I’ve been quite a slacker again when it comes to my blogging. I love doing it so much and yet I’ve let life get in the way- mostly teaching but for the last couple months getting my house ready to be sold, going through the selling process and lately getting ready to move. In fact, I almost completely forgot to take my November road trip- and even debated not going on one with everything that has been going on in my life- but it was my New Years resolution, and I’ve been successful so far, never missing a month, so I decided to go- and I’m so glad I did! Not only did I get a fun two-day trip in, but I also got to travel with one of my favorite friends for the first time- Adam!
After conferring with Adam several times about our trip, I was very excited to learn that Adam has the same traveling idea as me- no plan is the plan! We were going to set off by car- avoiding the freeways- and see what we see. I’ve been to Kentucky a few times, so I knew what things I DIDN’T want to see, and Mammoth Cave was in my sights, but beyond that, I was open to the unexpected. A few days before I left, I stumbled onto an amazing website resource- Roadside America. If you are ever going on a roadtrip and want to see the ‘unique’ sites of the area, you have to check out this website! They show all the interesting/unique/quirky attractions on a map, so you can see exactly what could be ‘stumbled upon’ simply by taking a few detours.
From Columbus, we took 71 south to Cincinnati, but got off the freeway once we hit Kentucky and used the Roadside America website to plot out our first stop- the city of Rabbit Hash. Our first true stop was for some coffee, where we also had the most delicious maple fritter that has ever existed. Thanks Biggby Coffee!
Rabbit Hash, Kentucky- population 315. Our destination was the general store, which has been in operation since 1831, save the year when it was being rebuilt after a fire. The town sits on the Ohio river and is just darling, and we were greeted at the general store by two of the friendliest, sweetest dogs ever.
The store did not disappoint. The owner was very friendly with a sweet dog of her own- but what would you expect from a town where the last four elected mayors have been dogs! She also a hummus dish free for tasting for all the customers and was talkative- answering all of my questions about the town. We wandered around admiring all the cool wares, settling on a few things that we wanted to buy.
Also open for visiting was the community center and information center, which just beckoned me in, look at it, how could you resist?
How cute was this little town of Rabbit Hash? It’s definitely worth a stop.
Back on the road, we took Rt 42 and continued on our way, eventually coming to Big Bone Lick State Park, named because of the fossils found on site- mammoths were believed to have been drawn to this location because of the salt licks deposited around sulphur springs, we had to stop and take a pic. Soon after we stopped for lunch at a cafe located right on the Ohio River.
Our next interesting stop, according to our roadtrip website, was a giant abacus located in Goshen, Kentucky at the entrance of a school. How could we not stop?
Goshen is not far from Louisville, so that’s where we headed next. I had taken a road trip to Louisville in February, so I didn’t want to see a lot of same sites, but after trying to take a tour at Angels Envy and finding out that it was booked we had to settle with wandering around and taking in the sites. There are many oddities in Louisville for sure, like the giant David statue, and the world’s largest baseball bat. We took a quick walk into the Louisville slugger museum, and then went to the Hotel Museum bar to have some bourbon- just because we didn’t get to a distillery doesn’t mean we couldn’t try some of Kentucky’s most famous product.
After a yummy dinner we went to check out another unique, and new to me, site in Louisville- the Megacavern! The cavern, located very close to downtown Louisville, was a huge limestone quarry, where workers extracted the stone for over 42 years. In 1989 investors bought it and turned the massive space into what is actually the largest building in Kentucky (there’s over 4 million square feet of space!) There are rooms where you can store your belongings, there’s a recycling center and even a space where you can get your adventure on- with zip-lining, a bike park, a megatram that takes a tour of the spaces, and a ropes course. Our destination was an underground Christmas lights display that you drive through. We waited an hour to drive through, at a cost of $30, but how often do you get to drive through a cave to see Christmas lights? And since it’s the season, I thought this would be the perfect kick-off to put me in the holiday spirit- and it did not disappoint.
After our drive through the cavern, we headed to our next destination, something that has been on my wish list for a long time- the Wigwam Village motel! When I found out that we were staying the night here I was so excited I was squealing like a little girl. Okay, history time! The Wigwam Village Inn #2 was created by Frank Redford in 1937, and 6 other Wigwam Village inns were built in Alabama, Florida, New Orleans, California and Arizona (including the one I saw on my road trip to Painted Desert and Petrified Forest in January), with the first Wigwam Village being completed in nearby Horse Cave, Kentucky. Only three Wigwam Villages remain, and I was so excited to be staying in one. When we arrived we saw the large main building, standing 52 feet tall, originally housing a restaurant an gift shop that are since closed. There are 15 smaller wigwams that can be stayed in, complete with furnishings from the 1930s. Not exactly plush or lavish (we only had a space heater to keep us warm) but worth the experience.
It wasn’t the most comfortable sleep I’ve ever had, but I loved it!
Our destination Saturday morning was Mammoth Cave, but along the way we ran into some dinosaurs! Check that one off the list of interesting Kentucky sites.
We arrived at Mammoth cave at 9. Most tours need to be booked in advance, but we were doing the basic Mammoth Passage tour (someone didn’t want to do the History Tour, or any of the other “more exciting” tours because they didn’t want to miss the OSU v. Michigan game) which didn’t need advance reservations, so we were able to do a 9:30 tour. 
Mammoth Cave is the largest cave system in the world. The park was established in 1941, became a World Heritage Site in 1981, and covers over 52 thousand acres. There are over 405 miles of surveyed passageways. There is tons of history that we learned about during our tour, but I’ll spare you all the details right now, you have got to go check it out on your own.
Our tour lasted about 1.5 hours, and then we headed to watch the game, landing in Elizabethtown, Kentucky where we got to watch OSU defeat Michigan- Go Bucks!
On the way home we were looking at all the brown roadside attraction signs to find the next place we could stop, and when we saw a sign for a winery called Smith-Berry (clearly named for my travel buddy) we knew we had to stop and do a wine tasting.
And a trip wouldn’t be complete without a gas station attraction- like the stuffed wildcat chasing a cardinal that we found at a BP- another tick off the Kentucky attraction list. And I was able to get my awesome roadtrip buddy the hostess yellow cupcake he’d been craving. Seriously, my road trip buddy played the tambourine and kazoo like a champion, put up with all my singing and driving skills and we had an absolute blast- thanks Adam!
Catching Katie 