Friday
This morning there was some welcome news. Karen was obviously over the worst of her illness. She even joined me downstairs for breakfast, although she only wanted a slice of toast.
With the car loaded up it was time for our first interstate drive of the trip, up I-65 into Kentucky.
For once I did not see any “Welcome to….” signs at the state line. The only indication we were in another state were the mile markers. Karen fell asleep and ended up dozing for much of the first leg to Bowling Green where our first stop was the National Corvette museum. Now I have to admit that Karen is the car enthusiast in the family. As long as the car starts and drives when I need it to I am happy, although I do admit the Toyota in Houston was a but low and cramped to get into. But once inside it was comfortable enough, at least for city driving.
By the time we reached Bowling Green Karen was awake, but not up to touring a museum, so I contented myself with stretching my legs and getting a few pics from the outside. One the way in I had spotted something a bit more interesting that I wanted to look at on the way back to the interstate.
Abel’s Corvettes is a small display on the entranceway to the national museum, and there were a couple of cars parked outside, including one 1950’s style. On walking in I was happy to pay $10 (the museum entry is $25) to have a look around.
There are dozens of cars from the ‘50’s to the 2000’s on display, and several are for sale. One ‘89 Chevy truck was for sale for under $20,000. It was immaculate inside and out.
From Bowling Green we got back onto I-65 for the next run, to Elizabethtown. Again Karen dozed off until a loudbuzzing came from the instrument cluster. There was a “low tyre pressure” warning flashing. With memories of the low pressure sign on our 2022 rented Honda coming to mind, I slowed and pulled off at the next exit. There was a BP station nearby and I pulled in, stopping at the side of the forecourt. On checking all the tyres they appeared okay. Spotting an air hose across the forecourt I checked the recommended type pressures online and started to top up the tyres. The air pump had no pressure settings so it was a matter of just adding some air to each tyre. After completing the rear and front right tyres I had to move the car back to get the short hose to reach the front left tyre. The low pressure warning was still on, but after topping up the left front tyre it turned off. Deciding to have it checked when I could we got back onto I-65 and continued north.
After about 15 minutes the warning came back on. I used Siri on my phone to find the nearest tyre place, Wayne’s Tyres in Elizabethtown. On getting there we had to wait about 25 minutes until they could look at it. All the tyres were at full pressure, or a little above due to my adding air, but they reset the warning system for me and we were on our way.
By now the dash clock and our watches were showing it was after 2 pm. I wondered where the time had gone. It was not until later that I remembered we had moved to eastern time from central and lost an hour. Karen wanted to stop for lunch and I had seen Subway just off the interstate, so we stopped there and had a sandwich. I checked my data usage and found that I had used about 1/3 of the 20GB e-sim pack I had purchased. A lot of this was being used by iMaps. I decided to use the cars’ built in GPS instead.
I am not a fan of car GPS systems. The first car I had with one in it would set the route for the shortest time, which meant at the speed limit. It would reroute us around small towns with lower speed limits, but a shorter, more direct route, when travelling, actually adding to the time. I have had other issues with other car GPS’s trying to send me along roads that don’t exist, things I do not experience with IMaps. But I decided to give it a try.
The next stop was Abe Lincoln’s boyhood home. I had an address and entered it into the GPS system, then we headed off. 20 minutes later we were directed onto a driveway with no signage or indication we were there. Stopping a short way up the drive, I backed out. We drove up and down the road a bit but found no carpark or signage you would expect.
I then googled the place we were looking for and found it 20 minutes away. There were two identically named addresses in two adjacent towns, and in two different counties!
We drove across countryside to the correct address, then found ourselves back on the road to Elizabethtown. Our last drive of the day was just over 20 minutes to Radcliffe KY. When planning our Louisville visit I found that accommodation during Derby week was 4-5 times normal,. I had found an Airbnb in Radcliffe for just over $100 a night.
During this last leg we encountered rain. We got to Radcliffe and found our Airbnb. Moving in neither once of us was wanting dinner, so we settled in for the night.
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View from down under
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