Days 19 and 20 Columbus to Pittsburgh

We began the day with breakfast at a French cafe in Dublin. There was a group of men there speaking French. We had French toast and it was different than most. A thin bread and a lemon taste at first bite. They also had the best coffee of the trip.

Off to Pittsburgh to spend time with Lisa, Kyle and Calvin! I haven’t seen them for over a year and they are our closest relatives to visit. On our way there we unexpectedly ended up in West Virginia. I quick turned on my phone data, we’ve almost used up our data so I try to keep it off, and looked for breweries. We had just passed two so we turned around to go check them out. The first wasn’t a brewery just a bar so we headed to the second one. It had just opened and was located across the street from a market. We had a flight that included one made with blood oranges, that was my favorite. It was a nice little brewery with a very industrial feel. 

I left first and made a quick trip through the antique store we parked in front of down the street. I was hoping for some brew stuff for Duane but no luck. Then back in the car to finish the trip to Pittsburgh.

When we arrived Calvin decided he was going to be shy and not come out to meet us but it didn’t take long for him to warm up to us. We had a relaxing afternoon visiting, first inside and then out in the backyard under the shade of a Linden (?) tree. Lisa made a delicious dinner with salad and an easy eggplant parm. Kira had picked up a baguette before we left our breakfast place so we had that as well. Then it was ice cream and fruit for dessert and a singing of happy birthday to me. I should mention Kira bought me a sunflower umbrella at the plantation the other day for my birthday. It’s one I’ve looked at before but couldn’t justify buying, but as a present, yes!! Thank you!

I'll take a picture of you and you take a picture of me!

My first Mojito! Delicious!

Making the Mojitos

Sunday was a nice relaxing day for me. Lisa went to work and Kira took off to meet college friends for lunch. Kyle offered to take me to museums but I don’t really like art and was happy to just hang out and alternate between playing with Calvin and working on editing pictures. So that’s what we did. At times Clavin reminded me of Otto at that age. However, I think Calvin is much better at entertaining himself than Otto ever was. Calvin loves to play with cars and trains as well as splash in the pool and build sand castles. When Lisa returned from work we went out to eat at the Rivertowne Brewery down by the baseball stadium. Kira and I shared a flight and a Pierogi pizza. The pizza wasn’t really hot but the crust was delicious. They had a pineapple beer that tasted a lot like pineapple juice. Calvin loved his PBJ. 

Watch out Husker! (Sorry, no pics of the pets. :( )

Flying Car Ride! 

and it ends in the pool

I'm not posting pictures of the kids on Flickr so you'll see the many faces of Calvin right here.

On the way home Lisa and Kyle stopped and picked up ice cream sandwiches to celebrate National Ice Cream Day! Sorry, no pictures. :)

Lisa has a Little Free Library-I think I would like one of these.

Click here to see pictures from days 19 and 20.
Click here to see all the pictures from this wonderful trip!

Extras

I thought I would link to our original plan and map.

My Part of the trip:

I couldn't get it to the right size to see all the states.

Before the end of the summer I plan on making a new map showing all the places we stopped.
Well, here's the brewery map-30 breweries for me.

Day 21 Home!

It’s hard to believe our adventure will come to an end today. It’s been a fun three weeks with:

• too many hours spent in the car to count
• two oil changes at 5000 miles intervals-it was changed just before she left as well
• six books on CD--more for Kira
• six national parks for me--twelve for Kira
• five stops to visit family--six for Kira
• three stops to visit friends--five for Kira
• lots and lots of breweries-I’ll count them later
• passing through seventeen states for me--twenty-five for Kira 
• about 2000 pictures, which seems low for me-edited and posted 600 on Flickr.
• two car problems-a heat shield that came loose and needed to be removed in OR and this morning a rock dinged the windshield in PA
• an unexpected trip to NASA
• sightings of: elk, bison, desert big horn ram, deer, pelican, dead armadillos, a very cool black and white bird but never got a pic of it, walking stick, longhorns, so many swallowtails while driving through Mammoth Cave Park
• no rainy washout days for me-Chicago was for Kira, although it didn't slow them down.
• no actual books read
• no school work-ok on the last day I continued reading Learn Like a Pirate-excellent book
• so many blown tires along the roadways
• states that have speed limits of 80 mph and 70 on backroads
• according to receipts-cheapest gas: $2.49 in Texas-most expensive gas: $3.04 in Ontario, OR 
• one state without construction-Mississippi
• one state with no open brewery-Mississippi
• one state with continual tollroads-NY
• five coffee shops-should have done more!
• one winery
• one new t-shirt, hat, one bottle of wine and two tasting glasses, 
• many new coasters, stickers and patches that Kira picked up for Duane-Happy Father’s Day!
• no brewery tours-well until we returned home and drove straight to Saranac to meet Duane and end our trip with a brewery in NY
• three nights camping for me--nine for Kira
• twelve nights spent with family/friends for me--sixteen for Kira
• six nights in a hotel
• no hitchhikers being picked up
• only three ice cream stops
• one crepe
• learning to identify a magnolia tree
• Kira learning that Cabela’s is a sporting goods store not an Italian restaurant
• Kira seeing everyone on my side of the family. I missed Julia, Josh and Isaac in IL
• seeing all my siblings and mom at the same time
• a realization that I should probably get my hearing checked-many misunderstood comments to each other-good for laughs though

My favorites: 

• seeing my family and visiting friends
• Park: Grand Canyon
• Brewery: Odd Otter in WA-good beer, adorable logo, friendly bartender
• Beer: Milk Chocolate Stout at Old Rail Brewery in LA
• Places I want to return to with Duane: Arches and Zion and the parks I missed-Grand Tetons-Glacier
• Least favorite part: driving through Texas
• If I could have changed one thing: more time at the parks to hike and look for animals

Kira’s Favorites:

• Seeing friends and family
• Park: Grand Tetons
• Brewery: Firehouse in Rapid City SD
• Beer: Milk Chocolate Stout at Old Rail Brewery in LA
• Places she most wants to revisit: Grand Tetons
• Least favorite part: driving through Texas and New Mexico
• If I could have changed one thing: more time! (Whew, she didn’t say leave mom at home!)

When we got home we grabbed Duane and headed down to Saranac Brewery just so we could say we did a brewery in NY too! We had a couple others in mind but they were both closed on Monday. 

No pictures today....but if you followed our journey, thank you!

Click here to see all the pictures from our journey. (Not all pictures are posted yet.)

Day 18 Mammoth Caves to Columbus

We had reservations for a 9 o’clock historic tour at Mammoth Caves, so we were on the road at 6:30 to make sure we made it in time. We arrived with a half hour to spare. We were meeting Shari there. Due to some unexpected delays she got there just in time! The tour was fun and even more so with Shari. These caves are so different from Howe Caverns in NY. No stalactites or stalagmites! I just realized I didn’t get a picture of the park. Pictures of the caves were taken with my phone. There are some tricky walking places so I was glad I didn’t take my camera. Our tour was two hours long and advertised as a family tour. I think they should change it to no kids under four. They were noisy and not big fans of the dark. It was distracting and made it hard to hear the guide. 

Just about ready to enter the cave and get cooled off!

Shari and I in the cave-thanks Kira!

Heading out of the Cave

In the cave

After the tour we headed to Bowling Green and went to the Mellow Mushroom for lunch. Kira and I had a Shiitake mushroom and caramelized onion pizza and it was one of the best I’ve ever had! Shari loves it because they have gluten free pizza and beer. We had fun catching up and then it was time to head back to the road. 

Amazing pizza!!-Thanks to Kira for the pic

Fun sculptures out front

Mellow Mushroom 

We decided to stop at the White Squirrel Brewery right there in Bowling Green, Kira is trying to stop at one brewery in each state. Unfortunately, they were not open until 4. 

So we started on our way to Louisville. When we got there we stopped at another brewery. This one was not doing flights because they had switched over to all plastic due to a music festival in the area. There was another one right down the road but it didn’t open until four so we picked another brewery across town that also opened at four and we figured it would be close by the time we got there. What we didn’t know was that the time zone had changed and we could have gone to that other one. Oh well… The Cumberland had great dark beers, a nitro porter and a coconut. When we left it was a quick trip to the highway and the traffic was better. Just before we got to the highway we saw an older Krispy Kreme. Kira pointed it out and we were in the wrong lane to stop. I was looking at it and debating whether I should take a picture for Duane but I was holding the GPS. Then all of a sudden Kira hit the brakes, I thought she was breaking for Krispy Kreme! She wasn’t, someone had stopped in front of her. But she liked my thought and laughed so hard she cried. It’s one of those traveling moments you just had to be there to understand. 

Against the Grain-no flights

Finally a brewery that was open!

Cumberland Brewing Co

Fun water tower

Driving into Cincinnati there was lightening all around

We had planned on camping tonight but the campground never answered their phone and since it was hot and humid and the temp wasn’t dropping and we were concerned about a storm we gave up on that idea. So I used Hotwire and booked a hotel in Columbus. The funny thing was I got the same hotel Duane and I and rest of the family stayed at when we were there a month ago. We drove there with no more stops and went for ice cream for dinner. First we went to one in Dublin but there weren’t many flavors so we went to a different one right by the hotel.  It reminded us a bit of Whitey’s in the Quad Cities. We both had Buckeye and it was great!

When we got to the hotel we found out we got their last room, their computers were down and so was their main elevator. Luckily the back elevator was working since we were on the third floor. 

All my pictures from today are posted here.
Click here to see all the pictures from our trip.

Day 17 Nashville

We got up and started a load of laundry and got it in the dryer before heading out for the day. Heather had picked up bagels for us for breakfast. We decided our first stop would be a plantation before it got too hot. Kira chose the one with a wine tasting included, good choice. It was a horse farm plantation. Nice tour, tasty wines and we learned what a magnolia tree looks like. Ok, we were a little embarrassed that we didn’t know that. We got to see a few flowers and I was surprised at how tall they were. There’s some other bush in the area that I should have taken a photo of to find out what it is because the smell brought back memories of my childhood trips to Williamsburg, funny how an odor can do that. 

Magnolia Flower

Magnolia

Magnolia-I like how the petals turn a vintage brown.

Magnolia

Magnolia Tree

This made me think of the book Ride to Freedom that our 4th graders read this year.

This was over the door on the "dollhouse"

This is called a doll house

Display of musical instruments in the slaves quarters

Then it was lunch time so headed to Bicentennial Park to check out the farmer’s market and the capital. There weren’t many vendors outside but there were lots of great lunch choices inside. Kira chose barbecue and I went with a grilled double brie cheese and peach sandwich. Then we met at The Picnic Table where we could eat and order a flight of local beers. They didn’t have the number up letting us know the hoppiness of the beers so we told the guy working what we liked/didn’t like and ordered our four beers. It would have been nice if he had mentioned we ordered hoppy beers. He was not helpful at all, it’s not often we don’t tip but this was one of those times. As soon as he was done pouring a beer he was right back to sitting down and looking at his phone. Obviously, it's not his place. Anyway, the food was great and then we went for dessert. :) We have been looking for places that sell crepes but haven't had much luck. Today was our lucky day. We each got a Nutella strawberry crepe and went outside to eat it and then went for a short walk.  

Crepes!

We found a water fountain place that kids were enjoying and we could see the capital from there as well. Fun fact: Heather said Tennessee has the only capital building that doesn’t have a dome. 

Cool bike rack by the market

TN capital building

On our way back to the car we picked up a watermelon for $3 and two heirloom tomatoes for $1. Great deals! Later in the night I cut up the watermelon and it was still warm. Watermelon is not good when it's warm!

Our next stop was the Grand Old Oprey. The first parking lot said it was $25! We did a quick u-turn! But then I suggested we pass that lot and see what else there was. Good thing, we were just in the wrong area. We found free parking but then struggled to find the Oprey. We asked a security guard and he told us the wrong way. So, we got a good walk in today. We finally found it and did the tour. It was an interesting place. 

I'm not a TV watcher so this didn't mean anything to me. 

If you write to someone in the Opry this is where your letter will end up.

There were at least 10 different dressing rooms

They each had a different theme. This was my favorite.

This circle is from the original opry and survived the flood a few years ago too.

Then we went to the outlet mall that was right there so Kira could look for some new sandals since hers are falling apart, but she didn’t have any luck. The walk back to our car was much quicker. 

Then we debated what to do next. We finally decided to walk back over to the fancy hotel and check it out since it was on Heather’s list. Wow, what a place it was. It was like San Antonio with a boat ride, plants and restaurants. We just wandered around a bit, admired the orchids and then left. 

Then we decided to try a brewery and hoped driving into town during rush hour would be better than leaving. It was! We went to the Tennessee Brew Works for a tasting and waited there for Heather. We enjoyed the beers and rated them on Untapped like we normally do. Then the barkeeper told us about the other beers and then gave us samples of those as well. My favorite was a porter made with sweet potatoes and one of the new ones was made with sugar beets and it was good as well. Once we finished our beers and Heather arrived we headed to the Pour House Burgers, Brews and Bourbon. It was supposed to have a prohibition feel to it, not so much, but it did have good food. We started with green fried tomatoes and then I had a chicken salad with a southwest flavor. I also had a local beer.

While getting to the Pour House we discovered another brewery right down the street. So once we finished eating we walked there. Even though Heather is not a beer drinker she was happy to hang out with us. The Jackalope had tasty beers as well and Kira picked up a new shirt. 

Since we were going to be up early the next morning that was our last stop.

Click here to see all of today's pictures
Click here to see all of my pictures from the trip.