We have spent the entire day driving across the green rolling hills of Kentucky, admiring the immaculately manicured lawns and gardens, the spotlessly clean and perfectly kept roads, and even witnessed an Amish gentleman driving a horse-drawn buggy!

Back in the 1930s, one Colonel Harland Sanders began selling his fried chicken from a roadside restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky. He identified the potential of the restaurant franchising concept, and the first “Kentucky Fried Chicken” franchise was opened in Utah in 1952. Today, KFC is one of the largest restaurant companies in the world with its headquarters still in the state.

We drove through Lexington, known as the “horse capital of the world” as the city is surrounded by over 400 horse farms! It is also famous for its annual horse race, the Kentucky Derby, which is preceded by two weeks of fun-filled activities. As legends go, the state rears fine race horses because the hills are filled with limestone and as water seeps through the stone it accumulates minerals, enriching the bluegrass that grows and building unusually strong bones in horses!

And, I cannot describe Kentucky without chatting about Bourbon! Bourbon is an american whiskey which is a barrel-aged distilled spirit made primarily from corn. It is produced mainly in the southern part of the state and some 95% of the world’s bourbon is made here!

The real Colonel Sanders in his iconic outfit around 1974!

The chicken was so notable that Sanders was

We are off and running on our latest adventure and have arrived in Clarkesville, northern Tennessee – about 45 minutes northwest of country music’s mecca, Nashville. We are only here overnight as we have two more days of driving to reach our first, real destination of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

On board with us are the usual suspects! Miss Poppy-dog is out having her evening walk with Mike. Kitties Abigail, Archer, Artie and teenager Cricket, and, me the blogger!

I am really looking forward to this road trip and visiting the very many new places and photographing the wonderous sights and experiences we will have along the way. All that sounds perfect, right? What I fail to elaborate on is the serious effort it takes to get the motor home ready for the off. The upside is the sheer number of steps I rack-up on my Fitbit over a two-day period as I walk miles in and out of the house getting everything loaded. This time around, we didn’t leave home until 12.30 p.m. and had to cover over 400 miles on day one. We arrived at our first destination last night in pitch black at 10.30 p.m. at night very tired people!

Miss Cricket chills on the dashboard and we head down the road. Abigail and Archer are hiding under the armchair and won’t come out until we stop; Artie is in Poppy’s bed!

Hi Everyone,

So sorry for being tardy and not updating the blog, but it has been hectic city here at home with a master bedroom closet painting project in the works which I have now code-named “project runway!”

Referring to ourselves as Vincent and Frida, Mike and I have worked liked dogs to get the darn project complete, and have subsequently delayed our road trip twice to accommodate daily hours of toil and sweat. The inside is in good shape, but doors and drawers will have to be finished on our return!

Our next trip will be amazing and I am super excited about the route Mike has planned. We head straight for Pennsylvania to visit the Civil War battle ground at Gettysburg; on to New York to the famed West Point military academy; into Maine to gorge on lobster!; up to Vermont to participate in a motor home rally and wonder at the autumn colour; then to Niagara Falls which I cannot wait to experience; take in a few Halls of Fame and start wending our way home through Ohio, Indiana and Tennessee.

We plan on being away for about six weeks and very much look forward to having you along for the ride!

Did we really think this one through? Our garage full of the doors and drawers to be sanded, filled, primed and painted for the new closet! An interesting task to undertake in Texas temperatures which have yet to fall below 90 degrees!

Hi Everyone,

We have yet to finalize the exact route of our next road trip, but likely we will be leaving sometime during the last week of August.

As Mike works out the route, I will update the blog to let you know, but right now, we plan on heading East on or around August 26.

Mark your calendars and get ready for a really fun and interesting trip!

thebloggingbritblog.com

We are home and motor home, Roxanne, has been emptied and cleaned and is safely back at the storage unit!

This last road trip has taken us away for five weeks covering over 4,000 miles! We have seen some magnificent sights in a number of National Parks, especially the wildlife, and enjoyed spectacular scenery in Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota; we have witnessed the very unique monument “Carhenge;”  enjoyed visiting the big city of Tulsa and giggled that all the workers were is suits and us, retired bums, were in shorts; and Michael has re-stocked his wardrobe with T-shirts from all the parks and craft breweries we have visited – he has even diversified into purchasing merchandise that is neither green nor blue!

Miss Poppy-dog continues to be the finest example of doggy-kind, especially with a young kitty, who insisted on wrestling with her daily! That said, it is probably Miss Poppy who enjoys being home the most. She is out chasing her squirrels from morning to night and is not on any kind of lead! Poppy bliss!

We will be home for a couple of months and I will update the blog on exactly when we next leave – likely sometime around the last week of August. I am super excited about our next trip, even though Mike has yet to finalize the route, as we are heading East for the first time – Washington, D.C., Vermont and taking-in Niagara Falls, which happens to be on my bucket list!

Thank you for being such great traveling companions and I hope to see you next time!

Roxanne – ready and waiting for her next adventure!

Water has attracted people to Hot Springs, Arkansas since before the 1700s. Some believe that the traces of minerals and an average temperature of 143 degrees Fahrenheit/62 degrees Centigrade give the waters whatever therapeutic properties they may have.

In 1803, the U.S. acquired the area around Hot Springs in Arkansas as part of the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France. The first bathhouses were crude canvas and wood structures, little more than tents perched over individual springs or reservoirs carved out of the rock. By 1877, the government approved blueprints for private bathhouses ranging from simple to luxurious.

By 1921 the Hot Springs Reservation had become popular with vacationers and health remedy seekers.  By the 1960s traditional bathing was in decline and the bathhouses began to close their doors. Unused, the buildings fell into disrepair. Thankfully, in 2004 the park service received the first of several allocation of funds to restore the bathhouses to what they are today – a magnificent nod to the golden age of bathing!

At its peak of popularity, over a million visitors a year immersed themselves in the park’s hot waters which are believed to be 4,000 years old!

Hot Springs National Park is not in a volcanic region. Outcroppings of regional rock absorb rainfall and pores and fractures in the rock conduct the water deep into the earth. As the water percolates downward, increasingly warmer rock heats it at a rate of about four degrees Fahrenheit every 300 feet. In the process the water dissolves minerals out of the rock. Eventually the water meets faults and joints leading up to the lower west slope of Hot Springs Mountain where it surfaces.

Like a sentry standing tall at an entrance gate, the Anthony Family Trust Carillon is the first structure visitors see as they meander down a winding path at the Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

The 57-foot electronic bell tower, is considered by many to be a piece of artwork as well as a musical instrument. Computerized chimes denote the time of day on the hour, followed by several minutes of popular tunes that can be heard throughout the Gardens.

The remarkable vertical music box is made up of 16 copper-clad steel columns, strategically positioned to enable visitors to move around at the base of the structure.

Massive speakers resemble a lantern suspended from cables attached to an intricate cross-bracing system at the top of the structure.

As you continue down the path, nestled under a thick canopy of southern pines and age-old oak trees, stands the incredible Anthony Chapel.

Standing nearly six stories tall, the amazing structure complements the surrounding wooded landscape and offers views of the changing seasons with floor-to-ceiling glass walls and multiple skylights.

The bell tower and chapel were designed by architects Maurice Jennings and David McKee of Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Chapel is available for private hire for concerts, memorial and christening services and some 175 weddings a year! Both the bell tower and chapel are named after the “Anthony” family whose generosity enabled the project to become a reality.

In the 1920s, a brick and timber businessman called Arthur Cook purchased a 210-acre site on a woodland peninsula some six miles from Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas. He thought that the site would be good as a future timber location for his company.

Sadly, he died in 1934 and his daughter, Verna Cook Garvan, assumed control of the family’s assets. A self-taught gardener, Verna began to develop the site as a garden and possible future homesite. Over the next 40 years, she planted thousands of specimens and laid out pathways.

On her death, Mrs. Garvan left the property to the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Arkansas which now manages the site as an education, research and public service for visitors.

The glorious botanical gardens feature floral landscapes, streams and waterfalls in a natural woodland setting. Its collections display hundreds of rare shrubs and trees and 160 different types of azaleas.

Today, the Garvan Woodland Gardens is the number one attraction in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

The Gardens have over four miles of shoreline on Lake Hamilton.

Well-fed Koi in the Gardens’ Koi pond.

A sweet nod for children of all ages, home of the Tooth Fairy!

We are now staying in a lovely RV park called “Catherine’s Landing” in Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas.

The RV park is a part of a commercial venture that has 10 locations in its portfolio and, without doubt, it is the nicest site we have stayed at since starting our RV road trips! If you would like to check out their website, here’s the address: www.rvcoutdoors.com

There are a number of elements that make this site so good: they have 60-foot RV sites, all fully paved with full hook-up facilities (50-amp power, water, and sewer connection), plus pull-through capabilities, meaning we don’t have to disconnect the jeep to get into the site. Each pad is equipped with a picnic table, a fire pit and a bar-b-que plus its own green area where you can set out your chairs. With the capability of hosting nearly 300 RVs, it is the largest park we have visited and the wireless system is flawless!

The park also has cabins, cottages and Yurts (semi-permanent “glamping” tents) for hire. There is a family swimming pool and a super, smaller facility for kids, and, needless to say, there are toilet, shower and laundry locations throughout the park. They are also in the middle of building a zip-line facility to further attract visitors.

The magnificent Ouachita River runs through the park and guests can rent canoes or small boats or just take to the river’s banks to fish. 

Like most high achievers, Frank Phillips was successful in more ways than one.

At the age of 14, Frank headed into Creston, Iowa, a small town near to the farm where he was raised, looking for work. The owner of the Climax Barber Shop, located in the basement of the bank in Creston took Frank on as an apprentice.

Frank’s career as a barber moved quickly. He was a fast learner and had a knack for impressing the right people. He wore fancy, striped trousers and offered fat cigars to his customers. He attracted an impressive range of clients, including the leading banker, John Gibson. Ten years after starting as an apprentice barber, Frank Phillips owned all three of Creston’s barber shops and had married the banker’s daughter, Jane Gibson!

In 1905 Frank and his brother L.E. Phillips were attracted to the Bartlesville, Oklahoma area, by the oil boom and working on their last chance to drill an “oil gusher.” The Anna Anderson oil well came through, as did the next 80 wells they drilled, and in 1917 Frank and L.E. Phillips founded the Phillips Petroleum Company.

Today the company is known as Conoco Phillips and has a headquarters office in Bartlesville and a delightful museum detailing the history of their company and what it has transformed into over the decades.

An exhibit in the Conoco Phillips museum in Bartlesville, near where we have been staying the last few days.