The Palmer Express

Bald River Falls, just a little detour off the 100 million dollar Cherohala Skyway highway. It was a beautiful drive with plenty of overlooks.

Beautiful fall colors in the Smokies. The Smokies were pretty awesome to see and just when we thought driving through Yellowstone was bad, this was worse. Busy time of year but talking to the locals, it’s always busy.

Observation tower, Clingmans Dome, it’s a gradual (I say this loosely) incline all the way. Over 6000 feet above sea level and the walk was a 330 foot increase in elevation in 3/4 of a mile, you almost need brakes for the trek down.

In the Gatlinburg area they estimate 1500 black bears living in the near by mountains. As we were driving through this guy decided to race us.

Cave bacon in the Lost Sea Cave. Cave bacon is a formation officially known as layered flower stone.

They tagged a bunch of rainbow trout and released them in the lake. They were hoping they would find a way out and be caught. So far they all seem to be still in the lake. More than 13 acres of water have been mapped and it is over 70’ deep.

Confederate soldiers would come into the cave to get saltpeter (potassium nitrate) to use for making gunpowder. This was plentiful in the cave due to bat guano.

Tsali Notch Winery, cute little winery. Sweet wines but that’s what they drink here AKA “adult Welch’s grape juice.”

View from the winery, if the temperatures would of been ten degrees warmer we would of sat and had a glass while we soaked in the view.

First KFC which had a hotel connected to it. In the dining area they have a museum along with a replica of the original kitchen and what a hotel room would of looked like.

Karen found a nice southern gentleman.

Dog Slaughter Falls, getting there made us feel like we were back in Costa Rica, there was a lot of potholes in the dirt road. It was a beautiful four mile hike, we talked to others and they started from Cumberland Falls, making it an eight mile hike for them.

Looking out from behind the Falls. There was a few places (rocks) to sit to take a break and enjoy the day.

Cumberland Falls, also know as Little Niagra. All paths paved and overlooks fenced off, nice park to walk around.

Double rainbow at Cumberland, this is the same spot where you can see the Moonbow. It is the heavy mist from the falls that creates the rainbows and moonbows with the right wind and light.

Information about the Moonbow that we got to see.

Moonbow using a flash, to the naked eye it is a white arch, pretty amazing.

Yahoo Falls, tallest waterfall at 113′ in Kentucky, you can see the second set of steps on the right hand side (and John) people talk about wading around in the pool, we passed as it was only in the 50’s.

Yahoo Falls natural arch, just a little more than over a mile and half from the Falls. it was unique to see the trees growing on top of it.

We could hear waterfalls so we went to explore, it sounded a lot more impressive than it turned out to be. In doing so we ended up crossing over to another trail extending our hike to over 5 miles. The good part in doing this we didn’t have to use the first stair case going down, the really bad part, we had to take the 157 steps to get back up.

Kentucky fall colors, Mammoth Cave National Park. we started our three mile hike on the Green River Bluffs Trail, connected with the Echo River Spring Trail, up to Sunset Point and ended with the Heritage Trail.

It is hard to miss where the Louisville Slugger Museum is located.

Up to bat, John holding a bat that Babe Ruth used.

I love my bat.

Underground zip line, they offer many different activities. It’s an old limestone mine, approximately 110 acres, a business man purchased from the city and he ‘rents’ space back out to the city of Louisville to store their road salt. They also have storage for boat, rv’s, antique cars etc. since it’s a constant temperature they don’t need to worry about winterizing.

Go to hell zip line, the first zip lines were fun and when we got to the longer faster ones they had a different breaking system and it was a little jolting.

In our gear, it was our first time zip lining in the USA, lots of rules and regulations here.

Next, inside Mammoth Cave

During our Domes and Dripstones tour at Mammoth Cave we got to see Frozen Niagara. The tour starts with a steep narrow metal 280 step staircase, it’s two hour tour and under one mile. Coming up you climb a couple ‘submarine’ staircases.

No flash photography inside the cave, reason being the tours are so big (can be over 100 people) it causes a strobe light effect. Right now the cave has over 400 miles of mapped passages, we were surprised at how many large areas there were.

Some small passage ways, they even have one called fat mans misery. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds, it was about 18″ wide but it only about three feet high. We took the Historic tour (about a two mile hike, two hour tour) in the afternoon, when we booked the tour, 48 hours in advance, there was over 80 spaces left. The tour was near sell out, way to many people, couldn’t hear the tour guide. We recommend taking the tours early in the morning. Tours do sell out so book in advance if there is a tour you want to do. The lantern tours were sold out the days we were there.

Next up, Corvette museum

The yellow line is the cave, the red line was the sinkhole. The overall size of the hole was 65’ by 45’ and over 30’ deep. Eight corvettes were swallowed up in the sink hole, three were repaired and all of the cars are placed in the appropriate area they had been in prior to the collapse.

This is the last car to be removed. It’s initial whereabouts in the sinkhole was unknown and was found upside down crushed by a large rock.

Another picture of the damaged cars. It was interesting to watch the video showing them removing each of the eight cars.

The embalm they originally wanted to use but found out that you can’t use the American Flag on corporate logos.

John at the finish line.

Karen trying one out just in case we win the lottery.

Couldn’t sit in it but I think this would be my lottery pick. The amount of donated cars versus on loan from really surprised us.

Hello Wisconsin, left in the rain, drove in it until Tomah where we finally found sunshine.

And onto Illinois, more sunshine.

Finally Kentucky, we can still see the sun rays.

Oh yeah, I’m traveling with Superman.

Ham festival, the happening place in Cadiz Kentucky.

This is what it’s all about, but no samples.

Trail of Tears, a few plaques, visitors center closed. Not worth the drive in our opinion.

Casey Jones Distillery, where I had my first moonarita, come and visit us and I’ll have my next one with you.

Mantle Rock, along Trail of Tears trail, it’s around a 3 mile walk and the trail goes on private property and there are signs to warn you about hunting season and it’s your responsibility to know when it’s hunting season and to wear your blaze orange.

Kentucky Dam, nice visitor center. If you look really close there is a boat anchored right next to the spillway.

Patti’s settlement in Grand Rivers, known for their pie but the restaurant burnt down in February and they are in the process of rebuilding. Right now it’s a food truck under a tent.

The Purple Toad Winery, sweet fruity wines, they have a very nice area to sit to enjoy a glass and they supply bar snacks. Definitely worth a stop.

Murals on the flood wall in Paducah. The murals show the history of Paducah. This was just one section of the wall.

 

 

We took a tour of the Ferndale turkey farm with Gwen.

Gramps teaching Gwen how to shoot pool.

Gwen learning how to level the camper. A very complicated process.

Playing Yardkle at our campsite.

An adventure to Safari North Wildlife Park, doesn’t look like much from the road but there was a lot of animals to look at and feed, the giraffes got carrot sticks.

It’s a feeding frenzy, a little freaky being in the cage, the birds start to go crazy when you get your birdseed stick.

The zoo was more fun then a barrel full of monkeys.

Paul Bunyan and Gwen in Brainard.

Craft time in the camper, we made barefoot sandals and ankle bracelets.

Gwen with her new friends, Buddy & Bella.

We stopped for lunch at Kings, a local hamburger joint, before we had to take Gwen back home.

Boot Hill Museum, interesting setup, you enter at the mercantile on one end and out by the restaurant. They have some interesting pieces and rooms. There have a few free standing buildings, a house, church, a blacksmiths shop, a jail and other miscellaneous things.

Aftermath of the gunfight. A few more bodies for Boot Hill.

The Long Branch Saloon, had a cold one here, but no sign of Miss Kitty.

We took the trolley tour of Dodge City, best part was that it had air conditioning.

Huge feedlot, can hold up to 45,000 head, owned by 3 companies and covers about 200 acres.

Even our RV Park had their own version of Boot Hill.

This is a well laid out two level state park with a big pool, nice hiking trails, lake, and river.

The boiling springs, not hot but looks like it is boiling due to how it bubbles up.  You’re looking into about 3 feet of water.

We had the modern campground basically to ourselves, but it was booked full for the upcoming Memorial weekend. The lower campground did have a couple rvs and tents in it.

Alabaster Caverns State Park, had to take a guided tour to see the caverns, wasn’t offered to us when we went to the rangers station. As we hiked down near it we found it to be fenced off.  We took a different path….

Oklahoma slot canyon, not quite as exciting as Utah’s.

Looks like the trail.  If you look at the middle top of the photo you can see John’s leg, see him stretching for the next step, how am I going to do this?

Made it back to the top with a hand from John. Took a drive to see more of the park but not too much else to see.

Windy trip across I-40, arrived at the Big Texan RV Park and we were more than ready to be here.  At check in we were told that we were under a serve thunder storm watch, come here if becomes a warning, by the way, the office closes at 7…..

Coyote Bluff Cafe, ordered the burger from hell, she was a little spicy, would definitely eat here again.

Maybe see if they do 1/2 orders of  fries?

Jake Sisemore RV Museum, free to tour, lots of campers and even more motorcycles.

So many they hung them from the ceiling.

Toured the Quarter Horse Museum, it was interesting.

Karen was having so much fun she lost her head.

Palo Duro Canyon, the Lighthouse Trail.  2.7 miles to reach the base of the rock, about another half mile climb up it.

Another rocky trail. We like this type of trail better than deep sand.

The last big climb.

Hot and windy at the top, but we made it.

Our table view at the Big Texan Steakhouse. They have the 72oz steak dinner challenge. If you eat it in all under 1 hour it is free.

They also offer free limo rides. We were picked up and dropped off at our doorstep.  Woo Hoo, date night!

Route 66 singing highway.  If you drive the right speed and on the rumble strip you can hear a small snippet of America The Beautiful, it was pretty cool.

Hiked the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks.  An awesome slot canyon and a hike we would do again.

A lot of rock climbing on this hike, this was an easy one, missed taking pictures of the more challenging ones, it was a busy trail.

Sometimes you had to go under rather then over the rocks.

They call them tent rocks, we called them teepee rocks.

John landing on the heli pad

Scandia Crest, summit 10,679 feet, some people run this, other bike it, we drove it.  On a clear day they say you can see 100 miles from up here.

Maggie’s in Madrid, where the movie Wild Hogs were filmed.  Hollywood left the town the set, they built it up to code and turned it into a gift shop.

Old Town Albuquerque, interesting place, galleries, trinket & trash shops along with a lot of restaurants.

We didn’t see any, but apparently they have alien cow ships.