Best Western Shelbyville Lodge

Headed off from Nasville this morning after piking out last night. We went to grab some dinner at an Applebee's Bar & Grill before heading to a bar with live music near the motel, After a steak and shrimp with mashed potatos and a couple of Mango flavoured cocktails, I was all done in and could barely waddle my way back to the motel. Only drinking water and eating fruit for the rest of the trip. I ...

Couldn't sleep so off we went at 3:45AM- heading South. Set our New talking Garmin GPS system for Taylorsville State Park near Taylorsville, KY. The GPS chatters away telling you how far, where to turn and if you make a mistake her favorite word is "recalculating". I say 'she' because the Garmin uses a soothing female voice. I suppose Garmin does that so when their information is incorrect it helps keep one calm.

We nicknamed the GPS ...

... the trams around the city.

Monday - day trip to Sintra

Tuesday - roam around the city some more then fly to Terceira, Azores (4 hours ahead of Louisville time).

I'll be in the Azores from 9/8 through 9/17 for work. Only thing on the agenda (other than my pesky job) for right now is a half day whale watching tour on ...

A short walk from the hotel lead us to the Louisville Convention Center and my first Kentucky Starbucks. I made it a mocha since it doubled as my breakfast. I asked the barista if they carried city mugs and he replied with a slight southern tang, "Nope. Small market."

Right.

... s. He built an actual hotel in 1835 that was visited and praised by Charles Dickens, Jefferson Davis and 3 presidents. According to my informational magazine in the hotel (the one I'm reading in the photo...) army guys Sherman and Grant plotted a battle together in the hotel. That hotel burned to the ground and was replaced in 1869, only to be torn down in 1921. Al J ...

... creating my own agenda and itinerary is also making this trip have a more personal feel to it. Wow--3 weeks of travel and then a week off when i get back--that's not working for a whole month!! I think the last time that happened was the summer after graduating from high school back in 1998...seriously...I've worked a lot in the last 10 years...this is a much deserved break...48 hours from now we'll begin our journey!

... Indiana and Illinois. We had a great day of driving with no major delays anywhere along our route. We managed to get in 13 hours of driving which put us in Clarksville, IN just across the Ohio River from Louisville. There are no photos with this entry because there really was no place to easily stop and take pictures particularly with the rain. I hope, however, that the description is enough to have you create your own pictures in your mind.

Oh the wonders of nature and nature-stream restoration projects I volunteer on. Bernheim offers an abundance of programs for schools and families that educate and allow you to help conserve some nature!

Also, this park has many, many hiking trails. Yay hiking! We all know how much I love that. :)

... peel away another layer to make room for civilization. If the world wasn't quite as wide open and terrifying and new as it had been in the days when Daniel Boone was more than a stone monument in a cemetery, it was still plenty big for a tyke like me, and there was no way to diminish their might. Neither could I ever think of entertaining the notion that the backwoods exploits of my friends and I, or my uncle Scott, my sister, or from time to time my own parents, were anything less than ...

... so many years. The thing must be at least twenty-five years old by now. If only I still had those old sleeping bags -- thick and brown on the outside, covered with geese and hunter illustrations on the inside. Probably a Coleman product. They sure were warm as long as you didn't get them wet. On one particular night, I was sitting at the window staring off into the dark and thinking about the impending Bigfoot hunt. It would be dangerous, of that there was no doubt. Some of us ...