Travel Fun

Sam: Travel Day 1 has come to a close and we are here in the hotel in Dale, Indiana!  We've crossed the mountains of West Virginia (and listened to John Denver's Country Roads along the way), the Ohio River and 1 time zone to make it safely here to the farmlands of Indiana.

It was raining when we left the home state, and was very foggy on the mountain, but the roads were just as pretty as ever- we are sure to miss Virginia's beauty!  The scenery was very nice in all the states, and we took a few pictures in each.  (Which you can see by clicking on the geyser photo because I can't figure out how to get them in the corner there).

Wild Turkey!

Michael:  We took a few detours along the way to break up the driving and explore a bit.  We kept seeing signs for bourbon distilleries thru Kentucky, the "Kentucky Bourbon Trail".  We decided to stop by the Wild Turkey distillery.  Apparently, you can visit all of six whiskey distilleries (Jim Beam, Woodford Reserve, Four Roses, Heaven Hill, and Makers Mark are the others) and they give you a "passport" that you can mail in for a free T-shirt once you visit them all.  Luckily the Wild Turkey plant was only 15 minutes from the I-64 and the closest to us.  We saw many of their 26 barrel warehouses along the side of the road before arriving at the visitor center, where we were treated to a free tasting of our choice of 2 of their products while watching a short video about the history and operations of Wild Turkey.  It was a quick visit, then we were back on the road.

Santa Party!

After a few more hours we arrived at our hotel in Dale, Indiana.  After checking in and getting the turtles settled (they were ready for clean water and some food after a long day in the car), we headed off to the famed Santa Claus, Indiana to see a year round holiday town.  This was a treat for Sam, since Xmas is her favorite holiday.  It looked like they were gearing up for the summer tourist season as the holiday theme and water parks were not in operation yet.  There were statues and depictions of Santa everywhere!  The town was really in the Xmas spirit...on a pretty ridiculous level.  But since we were there we enjoyed a home-style dinner at the St. Nick Restaurant where we sat in a booth as a party of about 10 Santas with their Ms. Clauses had a boisterous cheer filled dinner next to us.

Tomorrow we head towards Independence, MO!