Eastward Expansion - Day 9: Grayville, IL to Lexington, KY

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Did you read Part 6 of the blog?  You should - it's a good one - it's got yummy food, national parks, and potentially inclement weather!


A tired Zoe is enjoying staying in place for more than two days at a time

Since we'd spent Saturday night in Grayville, Illinois instead of St. Louis, our expected eight hour drive to our Airbnb in Winchester, Kentucky (northeast of Lexington) was reduced a bit.  This meant we could take our time waking up on Sunday morning; Chris started an extremely thorough flush of the tanks, since we didn't have plans to use the rig after this (other than to drive it to a service spot and be like, "please fix the slide!"); I took a shower and then headed to nearby New Harmony, Indiana to Black Lodge Coffee Roasters for breakfast and caffeine options. The drive was lovely - it is so green in this area of the country right now due to all the rain - but I could see why the flood warnings were justified.  We didn't experience any issues, thankfully, but if another storm blew in, certain sections of the interstate here would be underwater.


The roaster at Black Ridge - the folks there were so nice, and their food and beverages were great, too


The building was also incredible - it was originally a cooperage (where barrels are made) dating from 1825,
and the building was relocated several times during its life.
The most recent move was back to this spot in the 1970s, at which point the original floors were saved
and reconstructed as the ceiling (the floors you see here date from the 70s).
Black Lodge has been in here 8 years now, and they're well worth a visit!


One of the potential flooding areas Google warned us about


The world seems to be falling into two camps lately:
1) not enough water and 2) too much water.
We've now relocated from option 1 to option 2 - hopefully, that's more tenable, long-term.

Before too long, we were saying goodbye to Illinois and heading into the Hoosier State!


Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky all claim Lincoln in some way;
he was born in Kentucky, grew up in Indiana, and pursued his career in Illinois.
Lots of Abraham business around these parts.

We had a quick break at an Indiana rest area (verdict: fine, but others on this trip were better) and pretty soon, it was into our final state for this adventure: Kentucky!


Crossing the Ohio River and leaving Indiana


Driving under the bridge construction


Hooray for awesome governors!


Right across the Ohio River from Indiana lies Louisville, and it was fun to see it from this vantage point


The KFC Yum! Center, where the University of Louisville basketball team plays


Louisville Slugger Field, home of the Louisville Bats (minor league baseball)

We had lunch at a rest area near Simpsonville, Kentucky, and then it was onto the last bit of our drive, past Lexington and into the city of Winchester, where we'd be staying at an Airbnb for the next week. Our hosts, Jamie and Steve, made everything easy and extremely welcoming, and since they have tons and tons of land, we were even able to park the rig in their front yard!  Staying in their guesthouse (it's a separate building, attached to a garage that seems to also double as their greenhouse) has been awesome; it's been so nice to stay in one place for a whole week and have plenty of space to stretch out.

Not that the girls give us much space anyway:


Happy to be settled, clean, and cozy!

As I type this (on 4/17), we're waiting to complete our final walkthrough of the house tomorrow, and we're scheduled to close on the new spot on Friday!  Hopefully, if no unforeseen disasters occur, by the time this blog is published, we'll be unpacking our PODS in Richmond, Kentucky!  Stay tuned for more updates!

Later!

Amy

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