The Weekend
Saturday armed the beginning of our second week. Friday night Karen had asked if we would have time for a bit of shopping as there were a couple of things she had not been able to get in Houston. With a Walmart almost right behind us I said yes.
Saturday morning, being in an Airbnb and not bringing food with us, we drove a mile up the road to a Wafffle House. Karen was unable to finish her breakfast and then admitted she was still not up to even walking around Walmart this morning, let alone visit the museums on our list today in Louisville.. She offered to sit in the car with her book while I went through but not knowing the parking situation, and the fact that it was an approximate 50 minute drive each way, I decided to forgo much of the days activities.
First stop after breakfast was Fort Knox. Unfortunately the closest we could get to the gold depository was either the main Highway or the visitors centre parking lot, but I got a photo and a few around the visitors centre.
Next it was a stop at the Patton museum. I got to walk through a WWII barracks and checked out the displays inside. I was most impressed with his former staff car, “liberated” from the Nazi’s.
Back at the Airbnb Karen ended up falling asleep of the sofa while I watched a couple of episodes of a TV series I had started back home.
Mid afternoon Karen came alive and asked if we could still go shopping. She managed to get most of what she wanted.
Several times a year I shoot competitions with an associate originally from the Kentucky Four Corners area. He had advised me to find a nice sports pub to watch the Derby from while having dinner. I had researched such a place a few miles from our accommodations, but when we got there it was closed. It looked like it was now permanently closed.
Instead of finding another pub Karen requested Golden Corral. There was one about 12 minutes drive away, back in Elizabethtown, so of we headed. On the way back I stopped off at a gas station to top up the tank, which was now showing about 1/2 full from Nashville.It took $30 to fill the tank.
One thing I had noticed. When we picked up the car the “miles to E” reading was 298. After topping up in Nashville Thursday afternoon it was just over 300 miles. On the drive to Radcliffe it had increased to 350 miles, probably because mulch of the vehicles driving has been done in cities. This time when full the reading was 398 miles. I was hopeing that fuel consumption on a long interstate drive would not be as bad as I first feared.
Sunday morning we were both up and moving by 7am. With the car packed, the Airbnb left tidy, it was in the car and on the waybefore 8.30. Neither one of us was in immediate need of breakfast right then so we headed north straight away.Only an hour or so after leaving we were passing though Louisville, and then we were into another new state for us, Indiana. Again there were no “Welcome to….” signs, just new Highway mile markers, to indicate the new state.
After 2018 we had made an effort to restrict our driving to 3-4 hours, as stated by iMaps or Google Maps. By the time we stop off it usually ends up 4-6 hours in the car. Today was one of the rare times when we were travelling almost 6 hours as stated by iMaps, but with a change of time zone we would gain an hour. By around 10.30 ET I was ready for a break, so we pulled off at an interchange with several different options for breakfast. Karen chose Burger King and we sampled Croussan’which’s for the first time.
Back on the interstate the low tyre pressure warning, which had been missing for the last day, came back on. There must be something with these modern cars, this one is a 2024 model with around 8,500 miles on the clock, and like 2022’s Honda HR-V it has electrical issues.
Around 12.30 ET we stoped again, this time at a McDonalds for a coffee and ice cream. We had bought another bag of mandarins in Radcliffe and had a couple each for lunch, as we were still not really hungry.
Just after 2.30 pm we passed a sign saying change of time zone, and a few minutes later all of the clocks jumped back an hour.
A little after 3 pm we were entering Chicago, and the traffic slowed right down. The speed limit dropped to 55 mph, but even that was optimistic and most of the time we were below 50.
We found ourselves on the middle of downtown on E Adam’s St, and the” Route 66 begins” sign. I found a “quick parking space” and got the obligatory photo, plus left a sticker on the sign’s pole. Then we followed E Adam’s until it became W Adams before turning onto Ogden St and stopping at the old Castle Car Ws where Al Capone is said to have engaged in a shootout with Chicago police.
From there we made our way to our motel and checked in. One thing that I have noticed, gas, which was $3.07 back in Radcliffe, is over $1 more expensive here. Ouch!
Tomorrow we have arranged to meet hsguy who has offered us a tour of Chicago.
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View from down under
Last edited by Kiwi cop; 05-05-2024 at 06:36 PM.
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