Woke up early this morning, to get over to the Toyota plant, in hopes of getting on the morning tour. We lucked out and there was space for us, so we spent the morning touring the factory. Rode on an electric tram car throughout the factory on a narrated tour. One of the more interesting tours we've been on during a vacation! After the tour, we headed back to get the trailer and get on the road to Nashville, Tennessee. Took a small detour on the way to the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, TN. It was a day full of cars! Made our way into Nashville, to our campground on Music Valley Drive, right near Opryland Resort and the Grand Ole Opry. Relaxed for the evening and discussed what to do in Nashville the next day.

Hold your horses

Thursday we found ourselves surrounded by horses, horses and more horses. The Lexington, KY landscape was lined with the wooden fences of horse farms. Our stay in the horse pasture behind Brookledge had been nice, but we were without fresh water and electric, so we searched the campground directory and found that there was a campground nearby at the Kentucky Horse Park. We drove over to check it out, and once we were satisfied, made reservations for the night and headed back to get the trailer. After setting up and eating lunch we made our way over to the Toyota plant in Georgetown, KY where Mark's childhood friend Billy worked. Billy had informed us of a tour you could take of the plant, but that it was very popular and he could only put our name on the standby list. We were on the list for 2pm but got a little lost finding our way there and missed our chance for the day to see the factory. We did get to see Billy though and watch a 30 minute video of the factory and had our names put on the standby list for the next morning's tour. We made plans to have dinner with Billy and his family and then headed over to Keeneland race track. Keeneland was an enormous, attractive complex which we explored for a little while, making our way upstairs to some of the private boxes for a full view. We headed back to the trailer to get ready for dinner and then met Billy and his two sons at a local Kentucky eatery, Ramseys, where we enjoyed some traditonal Southern cuisine; sweet tea, fried-green tomatoes, chicken-fried pork chops, buffalo fried chicken, and a Kentucky specialty, a hot brown. After an enjoyable dinner we headed back to Kentucky Horse Park so we could be up early for the Toyota tour in the morning.

joining the New River swim club

Wednesday we traveled to Minden, West Virginia for a trip down the New River.  We had made reservations the day before for a white water rafting trip, choosing the Express trip; a half day trip hitting all the major rapids.  We arrived at ACE Adventure Center the rafting company we were going with after a bumpy ride up and down a windy country road, paved only as a strip down the center with gravel lining each side which was quite an adventure with the truck and trailer in tow.  We were later informed that this is what was called a "No Fault" road in West Virginia, where neither party was responsible should an accident occur.  The road back to ACE wound through a stereotypical West Virginia post-coal mining town with junkyards next to depressed-looking houses and one home that featured a 365 days a year yard sale in the front yard.  The weather was overcast and misty, not ideal weather for a day outdoors, but once we were loaded up with PFDs, helmets and paddles and made the bus ride to the launching site, the dreary weather was off everyones' mind and the sun even managed to come out later in the day.  Our family was put into a 17-foot boat with 4 others; some teenagers from a summer camp in Virginia, and our guide, Matt. After some basic paddling and directional lessons from Matt we were set to go down our first rapid, a class III rapid which we navigated fine.  The next rapid, a class IV was a boat full of excitement, as we lost all but 4 passengers navigating it.  Rachel, Zach, another girl, and the guide were the only ones to remain in the boat. Mark and Emily were recovered quickly, but Marilyn floated down the river a little ways and was picked up by another boat in our party.  After recovering all of our passengers we made our way down the rest of the 8 miles of river, navigating more class III, IV and even a few class V rapids.  The rainy weather preceding our trip turned out to be a good thing; as the river was up 2 feet from it making the rapids all the better.  Overall we had an awesome day on the New River!  When we got back to ACE tired and hungry we showered and hit the road for Lexington, KY our next stop on the trip. We opted not to reserve a campground for the night and instead set up in the field behind Brookledge's location in Lexington, KY.  

HERE WAS BURIED THOMAS JEFFERSON AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE OF THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND FATHER OF...

Our travels brought us to Monticello, home of our third President and author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson today. We left for Monticello, situated right outside of Charlottesville, VA in the early afternoon. Upon arriving we picnicked for lunch and then headed up to the Visitors Center to purchase tickets and board the shuttle bus that would take us up to the actual homestead.  Driving up the winding mountaintop road we were surrounded by a beautiful green landscape and spectacular views of the nearby Virginia countryside.  Monticello, itself was of striking beauty, Roman-influenced classical architecture and colorful gardens in full summer bloom. We were led on a half hour tour of the house's interior by a knowledgeable tour guide and then were free to wander the grounds; exploring the tunnel of storage rooms and wine cellars beneath the house, the large vegetable garden and bountiful flower gardens.  From the house we strolled a short while down to the cemetery where we saw the grave of Jefferson, a large monument with the words " Here was buried Thomas Jefferson Author of the Declaration of American Independence of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and Father of the University of Virginia, Born April 2 1743 O.S. Died July 4, 1826" engraved in it, the epitaph written by Jefferson himself. We returned to the Visitors Center and concluded our visit with a stop at the Gift Shop, before heading back to our campground for the night, Walnut Hills Campground in Staunton, VA where we had decided to stay a second night.

heading south

We departed for our tour through some of Southern states on Sunday night; pulling out of the driveway around 7:30 and heading down to right outside DC to pick up Rachel. We spent the first night at a campground in College Park, MD and then got on the road in the late morning Monday and headed through Maryland and DC into Virginia. We reached the Shenandoah National Park around 2pm and began our leisurely ride on Skyline Drive winding through the Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains. The views were breathtaking and we even got to see some local wildlife; several doe and fawns. We meandered down Skyline Drive and ended up in Staunton, VA for the night with plans to visit Monticello tomorrow.

Setting forth

This summer we're headed to several states in the South for a two week vacation with the trailer. The whole family's along, Haley included. Our plans include stops in Charlottesville, VA to visit President Thomas Jefferson's residence, Monticello, white water rafting on the New River in West Virginia, Lexington, Kentucky, the Great Smoky Mountains and Nashville and Bristol, Tennessee, with other excursions added as we go.