Campground Review - Nashville KOA

50s group performed live!

We stayed at the Nashville KOA  over Patsy's birthday where were saw a live concert and went to eat at the Old Spaghetti Warehouse in downtown Nashville.

Staff - 6 - Some young people were working the counter each time we went to the office. I suppose one could say they were cordial. Mostly uninterested.

Nearby attractions - 9 - Right in the heart of Nashville's tourist area.

Natural surroundings - 7 - Big mature trees yet close to the interstate.

Value - 4 - We paid $53 a night for two nights for a pull-trhough gravel site with full-hook-ups and cable TV. This was using our KOA card and some KOA points we had earned. Campgrounds are pretty expensive in Nashville.

Bathrooms - 9 - Very clean and updated bathrooms. Plenty of hot showers.

Roominess - 5 - Pretty small sites for what you pay for!

Facility fun - 9 - Discounted tickets to Nashville sites, Gray Line and other tour buses stop at this campground. Large playground, game room, swimming pool and volleyball courts. Planned activities during peak season. We got super discounted tickets to an oldies concert at the campground theater which plays there most every Wednesday night.

Cleanliness - 9 - Nice and well taken care of.

Facility usefulness - 8 - Fire rings, laundry, picnic tables, dump station, propane, camp store, exchange library.

Overall - 7 - Nice but quite pricey!

The Parthenon

This post has been deleted since it is in our new book entitled Napkin Dreams.

Campground Review - Kentucky Horse Park

We didn't get to see any of the horses, but we did enjoy our stay at the Kentucky Horse Park Campground near Lexington, Kentucky.

Staff - 6 - Some young people were working the counter each time we went to the office. I suppose one could say they were cordial. Mostly uninterested.

Nearby attractions - 9 - Very close to Lexington and not far from all Cincinnati attractions. 

Natural surroundings - 8 - Nicely manicured grounds with mature trees yet room to run as well.

Value - 8 - We paid $25 a night for two nights for a back-in gravel site with water and electric only.

Bathrooms - 9 - Very clean and updated bathrooms. Plenty of hot showers.

Roominess - 7 - Normal sized lots, nothing special but not cramped.

Facility fun - 10 - Discounted tickets to onsite horse park. Large playground, basketball court, tennis courts, game room, swimming pool and volleyball courts. Planned activities during peak season. Even Sherman had fun here (see video!)

Cleanliness - 9 - Nice and well taken care of.

Facility usefulness - 8 - Fire rings, laundry, picnic tables, dump station, propane, small camp store.

Overall - 9 - Very clean and decently priced for such a nice park!

Toyota Factory Tour

This post has been removved because it is now part of our book on amazon! you can purchase it at this link -
http://www.amazon.com/Napkin-Dreams-ebook/dp/B00AZR24LG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358190007&sr=8-1&keywords=napkin+dreams

No cameras were allowed inside the plant

First year in review

It has been awhile since I, Sunset the Snake gave one of my reports from the road. So since I do not have as much to do I thought I could report on the first year the Martin family has spent on the road. Yes a snake has put together a video, made the map and compiled the stats! If you do not believe this then you're imagination is seriously lacking and I am afraid you may suffer from serpent prejudice! Sorry about the lack of sound on the video, youtube has been having fits accepting the music, but we are trying to replace the sound with an audio swap but youtube is also having fits with that!

So here is the adventure by the numbers:

• We started in Cambridge, IL and ended the year in Pittsburgh, PA.
• We traveled over 35,000 miles between the RV and the vans.
• We visited 22 states
• Over 100 Walmarts and 1 Target
• We replaced eight tires.
• We visited 17 Zoos/Aquariums.
• We lost a total of 7 teeth.
• We explored 49 National Parks.
• We soaked up the sun on 10 different beaches.
• We ate at over 70 unique eateries and 25 different McDonalds and 95 other national or regional restaurant chains! 
• We saw at least 277 different species of animals.
• We toured 27 workplaces.
• We went to 6 different amusement parks.
• We spent time in two different countries.
• We traversed through 42 state parks.
• We stayed at over 120 campgrounds!
• Celebrated 7 birthdays.
• Expanded our horizons in over 40 museums.
• All in 372 days (this is from 9/23/10 - 10/1/11)

more...

Check out the basic path we took on our trip in the first year!

Campground Review - Oak Creek Campground

After teaching in Florence we stayed a couple of nights at Oak Creek Campground in Walton, Kentucky.

Staff - Owner was helpful and gave us a discount.

Nearby attractions - 9 - Near Cincinnati and not far from Lexington.

Natural surroundings - 8 - Close to interstate but in the woods with a stream running behind our site.

Value - 8 - We paid $26 a night for two nights for a back-in gravel site with water and electric only.

Bathrooms - 7 - Normal for a campground. Hot showers.

Roominess - 6 - Campground was busy for this time of the year, sites were about normal sized.

Facility fun - 6 - Small playground, basketball court and the stream to play in!

Cleanliness - 7 -  Some long-term sites looked a little run down, but we stayed in a different section than those.

Facility usefulness - 8 -  Fire rings, laundry, picnic tables, dump station, small camp store exchange library. 

Overall - 7 - Decent location and the stream was a nice amenity.

Krohn's Conservatory

After we teaching at a Kidology to Go in Florence, Kentucky, we took Sunday afternoon to visit downtown Cincinnati. Florence is right across the river from Florence and we were looking for a family friendly freebie to do.

We spotted a place online called the Krohn's Conservatory. Basically this place is an indoor have for tropical and dessert plants, with small streams and waterfalls and walkways for visitors to enjoy the beauty of nature that they might not see in southern Ohio!

This particular Sunday afternoon was pretty crowded because the Conservatory was holding it's annual Orchid Festival. Even so our family got to see some amazing, award-winning orchids on top some of the other exotic plants. It provided for at least an hour of diversion for our family before we headed back to Howard and our campground.

Lynn's Paradise Cafe

This post has been removved because it is now part of our book on amazon! you can purchase it at this link -
http://www.amazon.com/Napkin-Dreams-ebook/dp/B00AZR24LG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358190007&sr=8-1&keywords=napkin+dreams

 

 

 

 

 

 

Campground Review - Rocky Falls Campground

During our stay in Evansville we chose the Rocky Falls Campground just outside of town.

Staff - 7 - Spoke with camp host who was cordial.

Nearby attractions - 6 - right in Evansville and within 30 minutes of Ownesboro and Santa Claus.

Natural surroundings - 8 - Outside of town, very country atmosphere with man-made water fall that runs from May through September.

Value - 8 - We paid $25 a night for two nights.

Bathrooms - 6 - Slightly below average.

Roominess - 7 - Average sized sites, but the campground was not super busy.

Facility fun - 7 - Small playground, game room with free pool table and air hockey table.

Cleanliness - 7 -  Some long-term sites looked a little run down, but it was pretty decent.

Facility usefulness - 8 -  Fire rings, laundry, picnic tables, dump station. 

Overall - 6 - Nothing special here without the water fall.

Evansville Museum

We visited the Evansville, Indiana Museum for one reason. Membership to this particular museum gets you the benefit of a reciprocal membership to many other museums across the country, and the membership cost of joining the Evansville Museum is one of the lowest on the reciprocal list at only $50 a year for a family!

The museum itself is not that great and not worth traveling very far to see. The best part of the museum is actually an adjacent transportation museum. Membership at the Evansville Museum gets you free entrance into the transportation museum. In this museum they have a model train set and a real train with passenger cars to explore and an engine with a bell to ring. The passenger cars were used by both the Eisenhowers and Johnsons during Presidential campaigns, so we had a bit of history to explore.

The main museum had a floor with some art exhibits, some bamboo baskets made in Japan, a small area with some hands-on exhibits  and an area showing what life was like in Evansville through the years. the museum is pretty small and took less than two hours to go through both of them.

50 McDonalds - Kentucky

Our Kentucky stop at McDonalds was at a Golden Arches in Owensboro. The kids got trunk or treating buckets and a nice elderly employee stopped and talked to us for quite awhile about our traveling across America. It seems almost three or four times a week we talk to someone about our adventures on the road.  We have certainly fulfilled one of our goals in meeting new friends along the way.

Campground Review - Ohio County Park And Campground

On our way from Bowling Green to Evansville we popped in to the Ohio County Park And Campground for an overnight stay.

Staff - 8 - Camp host was helpful and gave us a few choices of sites to choose from.

Nearby attractions - 6 - within 60 minutes of Ownesboro, Evansville and Bowling Green.

Natural surroundings - 8 - Not a large city around for miles.

Value - 10 - We paid just over $8.50 for a night for a back-in gravel site with full electric and water using our Passport America card. Free laundry too!!

Bathrooms - 4 - Pretty rough and buggy, but the showers were hot and plumbing was functioning!

Roominess - 8 - site was not super long, but no other site on either side for a long ways.

Facility fun - 6 - Two small playgrounds, walking trail, picnic shelters, a horse arena.

Cleanliness - 7 -  Some long-term sites looked a little run down, but it was pretty decent.

Facility usefulness - 8 -  Fire rings, laundry, picnic tables, dump station. 

Overall - 7 - So cheap, even if the bathrooms were nasty!

Corvettes and Cupcakes

Bowling Green is home to Corvettes. Both a Corvette Plant and Corvette Museum call this small southern Kentucky city home. While I would consider my favorite sports car a Mustang, you have to admire the beauty, grace and power of the Corvette through the years.

The Corvette Museum features many various Vettes dating back through the decades. All the cars on display are in mint condition, and are really works of art themselves. Yes, walking through the Corvette Museum is really more breathtaking than strolling through a top-notch art gallery! There are a few hands on displays, such as a virtual pit-crew game and chance to test your knowledge of Corvette trivia, but for the most part this is mostly about admiring classic automobiles!

So after enjoying a manly place like the Corvette Museum, what does the Martin family do? We chow down on some gourmet cupcakes of course! Bowling Green is also home to Gigi's Cupcakes, a little shop that is taking full advantage of the current cupcake mania sweeping the nation! ;)

Now these particular cupcakes are topped with mound of frosting, which only true manly men can handle. On this visit only Blake and I could finish our pile of sweet and soft gooey goodness!

Campground Review - Singing Hills RV Park

During our visit to Mammoth National Park we stayed three nights at the Singing Hills RV Park in Cave City, Kentucky!

Staff - 10 - The owners were super nice Christian people who were some of the friendliest camp hosts we have met so far!

Nearby attractions - 8 - About 2 miles from Mammoth NP and within 30 minutes of Bowling Green. Lots of touristy stuff around Mammoth and Cave City.

Natural surroundings - 8 - In the country with trees and open fields and lots of bird watching opportunities. We did not see anything for the first time, but we got some pics of mockingbirds, starlings and black vultures.

Value - 7 - We paid just over $16 as an average for three nights for a pull-through gravel site with full hook-ups using our Passport America card for the first two nights..

Bathrooms - 6 - Could use a little update, but the showers were hot and plumbing was functioning!

Roominess - 8 - Average sized-sites!

Facility fun - 6 - Small playground, fishing pond and walking trails.

Cleanliness - 8 -  It was clean and tidy.

Facility usefulness - 8 -  Fire rings, propane, picnic tables, dump station. 

Overall - 8 - Our experience here was enhanced by the kindness of the owners. The owner Beth Brown has written a book entitled Parenting is Rocket Science and talked with Patsy for a long time about some of our particular issues with adopted children. She gave us a copy of her book and some great ideas along the way. God continues to put the right people in our path on this trip.

Mammoth Cave National Park

This post has been removed because it is now part of our book on Amazon! you can purchase it at this link -
http://www.amazon.com/Napkin-Dreams-ebook/dp/B00AZR24LG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358190007&sr=8-1&keywords=napkin+dreams

Boyd's Orchards

Even on the road we had to keep up our tradition of visiting and apple orchard on a sunny fall afternoon. Boyd's Orchard near Versailles, Kentucky has lots of fun things to do besides pick apples. There was the petting zoo, the very large and bumpy slides, the pirate ship playland and the large pile of haystacks to climb on. But the most wonderful and exciting thing of all were the apple donuts!! Yum.

Fort Boonesborough

This post has been reomoved because it is a part of our book Napkin Dreams.

Staff - 9 - The camp hosts and activity planners we met were super nice!

Nearby attractions - 8 - Close to Lexington, KY.

Natural surroundings - 9 - On the Kentucky River. Plenty of trees and squirrels galore.

Value - 7 - We paid just under $26 a night for a back-in black-top site.

Bathrooms - 7 - Slightly better than an average state park.

Roominess - 6 - Our site was a bit cramped on one side.

Facility fun - 9 - Three playgrounds, planned activities, large pool with big slide, mini-putt. walking trails.  Fort Boonesborough is an extra charge on top of camping fees.

Cleanliness - 8 -  State Park clean.

Facility usefulness - 8 - Camp store, clubhouse, fire rings, laundry, picnic tables, dump stations. 

Overall - 9 - Lots going on here even during the middle of the week in the fall!