We learned how they make baseball bats today. The factory tours are time stamped, so we arrived about ten minutes before ours began. You first watch a video about how they choose the trees to make the bats, where they are located, and how they maintain the forest. It also demonstrates even after cutting down the tree, they may still not chose it for a … Continue reading Louisville Slugger Factory

The bricks above are why they call the Indianapolis Speedway the Brickyard. The track was all brick at the beginning. This line is all that you can see now, even though the bricks are still there under the asphalt. I’ve never watched the race so I was not aware of all the traditions that went with winning. One of the things is kissing the bricks. … Continue reading Indianapolis Speedway

We spent some time in Illinois following Lincoln’s life. We started with the courtroom in which he argued the famous almanac case and it is still an active court today. It is in Beardstown. We thought we would have a quick stop, check out any memorabilia that was there, take a picture of the courtroom, and head to New Salem. Our plans were extended a … Continue reading Abraham Lincoln in Illinois

I was watching American Gods when I discovered the House on the Rock. I’ve wanted to visit it ever since that moment. We rerouted our drive home just so I could. Alex Jordan, Jr. built the house as a sanctuary since he loved to picnic in the area near the rock. When you visit House on the Rock there are A LOT of different areas … Continue reading House on the Rock

Our main objective in Minneapolis was to see Paisley Park. This is where Prince lived for the past three years of his life. However, our tour was not until after lunch so we went to the Walker Art Center, which includes a sculpture garden. We walked around the garden first and I enjoyed the sculptures there. They are all modern-contemporary so some of them I … Continue reading Minneapolis and Paisley Park

Theodore Roosevelt National Park is located just across the Montana border in North Dakota. The park was not very busy, which was wonderful since we decided to drive the loop and just stop for pictures. (It was over 100 degrees with a brisk wind, it was like being in an oven with the fan blowing.) There is a loop road that you can drive, but … Continue reading Theodore Roosevelt National Park

We had a lot of fun in Montana. We rented an AirBnB on Echo Lake. We tried to rent on Flathead Lake, but we could not find anything available. You should be aware that most places in Montana (unless you are in a hotel) will not have air conditioning. This is usually not a problem because it doesn’t get very hot there until August. There … Continue reading Montana Adventures

This year you need a reservation to enter Glacier National Park between the hours of 6am and 5pm. In order to get said reservation you need to be on the computer at 8am. Jef did this for three days in a row before he got one. They would sell out in 90 seconds. When he got one it was like we won the National Park … Continue reading Glacier National Park: Going to the Sun Road and Polebridge

We wanted to explore the Sawtooth Mountains last year, but it was quite a trek from where we were staying. This year we rented a house right in Sawtooth City (which is not a city at all, just a group of houses and Smiley Creek Lodge/restaurant/cafe). It is in a designated dark park. The only problem is that our view has been competing with the … Continue reading Idaho and the Sawtooth Mountains

We drove through the Colorado section of Dinosaur National Monument. It beautiful with some different areas to hike, which we did not have time to do (plus it was 98 degrees). We thought that the visitor center in Utah was closing at 5pm, so we rushed over to it and found it was open until 6. The visitor center has some exhibits, but you want … Continue reading Dinosaur National Monument