A Three State Drive

On Tuesday September 28th our Land That We Love Tour was shorter in mileage but longer in time because of the smaller twisty roads we would travel. Interstate 75 south to East 25 through the Cumberland Gap on to Interstate 81 northeast towards Bristol connecting to highway 321 into Boone, North Carolina. We traveled approximately 259 miles on this day. Kentucky to Tennessee and across the border into North Carolina.

We stopped in Corbin, Kentucky to have breakfast at Cracker Barrel Store #8. Dear had Biscuits and gravy with a side egg and I had the Two egg biscuit breakfast with their famous hashbrowns. Total for breakfast before tip was $17.98.

After passing through the Cumberland Gap tunnel we came across Lincoln Memorial University. We chose not to go into the National Park because it was foggy and visibility would not be great.

On Highway 25 East/South we pulled into this overlook.

Unfortunately we really couldn’t see much at this overlook because the valley was covered by fog…sigh.

The sign above shows what we were supposed to see.

After the morning fog the sun broke through for another beautiful day for travel.

We kept seeing a lot of these strange looking vines/ivy and we were curious as to what it could be. We researched later and that will be for another post.

Are you ready?

We were entertained along the mountain roads with how many Baptist churches we drove by. We aren’t exaggerating to say that we saw one about every half mile!

We made it to our destination for the night in the College Town of Boone. Hotels were pricier here and we paid $161.00 for the night with a total of 181.53 with taxes. It was a nothing special Courtyard by Marriott.

King Street in Boone.

Appalachian State University enrolls over 20,000 students. Lots of young people walking around this town!

We ate Linner at Macado’s on W. King Street. Fish and Chips, Black Bean Quesadilla and two drinks for a total of $32.87 before tip. After we ate we did a little shopping along King St. We stopped into the Mast General Store but didn’t end up buying anything. We heard about a great bakery called Stick Boy Bakery that we planned on stopping at on our way out of town on Wednesday September 29th.

Back to the present. We had about 6 inches of snow overnight so it’s a white winter wonderland for now.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Historic Boone Tavern

When we were done at the Ark Encounter on Monday September 27th we filled up our tank with gas for just under $49.00. The receipt was torn so I’m not sure the price per gallon. This tank would last us until we got into North Carolina. We drove south in Kentucky for 80 miles on Interstate 75 to the college town of Berea. We had a room booked at the Historic Boone Tavern. You can read about the Historic Boone Tavern located on the campus of Berea College in Berea, Kentucky. Our room charge was $119 and with taxes the total was $130.90.

It was nice to stray from national chain hotels to this beauty on our Land That We Love Tour.

We were able to check in earlier than we expected and went out to do a little shopping at an Artisan Village called Old Town Artist Village. The college campus was busy with students walking to and from classes. Berea is a college that does not charge tuition but the students given admission to the college agree to work 10 hours a week for the college in different positions around the campus.

This was a nice shop featuring woodcrafts called The Cabin of Old Town.

We had an early dinner reservation at the restaurant in the hotel.

I tried some deep fried deviled eggs that were delicious.

Dear tried the Shrimp and Grits. (When in the South…) Besides the deviled eggs I had a cup of soup, a salad, and we shared Steamed Mussels. We had a drink each. We shared Bread Pudding for dessert. Our bill came to $98.93 before tip.

Tuesday morning we would be checking out early and heading to Boone, North Carolina for our Tuesday night stay in the Appalachians. Are you catching the theme in this part of our country. In Kentucky we were on the edge of the Daniel Boone National Forest.

The Ark Finale

Today I’m wrapping up my Ark Encounter posts with a hodgepodge of photos I took inside the three level Ark. If you ever find yourself in Kentucky you really should put a stop at the Ark in your itinerary! The next overnight stop on our Land That we Love Tour was Berea, Kentucky.

Possible water storage on the ark.

There is a lot about the whole Ark experience that Noah and his family had that the Bible does not spell out. The Ark Encounter made it clear when they were taking artistic license.

A devotional popped up in my email about the time of Noah that I’ll share parts of here. It’s from Drawing Near by John MacArthur.

Genesis 6:5 says, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Before moving in judgment against the most evil and corrupt society in history, God appointed Noah to build an ark, which became a symbol of life and salvation to all who believed God. For those who disbelieved, it represented impending death and judgment.

Concurrent with constructing the ark, Noah preached about coming judgment. Peter called him “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Pet. 2:5), and every board he cut and nail he drove in was a living illustration of the urgency of his message.

God’s warning was stern and His message horrifying, but His patience and mercy prevailed for 120 years. As Peter said, “The patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark” (1 Pet. 3:20). The people had ample warning of judgment, but they chose to disregard Noah’s message.

As sad as the account of Noah’s day is, perhaps the greatest tragedy is that man’s attitude toward God hasn’t changed since then. Jesus said, “The coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matt. 24:37-39).

After 120 years of diligent work and faithful preaching by Noah, only eight people entered the ark. But God’s purposes were accomplished and the human race was preserved.

For your information there are many attractions on the Ark Encounter grounds. Ararat Ridge Zoo, camel rides, kangaroo walk about, Rainbow Gardens, The Village Smokehouse (food), Emzara’s restaurant (food), Southwest Grill (food), Zophar’s (food), Free Fall Tower, Zip-Line Tower, Truth Traveler Virtual Reality Experience (separate ticket for this event along with the Screaming Eagle Zip Lines and Aerial Adventure), Family Playground, Noah’s Village has pizza, burgers, hot dogs, soft serve and hand dipped ice cream and funnel cakes. Strollers and wheel chairs along with motorized wheel chairs are available.

Monument Walk at the Ark Encounter

On the way to the entrance of the Ark you walk through these monuments.

So much Biblical history illustrated and memorialized at the Ark Encounter!

For those of you following our Land That We Love Tour I’m sure you’ve noticed the amazing weather we’ve had all along the way. This ‘Encounter’ was on the 27th of September. One more hodgepodge of a post is coming from our Ark Encounter. Thank you for following along.

Sunday the 14th was a full morning until early afternoon for us as we were in charge of facilitating from the kitchen an all church potluck breakfast for about 200 people. It all came together nicely and we even had leftovers. Always hard to know what will happen at a potluck. Favorite conversation of the morning with a young lad newer to our church, “Is this all free?” and I answered. “Yes it is.” And he countered with, “when we go to restaurants everything costs money”. And I said, well…this is not a restaurant, this is a church, all of this is free.” 🙂 My feet, legs, and back are recovering from our time on Sunday. Hope you had a good weekend.

The Ark Encounter Continued

The 7 D’s of Deception. The Fairy Tale concepts of Noah’s Ark.

One of the displays/sections of the Ark that really struck me was the section they had displayed as Fairytale.

The 7 D’s of Deception

This made me think and examine how we teach Biblical events.

We purchased a children’s book about the Ark that was faithful to the whole story.

This is a very busy weekend for me with my responsibilities in the church kitchen. I’ll be putting my feet up on Sunday evening.

Have a great weekend.

This is a continuation of our Land That We Love Tour.

Cave Hill Cemetery

As we entered Louisville, Kentucky we put the Cave Hill Cemetery in our map app and found our way there. This was the only cemetery we visited on our Land That We Love Tour.

Cave Hill Cemetery is a 296-acre Victorian era National Cemetery and arboretum located at Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It is the largest cemetery by area and number of burials in Louisville.

Cave Hill National Cemetery, located in Louisville, Kentucky, is comprised of six burial sections at the northwest corner of the privately owned Cave Hill Cemetery, a grand Victorian-era cemetery that provided a proper resting place for the dead within a beautiful park setting. The national cemetery features rows of marble headstones following the curvilinear pathways of the grounds. The cemetery is the home of the 32nd Indiana Monument, also known as the Bloedner Monument, the oldest Civil War memorial in the country.

We missed out on these parts of the cemetery altogether. I didn’t research the cemetery ahead of time and it was just a side wish to be able to go to the cemetery because of our time constraints on getting to our tour in Shelbyville on time.

E.L. Huffman was buried in 1869.

As you can see we had another great weather day on our travels.

Always sad to see missing parts on these old statues.

Old cemeteries always draw me in. We only got a taste of this one but it was worth the short stop.

Hope you have a peaceful weekend.

Early Morning Start

Tuesday September 28th we started early on our Land That We Love Tour south in Kentucky to Tennessee and then East to North Carolina.

We enjoyed a great sunrise.

We stopped at a Cracker Barrel for breakfast.

We had fog along the way. We had thought about stopping at the Cumberland Gap to see some views but the fog was heavy and we continued on without stopping.

Today was a shorter mileage day but we were in the Appalachians and the roads were windy so it took us a lot longer to travel those miles.

We reached our destination in Boone, North Carolina a little after 1 PM.

Boone is a college town home to Appalachian State University and it is full of young people.

We checked into our hotel found a restaurant to eat in and did a little shopping. We shopped at the Mast General Store and a few smaller shops, too.

Tomorrow we reach our wedding destination and our family will join us in our VRBO. Looking forward to seeing their faces and our extended family. We have wedding festivities on Thursday and Friday and family reunion times before, during and after. I will be very very busy and since my grands will be living in the same house I will be surprised if I have much computer time at all. Enjoy your last days of September y’all!

The Ark Encounter

Today was day seven of our Land That We Love Tour and we were very impressed with this encounter!

What an amazing morning we had in Williamstown, Kentucky visiting the life size replica of Noah’s Ark. Dear forgot that in Noah’s day there were no sunglasses but before I judge they didn’t have eyeglasses either.

Lots of photos were taken and I might have to do a weekly post on all that this experience offered.

On this Monday night we stayed in Berea, Kentucky about 80 miles south of the Ark Encounter at the historical Boone Tavern on the campus of Berea College. It was nice to only be on the road today for about 110 miles. We’ve traveled 2500 miles already.

On Tuesday we travel south and then east to Boone, North Carolina.

Something we saw at the Ark Encounter to think about. This is from the father of lies, the devil, the serpent.

Thank you so much for visiting and commenting while we’ve been traveling.

When In Kentucky…

Continuing on our Land That We Love Tour we are now in Kentucky. No photo worthy events on our trip from North Dakota to Omaha Nebraska and then from Omaha to St. Louis, Missouri. From St. Louis we drove to Kentucky and we had a surprise that I-64 east and west were closed this weekend in Louisville. We had to do some map maneuvering to get us past the closure and back onto I-64 to continue to Shelbyville and Georgetown. On that maneuver we were able to stop into Cave Hill Cemetery for a little while. I would have enjoyed staying there longer but we had a reservation to get to. The photo above is from Cave Hill.

For dinner Red State Barbecue in Georgetown was recommended to us. Since we were staying in Georgetown on Sunday night we decided to try it and are glad we did.

Brisket with a side of beans and corn pudding, delicious!!

Today, Monday, we are heading north a bit to the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky. After our ‘Encounter’ we are heading south toward Tennessee with an overnight stop in Berea, Kentucky.

Long days on the road with little catch up time when we get to our lodging has limited my visiting time. Thanks for your understanding. I’ll come around when I can. Hope all is well…

Road Trip Re-Cap

It’s time for ABC Wednesday and we are on the letter R.

Thank you to the ABC team!

I’ll share a few snapshots of my daughter and my road trip across the U.S.A. The reason for our road trip was to return her and her car to Jacksonville, North Carolina to be ready for her husband’s return from Afghanistan. The reunion will be rewarding for them. We left Seattle on April 27th and arrived at our final destination on May 4th.

In the meantime it’s interesting living in a Marine populated city with license plates from all over the U.S.A. I will leave Jacksonville on Thursday and re-unite with my Dear in Orlando, Florida for a conference he is attending and then finally be back home later in May.

Day one on the road. We stopped in Spokane Valley for lunch with my son and his girl friend and then carried on.

Day one we drove across Washington and Idaho and into Montana!

Day two started with snow in Bozeman, Montana. Retreating was not an option so we returned to the road hoping for good traction and no sliding on the road.

Day two ended in Rapid City, South Dakota. We drove across Montana, down into Wyoming and across to South Dakota. Three states a day became our road trip theme. The other theme we did not want to repeat was snow but when we woke up in Rapid City to start our third day on the road snow was whipping side ways in some extreme wind conditions. Again retreat was not an option.

We learned to rely on Rest areas in many states across the U.S.A. They appeared just when we needed them most and they were all clean and well maintained. This is how the snow was sticking because of the severe winds in and around Rapid City.

Many times along the roads that were unknown to us our minds recalled the reassuring verses in the New Testament from Matthew that read…

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

I also would sing in my head…His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me.

Day three ended in Nebraska which means we traveled across South Dakota, into Iowa, and finished in Nebraska.

Day four we left Nebraska, entered Iowa again, and headed to Kansas City Missouri to meet up with a bloggy friend for RIBS!

After a great lunch and meeting Pam face to face along with her daughter we continued on to our stop for the night which would be just outside St. Louis, Missouri in the state of Illinois. Day four ended up being a four state day!

On Day five our goal was to reach Hendersonville, Tennessee. We traveled along some rock lined highways and other areas full of green trees from Illinois into Kentucky and then down to Tennessee.

On day Six we would only travel in two states Tennessee and North Carolina. Our goal was to take a scenic road to Asheville, North Carolina nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains for a two day retreat and rest before we traveled the final five hours to Jacksonville, North Carolina (Camp Lejeune Marine Base).

Our scenic route took us through some towns that surprised us with their weird attractions not so much rural charm.

Finally after passing a few attractions like these in Pigeon Forge we entered some refreshing views like these.

We were rewarded after our sixth day of travel with dinner at the Omni Grove in Asheville, North Carolina with beautiful views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

If you’d like to see more photos from this grand Inn click here.

Our seventh day was spent at the Biltmore Estate and Gardens. The azaleas at the Biltmore were in their glory. I will be posting more about our day at the Biltmore in the future.

On day eight of our travels we reached our final destination in Jacksonville, North Carolina, home of MCCS Camp Lejeune. We checked into our hotel and started the planning lists for securing an apartment asap and setting up a temporary home for Katie and Andrew upon Andrew’s return and homecoming from Afghanistan. I’m happy to report that I’m preparing this post from that apartment with wifi and all the bare essentials are in place for Katie and Andrew to live comfortably for the next few months. I might have even lost a pound or two carrying boxes up the three flights of stairs to their third floor apartment. (no elevators)

Road trip mission accomplished. Semper Fi!

Relief and Rejoicing upon Andrew’s Return soon to commence!

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Tag Archives: Kentucky