told us a local legend that the confederate soldiers were once buried in individual shallow graves but because of a wet Spring that year, the bodies began to come back to the surface. Local farmers collected the bodies and interred them in a mass grave. One of the farmer’s 9 year old son was made to assist and legend says he went insane afterwards.

It was one of the nicest battlefield museums we’ve seen, and the driving tour was really well done. These three thoroughly enjoyed it.

Now, back on the “Holiday roooaaaaadddd”🎶. Mom’s restaurant was open for business again, so we ate and traveled…

On to Bowling Green, home of the Corvette Museum. We aren’t really “car” people. Got 4 wheels, an engine and gets us from A to B? ✔️ good enough for us. But the museum was still pretty cool. We all found our favorites- Mike and I like the older models but the boys want the newest and flashiest… hope this isn’t an indication of their future girlfriends and wives 🤦🏻‍♀️

But the best part was the Corvette simulator! Everyone took a turn driving, and everyone crashed… I’m hoping a real Corvette doesn’t drive like that

As we left, we saw an classic car dealership so we stopped by Art’s Auto Mart for a visit. It was really cool! And huge warehouse of classic Empalas, Corvettes, Mustangs, BelAirs, Chevelles, Trans Ams.

The boys just couldn’t understand why you want an old car when you could have a new car! 🤣

We went to hotel to check in and boys spend an hour or so swimming (read wrestling in the water) to get some energy out. Then we headed to dinner at Double Dogs at the suggestion of the front desk attendant.

Wow! She was right on the money! The food was delicious- HUGE hot dogs and burgers, and the best Mac and cheese I’ve ever had. Plus we loved that it is a Kentucky chain named after their two dogs ♥️🐶

We decided to head to another local place we had heard of for great ice cream – Chaney’s Dairy Barn. Think of a really big Homeland Creamery.

Oh my word, the ice cream was fantastic!

It was really lovely and the playground was fun

Bellies VERY full, we headed back to watch the UCLA/Gonzaga game. (Go Bulldogs!)

Tomorrow we are heading underground in the Mammoth Caves before heading to Hodgenville and Louisville.

What a great start to our Kentucky Spring Break! This trip was initially planned for 2020, but well, yeah Covid 🤦🏻‍♀️… so we postponed for a year and here we are. We’ve got a whole bag full of clean masks and we’re ready to get back on that Holiday Rooooaaaaadddd 🎶

We pulled out dangerously close to our target time, and off we went… all the way across North Carolina, had some car sandwiches from Mom’s Restaurant for lunch…

clipped the northwestern corner of Tennessee and into Corbin, Kentucky!

We love the History Channel show “The Food that Built America, so no visit to Corbin, Kentucky would be complete without a visit to the Sanders’ Cafe – which is the very first Kentucky Fried Chicken!

“Yeah, another plaque.” (Insert sarcasm here)

They are still remodeling the interior museum and restaurant so we just enjoyed seeing the exterior. It was still really cool to see, despite almost getting crushed by 3 cars in the parking lot. Kentuckians are serious about these chicken!

We left the metropolis of Corbin and headed to Cumberland Falls State Park. We decided to stay in the park to cut down on the drive back and forth into Corbin. The DuPont Lodge is a beautiful lodge… it reminds me of a small version of Ketterman’s from Dirty Dancing.

From the Lodge, there are several trails one of which leads to Cumberland Falls, the Niagara Falls of the South. 65 feet high and over 100 feet wide, and with all the rain we’ve had, the river was really high which made the falls very full.

The Falls are the only place in the Western Hemisphere where you can see a Moonbow – a rainbow of white created during a full moon. And look! Another plaque!

And there were lots of rocks for climbing…

Even Mike got in on the climbing, which the boys loved!

The hike was beautiful and after 6 hours of driving we all enjoyed walking a few miles… although I would not say the stone stairs were up to code 🤣

The boys couldn’t understand why they had the lower observation areas blocked off (um because parts of them were underwater?) but they had still had a blast

Dinner at the Riverview Restaurant inside the Lodge was delicious! We were all “way too full” for individual desserts so we said we would just share one Derby Pie. Derby Pie is a Kentucky specialty of chocolate pie with walnut crust served with vanilla ice cream. And it is fantastic! Which led to a battle of the spoons 🤣🤣🤣

After dinner, we explored the Lodge. The lodge and trails were built in part by the Civilian Conservation Corp (part of the New Deal that put folks back to work during the Great Depression). Thanks to Coach Sizemore’s History lessons, the boys knew all about this and enjoyed sharing with us.

We are now snuggled in and relaxing for the night. It’s 23 degrees outside so we are thankful we are in the Lodge and not a campsite 🥶

Tomorrow we are off to visit a battlefield and the Corvette Museum! Perfect boy-day!

It’s been 2 years since we had a trip to mark off a new state (stupid Covid!) but we are packed and ready to roll out for the Bluegrass State of Kentucky (with a stopover in Indiana and possibly Ohio).