Residence Inn By Marriott Louisville Northeast

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 ...

... Not sure how I'm going to fill the rest of my time. I guess I'll find something to do.

Fly out of the Azores on Thursday night (9/17), have an overnight in Lisbon, and get home Friday night.

I hope to post some updates and pics every night. Should be posted no later than 7 pm EST every night unless I'm out to the wee hours of the am.

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 ...

With two 8 hour days of work remaining before our trip I find it increasingly hard to focus and stay on task...there are still a couple of loose ends to tie up before leaving and I find myself obsessing about them while working. I've made most of my miscellaneous purchases. But I still have to put together our travel binder and figure out how to combine my clothes and personal items into one small carry-on piece of ...

... of good ol' southern BBQ and other comfort foods to be found as well as many German influenced foods and the traditional carnival style foods (you know... funnel cakes, hot dogs, etc.).

Besides the food on the KY side, there are live concerts and vendors selling fun toys for the kiddies (slightly over priced though, FYI). Also, the military sets up a bunch of booths with games and life-like military training activities that are kind of the easy version of what they have to go ...

... snakey kind of river. We could catch glimpses of houses built on the sides of the mountains surrounding Charleston and some of them looked very plantation like with the big pillars in front. Those house must have a spectacular view!

At Charleston we decided to change our route and headed through Kentucky rather than Ohio. I love driving through Kentucky. It is such a beautiful state and our other choice was Ohio which tends to be so much ...

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. :)

... dominicana, a phone company that's a branch of AT&T. It will be much cheaper to just buy a phone from them when I get there with prepaid mintues. Calls to the US count as local calls! It's only like 13 cents a minute - that's in Dominican pesos - so that's like a fraction of a penny a minute. Sweet. I just wanted to get started on this blog and see how it worked. I might try to write again before I leave! Hasta luego...

... two arms, and soft, pink flesh of the men who rode atop those hulking yellow beasts that tore this world asunder. We were still the enemies amongst old, angry veterans, and while the trees here had never shone with warmth, they were even colder today. But I had J's hand, felt her shoulder against mine as we walked, and something told me that I was up to the task of sleeping amongst these trees that dripped with rage and emanated the desire for vengeance and violence. "It didn't seem ...