St. Louis to Cincinnati via Indiana and Kentucky

 Cincinnati, OH

Camping Road Trip!  We took a selfie along The Wabash River at Harmonie State Park.

Three Nights Camping

On Saturday said goodbye to St. Louis and headed east.  On the first day we took a path through Illinois picking up 7 new counties in IL and 1 new county in IN.  We spent the night in Harmonie State Park IN.  It was right on the Wabash River which separates Illinois and Indiana to the west and eventually works its way down to The Ohio River.  It was a huge campground and we happened to pick a good loop.  Most of the loops were packed with families having fun but we ended up in a loop that had old people being quiet.  It was great and we got to see 2 new life birds, Wood Thrush and Northern Parula.  

Looking for The Wabash and Wood Thrush and trying to avoid ticks.

Spring!

Prepping the morning pour over.  I saw the lady bug on the filter before I poured.  I placed it on a nearby tree.

Not a bad place for breakfast.  I listened to Wood Thrush sing their cool song.

On Sunday we headed down to Kentucky and then back up to Indiana grabbing counties along the way.  We added 3 new counties in IN and 3 new in KY.  We camped at Lincoln State Park in Indiana.  The State Park has preserved nature as well as some places like a church where Abraham Lincoln grew up attending.  It's also the final resting place of his sister, Sarah Lincoln Grigsby.  Across the highway is The Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial.  We stayed in the Gobbler's Run loop which doesn't include power so it appeals to a different group of campers during non summer months.  Those campers include us and 1 other couple in a van with solar and battery backup.  It was an incredibly quiet night.  Off season camping is THE BEST!

The Indiana Tourism Center is frozen in time.  Complete with conical paper cups,

A 70s wooden clock, a tornado tracker phone,

And a counter with no one working it.  I am told they have a person there on holiday weekends.

The Simpsons!

This is our empty campsite loop.  The other couple was on the other side of the restrooms behind me and around the corner a bit out of sight.

It was really windy so we had our Step 2 (step 1 is setting up camp) in the van and questioned the legality.

Francis had his dinner in the van too.  This shot makes him look like an oddly proportioned Chupacabra or something.  Rest assured, he is fine and not oddly proportioned. 

 On Monday we left Indiana and headed into Kentucky again.  Our trip took us through 6 new IN counties and 4 new KY counties.  When we got to My Old Kentucky Home State Park it was windy and we noticed that we were about a mile from the Heaven Hill Bourbon Distillery so we headed over there to see what was what.  After checking out Heaven Hill we went on to Maker's Mark and also picked up a bonus county in KY.

The Heaven Hill Experience is pretty new, built in 2021.

You don't have to book a tour, you can just see the free museum, gift shop, and bar.

You can smell the different oak char levels.

Up to the bar!

We shared an ounce and a half pour of their barrel select, only available here.

Kentucky pretty much looks like what you expect, at least in the touristy bourbon areas.

The Maker's Mark distillery grounds are very pretty

Again, we didn't book a tour, we just visited the gift shop.

Dipping your own bottle was free once you bought the bottle which is priced at MSRP.

Hot wax requires PPE

A 1 minute tutorial is all you need.

I did the thing!

The finished product!

My Old Kentucky Home State Park was mostly a golf course.  We ended up picking one of the nicer spots but it wasn't a super great nature experience.  It was 1 mile from a bourbon distillery.  

On Tuesday we left Our Old Kentucky Home for Our New Cincinnati Home.  Our drive took us through Lexington KY, a place we have long talked about visiting and maybe even living in for a while.  We picked up 7 new KY Counties and 1 new OH county on the drive and stopped by Lexington for lunch and a beverage.  

We had lunch in the most hipster place possible, a shipping container inside a nursery.  The food was delicious!

Francis enjoyed the smells and the sun even though it wasn't that warm.

We are now in Cincinnati and getting settled.  We still need to find a monthly parking garage that has room.  The place seems great and is in a great location just on the edge of the Over The Rhine neighborhood with lots of bars, restaurants, and shops.  Stay tuned for our Cincinnati adventures!

If you missed Where The Missouri Meets The Mississippi you can read it via the link.  We went to the Missouri and Mississippi Confluence point.