Family Vacation

We just got back from our vacation. I hadn't taken anytime off this year with work save for a day around Labor Day and some one offs here and there so I took last Thursday and Friday off. We took a vacation to Southern Indiana.

We first celebrated Nate's Birthday on Wednesday morning by presenting him with a Train Table that we had gotten used off Craig's List. He loved it and Lynn said he played with it all day, although I had to come home for an emergency around noon that day, Nate had torn up the tracks and it needed to get rebuilt. He loves his trains and one of his words he says alot is "Annie" which is the name of first coach car that Thomas the Tank engine pulls.

I got off work around 3 and we packed up the car, with kid and dog, and headed over to Lynn's parents to drop Jackson off (apparently he was a good dog, but was very very homesick the whole time). We drove through a lot of the country of Illinois, heading south and west. Nate say lots of combines, pronounced "Bom Bom", and had to point them out to us. A lot of farmers there are harvesting already, which is kind of sad because over Labor Day, my dad's corn was still quite green. They've had kind of a drought through there. WE also drove on the outskirts of Olney, Il, the home of the white Squirrel. Found this on the RoadSideAmerica website

Laws on the Olney books give the squirrels right-of-way on every street; residents are fined if they try leave town with one. Local police patches bear an outline of a bushy-tailed albino. Big Squirrel is watching you.

We arove at our destination about 8:30 that night in Vincennes, Indiana. We got a room at the Comfort Suites, which was very nice. Spent most of the night enjoying the cable t.v. that we can't enjoy at home.

Thursday morning, we enjoyed a nice Continental Breakfast at the hotel (waffles, cereal, eggs, sausage, etc.). We had to get to our destination at 1 P.M. EST, 12 central. I asked the lady exactly what Time Zone we were in and she didn't know. Thought that a little odd, I know that Indiana has some time zone issues, but if your own residents can't figure it out......

We headed downtown to see some of the sights. Coming into town, everything mentioned George Rogers Clark this and GRC that. I never heard of the guy. Guess I should have known. He was a pretty important figure in American History, especially during the Revolution. A park ranger, Pam Nolan, told us all about him and his legacy to the USA. REad about him on Wikipedia by clicking his name above. We'd probably be speaking French right now without him. At least those of us North of the Ohio River. Here's a pic of Me and the little guy on a cannon in the memorial park.


We left there at 10 for our destination, The French Lick Train Museum. French Lick, it's not what you think. At least that is what one of the signs going there said. This was the whole reason for our trip. We got to go on a 1 hour train ride. We saw the boyhood home of Larry Bird also. The Celtic. He played Basketball.... Here's a pic of our train:

Here's Nate looking out the window:

He was enamoured by the whole thing. Of course he wanted to get up and run everywhere. The train went through a half mile tunnel and it got pretty dark there. It was fun though. Afterwards, we got to climb up on some of the trains. Lynn got a picture of Nate and I on this Steam engine:


We then drove over to Salem, IN, to stay at our accomodations, the Cottage at West Point. It's a bed and breakfast out in the country. It was nice to relax in a quiet atmosphere. Nate made friends with the cats and the dogs. The house is a rebuilt 1848 hovel. The owners were nice to us also. had to pay cash though, so that kind of surprised us (liquidated my wallet, thank goodness for Wal-mart and Cash back purchases). Picture of the cottage:

The bridge from the parking area:


We headed South Friday morning to Louisville, KY. Not a very fun time there. We thought of going downtown to the visitor's center, but there was no parking and the streets were all one way and wrong way. We finally got there. Nate got a plastic horse for being so cute to the people there. We determined to head south into KY and see what we could find. We stopped at Churchill downs, but they were a little expensive on their tours and taking Nate through a tour, didn't sound too fun. So we skipped. Took a picture though:
We then headed South down to Bardstown, KY, to see a Burboun Festival. Drove by the Jim Bean Distilllery on the way there. Got to Bardstown, and the festival was a big dud. Guess it started that night. We at a diner call Mammy's. Not that great. The water in Bardstown had a funny taste to it. We left the town going down the BlueGrass Expressway, heading in a westerly direction so we could be in a position to get back to Missouri easily. Got onto one backroad accidently that took us into some Amish Country. Saw my first Tobacco Farms. Don't know if I remember ever seeing those before. Lots of barns where they hang up the tobacco to dry. Interesting to see. We drove up to the Rough River Lake to find some interesting stuff. Stopped a while to let Nate play. Then we did a hard drive back up to Vincennes to spend the night again.

Saturday morning, we all slept in late at the hotel, almost got kicked out by the 11 A.M. checkout time. Drove north up to Terra Haute, IN. Then started back West on I-70 towards Lynn's Parents. Along the way, saw a sign for "Historic Greenup Illinois". Drove on in and saw signs for a covered bridge and got this picture with Me and Nate there:

If you notice, the bridge really isn't that old. It was actually built in 1998 to 2001. It's the last in a succession of bridges that stood at this point on the Embarras River. That's pronounced "EM-brah" according to Wikipedia. Guess it's French. Back in town we found a nice historical society and wandered around there. A lady also took us next door to a train depot and Nate got to "toot" a train whistle and see an elaborate toy train display. Once again He loved it.

We dined at Janet's Cafe, which was okay. Nate got to play with some tractors there. We headed back to Lynn's folks, got Jackson and got back to St. Louis.

It was a pretty good trip. I kind wished we had skipped the Kentucky part and just headed back through Southern Indiana. But it was good time for us to all take our first trip.

Well, I've typed enough and I think Lynn is doing laundry so it would only be proper of me to go and help her, prove that I am a Really Useful Husband.

Later,