Jack O' Lantern Spectacular

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.
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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.
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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!

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