Walkabout on Wheels

Well, Tuesday we left Thousand Trails behind. They didn’t actually come by in the morning to make sure we were leaving, which was a pleasant surprise. Our drive to Louisville Metro was uneventful, thankfully. We didn't even stop at this intriguing flea market. And we found the bike shop with only one turn around. Mapquest gave us the wrong directions. Oh, well. Brian’s bike was giving out on him the night before. So not only did he get lost trying to get back to the campground, he was having the bike stall on him every few minutes to boot! I already said that, but whatever.

Anyway, we dropped it off and made our way to Louisville Metro KOA, the campground I had reserved. It sounded nice on paper, with free WiFi, cable TV, a pool a block away, and right next to Louisville. It was also only a mile away from the bike shop, and right next door to an RV service place. I forgot to mention that things have slowly been falling off of our trailer: two weather strip type things on our first jaunt to the Berkshires and then on the way to Lake George, the clothes hanger in the closet (!), and a piece of the bench in our dinette. So as I was saying, the placed looked great on paper. Why do I say on paper?

Well, we checked in and that went fine. We had to back into the site, but it seemed on the map to be spacious. Okay. So we drove past the office and into the campground. But all we saw was asphalt. There were a few grassy spaces in the middle, but, well, it was a parking lot with hookups, pretty much. Given that, however, our site was pretty sweet comparatively. We were in the corner, so we had privacy. Our door was facing a fence, and we had extra room on one side because we were the end of the dog walk path. Internet and cable worked. And there are both indoor and outdoor pools at the Holiday Inn for our swimming pleasure. So here we are still, though we are leaving tomorrow morning. Brian can’t take staying in a parking lot any longer. I think we will be hitting Louisville South KOA in Kentucky. I am pushing for Bowling Green next. They have a GM assembly plant there, and I would love to take Z, who, as you may know, has been asking how cars are made.

So after setting up at our site, for our first night in Louisville/Clarksville, we decided to go out on the town. We went in to Louisville and had dinner at Morton’s. I was so excited to finally have their veal chop again. But wait! No veal chop! AAAARRRGH! They removed it from their menu. I guess the last time I went to a Morton’s maybe two years ago the veal chop was pretty skimpy and crappy, but STILL! Better a crappy Sicilian veal chop than no veal chop at all. I was so discombobulated by this development that I ordered a salad for dinner (and used the word ‘discombobulated’). I never order salad as an entrée. Neeeverrrrrr!

On a more positive note, we walked around the town afterwards. Louisville is a beautiful city. I don’t know why that surprised me, but it did. It is full of charming little details, and grandiose flashy delights for tourists and residents. We were directed to an area called Fourth Street Live, but were sidetracked when Zorah’s eyes lit upon a horse-drawn carriage, all white and shiny à la Cinderella. We took a carriage ride through the streets of Louisville. Billy Bob clip-clopped along, and Catherine told us a bit about the city. She was charmed by Zorah, who absolutely loved every minute of it.

Fourth Street Live was bright lights and Hard Rock Café type stuff. You know, flashy. We didn’t stay there too long. It was more fun to walk around away from the lights and see the odd sculptures planted throughout. Here are some pictures from our explorations. These tree holders all had different posts such as beds and various people. Who? I don't know. I didn't have time to read the inscriptions.

Today was a painful administrative day. Tom Stinnett RV and Camping World, right over the fence from us, would not send someone over to fix our trailer. No service calls to the place just a hop away. And it took them two days to answer my messages. Bigger is definitely not better in this case. They are HUGE! I guess they don’t need anymore business than they already have, and their customer service skills reflected that. Jerks. The other RV place in town would have done it, but they happened to lose a technician today. So nothing was accomplished as far as the trailer goes, but at least B’s bike got fixed.

The highlights of our day were Brian tossing Z around the pool, and going for the first time (I’m pretty sure) to dinner theatre! Now, usually Brian wouldn’t go for something like that, but he actually suggested it. Why? Because they were featuring ‘The Wizard of Oz’. To be honest, that surprised me even more. He had suggested that we get rid of all that Hollywood nonsense, especially any movies where anything mean happens. I was happy. I thought it would be fun, and I knew Z would love it. Ian was game, too. He has been really happy and pretty good about going along with the corny things we sometimes do. Like dinner theater.

So, yes, Zorah loved it. She was laughing, clapping, and bouncing up and down in her seat. Not fidgety bouncing, mind you. Happy bouncing. When Glinda went away on her bubble, waving goodbye to the Munchkins, Z waved too. When the cat was dancing, Z danced a bit too. It was so much fun to watch her watching. The play itself was surprisingly enjoyable, with the only negative thing being the Dorothy’s choice of voice. It sounded like she was a genetic lab experiment splicing Judy Garland and Barbara Streisand. Very weird.

# posted by Rissa and Zorah @ 9:59 PM