After leaving Cincinnati (Ohio), we drove into Kentucky and made our way towards Louisville. Our whirlwind tour of this city included visiting a cemetery (graves of Muhammad Ali and Col Harland Sanders), taking a tour of the most elegant Victorian home of old Louisville at the Conrad-Caldwell house, paying our respects to the founder of KFC at Col Sanders museum, and feeling small at the bottom of the baseball bat outside the Louisville Slugger museum. Next up was a recommendation that Katina mentioned, visiting the forest giants of Bernheim. What a cool detour! Then we drove to Mammoth Cave National Park where we had pre-booked a 2 hour “Historic Cave” tour. Good thing we planned ahead as there were no last minute slots available! From Kentucky, we drove south towards Tennessee (after spending half a day in Bowling Green getting an RV issue fixed). First stop was Nashville, where we spent our first night a short walk away from the Parthenon. Who knew Nashville had a full scale replica of the original Parthenon built in Athens? Our tour of Nashville was a hot and sweaty one…Nashville was not made for walking on a hot and humid summer day! But we still had a lot of fun checking out the street murals, walking around downtown, and catching up with an old friend from Germany at Ole Red on Broadway. From Nashville, we made our way to Chattannooga, our last stop in Tennessee. Here we walked all around Chattannooga’s downtown area, before driving up Lookout Mountain for a nice view over the city. Our time here felt a bit rushed, and we would like to come back to spend some time checking out the Rock City gardens, Ruby Falls, and civil war battle sites. Next up will be Georgia and Florida. Fingers crossed it won’t be too hot and humid there as we have been melting in the summer heat wave!
Itinerary
16 Jul: Drove from Cincinnati, Ohio towards Louisville, Kentucky. O/n at Cabela’s.
17 Jul: Drove to Louisville. Visited the Water Works museum, Cave Hill Cemetery (Muhammad Ali and Col Harland Sanders gravesites), Conrad-Caldwell house museum, Louisville Slugger baseball bat, and Colonel Sanders museum. O/n at Cabela’s.
18 Jul: Drove to Sheperdsville to get window fixed on van. Then visited Bernheim Forest to see the “giants”. In the afternoon, visited Mammoth Cave National Park and did the 2 hour Historic Cave tour. O/n at Tailwater Campsite, just below the Barren River Lake Dam. ($20 for electricity, water, hot showers. Very remote here so no WiFi or phone signal)
19 Jul: Drove towards Bowling Green’s Camping World to get a technician to look at our propane system as the alarm was going off for no reason. After waiting around for a few hours, the leak was fixed. Drove towards Nashville. O/n at Centennial Park near the Parthenon. Nice location with clean portajohns nearby.
20 Jul: Drove into Nashville and visited street murals (near Sevier Park, Gulch Crossing, and Ed’s Supply Company), walked around downtown. Linked up with an old friend from Germany, Jessica Tunis, at Ole Red on Broadway. Drove towards Chattanooga in the afternoon. O/n at Mountain Glen RV Campsite in Pikeville. ($30 for a campsite with water, sewer, electricity, hot showers and free WiFi. Super nice and clean campsite, a bit remote though)
21 Jul: Drove to Chattanooga. Walked around to check out the sculptures at Bluff View Sculpture Garden, the historic Read House hotel, Tivoli Theater, and Walnut Street pedestrian bridge. Drove up to Lookout Mountain before departing Tennessee for the onward drive towards Georgia.