This Midwest trip has been decades in the making. I've driven cross country twice since 2020 and since both trips were during the Winter, I took a southern route out to California. There was so much I wanted to see that this trip stacked two smaller trips (Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Indianapolis, Kentucky, Cincinnati) on top of one another with a day in St. Louis thrown in. I'm not ashamed to admit this was a personal checklist trip. A way to get to places that have been a travel white whale. A trip that when I reached the end, I could truly say to myself that I've been everywhere...at least in the continental U.S.; at least everywhere that I want to go. From Abraham Lincoln's home, to CAT and John Deere, to the Iowa Caucus, to dining like Warren Buffet, to Chimney Rock, to the World's Largest Ball of String, to the St. Louis Arch, to Superman, to horses, caves, and bourbon, to Skyline Chili and Over the Reine - this trip had it all.
THE TRIP STARTS IN INDIANAPOLIS
The Grainger's are long-time family friends that live in Indianapolis who's home we've spent nights at in the past on our drive farther west. We've arrived late in the afternoon, eat dinner with them and catchup on life, go to bed, then leave early the next morning to the next destination. Never stopping to see Indianapolis. The plan on this trip was to spend the better part of two days in Indianapolis. For unforeseen reasons, this trip's start was delayed, and the Indianapolis time was reduced to a single, sleep-deprived, day.

Knowing we'd need to make another trip to Indianapolis to fully experience the metro area, we visited The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. Charlotte may age out of interest in this Museum before we return. The Museum has always caught my attention because of the large dinosaur on the exterior.
Additionally fueling the desire to head here was that the Museum holding a Paw Patrol and Tiana Princess exhibit - while not necessarily Charlotte's favorites, I knew she'd immediately recognize the characters. These "pop culture" type exhibits blur the line between science/museum and entertainment. In this case...there was no blurring. Both exhibits were clearly in the entertainment category with the Paw Patrol section being a bit sparse and catering to children younger than Charlotte. The Museum had a solid permanent dinosaur connection with a T-Rex/Triceratops battle as its centerpiece.
The Museum's best feature (and if I were a local the reason I'd buy an annual pass) was the outdoor area which consisted primarily of miniature sports fields (soccer, football, baseball, even Indy-500 go carts). A very cool tree house caught Charlotte's attention.
We ate lunch at Plump's Last Shot - Bobby Plump being the real-life Jimmy Chitwood and inspiration for the movie Hoosiers. I ordered the pork tenderloin sandwich - a must eat meal in either Indiana or Iowa. You can barely see the bun under the tenderloin. From here we completed a loop around/through Indianapolis out to the Indy 500 racetrack, around the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, then back to the Grainger's in Greenfield.
WE MADE OUR WAY TO ILLINOIS AND LINCOLN'S HOME
We debated whether waking up early and stopping in Springfield on the way to Peoria or sleep in and go straight to Peoria. I'm glad we went with the former. I remember visiting Springfield on a family trip to Chicago - Abraham Lincoln was my brother's favorite president. We drove down for a night. On a future Chicago trip, I'm already planning to head north to Milwaukee and Minneapolis so this could potentially be the only time we'd be this close to Springfield for a very long time. When planning trips and sites, I ask myself "should we go where I want to go or should we go where I think Charlotte would want to go" and with Springfield I went with, to heck with the analysis, let's wake up early and go. We needed to wake up early because there's not timed tickets for tours of Lincoln's house. We were the first ones waiting outside the visitor center fifteen minutes before it opened. First tour of the day. Charlotte enjoyed the tour - she seemed to pay attention to the guide. I'm glad we stopped here, this wound up being one of the best stops of the trip, and it felt that the trip returned to schedule.
We then visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. The elaborate mannequin displays gave Charlotte something to look at while I read the placards.
On the way out of Springfield, we stopped at Lincoln's tomb. Charlotte proclaimed Abraham Lincoln was her new best friend (when she heard that we were visiting his house she wanted to buy him a gift, a stuffie from a gas station). We saw several images of Lincoln on our drive through Illinois and a few more in Lincoln, Nebraska and each time Charlotte called out "there's Abraham Lincoln".
We stopped at a CAT "museum" in Peoria. A bit of a lackluster museum after exiting the monster truck that was converted into a movie theater. Not much in the way of machines. The simulator was difficult to use. The gift shop was weak - no magnets. Not much going on in Peoria otherwise. We continued on our way.
Always in search of interesting/beautiful small towns we stopped in Galesburg - the childhood home of Carl Sandburg and Ronald Reagan. The south side of the town was a bit...eh...but once we crossed the railroad tracks to the north side of town, it wound up being a decent place - a similar look and feel as Indiana, PA but the lack of a state university meant a quieter main street. We spent the night in Moline, which like Peoria, not much here.
​ON TO IOWA
We were still on Eastern Standard Time so it was an early rise to start a very, very, very long day in search of interesting places in Iowa. I struggled mightily to find interesting places in Iowa. We are going to hit up the Field of Dreams site, Mason City, and other northern Iowa spots on our Chicago trip. We started with the World's Largest Truckstop - after entering I thought that the stop was cheating to be called the largest by claiming a large eating area to boost its square footage but we kept walking and walking and walking. It's a massive facility - not quite the size of a Target but certainly much larger than Buc-ee's.
Other than the Field of Dreams movie site, the other element of my Iowa "consciousness" is the Iowa Caucuses which kick off the Presidential campaign season every four years. From a distance the Iowa Caucuses look pretentious, strange, and make me wonder why Iowa? Up close, I can't believe the weight this state carries in our democracy. That said, we were in Iowa City, needed breakfast, and stopping at the Hamburg Inn No. 2, where many a candidate has made a campaign stop, is arguably a perfect place. Lots of nostalgia but it didn't feel old. It's the sort of diner you'd expect from Hollywood central casting. We sat at the same table Ronald Reagan did. The Hamburg Inn No. 2 is famous for it's pieshakes - basically jamming in pie pieces to a milkshake. We went with the French Silk pieshake because of the chocolate drizzle - not sure how that will play out with the Iowa delegates.
Iowa wasn't the greatest of all states to drive through, but Iowa City was nice. If I was a Big Ten alumnus, I'd definitely make a roadtrip here when my school was in town. Quaint downtown with enough restaurants and bars to avoid repetition. Nice, small homes. Not bad.
On to the Amana Colonies. I'm Pennsylvania Dutch. I have an affinity for the Lancaster, PA area. The Amana Colonies sounded similar. We made a stop. We arrived early and the only place open was a coffee shop and that was all we had planned for here anyway. The main road is about a mile or so long with restaurants, shops, and a winery. This was a very light version of Lancaster, and combined with the rolling cornfields, the entire state was starting to feel like Lancaster-lite.
A five-minute stop in Cedar Rapids. We entered through the Czech Village neighborhood, which seemed nice. The rest of the city, not so much; don't let the photos of the main library (left) and Museum of Art (right) fool you.
John Deere may be headquartered in Moline, IL, however, their flagship tractor has been manufactured in Waterloo, IA since...forever. The John Deere company made corn harvesters, and was hesitant to enter the tractor market until they realized that you could attach a corn harvester and other farm equipment to the back of a tractor. Since they were a bit late to the game, rather than start their own tractor division, the acquired Waterloo Boy. John Deere's Waterloo facility had a bit more going on than CAT's Peoria facility - more equipment, more kid's activities, and their gift shop had magnets.
Lunch at Pizza Ranch - a major Iowa chain that's become a popular stop for Presidential Candidates. Pizza buffet. Arcade games. All you can eat ice cream. Charlotte was a fan although she needs to learn to stop wasting money on the claw machines.
Cedar Falls - cool town. Like Iowa City, I think the town benefits heavily from having a major university, in this case Northern Iowa. The town's three block commercial area had the coffee shops, bar, and restaurants you'd expect.
I struggled finding stops in Iowa. Lots of moving Google Maps around without much luck. It was a two-hour drive from Cedar Falls to Des Moines. What could be out there? Boom. Matchstick Marvels. A guy creates massive statues and displays from matchsticks - he glues hundreds of thousands of matchsticks together to form Cinderella's Castle, a spaceship launch, Notre Dame cathedral, etc. Impressive from a distance and up close as well. Off the beaten path but still on the way to Des Moines. 
Continuing the drive to Des Moines we stopped at Taylor's Maid Rite in Marshalltown. Maid Rite is an Iowa chain serving the eponymous Maid Rite sandwich - basically a burger that's not a patty. You may be thinking, that's a sloppy joe, but no, this does not have as much flavor as a sloppy joe. This was ground beef, a bit dry, with a pickle and mustard. Supposedly someone ate one 90+ years ago and said "that's made right" and the restaurant decided to call it a Maid Rite. Taylor's is one of the original locations before Maid Rite started franchising across the state. The restaurant oozes old school nostalgia and gave a slice of the local community.
Originally, we were going to spend the night in Des Moines but instead I turned it into a photo stop so we could reach Omaha earlier the next day - that may have been a mistake. We literally made two stops in Des Moines, on the east end at the Capitol complex then drove through town to the Pappajohn Sculpture Park on the west side. I liked what I saw and told myself that on some future Saturday morning I'd fly to Des Moines, spend the night, then fly home Sunday night - just checked an American has direct flights from Philly so this will definitely happen.
Had we spent the night in Des Moines, we would have woken up very early the next day to visit Indianola and Winterset. Two small towns that if the Iowa travel guide is to be believed are your quintessential Iowa small towns. These towns were not Iowa City or Cedar Rapids. That image to the left is Indianola's county courthouse - that modern building does not scream Iowa. Indianola's historic town square was a ghost town as all the chain drove business out to Route 65.

When driving across Iowa (and most of the midwest for that matter) it's flat and you can see these massive silos on the horizon for Co-Ops to store grain. Massive isn't that right word as they are beyond massive. 
Next up - Madison County of Bridges of Madison County fame. I knew from the photos that these bridges would be a bit disappointing and combined with the fact that I grew up with more and better covered bridges in Bucks County, I thought about skipping this all together...but when in Madison County. Here's Holliwell Covered Bridge - the creme de la creme of the covered bridges.
And here is Cedar Covered Bridge. I had stops planned for three other bridges but after seeing the first two decided to do a loop through Winterset.
Winterset felt like a nice small town, it was the historical town square, which didn't feel completely deserted although the chains along Route 169 were certainly pulling a higher percentage of locals. The town is also John Wayne's birthplace - the museum opened at noon on Sunday so our visit was limited a photo of the outside.
Des Moines worth a re-visit. Iowa City and Cedar Falls are nice college towns. Matchstick Marvels was awesome although tough to recommend since it was out of the way. The rest of Iowa was a dud. I knew it was going to be boring, I still didn't think it'd be that boring and Indianola and Winterset were disappointing. Where was the quintessential small Iowa town? We stopped for breakfast in Greenfield, IA and this was it. This is what I was looking for. Small with the remnants from the glory days still looking good. A surprisingly cool, hip breakfast spot, Moe's RBF, which had a non-stop flow of locals who all knew one another. We lingered here for longer than we should have but this was a good last stop in Iowa.
THEN NEBRASKA
I don't want to shortchange Omaha, the city has some decent attractions, but we don't need to see aquariums and science museums in every city we visit. Sometimes we need a change of pace. Sometimes we want to go local. On a quiet Sunday morning, we did in Omaha what we typically do at home, visit some playgrounds. We started with the Discovery Playground along Omaha's waterfront.
Then went to the Arches playground at the Gene Leahy Mall. Both were great public spaces.
The Old Market neighborhood is starts south of the Gene Leahy Mall and is probably Omaha's best "side". Omaha felt a bid rundown. We were here for half a day and the city didn't feel like much beyond this area although we didn't explore any of the suburbs after leaving Gorat's. Old Market is a collection of brick buildings turned into a commercial district lined with brick roads. Lots of brick. The restaurants and shopping looked good. We stopped at Hollywood Candy, the largest candy store we've ever visited. Section after section of classic candy. There was even a pinball machine area in the far end of the store.
Omaha is Warren Buffet's home and when looking for things to do in Omaha the best option is to Google "What are Warren Buffet's favorite Omaha places?" When in Omaha do what The Oracle does. Gorat's is Warren Buffet's favorite restaurant - his typical order: 22 oz. T-Bone, side of hashbrowns, Diet Coke. Sounds good to us. We threw in a side of fries. Good steak. Good spot. Nothing that screams one of the wealthiest people in the world frequently eats here. Travel has always been one of the great "equalizers". You can travel forever - be a permanent nomad - anyone can do it. Yet the Elon Musk's, Bill Gates's, and Warren Buffet's don't permanently travel. Likewise, you don't need to be a billionaire to enjoy a steak. 
We did not make many roadside attraction stops. When traveling five hours at a time, stopping for an hour at attractions makes for marathon days. The Holy Family Shrine was one of the roadside stops and this was a good one. Unique church. Took a couple of photos and back on the route fifteen minutes later. We then stopped at Baker's Candies, further down the road on the way to Lincoln. Their chocolate meltaway is a softer, meltier version of a Dove heart candy. Baker's meltaways are so good I'll be ordering them online in the future.
Last November we visited Penn State's Berkey Creamery - we saw that University of Nebraska also had a creamery. We got excited. This was not Berkey. Good spot but nothing compared to the iconic Berkey. The creamery was also out of its iconic Scarlet and Cream flavor BUT, and that is a big but, there was corn flavored ice cream. Had to get it. Likely would have ordered that instead of the Scarlet and Cream. It was ice cream that tasted like buttery corn. Very good. Strong corn taste. Good for a scoop. Who knows about a larger portion. Charlotte played it safe with vanilla.
Quick drive around Lincoln with a stop at the State Capitol and Memorial Stadium. There was a lot of construction around the entrance of the University of Nebraska and it was crazy hot so we passed on trying to navigate the University. When planning the trip, I was thinking that Lincoln was going to be a small college town. It isn't. Lincoln's population is 300,000. It's a small city. It felt that way.
However, the Historic Haymarket area on the west side of town, near the University, could be considered the college "neighborhood" if not town. This is where you'd stay, eat, and drink before heading to a Nebraska football game. A few blocks east on Q and P Streets is a continuation of the college "neighborhood".
The proliferation of coffee shops has made it easy to find city's best neighborhoods. In Grand Island we had a good breakfast but was not overly impressed with that section of town. There was a coffee shop, Daily Dose, two blocks away on the town's main drag and I realized there is something going on here. I don't want to oversell Grand Island - they had a nice three block commercial stretch and impressive courthouse - is there more? Not sure but it's always worth hitting up the local town's coffee shop.
From Grand Island we took Route 30 to Fort Kearney. Passed through Shelton. Photos below. We passed through several towns that looked like this. Shelton had the most going on. The town has had a steady population of 1,000 for over the past one hundred years.
Rain forced us to switch our route to Scottsbluff. Instead of driving through the Sandhills first and looping back across I-80, we started across I-80 and saved the Sandhills drive for the following day which had sun forecasted. The switch meant that we could stop at two places, the Archway Museum and The Golden Spike Tower, that on the original route we would have passed before they opened. I'm glad we stopped at the Archway Museum. You can tell from the photo that the Museum is going to be a little different - the Museum building is an arch over I-80. Pretty cool. The interior of the Museum did not disappoint either starting with the escalator ride up. Lots of mannequin displays, all of which put you in the footsteps of pioneers heading west. In the 1800's, Fort Kearney was the last point of civilization before one reached the West Coast. Turn back here or reach the Pacific.
We ate lunch at a Runza, the McDonald's of Nebraska. This restaurant was rocking. If you are going to eat one meal in Nebraska, make it the Original Runza Sandwich, an elongated bierock. Bottom right photo shows better than I could describe. It was ok but when in Nebraska...
North Platte had a decent, two-block old town area:
North Platte is home to the largest railyard in the US. There's a tower here called the Golden Spike Tower that provides views of the railyard. BUT and that is another big but, this is not where the Golden Spike was hammered. That would be somewhere in Utah. We went up the tower. Took a few photos and were on our way.
Buffalo Bill called North Platte home. There're his residence and barn. Closed on Mondays and a few other days. North Platte also has dirt roads. We travelled on several dirt roads, a few times much longer than I would have liked but that's how Apple Maps routed us, and there were small towns with dirt roads, but North Platte, I don't know, surprised to see dirt roads here.
From Buffalo Bill's, on the north side of North Platte our directions took us across Route 30 instead of back through town to I-80. Below are the "highlights" of that drive including a four-mile stretch on a dirt road.
I grew up playing Oregon Trail. Between the hunting, river crossings, and fixing broken wagon parts, passing Chimney Rock was always a memorable event in each game. I've driven cross county multiple times and I've never passed Chimney Rock - it should be a seminal event. We finally reached it. Up close, Chimney Rock may be a slight disappointment. If you've spent 35 years imagining passing the formation on a cross-country trip, you may find it a bit underwhelming. The "Chimney" is a bit small. There's not much to the site. Literally. The road that takes you closer to Chimney Rock was mud - no way we weren't immediately getting stuck. We parked at the small museum. With a four-year-old in two, we weren't making the over mile hike to get closer. Our visit consisted of a few photos and time in the gift shop.

However, rounding a bend, coming over a hill, and there, ten miles off in the distance, we could see a distinct, immediately recognizable rock formation, and it felt like I'd finally stepped back into time with my cross-country travels - speeding at 70 MPH in a Mazda CX5. The beauty of Chimney Rock wasn't see the formation up close but rather from a distance, on the horizon, and knowing you were heading in the right direction and making progress on a cross-country trip.
We spend the night in Scottsbluff (technically Gering).
Scottsbluff could be considered a poor, poor, poor, very poor man's version of Scottsdale or Palm Springs. Very, very poor version. A large rock formation, Scottsbluff, dominated the horizon. Put a golf course and a few swanky retirement homes in the foreground and maybe you don't know you are in Nebraska. If I lived in Omaha or Lincoln and was looking to downsize for retirement or have a nearby vacation home, there's not many other options in the five, ten, fifteen-hour drive radius. Scottsbluff seemed to fit the bill.
The next morning we continued the travels through Nebraska. First stop: Alliance. We only saw the town at 6 AM but even at that time it felt like there was a little more going on here than Scottsbluff, from a tourist's perspective any way. Scottsbluff/Gering felt larger but if you are a tourist, Alliance may be the better option.
Alliance is also home to one of the quirkier roadshow attractions you will come across - Carhenge. Similar to Cadillac Ranch outside Amarillo, however, as the name clearly suggests, the cars are arranged in a pattern that you would find at Stonehenge. 
One of the highlights of this trip was driving Nebraska Route 2 through the state's Sandhills Region. This is one of the great natural drives across America. I thought this was a stunningly beautiful drive. It was like driving through a hillier version of the Maasai Mara sans wildlife. Unfortunately, our visit did not coincide with the April and October sand crane migration. It's probably a better drive east to west in the morning (the rain mentioned above switched this to a west to east drive). I kept looking back during the drive. Also, from Alliance in the west to Broken Bow in the east, the drive is about three hours and the western half from Alliance to Mullen, is the best part of the drive. More remote. Hillier. Once you reach Thedford farms begin to replace the wilderness.
Nebraska's towns outside of Omaha and Lincoln were nice. While we struggled to find nice small towns in Iowa, that was not the case in Nebraska. Hit after hit. Broken Bow had a nice town square area.
Not much to Minden but it seemed nice on our drive through the town.
Red Cloud was sort of disappointing. This was Willa Cather's home town, Red Cloud served as Black Hawk in My Antonia so we were expecting a bit more. There wasn't much. We drove through the main drag. Stopped for a photo of Willa Cather's house. Still a nice town although not much of a bit more.
THEN KANSAS
From a distance, state borders defined by lines make you wonder whether when you cross that border can you really tell the difference? Is it just an arbitrary line or is there some geological difference? There's a long line border between Nebraska and Kansas and you can sort of tell when you cross into Kansas. Kansas is just a little hillier. Just a little greener. Not as many cattle. It's subtle but I think you can tell when you've crossed from one corn field state to another corn field state and didn't cross a river.

This trip was about checking off all the places not covered in previous cross-country trips. Checking off all the places to ensure the phrase "We've been everywhere" means everywhere. Can you truly say you've driven cross country and been everywhere if you haven't been to the Geographical Center of the Continental U.S.? On paper, nothing more than a photo stop, but from our perspective a major travel accomplishment.
Right down the road in Cawker City is the World's Largest Ball of Twine. As far as roadside attractions go, the Ball of Twine has always been at the top of my list. It's remote. It's distinct. And a truly great piece - you can add to the record when you visit. The Ball of Twine is a participatory attraction. Just be sure to bring twine as the town is otherwise dead. I thought there'd be a kitschy shop selling mementos and some twine. Good thing we brought our own twine. I loved this site. Way more than I should have. Visting here felt like the culmination of all my road trips. The end of an era of cross country travelling. When this trip started, I knew this would be the last time I'd be traveling long stretches to get across the U.S. What an ending.
We spent the night in Abilene where Dwight Eisenhower was born and raised. His house and presidential library are here. There're are some photo stops around town. Otherwise, the place was a bid of a dud.
BACK TO URBAN LIFE IN ST. LOUIS
I was do planning for this trip and Easter shopping at the same time. The Easter Bunny was going to get Charlotte a baseball glove and I Googled "where is Rawling's headquartered?" St. Louis. And we'd be driving within ten minutes of their headquarters. Not much to the public area, it's not like they manufacture gloves here like Louisville Slugger does at their Museum, however, for ten minutes out of the way on the drive to St. Louis, this is a must stop. We spent around thirty minutes walking through historical displays and gold glove collections. Charlotte picked up her first baseball glove - how cool is it to say you got your first baseball glove directly from Rawlings?
Finally made it to Bogart's for lunch. Their brisket lived up to the hype.
There's only one answer to: What was the best place on your trip? St. Louis's City Museum. I can't describe how amazing this place is. I've included way more photos than necessary. I could talk/write about this place all day. I want to return right now. Calling this place a museum is a bit of a misnomer but I don't know what else to call it. A junkyard playground? That's too rudimentary, maybe slightly condescending. It doesn't fit into any category so let's simply call it the greatest child attraction in the U.S. not counting Disney. I'm putting this place ahead of every child attraction we've been to from Sesame Place to the Crayola Factory to the Franklin Institute, this place tops every list. 

In the photo to the right, Charlotte is crawling through an open metal tube, between an airplane wing and some sort of metal contraption, more than five stories above the ground, without any hesitation. This is a highlight, however, the entire attraction is filled with similar experiences.
Two story Dragon Slide. Charlotte is fearless.
The inside of the "Museum" is equally spectacularly. The scary part of the museum is that you have no idea where any of the entrances lead to and many of the entrances are too small to fit an adult. In the photo to the left, only a child can enter the hermit crab shell, crawl across the octopus pipe, and slide down the shark. Once the kid goes in, the parent can come in after them.
There was another "junkyard" playground on the roof.
There were some museum elements: and architecture area and a preserved bug section.
But mostly we spent our time in the "playgrounds". That's the kids playground to the left. An aquarium in the center. An indoor skate park on the right - no skateboards allowed, the kid is the skateboard.
Check out the photo on the bottom right - that's a slide going from the ceiling through the floor - no idea where it begins or where it ends and as a parent you may not be able to reach the beginning or end. Wild place.
We had to leave the City Museum eventually. We stayed at a hotel in the St. Louis Ballpark Village area and walked to Busch Stadium for a Cardinal's game. A few photos before entering the stadium.
After the City Museum, the Arch felt like St. Louis's "other attraction". We made sure to book our tram tickets in advance. Charlotte did a good job handling the ride. Much better being in this tight space with her than Brian McGilvery. Great views from the top.
​BACK TO ILLINOIS
A quick stop at Cahokia Mounds - one big mound and lots of smaller ones.
Metropolis was another check the box stop. Had the Santa Claus Village in Santa Claus, IN been open, we may have gone that route vs. shooting down this way from St. Louis. I'm glad that closure made this an easy decision. Metropolis, like much of Illinois outside of Chicago, is sort of dumpy. There's a lot of Superman photo opportunities, including a Superman Museum which has a good gift store, but Metropolis is otherwise a ghost town that hasn't been able to capitalize on their roadside attraction fame. The town's dumpiness becomes even more apparent when you cross into Paducah, Kentucky and see a town that you've never heard of before booming for some reason. The Burger King in Paducah was better than anything Metropolis was offering.

The Superman Museum had it all - all movies and TV shows were covered and a wide range of merchandise.
​A GLORIOUS ENTRANCE INTO KENTUCKY
I don't know what to make of Kentucky. I really enjoyed the state. Maybe it was because after a week of driving through cornfields we were finally in a greener state. Maybe it was because Kentucky is so maligned - the middle T of Pennsylvania is sardonically referred to as "Pennsyltucky". As a fan of Pennsylvania's middle T, I've never liked that analogy, I think it's demeaning to a great section of Pennsylvania but I also didn't know if Kentucky would live up its end of the description. Which it didn't. We didn't drive through Kentucky's Appalachian areas, no Harlan County of Justified fame or Hatfield vs. McCoy experiences, on this trip. Which if they are anything like West Virginia's Appalachian Country, would be not the greatest area and again a horrible comparison to Pennsylvania's middle T.

This is all a long way of saying that I really, really liked Kentucky. And not just because of low or missed expectations. I knew I was going to like the state when its guide arrived. Great themes: horses, bourbon, blue grass, fried chicken, Abraham Lincoln. Great attractions: Mammoth Cave, Louisville Slugger, the Ark Encounter. All great places to visit. I'm going to head back here for University of Kentucky basketball game. I'll need to figure out how to hit up other areas on another trip.

One other side note. Kentucky's history is interesting. It was a slave state that remained part of the Union. Kentucky feels Southern, I think it's the horses, it has a slower pace of life, there's a heavy dose of Christianity. I can't quite put my finger on why it feels Southern. But...it feels nice Southern. It feels the way the South thinks it is, not the way the South really is. There're not many places in the South that are nice. There's not a single state in the South that's nice border to border. The South has a few nice areas, you drive to the next town over, and you realize, oh yeah, I'm in the South. Realizations that don't happen when you are driving across the Northeast, the West Coast, the Southwest, Indiana, Ohio, and other areas. All of Kentucky seemed nice. So it feels like the South and all of it seems nice which makes me think it's a higher version than the South. 

When I say all of it seemed nice...even Bowling Green. Seriously Bowling Green. Of all places. Very nice. Only a coffee stop. Wished we had spent the night and ate dinner here. I didn't see any hotels in the town center. This was the small town I had been looking for the past week. Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas - take note. Kentucky is good.
We spent the night in Cave City - which if one ventures into town, beyond the Mammoth Cave tourist catering area, you will be rewarded. It's a nice, small, very small town, but's another nice small town in Kentucky. We ate a brewpub. Added amazing fried chicken to my salad. Where was this place in Abilene, KS? Metropolis, IL?
People have made a career exploring Mammoth Cave. The massive cave system has been an attraction for over a century. Book your tour in advance - you can book on arrival, at least in late May, but you'll be stuck hanging around the gift shop for several hours. We booked a toddler friendly tour (45 minutes, bus ride to the entrance, about a quarter mile of walking inside the cave) that showcased Frozen Niagara, one of the cave's most famous features. This tour worked well for us but had the little lady not been in tow I would have definitely opted for the historic tour or a longer tour to more areas of the cave.
A quick photo stop at a Monument where Lincoln was born. A long ice cream and coffee break in Elizabethtown. I don't understand why people taste test multiple ice cream flavors - all the flavors are good, you can't go wrong, it's ice cream. Nor do I understand why certain coffee shops struggle with timely espresso preparation - is the machine old? We hit up both these problems in Elizabethtown, which was no Bowling Green to begin with. It was nice but if I'm Cameron Crowe in filming in Bowling Green, not Elizabethtown.
Late lunch at Jim Beam. I need to learn how to drink bourbon.
We made it through the tour of Louisville Slugger without Charlotte given any one a concussion with her wayward swings. I'm fairly certain she's not going to be the next Kyle Schwarber. For dinner we stopped at the Claudia Sanders Dinner House. Claudia Sanders is Colonel Sanders' wife. I believe they started this restaurant before his KFC fame. This was the one disappointment in Kentucky. Their fried chicken was just ok.
Kentucky makes it very easy to visit what the state is renowned for. You want to see horses? No problem, visit the Kentucky Horse Farm just north of Lexington. Lots of horses on site. Very accessible. Not many people were here when we visited so we sort of had the run of the place. Horses love Charlotte.
Whether or not you believe there were T-Rex's on Noah's Ark, the Ark Encounter is worth a visit if you are anywhere within two hours of the site. Cincinnati? Come on down. Louisville? Come on over. The Ark Encounter is a major league operation. Major tourist site. Only mistake we made was visiting on Memorial Day Weekend where the Ark couldn't quite accommodate the crowds. The crowds move slow because there's lots to read, and if you're like wait a minute, there were T-Rex's on the Ark, that's something you are going to want to stop and read about. Also, the power went out while we were in the Ark. Not the greatest experience, still worth a visit. It's a colossus of a site.
Yep, that's a T-Rex "kind" in the bottom left image. You are probably thinking, how could there be T-Rex's on Noah's Ark - they were babies. Of course. They were babies, how didn't I think of that? But that's not the real question now is it because if there were T-Rex's on the Ark, then it means that T-Rex's and humans co-existed. It means that if the earth is 6,000 years old and if the flood happened 4,000 years ago, that, wait, dinosaurs existed 4,000 years ago? Yes. And it wasn't just T-Rex on Noah's Ark, there were 85 other dinosaurs too. And when they got off the Ark the dinosaurs, along with all the other animals on the Ark went through a species explosion, because the climate at the time supported a species explosion. So, the T-Rex kind spawned both T-Rex's and Allosaurus and Velociraptors, and you get the idea. But the human population exploded faster and the humans killed all the dinosaurs. And you are thinking, ok there're no other historical references to people coexisting with and killing dinosaurs. Ah you forget dragons. You see dragons were the dinosaurs. Tomayto, tomahto. It's all common sense. Still worth the visit.
THE GRAND FINALE IN CINCINNATI
As the cheesesteak is to Philadelphia so is the Skyline Chili to Cincinnati. I regret missing this culinary delight on a prior drive through Cincinnati. It's amazing. It doesn't sound good - spaghetti, chili, cheddar cheese - but step back, spaghetti, meat sauce, parmesan cheese is not too different. I thought the Skyline Chili combo tasted so good I'm going to try it at home. Great intro to Cincinnati.
We hit Cincinnati on a perfect day. Our hotel was in the Other the Reine neighborhood, which I'm convinced is the only place you want to stay at in Cincinnati. Our hotel was 50 yards from Washington Park. There was a Football Club Cincinnati pep rally taking place. The sort of event you love to stumble upon as a tourist. Exiting. Local. Not too crazy. A gorgeous Saturday night. The park was rocking. The park has a bar called the Porch. We could have hung out here all night. Charlotte, I can't wait until you are 21.
In Philadelphia terms, Over the Reine is Rittenhouse Square meets Fishtown. It's both really, really nice with lots of great buildings and seemed to have all the cool, hip restaurants and bars with a lively atmosphere. We hit up Graeter's ice cream twice. I don't know why I haven't visited Cincinnati sooner. It's so close. We were rained out from a Cincinnati Reds' game and I didn't care...I already knew we'd be returning when the Phillies are in town in future years. It's a perfect, right-sized city.
Findlay Market is a must stop place in Over the Reine.
With rain in the forecast, instead of taking a tram to the riverfront area to catch a Reds' game, we found ourselves at the American Sign Museum. Not as big as a I was expecting (in no way is it the American Treasure Tour Museum in Oaks, PA) but they make up for that in quality. A street scene showcases the signs in their proper context.
By now, we knew the Reds' game was cancelled so we decided to visit the Cincinnati Museum Center - best described as what if you took Philadelphia's 30th Street Station and jammed the Franklin Institute, Academy of Natural Sciences, and the Please Touch Museum inside? Well that would be the Cincinnati Museum Center. And Cincinnati's Union Station was much grander than 30th Street Station - the nicest train station I've ever seen. Only annoying part is that you need to pay for each "museum" separately and since we hadn't planned to come here it took some time to figure out which museums to visit. 
There was a Lego Jurassic World exhibit - obviously that was the first stop. Charlotte saw the advertisements around town before we even arrived.
We spent another 2-3 hours in their Children's Museum area only leaving because the Museum closed at 5.
What a trip. What a way to end an era of cross county driving. I'm never driving more than 7 or 8 hours in a day ever again and I'm certainly not stacking ten of those types of days on top of one another. This trip felt long in a good way. There was a sense of accomplishment in visiting places I've always wanted to go and had never been. It was equally satisfying that those places met my expectations. Des Moines, Kentucky, Cincinnati - I need to return in the next 10-15 years, not the next 20-45 years.

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