St. Louis, Illinois, Indiana,
back to Kentucky, North to Ohio
After two exciting days in Paducah we looked at the map and realized we were only 180 miles or so from Lorri's parents place in St. Louis. Even though it was back-tracking a little, we decided to pay them a visit. You can see their photos on the Family Photo Page !!!! But below, you can see a photo of The Arch taken from the van travelling west on I-55 and a photo of the van parked behind the Vierling's (Lorris parents) house.
We spent a very nice relaxing couple days in St. Louis watching the Cardinals on TV and trying to learn how to play bridge. Next it was east again back through Illinois and into Indiana. We camped at Red Hill State Park in Illinois where I nearly got run over by a deer while innocently riding my bike down a country road. Lorri had the presence of mind to whip out the camera and take a photo of the perpetrator as it stopped to look back at us and survey the damage.
Attack Deer
Our next stop was the small town of Vincennes, Indiana, home of "Grouseland" and the George Rogers Clark National Historic Park, and some lady who used to live in San Diego. We have photos of the first two. We never made it to "Graceland" so we figured "Grouseland" was the next best thing. Grouseland was the home of William Henry Harrison, ninth U.S. President and was allegedly named for the grouse wall paper in the William's bedroom, which personally, I think is a better story than how Graceland got its name.
That's Grouseland on the left and the view across the Wabash River from the GRC National Historic Park. For you geography buffs, that's Illinois on the other side of the river.
The Grassy Knoll
One of our favorite camping spots was what we refer to as the "Grassy Knoll" at West Boggs State Park, Indiana. We had the whole knoll to ourselves and it was surrounded by other knolls, so that we had virtually complete privacy. In the photo below, the white thing at the top is the van, everything else is the Grassy Knoll. For you Southern Californians, those big dark green things in the background are trees.
Remember "Chew Mailpouch Tobacco" signs? They used to be all over the countryside painted on the sides of barns or outbuildings. This trip we saw a few, but most were in as sorry a state as the barns the were painted on, but this one is a fine example. I guess the face of advertising has changed a lot since the heyday (no pun intended) of the American Barn. I haven't seen any Chew Mailpouch Tobacco signs on the internet.
Back in Kentucky, we did two things that must be done there. We went to a Bluegrass Festival and we went to a couple bourbon distilleries. Here is a photo of Lorri and me and an aerial view of the Bluegrass Festival which took place outside Lexington, KY, and a photo of me sitting on a wall along a driveway at L & G Distillery in Versailles, KY. You can probably tell by my body language how disappointed I was that they don't offer tasting like they do in wineries.
Finally, we make it to Ohio where we attended to wedding of Elise McHugh (our niece) to John Hammond (now our nephew-in-law, I guess). You can see some wedding photos on the Family Photo Page and below, you can view our first impression of Ohio.
Welcome to Ohio