Monday, April 6, 2009

Big Mike's Mystery House

How can you pass up a place like this??







It was a side tour for a souvier shop - more of a wacky house. Silly pictures, crooked floors, just plain goofy stuff that the kids loved. (If you ever wondered, standing on an angled floor at about 20 degrees - will make you very dizzy - ughh)


This is where Daddy grew really big and Alyssa shrank really small!
Outside the shop was Big Mo - a dinosaur of some kind - the shop actually had a skull of one of the inside.





Sunday, April 5, 2009

Mammoth Cave, KY

Sunday morning started out with church services at Grace Community Church in Bowling Green, KY. After that we headed to the Train Depot - it wasnt open for several hours but the old train cars were really neat to see. They used to run between Nashville and Louisville stopping midway at Bowling Green.






From there we heading up to Cave City to get our cabin and check out the area. We are a little nervous though as the temp is supposed to drop down to 25 today with a chance of snow - YIKES!! We tried to do a bunch of outdoor stuff Sunday in case we were stuck in the cabin for a few days. Here are some random pics of our day.


This is where our cabin is.








More from Dad....

As we head out of Tennessee and into Kentucky the sun is rising to my right and the Suburban is quiet and peaceful. Travel was quick, apparently Kentucky does not wake-up as early as the Fryes.

As we travel down the Purchase Parkway we see the remnants of the huge ice storm this part of the country had a couple of weeks back. Later that day I spoke with Mr. Yoder, an Amish man who runs a nursery and bakery outside of Marion, he tells me he has never seen such a storm in his 67 years in Kentucky. It was a freak storm that paralyzed this area for several weeks. Miles and miles of roadway pass and to our left and right trees lay busted up in a manner much different than what hurricane Ike did to the Oaks and Pines in Texas. The weight of the ice building up snapped the tops off the trees. Furthermore, as the ice piled up on the limbs they appeared to break off leaving piles and piles of branches on the side of the roadway. Somewhere between South Fulton and Mayfield I ponder the Black Locust trees stripped bare of their tops and branches. As I watch the crews pick up the damaged limbs and run them through huge chippers being pulled behind dump trucks, I am amazed at the resiliency of our country.

Somewhere on that same stretch of road my youngest daughter discovers that if she sucks in several small gulps of air and collects them low in the back of her throat, she can regurgitate it all at once and make a pretty noisy burp, much to the dismay of her siblings. Its not even 0900hrs yet.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

The Adventure Continues....

This is us on the River Ferry at Cave In Rock, Illinios. We left KY crossed the Ohio River and then came right back to Kentucky.
















We spent a good bit of time in Marion, KY. Met a sweet lady named Mrs Wynn who told us all the cool places to go see and where to eat. Good country food - including pickeled green tomatoes! This place below was also tops on here list.


















What happens when you visit this place and give your kids homemade fruit pies? Guess who thinks the cherry was the best!!




















The sad part of traveling thru KY is that there is SO much damage from the recent ice storms. Hundreds of miles of highways are lined with trees that have the tops snapped off. All the clean-up crews were just like the ones in Texas after Ike. This pic doesnt do it justice.

Arkansas Adventures

Nothing like flirting with death in Razorback territory....




A quick side trip to Lake Catherine on this gorgeous day was perfect!!

The highlight of the hike... the waterfalls!

Side note from Dad: This vacation (the first with all 7 of us in the same car)
makes me feel like Clark Griswald. We haven't found the worlds largest frying pan but I did find the largest wad of chewing gum - on the headliner right above where Adam sits. I am not sure what the world record is on number of consecutive days of fried food consumption but we have a good start on it so far. Ugh. Have to look that up when I get home.
We are currently in Tennessee Volunteer country and I have given Raymond some valuable advice - if he is going to wear that UT hoodie he better act like he is packing a 9mm. Otherwise we might get attacked.


Friday, April 3, 2009

Quote of the Day

from Dyersburg, TN - Ordering potato skins - asked if sour cream was on the side. waitress said - "No, its in the middle, with the potatoes around it in a circle." Gotta love small town Tennessee!! hee hee!!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Hard Day

After a hard day of playing, I found the girls asleep like this early last night. They generally never sleep this close.