Horses, Distilleries and More in Kentucky! (Part 1)

We originally planned to spend one week in Georgetown, just a few miles outside Lexington, KY--Horse Capital of the World--but there was so much to see and do that we extended our stay an extra week.

We're staying at Whispering Hills RV Park just outside Georgetown, a quaint town in the middle of the golden triangle of Cincinnati, Louisville and Lexington. The surrounding area has many horse farms (and cows), rolling hills, and lovely homes (large and small).

So much black or white fencing around the farms

Many of the stables are larger than the homes

First up on the agenda was Kentucky Horse Park. The park is a working horse farm and educational theme park and is dedicated to "man's relationship with the horse." The park has been home to some of the world's greatest competition horses.  Since we visited in the off season there were just a few horses at the farm but we enjoyed the few horses we saw.

This little guy was full of energy

It was in the upper 30s when we visited--brrrr!

Additionally, the park contains the International Museum of the Horse, a Smithsonian Affiliate, which has a permanent collection of horse history and memorabilia.  The museum was very interesting and even though we are not horse people, we could have easily spent an entire day there.

 An exhibit in the museum is Calumet: Five Decades of Champions.  It contains over 500 trophies won by horses representing the greatest thoroughbred farm of the 20th century.  Whirlaway and Citation Triple Crown trophies are on display.  I remember driving by the Calumet farm.  I could not even guess the size of it--many hundreds of acres large!

There were also handmade fabric panels depicting horses in sport.

We came across a display that had a saddle on a stand in front of a green screen.  A nearby TV superimposed your picture onto a picture of a horse.  We took pictures of each other on horses and then we realized we were in the children's section of the exhibit. These 2 big kids really enjoyed themselves!

Whee!

I told John he was too tall so he ducked down

We also visited the Toyota factory in Georgetown, America's first and the world's largest Toyota manufacturing facility. We took a ride around the plant on a guided, tram-driven tour.  The factory is HUGE.  It covers 7.5 million square feet of floor space, the equivalent of 156 football fields.  They employ about 7,000 people plus 2,000 contractors. The tour drove us all around the factory.  We saw robots moving chassis components.  We saw the automated assembly line moving cars from one station to the next, and the workers doing their jobs before the car moved on.  Everybody takes their breaks and lunch hour at the same time so everybody is working on the assembly line at the same time.  Workers on a team get to rotate to different jobs within the team so they do not get tired and careless in the same job.  They have their own medical clinic and pharmacy on site.  Toyota even has gardens where they grow food that they donate to local food banks.  Unfortunately photos were only allowed in the Visitor Center and not on the tour.

After the Toyota tour we drove to downtown Georgetown for lunch. 

Had a delicious lunch at Fava's (since 1910!)

Historic downtown Georgetown...

Founded in 1829 it's the oldest Baptist college west of the Allegheny Mountains

On March 10 we awoke to 2" of snow!  It's been a little cooler than normal during our stay so I suppose snow was to be expected...

More on Kentucky in my next blog...

Mammoth Cave in Cave City, KY

Our drive to Cave City started out drizzly but fortunately the rain stopped before we reached our home from February 28 to March 7--Cave Country RV Park.  It's a very nice campground, nicely landscaped with gravel roads and level sites.  It's very quiet here because there are only about 5 rigs.  One good thing about this campground is that it's within walking distance to several restaurants and a SONIC!  In case you don't know, I love Sonic!

On the road to Cave City

Cave Country RV Park

These happy robins serenade us all day long!

We came here to tour Mammoth Cave.  The park service offers a variety of tours from short, easy tours to a strenuous tour that covers 7 miles in 7 hours and includes 700 stairs! We decided on the Historic Tour.  It is a 2 mile 2 hours 440 stairs tour (moderate).  So off we went...

After a short safety talk, we were on our way

Down, down, down

The park ranger turned out the lights to show us how dark it is with only a lantern for light.  It was so dark you couldn't see your nose!

Looking into a deep pit

Smoke from lanterns turned the white gypsum black.  Does this look like Santa and his reindeer?

Part of the tour took us through Fat Mans Misery.  It's a narrow, skinny, wavy passageway.  You had to watch your step and the low ceiling so you wouldn't bump your head.

Lots of bending...

...and stooping

...and twisting.

Narrow at the bottom...

...with rocks jutting out into the walkway

Almost done.  But first, we have to walk up the tower!

Up one final set of stairs!

After the tour I inexplicably had some extra energy so we decided to take the 1 mile Historic Walk.  We walked by Old Guide's Cemetery.  Among the graves there is the grave of Stephen Bishop.  He was a self-educated slave who became a legendary cave guide and explorer.  He began guiding visitors at age 17 in 1838.  He was the first person to explore many miles of the vast cave.

Boy! Was I tired the next day!

A few days later we drove back to the park to try one of their bike trails. We chose an 8 mile trail that begins at the visitor center and mostly goes alongside the main road into the park. It is a gravel path with quite a few hills.  We only rode 5 miles because the hills were too much for me!

At the top of the last hill we rode up...

...because this was waiting for us.  Steep grade?  Don't think so!

The road back home the park took us by many rolling hills.  That's what I think about when I think about Kentucky...

We've enjoyed our stay in Cave City, KY.  Next stop is a 1 week stay in Georgetown, KY, just outside Lexington.  Looking forward to riding some of their rail to trail bike paths.

Our Travels So Far...

We began our full-time RV travel adventures in February 2016.  It's hard to believe that in two short years we have traveled to almost half of the United States.  We have met many nice people and seen so much beautiful scenery.  We are lucky to live in such an incredible, wonderful country!

The map below shows the states we've visited or spent at least one night in.  I included Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona because we took family vacations there in our pop-up camper when Michael and Stephen were kids.  We have also visited Nevada and California several times via airplane.

Our 2018 travels have been planned.  We will be traveling across the northern US on our way to a 50-day tour of Alaska with an RV Caravan.  Then we will travel from Alaska to Hilton Head Island, SC where we will spend three months over the winter in a condo.  At the end of 2018 there will only be a handful of states that we haven't visited. Can't wait to see what 2019 has in store for us!