On The Go With Lou: The Sojourn has ended

My sojourn came to an abrupt end when I walked in the door of 9853! The kitchen sink won't drain and the dishwasher is broken - thus a messy kitchen. I forgot to put "water the plants" on my list of things to do while I was gone - thus - dead plants. A few light bulbs through out the house need to be replaced but other than that I guess all is well here. It was just a little, tiny bit depressing. This morning there is no coffee but I am making some tea - this is a real downer - I have an entire house to clean, grocery shopping to do and then mail to organize and here I sit blogging.....but I have to finish the blog - just in case anyone is reading this.....

We left Aunt Mary's bright and late Sunday morning - our destination - Central City Cafe in Huntington, West Virginia. It's another place off of the TV show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. We were both excited to try out another one of the featured cafes - unfortunately it was Sunday and the cafe was closed - so we found a fantastic Mexican place and ate a nice dinner there. We decided to forge on and try to get to Lexington Kentucky before calling it a day. I drove - Mike slept. Before I knew it Lexington was but a memory. I was in the groove, cruising through the night listening to music. Mike woke up and said "If we are going to stop at Bardstown tomorrow we don't need to go all the way to Louisville" I said "Oh" He looked at the map and we got off the highway at 9:00 at night and entered into horse country! Too bad it was dark because the places we passed looked way cool. Hilly roads with what appeared to be rock fences surrounding the properties. Big houses, really big and lots of them had these elaborate lights on the roof. Really fancy lights - I commented on them and Mike said they were the horse barns! He said these horse people have lots of money and make lots of money off their horses so they take good care of them. If you have to be an animal pick being a horse in Kentucky! I will be going back there in the day light. Long story short we got all turned around in the back country but the GPS lady saved the day once again and we arrived in Bardstown at about 11:00pm. Got a hotel room

Mike outside the hotel room.

just in time to see the end of the Emmy's and then crashed. Upon awakening we headed out to the Abbey of Gethsemani. Years ago Mike used to go on retreats there and he wanted to show me the place. It is 2000 acres of beauty! We walked around a little bit and decided that we would both come back someday for some reflective thought. Next we went in to one of the cutest little towns I've ever been in - Bardstown! Which, by the way is the Bourbon capital of the world! We didn't have time to visit any of the distilleries so on my way back to the cafe in Huntington I'll be stopping Bardstown for a few distillery tours. Anyway we had lunch in Bardstown at a cute, old fashioned lunch counter - remember those???

Mike at the lunch counter -

notice my Black Cow on the counter

yummy.....

We ended our stay in Bardstown doing a little shop hopping on Main Street - then it was on the road again. Mike said he thought there was one more cute town to see in Indiana if we had time. I said "You don't have to be in court until 9am tomorrow - we have plenty of time!" So off we went and ended up in another one of the cutest towns I've ever been to! I'm telling you - forget Europe - I'm discovering America! Anyway this town is called New Harmony, Indiana - it's only 2 hours from St Louis......do I hear the words Road Trip????? Anyone? Anyone? I purchased a calendar from New Harmony that lists all of their events this year. I plan on going to at least one of them. While we were at Aunt Mary's we rented the movie Julie & Julia. In one of the scenes Julia Child and her husband are at dinner. They are talking and she says "I really need to find something do to - a way to spend my time." He smiled at her and replied "What do you like to do?" She looked down at her plate and looked up at him and said "Eat!!!" A light went on in my head and I thought "Hey - that's what I like to do." So my new adventure is going to be going to as many places from the TV show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives that I can. I'll do a write up and let people know if it's as good as Guy tells us it is on his show! Then I'll purchase a T-Shirt, take my picture in it and post it to my blog. What do you think? Is is a go? Will anyone want to read it? Will anyone join me at one of the diners, drive-ins or dives?

Sadly my trip has come to an end - I'm back in my kitchen where this whole adventure began. Now I have a house to clean, clothes to wash and a plumber to find. But - one last picture - of me in front of a cute, darling little store in Bardstown.....