General Patton and Abraham Lincoln

We decided to leave the Horseshoe Casino on Saturday. They put on summer concerts there on the weekends. Friday the parking lot really filled up and we sat outside and listened to The Steve Miller Band. That was pretty good, however, most of the people there in motorhomes don't know how to boondock and ran their generators all night long!! Saturdays concert was a band called "The Killers" so we decided to get out of dodge.

We traveled into Kentucky and stopped at the welcome center. We learned we were not far from the Patton Museum and the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, so we decided to do a short detour off the main road to see both.

The Patton Museum was a free museum with many many tanks. Since my brother spent time in the army and drove these tanks, I took quite a few pictures. Hopefully, I did get a picture of the one you drove, Doug.

It was a very interesting museum, we spent over 2 hours walking through it. We drove by Fort Knox to get there. Here is a picture...think there is any gold left???

We also took a side trip to Lincoln's Birthplace. This is the log cabin, on a knoll up from Sinking Spring. The family lived here until Abe was about 6 before moving to Illinois.

Look Familiar? The monument in Washington DC was modeled after this one. There are 56 steps, one for every year of his life. Inside the monument is a replica of the log cabin.

We arrived here at the Moutadier Corps of Engineer park. We have a real nice site, with electric and water. Will post some pictures at a later date.

Two Loves

Baseball and Horse Racing


My father was born in Cooperstown, New York and we were there often visiting my great grandparents. Cooperstown is a small town that grows during the summer months. It is where baseball was invented and is the home of The Baseball Hall of Fame. You can't come from that background and not have a love of the game. Today, we were able to visit the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory.
In 1884, 17 year old 'Bud' Hillerich brought Pete Browning to his parents wood working shop to make him a bat. (His had broke during the game) Pete Browning was known as "The Louisville Slugger". And a company was born.
It was an experience to see how they make these bats. Being a retired machinist who ran these big lathes, Ed really enjoyed seeing the big lathes that make these bats for Major League baseball. After we toured the factory, we watched a short movie called the "Heart of the Game". It's said that the heart of the game is the crack of the bat! Then we walked through the museum. It's a very hands on museum. Great for kids!


Ed got to hold a world series bat used by David Ortiz!!





When I was young, we lived in Saratoga, New York. This is a hugh horse racing town with 2 tracks. One a harness track and the other a 'flat track', was for thoroughbred racing. Each year, in the month of August, thoroughbred racing comes to Saratoga. So the second part of today was also very special. A trip to Churchill Downs...home of the Kentucky Derby. I was really looking forward to going through the museum, however, it was closed and suffered some major damage during the flooding that occurred earlier this week. But we were able to have a tour of the track. This is the winners circle for the Kentucky Derby. It is only used that one day. There is another winners circle used for other races.

The famous twin spires! These are part of the original racetrack.

The paddock area and the tunnel which the horses enter the track.

The cemetery at Churchill Downs. A horse is usually cremated except for the brain, heart and hoofs. They are buried with the ashes to symbolize drive, courage and speed.


And last is a statue of Pat Day, one of the best jockeys and was my mothers favorite. Yes it is lifesize!


It was a great day!!

Gateway Arch in St. Louis

Last Thursday we left the Hannibal area and traveled to St. Louis. We spent Thursday night in the repair shop where we had an appointment on Friday to get our Norcold refrigerator recall completed. While our home was being worked on, we went to visit another house of Ulysses Grant. This home called 'White Haven' was actually the childhood home of Julia Dent Grant.

Julia's father owned this 850 acre farm and considered himself a southern gentleman who owned several slaves to work this farm. When Ulysses married Julia, he had many arguments with her father about the slavery issue. He would work the farm along side of the slaves. However, not really being a farmer, he failed at farming and took his family to Galena, Illinois where he worked for his father before the Civil War started.

We are now at the Casino Queen RV Park across the river from the Gateway Arch. We can see it from our window. Yesterday we took the metrolink over and toured the arch. We first saw a movie about the Louis and Clark expedition. Then we took the tram up to the top of the Arch.

This is what the tram car looked like.








It's more like a pod that holds 5 people. Because the arch is curved, these pods travel on a curve. They were designed by an amusement park architect. Thankfully the ride wasn't that long.


Here are some views from the top:


The Old Courthouse




Cardinals Stadium

The Eads Bridge...the first bridge in St. Louis across the Mississippi River. Its the bridge with the supports on the bottom.

Here is a final picture of the Arch as we looked at it from the Metrolink platform.



Today we are just relaxing after all the walking yesterday. I'm doing some research about our future travels and Ed is watching golf, both the LPGA's British Open and the PGA's Buick Open. He makes me dizzy with the remote going back and forth!!

Tomorrow I hope to go back over and tour the Old Courthouse. We didn't get to do it yesterday because it was raining when we finished at the Arch!!