These last two weeks have flown by at the air field, literally! We have been busy whittling down the list of our workamping projects, getting in some last-minute sightseeing, getting warranty work done on the truck and making preparations for our departure and subsequent stops. These last two weeks we have been busy with a variety of jobs around the air field. We repaired and stained the porch on the cabin and touched up the stain on the cabin itself. Such a cute little cabin! We also painted some metal disks and washers that will be used to mark property lines and guide planes to parking. We have done a lot of roundup and tree trimming around the properties as well. Our focus then turned to one of the other properties with the airfield affectionately called “the nut farm”. It has a nut barn, nut shed, sunroom off the nut shed, trailer and camping pad off the nut barn and a lot of nut trees. The naming comes from the previous owner’s dedication to planting a nut tree every time he had to take down another tree on the property. There are a variety of nut trees all over the property. This last spring, the nut farm, being in the lower land, on the other side of the road from the air field, closer to the Ohio River, flooded. With that came a lot of clean up. The owners were able to move a lot of equipment and other items prior to the flood, but the buildings themselves and other items that were unable to be moved were all flooded and required a lot of cleanup. We have replaced lights at the nut shop and are using a lot of Zinser mold paint after the shop and sunroom have been sprayed for mold. Rick also rebuilt and replaced 2x4’s that were rotten under and around a window in the sunroom. One of the group projects that we were able to complete is the replacement of the windsock at the airfield. With the windsock being up on a 16 ft pole, it took a couple folks to hold the ladder for the lucky chap, Rich, climbing to the top. The new windsock looks really nice waving in the breeze! We had another couple, Keith and Kathy, visit the air field and spend a couple days with us enjoying the peaceful location, a campfire and local establishments. We enjoyed talking with them about their full-time travels, their planes and history in flying. They know our hosts, Rich and Ginger, through their aviation backgrounds. They are originally from Alaska and travel the US in a 1948 Spartan. Truly an oldie but a goodie! We hope to cross paths with them again. Keith, Kathy, Rich and Ginger were kind enough to help us cheer on the Milwaukee Brewers in the playoffs, but alas, the World Series was not in the cards for them this year. Maybe next year Brew Crew! We are excited to see them at Spring Training while we are in AZ early next year! As for our sightseeing, we wanted to spend one more day in Louisville before we left. We decided to go to the Frasier Museum in downtown Louisville. We have heard good things about this museum and it did not disappoint. It was well done and had sections on the history of the area and the building it was in, a section on bourbon, including a bourbon room that displayed a bottle from all of the Kentucky bourbon makers. There was also a section on Louis & Clark that was very interesting. After spending a couple hours in the museum, we decided to get some BBQ at Doc Crows on Main St in the Bourbon Row. All the buildings in the area have a storied past in the making of Kentucky’s Bourbon and many reminders can be seen in and outside of these buildings. The BBQ was delicious but a bit pricey. Certainly, a splurge for lunch! We then made our way over to Cave Hill cemetery which is highly rated as one of the top places to visit in Louisville. This cemetery dates back 170 years and has an abundance of Revolutionary War and Civil War soldiers and families, famous people such as Colonel Sanders and Muhammad Ali and was painstakingly planned with beautiful grounds including lakes, beautiful landscaping and even a cave. They even conduct walking tours. The crazy part…we never took any pictures! It a was probably because we were in a big fat dually truck, driving on roads, just wide enough for us that had headstones right next to the road!! Yiiikes! That was the theme of our day though, very narrow roads, lots of construction and next to no place to park the big truck. But Rick managed to guide the truck through all of it. We even drove through Old Louisville area were the beautiful old mansions resided and through the heart of the University of Louisville where again, construction forced us to sneak through some pretty tight areas. The challenges we endure with a large dually truck. Our day was topped off with a visit to the Louisville Jack O’ Lantern Spectacular. This amazing event is in its 6th year and is VERY popular! We knew that going in, so we purchased our tickets online and arrived well before the gates into the park opened. With ticket booths and gates opening at 6pm, we got in line at 5:15pm. The website warns that weekend lines could be over 2 hours long. I believe it, looking at the line we had on a Thursday night, even prior to the gates opening. Once the gates open, you wind your way through the Iroquois Park Amphitheater area which is well stocked with vendors selling all sorts of snacks and beverages to keep you busy and warm while you wait for the pumpkin trail to open. The 1/3 mile trail opens at dusk and you walk through at your own pace, marveling at all of the spectacular carvings. It is really hard to describe just how amazing this experience was, and the pictures below don’t begin to do them justice. There are over 5,000 carved pumpkins, with over 100 intricately carved masterpieces, carved by various artists that come to the area for the event. The trail is illuminated and there is music and special effects for each themed section of the trail. To preserve the pumpkins, they are kept cool with small computer fans inside and moth balls to keep the animals from nibbling on them. The event is open for a month and some pumpkins will need to be replaced during that time. The artists are on site, carving replacements in a cooled trailer. We took our time looking at all of the amazing pumpkins and photographed several and it took us 45 minutes to walk thru. If anyone is in the Louisville area in October or the beginning of November, we highly recommend going to see this. We are coming into our last week here at Lee Bottom Airfield and will be busy wrapping up workamping projects and getting the RV ready to roll. We also will be going thru everything and pulling together many things to take to Goodwill. Remember our rule…one thing in and one thing out. Thanks for stopping by! SHOP AMAZON HERE
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That sounds like a darn nice weekend, hey? We took the day Friday to get some errands and household tasks done and even was able to squeeze in a WeGoLook gig nearby. For more info on those, check this post out on my side gigs. Whew, that was an interesting one! Let’s just say I was glad that Rick was along to provide some machismo in the background. We went in to Jeffersonville, about 45 minutes away, a northern suburb of Louisville, on the IN side of the river. It offers larger stores and some better restaurants and food selection. On a tip from our hosts, we ate lunch down on the River at Buckhead Mountain Grill. Since it was almost 90 and humid, we opted for an inside table along the windows overlooking the Ohio River and the downtown Louisville area. Our food was delicious! I went out of my usual comfort zone and had a portabello burger on tomato herb focaccia bread. OMG, delicious! Rick had a beer cheese burger with the housemade chips, which was also really good. We then drove along the river and saw some really stately older homes that look to be making a comeback with some rehab efforts. Unfortunately, it was a driving tour because it was so hot and humid out, so good pictures are lacking. We were able to get some laundry done, although at a much higher price! I’ll stick to our small town laundry from now on. No frills but clean and cheap. $10.25 vs. $18.50…ouch! We also got groceries at Meijer, which was nice to pick up some of my staples they carry, but still not as nice as the Meijer back in WI. There is a new Kroger just down the street that I may try next time. Rick was also able to get the truck washed in a self-service car wash. We ended the day with a relaxing night around the fire with our hosts watching the motorized paragliders that came to practice at the field. Funny story, proving it is a small world, a fellow Grand Design RV’er commented on one of our Facebook posts of the sunset at the air field and asked if we were here Friday night to see the paragliders, as one of them was her son. Saturday we decided to take a leisurely drive over to Carrollton, KY to check out their Bands and BBQ festival. All I can say is WOW! Man, do these folks take their BBQ seriously. This was a full fledged KCBS sanctioned BBQ competition. Check out some of the rigs below and some homemade barrel smokers. We stopped and talked to a couple of the competitors to learn more about their BBQ and their competitive history. We even got some samples. Amazing stuff and in talking to one couple, competition BBQ is different than your average BBQ. They are judged on appearance, tenderness and taste. One lady showed us her different jars of BBQ sauces that she makes. Too bad she doesn’t sell them because her sweet and spicy was delicious! While there, they also had some great bands playing and we even enjoyed a small air show by Cliff Robinson as he did some aerobatics over the river. We then took a leisurely drive up the river on the KY side and came back on the IN side. We arrived back just in time for the WI Badger game, but, alas, it was not meant to be. Did I mention our cell reception and over the air TV here is very eratic and depends on the weather and atmosphere and it doesn’t help that we are up against a bluff. Well today was on the lower end of minimal, which meant we couldn’t stream the Badger game. Looks like it was not a game we wanted to watch though anyway…ouch! Sunday was another football day with some work mixed in. Before the GB Packer game, Rick did some more work on the bath house door. We then were able to intermittently watch the Packer game, again due to the touch and go OTA reception, but we ended up being able to see most of that crazy game. We then finished up the bath house door installation and tomorrow I will finish up the painting if it doesn’t rain too much. We are supposed to get some residual rain from Hurricane Florence, but certainly not what our Carolina friends have experienced! Stay safe! We also put up our window hummingbird feeder and the cute little guys found it in less than an hour! SHOP AMAZON HERE
Have any Amazon shopping to do?? Do it from our Amazon link above! We participate in the Amazon affiliate program and we appreciate you using our Amazon link above to make your Amazon purchases. It does not cost you anything additional and helps us to support our blog. You can even save our link as a favorite and use that whenever you need to make an Amazon purchase. Thank you!!! Last Tuesday we woke to yet another quiet day at the Hardy Lake State Park campground. With only two other campers and the hosts, we felt like the place was all ours. We took a morning walk around the campground and while it was nice to be here when it was quiet, I don’t think I would enjoy it as much when it was full on a busy weekend. The sites do have a bit of room between them but there is no privacy between sites and it felt like any noise traveled quite far. If we were here with a group I probably wouldn’t mind as much. We packed up and headed out to meet our workamping host, Ginger, at a parking lot on a country road. She would need to help get us to our site and block any oncoming vehicles as we slowly made our way down the bluff road which was a one and a half lane paved road in trees with tight turns and a switchback thrown in for extra excitement. Rick was able to navigate us down the ridge with no problem and then we wound along next to the Ohio River to Lee Bottom Flying Field. Sorry no pictures of the hairpin turn, I was a bit preoccupied and I don't think my hands would have unclenched enough to hold the phone. To get to our parking pad, we drove down the airfield, hoping a plane would not decide to come in at that moment! Our site is just off to the side and midway down the field. We took the rest of the afternoon to get set up and take in the sights of this beautiful lush green hidden gem. We even had a plane fly in. This workamping job is unlike most as we are not at a campground and there are no other campers here. It is just us. Our hosts, Rich and Ginger, own Lee Bottom Flying Field and it is certified as a public use grass airstrip. There is no tower or public use hangar, but it is well known in the flying community. It is a perfect place for vintage and small aircrafts to land and enjoy the peace and quiet, have a picnic lunch or read a book. There are also local police and military entities that utilize the field. We have seen several planes now either stop to use the restroom, take a picture of their plane at the airstrip or just practice take offs and landings. In addition to the airfield, our hosts own a couple other properties surrounding the airfield and we are here to help with some repair projects and get things ready for winter. Our first completed project was to rebuild and paint the wooden box on the back of the golf cart and give the it a bath. We have also done some storm clean up and cut up a fallen tree and hauled off another. We have a good list to keep us busy and being able to relax and enjoy the planes and wildlife coming to visit and is an added bonus! While here we plan to explore the area and try to “live like a local” since we will be here about two months. We have already visited the local grocery store, laundromat, Walmart and propane company. We have checked out a couple of the local food fare and had the opportunity to meet up with some friends we met at the RV rally for dinner, to help them celebrate their 38th Anniversary. Congrats again Melanie & Tom! Look forward to meeting up with you again further down the road. Also, while we have been here, we have tackled a couple projects in the RV as well. As we mentioned in our last update, our microwave had decided to take its last breath at the rally and Grand Design was going to order us another one. Well that arrived in a big, heavy crate on Thursday and we installed that with little problem. Rick then wanted to solve for an issue with our main living room AC intake. It seems that when the AC kicked on the middle baffle separating the intake and cool air area would get sucked over to the intake, allowing the unit to keep sucking in all the cool air and not allowing that cool air to come out into the room and the vents near it. MacGyver was on the job!! First Rick used foil tape to tape up the leaking areas around the inside of the unit so that we were not losing cool air into the ceiling. He then took three metal sign stakes he bought and cut them to size and installed them on either side of the middle baffle to hold it in place. Once that was done, we cleaned the intake filters and reassembled and walla, air now coming out the vents and the baffle has stayed in place. Rick also hooked up the On The Go Double Water Softener since the water is very hard. It really works well and only takes 2 lbs. of table salt to recharge it. He then flushed out the hot water heater with his new flush tool and got quite a bit of calcium buildup out. Finally, we mounted the WeBoost RV cell booster to a PVC pole and the heavy-duty antenna suction cup holds it to the RV. It works wonders and stays in place, even through the torrential rains and wind of last weekend. We are now working on replacing the restroom building door and cleaning that area up. Stay tuned for more of our Kentuckiana adventures! SHOP AMAZON HERE
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