FINAL DAY- Nov 14, 2012 Wednesday, Georgetown KY, to Grand Rapids MI


I said I would wrap up the trip with one more entry and this is it. Although there were not very many exciting events to develop in this blog we did see the landscape change decidedly from the rolling hills of Kentucky to the flat lands of northern Ohio and Southern Michigan.

Coming into Cincinnati  in the morning the crossing of the Ohio Rver showed the dynamism of that part of the country. I can see why it was called the "Queen City of the West" at one time. Lots of activity on the river and off. Of course both the Ohio and the Mississippi  Rivers are in danger of limiting barges from transporting the grains and other goods down river this fall after harvest because of the low water. The Corps of Engineers has a dilemma to make decisions about.

This morning I shot the only sunrise of the entire trip. (No

sunsets either) The sky was either completely clear (no clouds) or obscured. 

This was Georgetown KY, near Lexington in the horse country

WOW! What horse farms!

"Queen City of the West --Cincinnati

The Cincinnati Reds "riverfront" stadium is on 

the left behind the light pole.

Ohio is hit by the recession as all of us.

 The Visitor's Center was only open on Sat and Sun.

I put in a few picture as a review of a few highlights, but little else.

The weather was terrific and, EXCEPT for the first two days and the last two days, the temperature stayed above 70 degrees in the day.

The rains came only twice and that was on the first day going south and on the day we went inside to see the Atlanta Aquarium. Perfect timing. (I think we had some help!)

Cathy just was a great traveling compnion, and she was able to keep track of things, and was always ready to go in the morning with her bags packed for the days journey. That was a big help. Did I mention that one day we did a laundry?

The Rest Area and Visitor's Centers were generally very good. 

This one in Ohio was beautifully landscaped, and one in KY 

was the largest (acreage) of any we have EVER seen.(We have seen many.)

Ruth has always had a "Handicapped Parking permit" for Cathy,  and that

was very important as we had to stop more often than most travelers.

Restaurants, venues, and Rest Areas were the places it was  used most often.

At the Aquarium we parked right by the inside entrance.

Cathy learned to slide out of the back seat to the ground (she is quite tall)

 without using the step stoool to get out.

The truck is a Toyota Tundra. Lots of room. 

For me, driving  (3700 miles) was the easiest part, while transferring the luggage into and out of the truck each day we moved was the most difficult. Ruth was a good help with this while Cathy carried many of her things as well. At the end of the day Ruth was ready to get off her feet and slow down for awhile. Navigators have a lot of exhasting, mental work.

When looking at the "Big Picture" of America's crops and  use, it is quite obvious (at east on route's  I-77, I-95, and I-75) that Ohio and  Michigan  provide the basic crops (grains, fodder)  while the southern states are more specialized (citrus, cotton (A great staple), truck crops and catfish, until we get to Florida where there are many fisheries. Not as many as the Gulf Coast for sure, but enough to see the immenseness of the activity. I was surprised to see the amount of hay that is grown in Tennessee.

The farmland of Ohio was outstanding even though all crops but

soy beans were harvested, (and a little corn)

More of the same in Ohio

North of Toledo, there was a "welcome home" sign.

The industrial strength ("Rust Belt" if you will) of the I-75 corridor especially in Ohio, is obvious with Dayton, Akron, Springfield, Lima all with great industries .

It was good to get away south into the heat, but as Ruth says, " It is always good to come home and sleep in our own bed".

Thanks for being with us and we will certainly let you know when we travel and  do another blog.

Here is the review of the prime events

With the Dolphins

The Everglades

The Busch Gardens

Snow in West Virginai

The Sunny Beaches of the Keys in Florida

Blessings to all,------------Jim

send any personal notes to       crazy4birds@comcast.net

Tuesday Nov 13, 2012 From Atlanta,GA to Georgetown KY (near Lexington) 

It doesn’t seem possible , but the last day of this trip to Florida is in sight. We are lodging a few miles from the wonderful horse country of central Kentucky.  (Lexington) The big horse barns are even along I-75 and the white fences stretch for miles. 

Nothing special today , except the anticipation of driving through Atlanta at 8:30 this morning at the peak of rush hour. The traffic there is heavy anyway, and last evening when we come back from the Aquarium in the heavy rain, the traffic was almost as heavy.  But see one of the pictures to get the idea in five lanes of traffic.

We did however use the “DOV” lane for cars with 2 or more people and we moved right along without delay. Good thing to remember when hitting rush hour traffic.. that is... always carry extra passengers with you .It seems so strange that we did not see any cars with more than one person in them except on the DOV lane and that went all the way through downtown and out the other side of the city. I can only think of multiplying that by the many cities that have gridlock each morning. One DOT sign said” 6 miles to Swanson Parkway--- travel time 20 minutes”. UGH! I wouldn’t want to ride that each day. (TWICE) Yep, that's a 20 mph average.

These are those merging traffic stop and go lights that help to alternate the

vehicles entering the rush hour traffic. Many large cities, like Atlanta use them.

AM rush hour coming into Atlanta. Five lanes.

We drove the DOV lane so it went well. (read blog for more)

A bit of downtown Atlanta . This city is HQ for many 

of the world's biggest industries. Coca Cola the largest of them.

It  is also home to BellSouth, Delta Airlines, Home Depot, UPS,

 and Georgia-Pacific, among other big names.

There still is some color in the trees in this area  

as witnessed by these three shots.

We saw the change in the land from Atlanta (Stockbridge)  which is gently rolling to the NW Georgia where the hills turn into the mountains by the time we reached Tennessee. The southern Appalachian Mountains actually end about at that point. One “mountain” was just 2,000 feet high, but are easily passed over. There are lots of trucks using I-75.  There is still some good color along the road all the way from GA to mid Tennessee. In Kentucky there is less color.

Another picture of downtown skyline of Atlanta

See Wells Fargo HQ on the right.

As we drive north the land begins to get hilly and we start to lose the color.

The road has mostly trees on both sides and little infrastructure 

north of Atlanta. (That is buildings, etc)

Into Tennessee the mountains are more evident ,even

at 2,000 feet or so.

In Kentucky there are more cuts and limestone edges to the road. 

This road, I believe, follows the old US 23 route to Florida.

Very beautiful to the eye.

One striking thing I noticed about the land was that there was very little farmland anywhere along this route. There are a  few small scattered acreages of hay, and cattle, but little else until the horse ranches in the Lexington, KY., area.

The day was sunny all the way , but temps never reached 50 F until we went to eat at a  “Waffle House” this evening when it reached 52 F. Tomorrow the AM is suppose to be 22 F .  BRR!. But... I put my long pants on this AM and put the shorts away for the first time since Nov 3.

Tennessee has not much in the line of industry visible, but does expose many Museums, Civil War sites, and Exhibits to attract the people heading up and down I-75 each year. Tourism isn’t its main business but adds to the economy. Manufacturing and education each have about 18% of the activity and retail trade about 11%. Textiles, cotton, electrical power, and cattle are the main outputs. Fed. Ex., Nissan and Volkswagen are all in Tennessee

Tomorrow we will head north for the last day on the road staying on I-75 to Toledo and picking  up US 23 to I-96 and home.

I hope you have enjoyed the trip and I will post a brief account tomorrow to sum up.

Thanks to all of you for the faithful reading from time to time, and especially those of you from outside the USA of which there have been many  from France, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Mexico,  Germany, Ireland, Australia, Canada and China. Your viewing is appreciated. We have had well over 1,000 "hits" on this blog of the trip. 

Monday November 12 (Veterans Day in the USA) 2012, at the Atlanta Aquarium

The day was a good one to be inside as that cold front started to work its way south to the southeast states. Only n the 60’s (F) but that was much cooler. Tomorrow about 39 F in the AM and up to 60 in the day.  Some rain , but as we were inside most of the day , that didn’t slow us down until the ride back to the hotel when it rained hard.  Certainly I-75 and its five lanes coming our of Atlanta at 5:00 PM is no picnic. BUt we are cozy and I’ll review the day some.

AS the youth would say today the georgia Aquarium is “Awesome”! IT is divided into about nine different areas of environment so each one has its special type of organisms. There are  eight million gallons of water on use, 100,000 animals and 500 species. IT is entertaining, educational and scientific. 

These are the separate areas we visited;

1.

This section centered on the state of Georgia especially the 

outerbanks and the coastlines that are so important 

to all sea creatures like the turtles Less than 10 years ago they 

discovered a "new" fish that had never been seen before... 

The Red Bonefish.

Some of the fish in the many tanks that the Aquarium has.

THis was mostly coral reef fish and animals 

There was a cute ,animated 15 minute underwater drama

 that worked subtly on understanding the environment and

 changing life style to affect that change.

Exactly what it said was there. Lots of them.

Waters of the rivers especially those connected with Oceans.

No they aren't all connected directly. (Gators and such)

Frigid waters and cratures of that environment.

 There were mammoth Beluga whales (white), seals, otters, etc.

This was a magnificent show with trained dolphins and excellent riders 

and trainers who participated. (30 minutes was worth the $)

NO pictures wwre alowed and there weere no postcards  sold 

of any of the show.

I checked.

This is the cafeteria, with super service , but very high prices 

The food was excellent, however.  I received a 

20% discount as a veteran on Veterans day.

Here are a few more pictures to let you see some of the creatures. Some are Ruth's, some mine and some Cathy's.  I'll end the narration by saying we drove home in the rain , stopped at Cracker Barrel, and downloaded the 300-400 pictures we had.  

ENJOY!

                                                                                      

                                                                 

 

                                                                          

 

                                                                       

 

                                                                                                   

SUNDAY BONUS

SOME PICTURES FROM THE PAST TWO DAYS.

Unidentified shrub flower

Hibiscus

                      Addax

Two week old Rhino and mom. He was 70 pounds when born and

she gives birth standing. What a drop!

We cpuld not identify this beautiful tree inbloom

It is not a maghnolia.

Lunch time for all of us

Gorillas swinging on the ropes

Elephants 

I guess we call this a type of topiary The stripes are 

a plant that they have cultured to grow in rows.

White Tiger (Siberian)

Tiger . They rest 18-20 hours a day and hunt at night.

Pretty rose 

The Kumba. Means noisy, and it was.

Cheetah. They can run 60 mph for short distance and their 

main defense is speed (they will run from trouble). The 

Cheetah hunts in day time  when others usually sleep. They 

can be identified by their tail markings. Each is different like a "fingerprint."

The Thompson Gazelle