Moving On to Lexington, KY – Sun, July 13 and Mon, July 14, 2014

Sunday, July 13, 2014 – Travel Day to The Kentucky Horse Park 

 

 

A - Myrtle Beach State Park, Myrtle Beach, SC - June 18-25

B - Zooland Family Campground, Asheboro, NC - June 25-26

C - Stony Fork Campground, Wytheville, VA - June 26-July 2

D - Natural Bridge State Park, Slade, KY - July 2-13

E - Kentucky Horse Park Campground, Lexington, KY - July 13-17

I still was not feeling up to par, but our time at Natural Bridge State Park is up and we have reservations at The Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY for 4 nights.  Fortunately, we only have 60 miles to travel and it is all on easy roads!!

Before I get into our day, I would like to say that we truly enjoyed the hiking in The Natural Bridge and The Red River Gorge area of Kentucky.  We only touch the surface of the hikes and would love to get back and do more in The Red River Gorge Area.  That being said, we will only come back if we get reservations for sites 9, 21, 2 or 3.  Also we will only stay here from Sunday night and depart on Friday morning.  The weekends (Friday and Saturday nights) here at Natural Bridge State Park Campground are terrible.  The sites are overcrowded with several families and vehicles per site.  Quiet hours do NOT exist and children are allowed to run wild:o((  We had children hiding under our motorhome during a game of laser tag at 10:30pm:o(( We had Blue Grass music being blared at 6:30AM from the site next to us:o((  Kids on bikes cut through every site in the park chasing each other:o((  One actually ran into Bill from behind and knocked him down!! We never saw rangers riding through the park and they did not have campground hosts;o((  Bill did mention the issues to the young men who work the check-in hut and they said they would tell the Rangers.  If they did, it didn't help!! Just want you to know that we will not camp here again on a Friday or Saturday nights!!!!  We wish there were other campground options, but there aren’t. 

We took our time getting ready to leave and let all the weekenders get moved out first.  It was almost 10:30am by the time we left.  We only had a 60 mile trip on basically two roads.

The Bert Combs Mountain Parkway for 32 miles.

 

 

I-64 East for 23 miles.

 

 

 

Within an hour, we were at the entrance to The Kentucky Horse Park Campground.

 

 

Check-in was easy and we got set up on site C-158.

One thing we didn’t know was that many of the 250 sites are really sloped.  Our site is extremely downhill.  We did run the back wheels up on our horse mats, but even then we are still slightly sloped.  There is no way to tell which sites are flat and which are not unless you visit and make notes.  Just be prepared to make adjustments.  Otherwise, the park is nice.  Lots of trees and easy to get through.  It is here for one reason…The Horse Park.

The campground is completely booked for a North American Junior and Young Riders Championship which begins on the 15th.  We are surrounded by all the “Horsey” people;o)) 

Here’s the view out our front window!! 

 

 

After we got set up, I was beat...still fighting this bug.  I wound up sleeping most of the afternoon.  We had storms rolled in so I didn’t miss a thing;o))  We do get a bit of TV here, so we watch for a little while before it was time for bed. It is supposed to rain tomorrow so we have made some indoor plans!!

 

 

 

Monday, July 14, 2014 – Louisville Slugger Museum

 

Bill here…  I am the guest blogger for the day:o))

 

We knew it was going to be rainy today, so we planned to go to the Louisville Slugger Museum which is about 75 miles from here. Well, Nancy was still feeling a little punk this morning, so I ventured off to Louisville all by myself!!  Nancy had printed out directions and I followed them right to the parking garage next to the museum:o)

 

 It was pouring rain when I got to the museum about 10am and met with a couple hundred of my closest friends.  Obviously, a rainy day is a good day to see the museum. 

 

If you like baseball, you would like the Louisville Slugger Museum. I had a chance to swing the bats of a few notable players: Babe Ruth, Lou Gerhig, Stan Musial, and Derek Jeter, just to name a few.  Perhaps years ago I could have swung them pretty well, but they felt awfully heavy to me today!!

 

I also had a chance to stand behind a batting cage and watch a ball pitch over the plate at 100mph!!!  Yea, I could see it, but there is no way I could hit it!!  A 20 minute film featuring some of the all-time hitting greats talking about baseball and specifically hitting brought back good memories:o))

 

 

 The best part of the day was the Plant Tour. Computer programs now perform the detailed specifications of each bat.  Yes, computers control the lathes that spin the Ash or Maple wood against the cutting edge turning them into bats. Years ago, the bats were created by Master Wood Craftsmen.

 

Did you know that each Major League Player uses an average of 84 bats a year? 

 

That’s a lot of broken bats!!

 

Of course, Nancy sent me off with her fully charged little camera with instructions to take some photos.  I took over a hundred pictures.  However, when I got back to the motorhome, somehow I only  had about 10;o((  Those were from the outside of the building and I have no idea what happened to all the others.  I guess that’s why Nancy takes almost all the photos!!

 

If you are ever near Louisville, Kentucky and enjoy baseball, The Louisville Slugger Museum is more than worth the $11 entrance fee:o))

 

When I got home, Nancy was feeling much better:))  Tomorrow, we plan to visit The Kentucky Horse Park and spend the day learning about horses and seeing the various museums!!