Nashville And On To The Alabama Gulf Coast

Out next stop after Louisville was Nashville.  Our normal practice is to drive around 200 miles and stay for at least a week.  Why?  It is quite a bit a work to set up and then break down camp.  Also, it is very expensive to run the motor home down the road but only one day of driving amortized into a week’s stay makes it far more affordable.  Further, driving the motor home is a lot of work.  It’s not sports car steering with a single hand on the wheel knowing it is going to track right down the lane.  A big motor home doesn’t have precise steering.  It wanders a bit and has to be corrected and the driver’s focus must always be on the road or it will be on a lane line before you know it.  And it is tough on the kitty who has to ride in her little “house” so she can’t become a projectile under hard braking.

Gary does the campground planning checking three different sources for each upcoming campground to find the best blend of accessibility, features, and cost.  Overall, his campground planning and choices have been outstanding.  But Nashville was one destination where it just didn’t work out well.  He selected the State Fair Grounds for our stop.  We had stayed at the State Fairgrounds in Raleigh, North Carolina and it was a fine stay.  The Tennessee Fairgrounds Camp had a couple good recent reviews, was in a great location for exploring the city, and had full hookups.  But in reality it was nothing more than hookups on a crappy asphalt parking lot.  We just could not imagine staying there a week.  Moreover, we were wanting to get to some warm weather again.  So we decided to spend just one night at the Fairgrounds, made our one trip into the city, and split the next morning.  It took two more days and an overnight in a Walmart parking lot, but after three consecutive days of 200+ mile driving days, we now are here in the very south of Alabama about 20 miles from the Gulf Coast.  And it was 85 when we got there.

Churchill Downs/Kentucky Derby Museum

After eating a Hot Brown for lunch, we had to go somewhere to try to work off a few of those many calories.  We worked our way down to Churchill Downs.  On the way, we drove through the area known as Old Louisville.  The area is comprised largely of Victorian-style mansions and homes built in the late 1800s.  Many have been restored to their original glory and an area that had been decaying is now a very fashionable neighborhood.

Churchill Downs is a huge facility.  You always see the cameras at the Kentucky Derby focused on the “twin spires” as shown in our picture above, but that is actually a very small portion of the grandstands.  The Museum is a very interactive one with informative exhibits.  The displays of Derby Day hats is amazing.  And here is a jockey tuning up for the next Derby run.

 

Our pictures of the Louisville area are at:  https://picasaweb.google.com/116107386675555024952/LouisvilleKentucky

Indiana Side of Louisville

We stayed on the Indiana side of the Ohio River while in Louisville not only for the campground but as there were a few things we wanted to do there.  We drove up to Madison one day and took in a few things along the way.  We first stopped at the Lee Bottom Flying Field in Hanover.  Why did we go to an airfield when we don’t have anything to do with flying?  Well, it’s because this airfield is somewhat famous on the workkamping/volunteering circuit.  They have an RV pad there with full hookups and each summer they take on an RVer at the site in exchange for mowing of the filed and other duties around the airfield.  It is a unique workkamping experience.  We know of one couple who volunteered there and truly enjoyed it.  The field is very close to the banks of the Ohio River and it is a beautiful if somewhat remote setting.  The descent down to the river was a bit scary even in our car.  It would be even more a fright in the motor home.

We drove on to Clifty Falls State Park.  The Park’s main feature is Clifty Canyon and rock formations and waterfalls, and of course hardwood trees that weren’t quite yet at peak color.  The water going over the falls was only a trickle but they had the potential to be quite spectacular.

 

 

Our final stop was the historic district of the town of Madison, a national historic landmark.  Madison is a town of only about 12,000 people but it is an annual stop of the unlimited hydroplane racing circuit.  The city owns it own hydroplane, Miss Madison.  An improbable victory by Miss Madison in the 1971 Gold Cup race held that year in Madison was the subject of the movie “Madison” starring Jim Cavizeil.

Another Local Delicacy– Louisville’s “Hot Brown”

As we have reported, we like to experience local delicacies in the areas where we travel.  Louisville offered up a very tasty one, but one that sits heavily in the pit of the stomach for the entire afternoon, the ”Hot Brown”.  We enjoyed ours at the place that originated the dish, The Brown Hotel in downtown Louisville.  Here is our picture of one.   The following history and recipe was taken from the Brown Hotel’s website. And if you would like to see the Man Versus Food segment on the Hot Brown, it is at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP7d5qtU0u4

In the 1920's, The Brown Hotel drew over 1,200 guests each evening for its dinner dance. In the wee hours of the morning, the guests would grow tired of dancing and retire to the restaurant for a bite to eat. Diners were growing rapidly bored with the traditional ham and eggs, so Chef Fred Schmidt set out to create something new to tempt his guests' palates. His unique creation was an open-faced turkey sandwich with bacon and a delicate Mornay sauce. Exemplifying our unending dedication to serving our guests, The Hot Brown was born!

And now The Hot Brown - a Louisville tradition with worldwide appeal - has been featured in Southern Living Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, NBC's Today Show, The Wall Street Journal, as well as being included as a regular entry in many of the finest cookbooks.

The Legendary Hot Brown Recipe

Ingredients (Makes Two Hot Browns):

• 2 oz. Whole Butter
• 2 oz. All Purpose Flour
• 16 oz. Heavy Cream
• 1/2 Cup Pecorino Romano Cheese, Plus 1 Tablespoon for Garnish
• Salt & Pepper to Taste
• 14 oz. Sliced Roasted Turkey Breast
• 2 Slices of Texas Toast (Crust Trimmed)
• 4 slices of Crispy Bacon
• 2 Roma Tomatoes, Sliced in Half
• Paprika
• Parsley

In a two-quart saucepan, melt butter and slowly whisk in flour until combined and forms a thick paste (roux). Continue to cook roux for two minutes over medium-low heat, stirring frequently. Whisk heavy cream into the roux and cook over medium heat until the cream begins to simmer, about 2-3 minutes. Remove sauce from heat and slowly whisk in Pecorino Romano cheese until the Mornay sauce is smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.

For each Hot Brown, place one slice of toast in an oven safe dish and cover with 7 ounces of turkey. Take the two halves of Roma tomato and set them alongside the base of turkey and toast. Next, pour one half of the Mornay sauce to completely cover the dish. Sprinkle with additional Pecorino Romano cheese. Place entire dish under a broiler until cheese begins to brown and bubble. Remove from broiler, cross two pieces of crispy bacon on top, sprinkle with paprika and parsley, and serve immediately.

Louisville Slugger

What is the first thing we did in Louisville?  The Louisville Slugger Museum and factory tour, of course.  The whole complex takes up just about half a block in downtown Louisville, just a couple blocks from the Ohio River.  Although a relatively small operation, they make 1.8 million bats a year there.  Today’s wooden bats are made of ash and maple.  The trees are grown in Pennsylvania and New York.  Round billets are cut out of the tree and then the billets are cut down into bats.  Back in the day, the billets were hand machined on a lathe.  Cut after cut was made with various chisels and the dimensions were checked with calipers measured against a model of the bat being cut.  Today the bats are cut on a numerically controlled lathe and only one pass is necessary to achieve a perfect shape in a mere 30 seconds per bat.  Unfortunately we could not take pictures in the factory, but at least we could in the museum -- and ham it up a bit.

Couldn’t Squeeze These Oranges

We enjoyed our fresh squeezed orange juice so much in Florida last winter.  We were expecting thereafter to buy bags of oranges in grocery stores and continue squeezing our own.  But the price of whole oranges just doesn’t allow for that.  They are just too expensive.  So, much to our surprise and delight, we moved down to the Louisville, Kentucky area and what is plentiful and free, lying on the ground in many places in our campground?  Oranges!  But wait, these don’t seem to be sweet and full of juice.  Inside there is an oozy stickiness.  For these are Osage Oranges and are somewhat poisonous to eat.

We had researched these things a few years back.  We used to find them in Michigan and Indiana.  We hadn’t seen any on our travels to date.  We used to place them in the corners of the floors in our condo as they are a natural spider and insect repellent.  We just read as well that a naturally occurring substance in the Osage Orange is now approved for use as a mosquito repellent and may be as effective as the chemical DEET,

The Osage Orange tree is actually very versatile.  The tress are spread around from Texas up through the Plains and into the Midwest as they were used to form hedgerows, marking farm fields, and also in windbreaks.  They are very scraggly trees, but the wood in them is extremely dense and pack more BTUs than any other tree making them great for firewood.  And even though the wood is very dense, it is quite flexible and hunting bows used to be made from them.  Scraggly looking fence posts also were made from this tree as the wood is very rot resistant.

 

We are camped in Charlestown State Park on the north side of the Ohio River, a great location for exploring Louisville, Kentucky and Madison, Indiana.  There are about two hundred campsites here.  Our first night here only seven of them were occupied.  The park is fairly new having been formed from land donated to the State of Indiana that used to be a part of the Indiana Army Ammunition Plant, the country’s largest smokeless powder plant at one time.  It is nice to have a 50 amp full hookup site on an asphalt pad in a State Park setting.

Back At “Kamp Kevin”

Last year when we started full timing, our first travel was to a service shop in Celina, Ohio for the installation of some equipment and some minor repairs and maintenance.  As we knew we were headed back to the Midwest, we scheduled ourselves in for some annual maintenance.  If you are ever in the Midwest, we highly recommend this shop.  Kevin is a former electrical engineer with American Coach and John was a technician at the American Coach Service Center.  They do a lot of electrical/electronics work but are fully capable of performing most any “house” RV work.  It is largely a word-of-mouth business – they don’t even have a web site, but they have coaches of all kinds rolling in there every day.  In January, Kevin works out of his motor home and service trailer at Quartzite, AZ and usually moves on to the Palm Springs, CA in February.

We didn’t have the installation of any equipment on our list this year,  But there was one item on the list that wound up costing us some serious money – “test the batteries”.  We knew they were 5 to 6 years old, which is beyond the typical usual life and that one of them in particular was boiling off quite a bit of water, so it wasn’t a surprise that they tested as “toast” and had to be replaced.  Here they are in all of their expensive glory.  If the dimensions are not apparent, they measure 11 inches wide and 21 inches deep and weigh around 125 pounds EACH.

Alley cat doesn’t like these service stops, especially when people are walking around on the roof of the motor home and using power tools.  She doesn’t get nearly her normal amount of sleep and doesn’t like being confined to the back of the motor home in the bedroom.  Her she is peeking under the sliding door wanting to come into the front of the motor home.  How can you resist that pose?

Gary does a lot of work on the motor home while it is in the shop.  Cruising America is a place that will allow an owner to be out in the shop and doing some work.  Gary also likes it that if he attempts a repair there and gets into trouble with it, he has expert backup at hand.  I took a little time and carved my first pumpkin of the season.  Very scaaaarry!