After interviewing LaMarque Ward in Cincinnati Friday afternoon, we took off on a three hour drive to Bowling Green, Kentucky to our campground.
Little did I know, this was not just a campground. Oh no, this is a 500 spot+ campground with an amusement park and a NASCAR track inside the grounds.
Did you think I was kidding?? THIS IS KENTUCKY!
We woke up Saturday morning to have a hearty breakfast:
Yup, that’s just what you think it is. Spaghetti-Os and toast. Or as I prefer to call it, Spaghetti-Owich. Mmm
Chip took the more traditional breakfast route
and dined on beefaroni.
After breakfast we packed up for an exciting day at
Mammoth Caves is the biggest cave system in the world! There are 392 miles of caves discovered so far, but only 12 miles are open to tourists. Chip and I took the historical tour.
Our tour guide was not the best. Actually, he was totally boring and took about twenty minutes to tell one short, historical tale. When a six year old asked him when the tour was going to be over, everyone laughed a little too loudly.
Despite the snooze of a guide, being 300 feet underground was pretty cool. I did not enjoy Fat Man’s Misery, a tiny, twisting passage you had to duck to get through. The cave has signatures from the orginal tourists in Mammoth Caves- some date all the way back to 1830. People burned their names into the stone with a candle wick and walking sticks, dot by dot.
We emerged from Mammoth Caves two hours and forty fives minutes later into the light!
Oh, Kentucky.
We went to the Cincinnati Art Museum and saw this exhibit:
Fitting, no? It was all American artists, with different views of America over the past century. There was an amazing Walker Evans exhibit, mostly all taken from a private collection.
Then we went to the Krohn’s Conservatory (free!)
And ate at Hathaways, Cincinnati’s famous lunch counter.
The rest of the time in Cin City we camped,
we cooked spaghetti,
we walked loops around the lake
we packed the car and left!
We interviewed LaMarque Ward of the Cincinnnati Dream Academy. Check out the interview and relection at www.thedreamshareproject.com
We are on the open road!!! Watch your cars!
This is what is looks like when you pack to live out of a car for three months:
Day 1, or The Day of No Return
Chip and I left Friday around 2 p.m. with a loaded up Cadillac filled with a box of books, a box of Costco food (beans or dried fruit anyone?), a cooler, two sleeping bags, one tent, two backpacks, a hot plate, grill, one atlas, one suduko book, various cameras and one box of blush Franzia. I’m pretty sure we have everything you could possibly ever need for three months on the road. I have Band Aids and tissues and gummy worms stashed all over the car, our Ipods are loaded up and Chip bought scary stories on CD. After a long hour and a half drive we ended up in Hagerstown, Maryland! We paid a ridiculous $47 to camp, set up our tent with no problems, made spaghetti with tomatoes purchased from the side of the road, and then settled in to watch Flipper on the projected screen with the other five year olds in the camp.
Day 2, The Actual Day of No Return, or We Aren’t in Maryland Anymore
After showering and leaving Hagerstown, we decided to drive to Pittsburgh for the day, then camp in PA for the night. We went to Point State Park and walked around.
Drove downtown, went into The Orginal Hot Dog Shop, got a three dollar Yuengling, then headed out to Bear Run campground (there are no actual bears) in Portersville, PA. This campground was beautiful, and we decided to stay in the “primitive” area, with no electricity, water…just you in the woods. A bit of a different experience then the first night. Definately no Flipper movies shown at this campground. We learned to build a fire and cook Trader Joe’s O’s on a charcoal grill.
Day 3, Sunday, Wilderness Extravaganza
We woke up, drank our V8 cans and then hit up the 12 mile Slippery Rock Gorge Trail for a beautiful hike. We thought the trail was six miles in total (three there, three back). Whoops. It was six miles each direction of the trail. We ended up hiking halfway there, halfway back.
This was insane. Don’t let the smile or outstretched arms fool you.
At one point Chip actually pushed me up the very last part of a hill. Needless to say, it hurts to sit down today. And get up. And walk. After a stop at the gas station on the way home to refuel and steal mayo packets, we drove back to our campground and saw no one there. No one. We didn’t understand what happened until we realized it was Sunday night. Everyone else went back home! We got in our tent pretty early last night (as soon as the sun went down), and I had a dream there was an ax murderer loose in the camp.
Day 4: Out of Pennsylvania, onto Ohio!
We drove all this morning, stopped at Wal-Mart for essentials (tongs for the grill, deoderant for Chip, ahem) and to eat our almond butter-banana sandwiches.
Now we are in Columbus, Ohio in Cup O Joe, making use of the free Internet. Two more hours of driving to Cinncinati and then rice and beans for dinner…mmm mmm mmm.
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