Top 10 Workplace Tours

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Jelly Belly Factory

    

Top 10 Unique Eateries

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Arkansas - our 30th state

We have now visited three-fifths of the states on our Napkin Dreams trip. Arkansas had the distinction of being number thirty. How many will we get to? Forty, forty-nine, maybe even fifty? Time will tell how far we get!

Kevin Shutterbug & the Fall Leaves

Kevin Shutterbug speaks with my wife as they go through a digital scrapbook of some of the amazing fall sites we have seen on or trip this year! We hope you enjoy the views!

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

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.

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

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!

Children's Ministry Expo | CMXPO recap

This is a highlight video from the conference where we unveiled Kidology to Go. You have to watch the whole thing to see me teaching in a Scoop.