Hi All Y’all,

That’s Kentucky-speak for hello friends.

We left home Tuesday, January 4^th, and headed for Presque Isle Downs Racetrack and Casino in Erie, PA. We had a soft left rear tire on the car before we left so I got out my air compressor, plugged it in and turned it on. It went “pttt . . . pttt . . . pttt . . . nothing”. It was so cold the oil was almost solid. After 10 minutes of heat from my paint stripping gun we pumped it up and were on our way. 

About two miles from our house the tire pressure sensor on the dash beeped to tell us that now the right rear tire on the car dropped to 20 psi. It hit 16 psi just as we approached a local towing garage so we pulled in to have it checked. Long story short all four valve stems were cracked and leaked when you bent them a little. After 45 minutes and $38.00 we were back on our way. We were truly blessed the tire went down there and not 15 minutes later when we were on the Thruway.

We got to Presque Isle Downs without further incident (178 miles). We ran into some snow showers from Buffalo to Hamburg but nothing serious. Had our usual luck at the slots – we lost. Set our furnaces at 64° and went to bed. The furnaces were running constantly so about 4:00 am the batteries died. I started and ran the engine for about 45 minutes and charged them up so the furnaces would run until we got up. 

Wednesday the 5^th we awoke to about an inch of new wet snow but the interstate was just wet. We drove to the Flying J truck stop in Jeffersonville, OH (272 miles) and spent the night. We ran into more snow showers but from south of Cleveland on we had sunshine and clear dry roads. We cannot get Direct TV so Elaine was not happy missing her hockey games. Our dome does not find the signal so I guess we are going to have to have that checked. It is still cold but at least there was no snow. We are paying $2.989 for gas. I saw it for $2.899 at one station. I set the alarm for 4:00 am and started the engine again to charge up the batteries.

Thursday the 6^th we drove to Crossroads Campground in Elizabethtown, KY (208 miles). Full hookups with cable and good Wi-Fi for $24.00 per night. Since we have electric, I could sleep all night and let the furnaces run. We had supper at a Ryan’s Steakhouse and Buffet. Thursday night the weather channel broadcast a “Winter Storm Advisory” for the area with a snow accumulation of less than an inch. Sure enough, we awoke Friday morning to a half inch or so of snow and all the county schools were closed. The low was just 5°!!

Friday the 7^th we stayed around Elizabethtown. We got the vacuum going and cleaned the coach and organized all our stuff. We probably brought too much junk.  We made our pilgrimage to Wal-Mart and got some supplies. Elaine went to a quilt shop. My old laptop had been acting up so I went to Best Buy and bought a display model, a Gateway with a 500 GB hard drive and 4 GB of RAM. It is faster than my desktop at home!! We had supper at the Golden Corral which I think is even better than Ryan’s.

Saturday the 8^th we drove in to Louisville and went to the Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs. Neither of us are big horse race fans but it was really interesting. It almost makes you want to be there for derby week. If six of you would like to join us (we need a minimum of 8) we can get a table at the buffet on millionaires’ row. It is only $1000 per person plus a paltry $60,000 table fee. After lunch we went to the Horseshoe casino in Elizabethtown, Indiana (no casinos in Kentucky). Although we both hit a few good payouts and bonuses we were never ahead and did our usual – we lost.

Sunday the 9^th we went to Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace in Hodgenville. Saw an authentic log cabin similar to the one he was born in and learned that he spent most of his growing up years in Indiana. We did not know that. Then we went to Bardstown to see “My Old Kentucky Home”, a beautiful mansion that claims to be the inspiration for Stephen Foster’s song of the same name. The link is tenuous at best as he is “believed” to be related to the family that owned the house and is “believed” to have visited it once. Anyway, it was a beautiful mansion with lots of great antique furnishings from the early and mid-1800s. They had a piano with mother-of-pearl keys, one of only five known to exist.

Monday the 10^th we got up a little earlier and had breakfast at Waffle House. We then went to Clermont to tour the Jim Beam bourbon facility. We could not go into the distillery itself but had a very interesting and informative tour including the 9 story warehouse where they age thousands of oak barrels of bourbon for four or more years. They had nine warehouses!! At the end of the tour we had a tasting of several of their bourbons. I still prefer my Crown Royal but I have since bought a small bottle of Jim Beam to see if I can develop a taste for it. We then left for Grand Rivers, KY near Paducah. 

As we were getting ready to leave the sensor for our Brake Buddy came apart in the socket and shorted out. It blew the fuse for all the dash 12 volt outlets and the heater fan. So we drove here without the GPS and without heat. We got to the Exit 31 RV Park at Miss Scarlet’s Restaurant and set up (151 miles). It is a Passport America campground so we got full hookups with cable and so-so Wi-Fi for $17.50 per night.

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