Our Trip to Kentucky

As many of you know I had to travel last weekend to Central City, Kentucky for a funeral. I just want to take a moment to thank MapQuest and Expedia Maps for their amazing service. I had never driven myself to Central City, Kentucky before, especially not in the wee hours of the morning, but I just followed the directions I printed off my computer, and, 11 1/2 hours after leaving home we reached our destination. We arrived in time for breakfast. And even though our room at the Country Hearth Inn was not yet ready, they allowed us to eat the complimentary breakfast which consisted of homemade biscuits and sausage gravy, bagels, danishs, delicious waffles, and of course coffee and juice. Our experience at that hotel was wonderful.

You just can't duplicate in a big city the kind of service and friendliness you receive from a small, country town. Prime example - we got to our room and discovered that we only had 2 sets of towels and wash cloths. I spotted the cleaning lady at the end of the hall, so I stopped to ask her for more. She was a little gray-haired old lady, maybe in her 70's, undoubtedly someone's grandmother happily doing her job. I politely asked her for 2 towels and wash cloths. Her response gave me a smile - "here you go hun, these aren't folded real nice but they're clean I promise (handing me 3 or 4 wash cloths). Now how many towels did you want? You'd better take a few extra just in case (3 or 4 towels). Now I like to have one of these on the floor when I get out of the shower (handing me a bath mat). Do you need any soap, shampoo - here take a couple. How 'bout coffee, hun, do you need any coffee?" I thanked her and carried my fresh stack of towels down to our room just smiling and thinking - now that's customer service. I have stayed at hotels before where I had to speak to a manager, show my room key, 2 forms of i.d. and scan a credit card just to get an extral towel. This was refreshing.

We left Oklahoma City Thursday at 8:45 pm and arrived in Central City, Kentucky at 8:00 am the next morning. We decided to try something different for this trip and depart at the childrens' bedtime so that they would sleep the whole time. It worked out pretty well except that Clark woke up every 2 hours screaming. It was probably alarming for the other 2, but it helped keep me awake. For those keeping score at home, I consumed about 66 oz of coffee (little over 1/2 gallon), 3 or 4 cans of coke, several large handfuls of sunflower seeds, and countless other snacks. It was tough for a while but once the sun started coming up it was smooth sailing into Central City, KY.

For the ride home we decided to do some sight-seeing. We left Central City around 10:45 am, headed west through Paduccah, KY and into Metropolis, Illinois - home of Superman. Andrea had fond memories of Metropolis as a child so we wanted to share it with our kids. It was a true parenting moment. We had to wake up Clark and I found myself saying to Ryleigh "you are going to get out of this car, get your picture taken with Superman, and you're going to like it!" So we had our picture taken with Superman, visited the museum, mailed some post cards and headed down the road.

Our next stop was Dairy Queen for lunch, and aside from Clark stealing everyone's french fries, it was a delightful stop. Andrea frequented Dairy Queen as a kid, but I don't think they succeeded in Oklahoma due to the presence of Braum's. We ordered our meals and they gave us our cups to fill up at the drink station. I filled my cup with Coca-Cola and was thrilled to see 2 pump dispensers filled with your choice of Cherry or Vanilla syrup. I was quite happy to make my own Cherry Coke. The A-1 Steak Sauce flame grilled burger was outstanding, and we topped it off with a Key Lime Pie Blizzard for me and a French Silk Pie Blizzard for Andrea and the kids to share - perfect for a 100 degree day.

We stopped in St. Louis next hoping to visit the River Boat McDonald's that Andrea had visited as a child, but it had been replaced with a casino or some other tourist attraction. We walked around the arch and visited the museum beneath it. There was a gift shop where we bought a children's book about St. Louis and some View Finder slides of local attractions. We loaded up in the car, stopped 1 more time for dinner and strolled into our garage around 1:00 am - a full 14 hours after we left Kentucky and about 1,600 miles since we left home. A long trip, but one we had to make. More about the funeral next time.