Another day for the Memory Books ♥️

if you had told Mike and I growing up that one day we would be fly fishing down the Missouri River with our boys, we would have called you crazy. But today we did!

Woke up to the most peaceful site even if it was 6am. These big ol’ babies are Highland Cows – you know the ones in the pictures with the long hair over their eyes.

We had to be up, going, and on the road by 6:40. In typical Brown fashion, we left at 6:45 so we arrived at Cross Currents Fly Shop in Craig, Montana at 7:05… that’s 7am BST (Brown Standard Time).

We met our guides: Grant for Leo and I; and Bryce for Michael and Mike. We gave them our Montana fishing license (purchased online intermittently as we could get internet service), hopped in their trucks, and headed to the drop in site on the Missouri River.

We arrived at the drop in, and noticed that all the boats let an older couple go ahead of them in the drop in line to get their boat in first. Initially, I thought that’s nice since they’re older. Um no. Turns out, the older couple are the owners of Orvis, the company who make the fly-fishing clothing and gear. Our guides told us they were true fishermen, and were really good to the local guides so it was a sign of respect. (I kind of like knowing that the people who run a fly fishing company are still actually coming out to fish!)

We took off down the Missouri River. Not really took off… we rowed into the Missouri River is probably more accurate

We were all a little nervous about fly fishing, since we’d never done it before, and it looks kind of complicated. There is definitely more to it than “regular” fishing. I always have a hard time staying focused when I try to fish unless they are really biting. Fly fishing, on the other hand, keeps your focus because you are always pulling your line, keeping the line up end (so the current takes the hook down stream, not the line), and being ready to “set” when the bobbin went down.

Everyone caught fish, (Hallelujah) and we had a lot of fish that we almost caught!

We fished until lunchtime and then pulled under a few trees for lunch.

The lunches were made by one of the guide’s wife who started a business of catering lunches for the fishing excursions. The guides text her the first of the week with their lunch orders and she meets them at the shop at 6am with their days’ lunches pre-packed and ready for the day. The lunches were delicious!

After lunch, the boys splashed around a bit.

Then we headed out for a bit more fishing. We finished “fishing” around 2:30. After the water temperature hits about 68°, rainbow trout don’t bite.

So we rowed on for a spot that the guides told the boys about at lunch…

Oh, and we can add sheep to the list of animals and we’ve seen

We headed back to the metropolis of Craig, and stopped in the fly shop for souvenirs and Gatorades. Then we headed to Cascade for dinner. Since we are in the little cabin at Lil Valley Ranch, we can eat in – thank goodness.

We headed back to the little cabin and look what we found – another plaque!

Some of us were wiped out from fishing

We got home around 4pm and enjoyed watching the cows and just relaxing. We had been texting with the cabin owners and were finally able to meet them, David and Karen Allen are from Alaska and when they moved to Montana, they built the little cabin and lived in it while they built their current house. It’s a really cool little cabin.

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I am glad they completed the indoor plumbing before we came 😀

When the Allen’s moved here from Alaska, they decided to start raising cows. They chose Highland cows because they haven’t been cross bred as much and tend to have easy healthy births… and they are just so cute!

They raise their cows like we raise pigs. Only the breeding stock get names, and they love on them just like we do. The breeding stock are here on their 80 acre farm, but they have a much larger group on their 100+ acres a few miles away. They may start sending their cows to freezer camp instead of the processor from now on 😉

We cooked a great dinner of steak, roasted corn on the cob, marinated mushrooms and sweet potatoes. Montana sweet potatoes are not sweet like ours… I think they are trying to pass off yams as sweet potatoes to folks who don’t know the difference.

After dinner, we saw the Allen’s headed down to feed the cows and decided to take them up on their invitation to join them. They gave the boys a bucket of treats each and we had a blast feeding them.

They are like really big pigs who have horns and slobber a lot

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I’m so thankful we stayed here. We exchanged numbers with the owners because they were such kindred spirits. They sent us home with pickled relish and canned beets that Karen made, and fresh beef for burgers at our next stop. It was just a great evening, made just a bit better by ice cream and chocolate syrup on the front porch watching the sun go down (finally 😉)

It just doesn’t get much better than this ♥️

There’s no way for me to describe how beautiful Glacier National Park is in words. So this post will have a whole lotta pictures 😁.

Today was a down day – i.e. nothing planned. I have learned from traveling with these boys that while I like to maximize and schedule every vacation moment (when are you going to be here again?), they do not. Over scheduling = Grumpy Brown boys… thus, The Down Day.

Today, we wanted to explore Glacier some more. You could spend days here and not see it all.

First required purchase: Bear Spray! Yep, it’s a thing. It’s like super duper pepper spray.

We were able to snag shuttle tickets, so we hopped on and rode to just “see” some of the places. We decided to do one big hike on this side of the park, and one on the other. On the Apgar side of the park, we decided to hike the Avalanche Lake Trail. The scenery is so beautiful that it looks fake.

This was listed as a 2.5 mile (one way) moderate hike. It definitely wasn’t easy with the elevation changes, but the trail was well maintained (and no trail trolls (roots) constantly trying to trip you.)

The primitive toilets were, well, smelly is the nicest word I can use but better than trying to dodge an animal while using the potty.

We hiked and snacked on a Montana favorite: Buffalo Jerky… and learned that all buffalo in the United States is really bison 😉

We hiked with only minimal grumbling… mainly, it was hangry grumbles because we were having a picnic lunch at Avalanche Lake.

We rounded the corner and suddenly the hike was totally worth it!

Of course, we had to get IN the freezing cold water

We found an empty log bench with a little shade, and had lunch from Mom’s Restaurant – who knew they had a location in Montana?!

After lunch, we enjoyed just sitting for a while and counting waterfalls. We counted seven maybe eight if you counted one separate 🤪

Look at the difference in a similar picture from Calf Creek Falls in Utah 2 years ago… boys have grown so much!

We started our hike back which wasn’t nearly as hard since 80% of the hike was downhill or flat.

However, some of us thought it was incredibly difficult.

We hopped back on the shuttle (now realizing that once you use the shuttle pass to get inside the park, you can drive wherever you want because the parking lots were no where near as full as the Park Service led you to believe). We got our little Toyota RAV4 and off we went. First, we made our way to Apgar Village. Eddie’s Ice Cream was the biggest double scoop we’ve ever seen!

Seriously, they are almost as big as their heads!

We loved the sign at the village stor

And found the BEST shirt 🤣🤣🤣

We stopped at every plaque, overpass and turnout we saw. It took forever and it was completely worth it!

Again, the pictures are gorgeous but they just can’t do justice to Glacier!

So far, I really hadn’t seen what the big deal was about the park’s main road, Going to the Sun Road. Until we starting meandering UP the Going to the Sun Road – Holy Moly!!

Thankfully Mike was the driver because I don’t think I could have done it… bless him because the boys and I would say “oh, look at that!” And he’d say “if I do we are going to run off the road!” It was a little stressful 😬

But the views!

Finally we made it to Logan’s Pass, the visitors center at the Continental Divide. What exactly is the Continental Divide you ask? It is basically like a dividing line across the country… the rain and moisture on its west side flow to the Pacific Ocean, and on its east side, it flows to the Mississippi.

We really didn’t intend to go all the way up but, when are we going to be here again (which seems to be our mantra for this trip), and there was snow!!!

I really hope these videos load, because they are hilarious 😂

And not to be outdone, we snuck in our own selfie since we hiked it too 🥰

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Glacier National Park, like most National Parks, is known for its animal population. So far we’ve seen a big ol’ black bear crossing the River (from a very safe distance), deer (who clearly aren’t concerned with people),

goats, chipmunks and big horn sheep. The big horn sheep are the best at hiding in plain view… here’s a closeup

And here’s the view originally – Michael is the champ are spotting them from a distance in a car!

One big horn sheep in particular is my favorite. There were 5 or 6 of them munching on grass, and just as I tried to leave the trail, I stumbled. Of course, they scattered but then this guy came back… I think he wanted to check on me but boys said he came back to give a duck face 🤣 whatever potato-patato 🤷🏻‍♀️.

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We traveled on through the Park, and it was definitely different topography. You can see the remnants and regrowth from the wildfire in 2009

We left the mountains and transitioned almost immediately into flat plains

Driving along, or should I say racing along… the speed limit in some places is 80 mph! Of course, you can see for 10 miles ahead of you.

Anyway, driving along, and what do we see? A Plaque!

As we are driving along we FINALLY get a wifi signal strong enough to get my map app 🤣 to work on phone, and we reach out to our VRBO host about our arrival time for tonight. She gave us some suggestions for where to grab some dinner on the road.

I have to admit our eating schedule has been completely wonky since we got here. We either eat with the early bird specials or we are eating at saloons. Part of the problem is me trying to cram in as much as possible each day and the other part is Montana’s fault. It doesn’t even start getting dark here until 9pm so I’m still in Clark Griswold mode until then

Back to today, so we head into town but the first couple of places were closed (well, it is Monday at 9pm and several didn’t have enough staff). Finally, we saw Cafe Rio, checked the reviews and off we went. We were a little disappointed that their sign said fryer was down so no chips but then we saw the lady making handmade tortillas!

I think we each had something different and they were all delicious! Of course, the Cafe Rio staff has a special place in my heart because they commented on how polite and well-behaved my boys were ♥️. And they loved our accents 😀

We made it, finally to our little VRBO cabin at 10:15pm. It is a great little cabin – 2 bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen and living room.

The only hesitation we had in booking is that there was no air condition. Montana homes don’t have air conditioning. Usually they only have a couple of weeks all year that are really warm (over 80°), but not this year. The good thing is that there is almost always a nice breeze and as soon as the sun starts going down (at 9pm) it starts cooling off.

Our host had cracked the windows for us, so once we opened the windows all the way and got the fans running (after a little redneck repair of one of them) it was really nice… probably 68-70°. We were exhausted so we unloaded, showered, and hit the sack… it’s actually getting chilly enough in here for a blanket 😀

Tomorrow starts early with a 6am (MST) wake up for fly fishing down the Missouri River 🎣

Being in a National Park on 4th of July has always been a bucket list item for me. I’m not sure why, maybe because I think the National Park System is a really cool thing about our country. I’m so amazed that someone long ago had the forethought to preserve these amazing natural areas… and further amazed that we haven’t managed to screw this up since then 🤪

First: Happy 4th of July🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

We woke up really early to head to West Glacier for an all-day rafting trip. The first half was an easy float down Flat Rock River, and then white water rafting the second half.

We suited up and hopped on the bus headed to where we would drop into the River. The guides were so fun and made the ride pretty entertaining. They reminded me of the Turtles from Finding Nemo… “I was like Whoa, and he was like Whoa, and then it was like Whoa.” 🤣🤣🤣 Nothing seemed to get them too worried.

The views were just breathtaking

And the water was so clear and blue. It looked like something you expect to see in Hawaii. Our guide, Brennan, said it gets this blue color because it was snow on the mountain about a week ago.

Around lunchtime, we pulled onto the riverbank. I knew we had lunch included and just assumed sandwiches etc. Oh no! The guides asked us to gather sticks for cooking, and while we did, they pulled out grills and and tables! In a few minutes, they had chips, salsa and guacamole with fresh fruit ready with steaks and chicken on the grill!

As we ate, look what we saw in the tree… a Bald Eagle! Seriously, could we get any more 4th of July 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Did I mention the water temperature? It was a chilly 50-55° but guess who wanted to see just how cold that really was…

We got back in our boats and off we went to find some rapids!

It was so fun to do this together! Our synchronized paddling may need a little work but we did pretty well.

No one accidentally went in the water, although 2 crazy children did jump in when given the opportunity 🤪

They were frozen! Just look at Michael’s face 🤣🥶

We finished rafting and killed some time doing a little shopping in West Glacier Village. Due to Covid, the Park Service has a timed entry system to get into park. We never could get a pass for our car during peak hours so we piddled around until 5 (when passes are no longer required) and then took off into Glacier National Park.

I had heard about how beautiful Glacier was before coming on this trip. However, my favorite National Park has been Zion in Utah, and I didn’t think Glacier was going to compare… oh my! Was I wrong?!

We spent about 2 hours hiking around. We hiked the Trail of the Cedars – a easy planked trail that was amazing!

We decided that Trail of the Cedara looks a lot like Endor, the plant where the Ewoks lived in Star Wars… and then it was on the television when we got back to the hotel.

Then we stopped by a few overlooks and rivers. These mountains and views are breathtaking. They definitely put things into perspective. Leo said “Mom, I don’t know how people see this and then say there isn’t a God. Like something this beautiful just happened.” ♥️

We stopped by Moose’s Saloon planning to stay for dinner but they were slammed for the 4th of July so we ordered to go, and with our 60 minute wait, we headed to the grocery store to stock up on the week’s groceries. Groceries loaded, we returned to Moose’s (literally it’s a saloon)

(For full disclosure, Moose’s had great rating for pizza, but the inside was a little sketchy – you know my mama spidey sense – so pizza to go was the choice for us. Anyway, we collected our pizza and headed back to the hotel. So Moose’s may have been the sketchy but dang! They can make some pizza! It was delicious!!!

And just to wear off any remaining energy, we headed back to the pool.

Just to finish off a perfect 4th – we watched fireworks from our room 🇺🇸♥️🇺🇸 Only in America 🇺🇸♥️🇺🇸

Today was one of those days that we will talk about when we are old. It was just about perfect.

We all woke up much happier and well rested. We grabbed our free Holiday Inn Breakfast, met a nice family from Oregon who were vacationing here too, and headed back to check off the other “must do” in Coeur d’Alene – cliff jumping!

Directly beside the Coeur d’Alene Resort is Tubbs Hill. Tubbs Hill is technically a great big hill surrounded by water. It is a city park that doesn’t have playgrounds and ballfields, instead it is trails and forests and beaches.

The trails are beautiful and being right on the water, the breeze made the weather perfect a couple of miles of hiking… which we did intermittently because… did I mention the cliff jumping?

I don’t think I have ever seen a lake this blue and clear. You could see clearly underwater and the water just felt different. Obviously not salty like the ocean, but not that normal “lake water” feel. We hiked, and they jumped

Then we hiked some more and they jumped and swam

As we started heading back, I decided I was ready to jump too… so obviously I had to find the highest rock…

So scary and so awesome all at the same time!

We jumped and jumped off the cliff… and someone may have done the tushie equivalent of a back buster and now has bruises on her backside. 🤣🤣 Should make for interesting conversation when I wear a bathing suit later this trip 🤣🤣

But wait! To the boys and my absolute delight, Mike was ready to join us in the water!

Here what we learned today, in your 40’s, it’s not the jump thats hard – it’s the climbing back up the rocks that kicks your butt!

We spent close to 3 hours hiking and jumping. It was just the best day! I made several mental pictures to hold onto 📸♥️

Finally we headed back to the car to change from our swimsuits and grab a hamburger at a place we passed yesterday. Let me just say that you haven’t lived until you can check “changed clothes in a parking deck” off your bucket list – that’s a big ✔️✔️✔️✔️ for all the Brown’s 🤣

Hudson’s Hamburgers has been serving hamburgers and cheeseburgers in Coeur d’Alene since 1907.

And much like the John Belushi/SNL sketch – it is JUST hamburgers, cheeseburgers and Pepsi products.

Toppings are onions pickles and cheese. That’s it. You can add ketchup, spicy mustard (heavy horseradish) and spicy ketchup (shiracha sauce). Honestly, i thought the toppings combo was weird but HOLY COW! This may be one of best cheeseburgers I’ve eat had!

Of course we had to stop in for some ice cream, and found some interesting soda choice 🤢

We jumped in the car and headed east. Goodbye for now Idaho!

And hello Montana!

What a gorgeous drive! The landscape changes from evergreens, the mountains to a lake so blue it almost looked fake!

We arrived in Kalispell, Montana around 8pm. The plan had been to go to hotel, run to Walmart for a cooler and groceries for the week, and grab dinner. And we would have been on track except… it’s the 4th of July weekend, and there’s Covid and people are crazy. So, Walmart, Target, Walgreens, all sold completely out of coolers! (Wait what? When do you sell out of coolers 🥴) We finally found one at Lowe’s… at 9:15! So dinner ended up being Chick-fil-A

A bit of a late dinner but we are ready to celebrate July 4th at Glacier National Park tomorrow

We are back on road… clicking off 3 more states on our journey to 50…. But….Oh. My. Word. Today has been the longest day!

Our Friday started this morning at 5am to be up, out the door and on our way to the airport by 6am. We arrive at 6:30, checked our bags, had time to use our Starbucks gift card and BOOM, it’s wheels up at 7:20 EST

Leg one: Greensboro to Detroit. ✔️

Leg two: Detroit to Minneapolis ✔️

Leg three: Minneapolis to Spokane ✔️

* Side note we had 2 layovers today so we only have one 15 days from now when we are grumpy and ready to kill each other 😉

Arrived at Spokane airport – the boys got the luggage, I got the rental car and just like that, we are leaving the airport by 2pm PST (or 5 pm our time). We had heard about the heat wave out here before we arrived. Hazard signs were all along the highway as we headed out.

Clearly we have a different definition of “excessive heat” 🤣

It was warm but not the 90° and humidity that we are used to at home. Here we go – checked off a new state: Welcome to Idaho!

We headed to the first stop of our journey – Coeur d’Alene, Idaho! This town is beautiful, and situated around Lake Coeur d’Alene. We checked into our favorite, Holiday Inn Express, and let the boys get in some swimming (read wrestling) to burn off a little energy before dinner.

When we checked in they suggested with try Dockside for dinner and to be sure to get a “Gooey” for dessert. So off we went for our 4:15 pm dinner… no, we aren’t 70 years old – that’s 7:15 EST. Dockside was located inside the Coeur d’Alene Resort right on Lake Coeur d’Alene which is gorgeous!

Dinner was fantastic: Mike and Leo had Salmon Tacos, and Michael and I had Grilled Salmon Oscar. We were so full, so we decided to order one large dessert and share. Good thing we did because the large CookieMonster Gooey was HUGE!

We finished our early bird dinner and killed some time swimming in Lake Coeur d’Alene. There are park areas surrounding the lake and the Resort where people just come and hang out. And I mean all kinds of people… families, older folks, families, college students… everybody!

We had 2 things to accomplish in Coeur d’Alene: parasailing (AAA Travel Book) and cliff jumping (the Stewarts). So what can be better than sunset parasailing!

It was a little scary to be so high up (500 feet up!) but oh my goodness – the view!

We thoroughly enjoyed the boat ride as well

While we were riding Michael asked what day it was, and I told him Friday, July 2nd.

He said “no mom. We flew out here on Friday. “

I said “Yes, that was today!” 🤣

We arrived back at the dock at 8pm (11pm EST). And the Brown’s were wiped out BUT we have had an incredible 18 hours! And it’s only the first day 😁

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!