Impressions of Kentucky

• Rolling hills
• Twangs and Drawls
• Friendly Smiles
• Horses
• Politeness - never heard so many ma'am and sirs
• Multiple Bridges over the Ohio River
• Beautiful and diverse architecture
• Rich History people care about
• Small towns
• International street and town names - Sparta, Warsaw, Mt. Zion Rd. Lebanon, Hebron, Macedonia...
• Huge wide intersections everywhere
• High quality well thought out parkland 
• Gas stations that need your zip code before you can pump gas! For us Canadians, we had to go into the building, explain we don't have a zip code, prepay inside, and then go pump the gas
• Speed limit of 110 mph
• Forests
• White squirrels - likely the new mascot of WKU
• Sports - stadiums everwhere
• Yummy food
• Spices and seasonings
• U.S. flags everywhere - bridges, cemetery grave sites, houses, highways, hotels...
• ADA wheelchair accessibility (not just guidelines or acceptable, but w/c friendly and the law. Big spaces in hotel rooms)
• Cicadas - loud and plentiful 
• Cave Kisses - drops of water dripping on your head as you walk through a cave

Somewhere in Kentucky

Heavy duty picnic tables on rail tracks that can be moved into different positions

Small town Kentucky - I think this one was Newport.

Florence Kentucky - wheelchair accessible room

Although there were lots of Victorian homes, there were also some uniquely designed buildings as well.

 So many more photos and videos, but we hope this blog has given you a good view of Kentucky as we saw it.
We all want to go back - just maybe not in August!

Niagara Falls

Everyone's Perspective! 
 
Crowds. Noise. Lineups. Hot.

And yet, there is something special about Niagara Falls.
If you can get beyond the commercialization and tourism and actually experience the falls it is a powerful experience.

Fun Facts:

• It has eroded 11 km from where it began in Queenston Heights.
• Now they have engineered it to only erode 30 cm every ten years rather than 3 meters per year
• 6 million cubic feet of water go over the falls per minute
• A little 7 year old boy went over the falls in a boating accident and was uninjured. He was picked up by the Maid of the Mist
• Maid of the Mist in now American. 
• Canada has the Hornblower

The day started out hot, sunny, and quite windy down at the falls

Sweat trickling down our backs. The temp. was 33 degrees and humidex was 43

Waiting for Dad to buy tickets to the Hornblower boat ride to the falls

The gardens in Niagara Falls are always so beautiful. Dad's still in line to buy those Hornblower tickets!

Now we wait in line to board! Rainbow Bridge in background

Laughter and Screeches as everyone got soaked even with our nice red ponchos

We are soaked but this is a good thing. It was fun and a relief to the heat

700 people fit on the boat, but probably about 4,000 waiting. It is totally wheelchair accessible with ramps, and even a spot for the wheelchair at the rail. A very wet spot!

Drying out after our ride. It did not take very long.

Waiting at the top of the falls for the Behind the Falls Journey

A very pretty place to wait

Soaked again at the Journey Behind the Falls

So totally soaked, who needs a poncho anymore

Monica experienced it as well and got just as wet - she just couldn't get down the last part which was some stairs

And finally crazy Cliffton Hill on our way back to our hotel. It started to rain and our wetness got wetter! Monica is in this picture.

Everyone's Conclusion:
The best part of today - was getting wet up close and personal to the falls

Bowling Green to Niagara Falls

I mentioned yesterday that Bowling Green KY was a University Town. 
It was also the Confederate State Capital during the Civil War, has a corvette museum and factory, and this week there is the Tri Five National hot rod competition! There were literally hundreds of hot rods everywhere!!

 The architecture in Bowling Green is also quite spectacular. Although Louisville has the largest number of Victorian homes in the U.S., Bowling Green certainly has them.

 But, we had to say goodbye to Kentucky today. 
And...
Hello and goodbye to Ohio today.
Hello and goodbye to Pennsylvania today.
Hello and goodbye to New York today.
And finally, about 11 hours later, hello to Niagara Falls Ontario tonight!
No matter how logistically experienced I am, I could not have timed things better. As we waited in line at the border crossing just across the Falls in NY, the fireworks began. We could not have had a better seat in the house, and our wait at the border (we were about car 100), was timed so that we saw the whole show and then we were  car number three. We got across without any issues, and here we are!

Exploring Caves

Bowling Green Kentucky is a university town. Tonight, the frosh come in with their parents and our hotel will be filling up!
In the lobby is their mascot. 
You can put in your guess as to what it is!

Western Kentucky University

 
God did not make caves wheelchair accessible, however we did our best to offer Monica a tiny glimpse of a cave experience.
As such we did some caves that would not normally be on the tourist''s agenda and did not do some caves that would be!

The Lost River Cave Experience 
Dave carried Monica down some steps to a longish ramp to an underground river boat. Then he lifted her into the boat and held her on the bench seat for the duration.

In the boat

 

In the boat

Monica's perspective
 I did not think I would be able to do any caves today, however, Mom and Dad had high hopes that they could make at least a little bit of caving experience available to me.
Once we got down to the underground river, Dad had to stand me up as the boat had not arrived yet! He got me on the boat, and we got underway. 
And then the excitement.
There was a long low rock ceiling we all had to jack knife our bodies over so we didn't clunk our heads! Dad bent me low over his lap - I thought I was going to throw up! But, neither of us got smacked.
One interesting thing about this cave was that becaue it was down in a valley, if they get one inch of rain, it floods out and theriver would be up beyond where a boat could get through. It has a long history of flooding.

The Outlaw Cave
This one I was able to do about half of and then there were steps. The floor was uneven, and went up and down, but I managed. They think that it was one of the cave that the outlaw Jesse James hid in!

The caves are all about 54-57 degrees. And it's about 100 degrees and so humid outside

Anna-Lee's Perspective
I enjoyed the third cave we explored today. It was called the Diamond Cave and had stalactites, stalagmites, pillars  popcorn formation, bacon formations, and a bunch more.
There were 356 stairs! And they were sometimes slippery, sometimes steep like a ladder or like the light house we went up in PEI! 

We were not allowed to touch any part of the walls or formations as the oil on our fingers would stop it from growing as the water drips and minerals form. But, this stalacmite was cut and polished and we were allowed to feel it

No bats in this cave

We kept getting told "watch your head, watch your back and watch your step!"

God is truly amazing with how creative He is

And finally, Mammoth Cave in Mammoth Cave National Park. We went to the Visitors Centre, their museum (evolution world view), and then were able to just take a peek inside the entrance. We did not go on a tour at these caves. Again, not wheelchair accessible.

Decontamination area. In these caves there are bats and there is a disease they are getting called white nose disease. It is killing them, so if you go in a cave where it is, you have to decontaminate so you do not carry it out and infect other colonies of bats in other caves.

A Cemetery, The Kentucky Derby, Victorian Architecture and Bowling Green

Welcome to Louisville Kentucky the largest city in this state.
Although we only spent less than 8 hours here, it was full of learning and experiencing!
We're still following the Ohio River, so there are lots of bridges to be found here.

From Monica
One of the fumiest parts of the day was  Dad finding a "cute" bridge he wanted to cross. We went over one bridge into Indidana but he wanted to cross back over another one. So, we zipped and zoomed, turned, and fiddled all over so he could find the right road to take us across. He was so happy when he made the right turn and got onto his cute white bridge!

On our way to Indiana!

And the return trip on the Bridge Dad wanted!

The Kentucky Derby Museum was amazing. We took a very hot walking tour to the race track, the stables, the winner's circle, and then we came inside and watched an 18 minute movie on the Kentucky Derby from the time a baby foal is born until the race. It was on a 360 degree screen and was spectacular. Dad tried to be an announcer, Anna-Lee and Mom raced against each other, and we got to see another retired race horse.

Churchill Downs - The racetrack where the Kentucky Derby is held. Also where the Museum is and the tour that we took.

The track

The race is on.

Standing with the statue of the 2016 Kentucky Derby winner (Nyquist).

From Linda
A cemetery seems a strange choice to take time doing, and yet as we drove in we were met by a man who works there greeting us, handing us a map of the grounds (300 acres) and saying God bless.
Cave Hill Cemetery is a U.S. National Cemetery and has such a rich history of stories buried here.

The Military

The Famous

Colonel Sanders of KFC fame

Having just died recently, he does not have a tomb stone as yet

The Creative

What's in there?

Stained glass window of Da Vince's Last Supper!

 There were so many other ways that loved ones have tried to express the essence of the person or even family. If I lived here in Louisville, this would be one of my favorite places ot go. It has 5 lakes, ducks, swans, deer and just a peaceful large place to explore history.

The family tree - each "stone" is a cut off branch from the tree.

 We also went to the largest Victorian eta architectural homes in all of the U.S.A. located here in Louisville. 

East Magnolia Drive Louisville. A statue of a lamplighter in the Victorian section

And yes, the Kentucky Derby. Kentucky revolves around horses.The Derby is an immense part of the culture here. 170,000 people come to view this 2 minute race, and yet there are parades, festivals, special food, and a major economic boon to this region. The festival itself, brings in 100 million dollars per year.

On to Bowling Green and hopefully some caving tomorrow!