Clearwater, FL

As you can see by the title of this post we are now at the Thousand Trails RV Resort just west of Orlando for the next ten days. We decided to take advantage of our membership as we were both ready for a few days away from the job of unpacking things at the house and doing some minor remodeling and painting. It is only a 1 1/2 hr drive from Sebring.

Last Sat. evening Terri, friend Donny and myself drove to the Desoto Speedway just east of Bradenton to attend the stock car races. The last race of the night was a school bus race that was run on the figure 8 track. There were 18 buses that started the race and I believe 13 finished. Terri said I can't watch this as she thought they would crash when they crossed in the center of the figure 8 so she went and stood behind the bleachers. I don't know just how they managed but there were no crashes until just after the winning bus got the checkered flag. I had never seen school bus's race before but would definitely go again if the chance arrived and i suspect it will.

Lawn Mower Races

Sat. evening found daughter Terri, friend Donnie and myself at the Avon Park Mower Plex for the monthly lawn mower races, yes I said lawn mower races. They race riding lawn mowers that in some classes will run up to 55-60 MPH. They race on an oval track, usually 15-20 laps per race. Sat. evening the most they had in a race was 8 lawn mowers, but I have seen them have 15-20 mowers per race when they have national points races. It seems that it doesn't take to much to entertain some of us retired folks.

Buttonwood Bay

We have been back in Florida for 3 weeks now. The house didn't sell so we have been moving everything back into it and we will live in it this winter until we head back to North Dakota in the spring. It was a big job moving it out and it seems to be a bigger one getting things moved back in. Nancy has been going through alot of it and has decided that she really doesn't need much of it. It has been warm and humid here and we are not adjusting very well. We are both ready to travel again so I think there is a 100 mile trip for about 10 days coming up for us right after Thanksgiving.
I got started back doing volunteer work with Horses and Handicapped this week so I feel a little more at home again and not quit so restless. We are pretty much back in the routine again playing 3-31 0n Tues. & Sun eve. and cribbage on Wed. eve. Going to Sun morning brunch after church with our friends Charlie & Almeda.

ButtonwoodBay Sebring, FL,

I see this didn't post when I posted it so will make an attempt to rewrite it. We left Campbellsville, KY Tues. morning after a nice 10 day visit with our fiends Mary & Paul and also seeing my Aunt, Uncle and Cousin in Louisville. This was the last leg of our 1 1/2 year long oddessy around the good old USA and living in the motor home full time. In keeping with our mission to avoid interstates we drove south and picked up US 27 north of Chattanooga Tenn. and drove 27 all the way to Sebring except for 100 miles or so in southern GA. The first night we stayed in west of Atlanta near the Ga state line. The second night we stayed in western FL near the Suwanee River. We arrived back in Buttonwood Bay around 2PM on Thur. where we were meet by daughter Terri. She seemed especially glad to see us after being gone for so long. We are so glad that she now feels that way after going through a period in her earlier life when she didn't care if she saw us or not.

Churchhill Downs

Sat. morning we drove to Louisville where we spent until mid afternoon on Sun. Visiting my cousin Barbara, Uncle Gerald and Aunt Frieda Wheeler. after arriving Sat. morning we went to the Kentucky Derby Museum located at Churchill Downs. I really enjoyed it especially the guided tour out to the winners circle. On Sun. we took a driving tour through Old Louisville. Old Louisville is filled with streets full of grand old brick mansions as well as large brick houses and apartment buildings. Both Nancy and I like to look at the old houses as we tour the country. The architecture and construction is different in every region for instance in Louisiana, MO they were nearly all wood and here in Kentucky the construction is nearly all brick.

Makers Mark Distilery

Yesterday we drove north about 25 miles to Loretto, KY for a tour of the Makers Mark Bourbon distillery. It is set in the rolling hills just outside Loretto. The distillery dates back to the 1805 when it was established as a water powered gristmill distillery, it is also a National Historic Landmark. Also on the grounds is the Quart House believed to be the oldest remaining whiskey retail store. This is where the distillery used to sell bourbon the surrounding neighbors. If you notice the road is lower than the store. This is so the people could purchase their whiskey without leaving the seat of the horse drawn wagon. The Makers Mark brand was started in 1953 when Bill Samuel's a 6th. generation distiller decided to burn the old family recipe and start with his own recipe. His wife developed the distinctive bottle that is used and the process for hand dipping in hot red wax that forms the seal on the final product. By law bourbon has to at least 50% corn and aged in new barrels that can be used only one time for bourbon aging. The barrels are made from locally grown white oak and flash burned on the inside. This burning process is what gives the bourbon its color over the six year aging process. The flavor come from the oak barrel during the same process. There are still 8 of the original wooden citrus vats in use as well as an additional 20 newer stainless steel vats. Each vat holds 9600 gallons of corn, hard red winter wheat, barley, yeast and water. After this mixture ferments for four days they then draw off about 18-20 53 gallon barrels of alcohol that is then put through the distilling process that produces a clear 180 proof liquid that is put in the oak barrels to age for 6 years before it is bottled for resale as Maker Mark Bourbon.

Oct. 11th. Campbellsville, KY

We left Edwardsville, ILL yesterday morning around 9:30 AM. In keeping with our goal to avoid the interstate system we went south on ILL Rte 4 To Lebonon where we turned east on US 50 driving across the flat fertile farm lands of western ILL these turned to more the rolling but still good farm lands of eastern ILL and western IND. At Loogootee, IND we turned south on US 231 driving through the rolling hills that were sometimes farmed and sometime wooded. Shortly after crossing the Ohio River into Kentucky we turned east on US 60 driving through the fertile river bottom farm lands that turned to wooded rolling hills after leaving the river bottom. At Garfield we turned right onto KY 86 a very narrow two lane road that wound through the hills to Elizabethtown. After crossing I-65 we then drove on KY 210 arriving at Campbellsville around 7PM EST. On the drive across ILL and IND we saw very little harvesting taking place but we did note that about 1/2 of the corn was flat on the ground so when they do start harvest it is going to be at a very slow pace. In southern IND and into Kentucky we did see corn being harvested. There was some soybean harvest taking place all along the route but we also saw many fields that were still completely green.
In the wooded areas the trees are starting to change color with the most color being in Kentucky. In MO and ILL they are expecting a lot of color because they have had a lot of rain this summer.