Day 12 – The Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill

Tuesday, July 27, 2010


The drive down US 60 to the Shaker Village gave us a preview of horse country. Many big farms are along this route. The largest was Ashland that stretched on for several miles. We arrived just in time for several programs.

Our first stop was the Meeting House where the Shakers held group events. There one of the docents gave a brief talk on Shaker history and beliefs, focusing on music and dance. Originally (early 1800’s) the music was in ‘tongues” and the singer went into wild gyrations, hence the name Shakers. Within a few years the music was put to words. The docent, Donna, gave demonstrations of the early tongues, music, and movements. The movements quickly evolved into more traditional dance steps. Donna sang and danced to several hymns in the traditional fashion. This was quite a show as she has an outstanding voice.

Some of the Shakers beliefs were: duality of God, both father and mother of all humans, absolute equality among the sexes and races, communal living and property, and finally total celibacy. This was a rather interesting group of diverse people who were very interested in technology. They invented the flat broom. We saw these being made in one of the craft shops. Interestingly, one of the major reasons attributed to the Shaker decline and extinction was the failure to adapt to the industrial revolution after the Civil War. The Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill disbanded in 1910, heavily in debt with only a few elderly members.



Our next stop on the tour was the Center Family Dwelling. Men and women were segregated to one side of the building. Children who came to the Society with their parents lived in separate group rooms. They had group bedrooms, 3 to a room, a communal dining room, and kitchen and food storage areas. The furniture is Spartan.

Bedroom and Office

School room for children

Communal dining area with quilt rack

There were 3 Family dwelling groups of buildings, Center, East and West. Each group had its own out buildings such as Brethren’s Shops, Sisters Shops, Wash House, and other specialized craft buildings. We visited the Brethren’s Shop,s including coopers shop where a new yolk is being crafted for the 2 new oxen and broom making shop.

Broom making shop original brethern designed equipment for flat brooms - raw materials

Coopers Shop

Cooper at work on new yolk for baby oxen

The Wash House is a separate building where all laundry was done. The Sister’s Shop had both wool spinning and rag rug weaving in progress. All the shops were in operation. The docents are masters of their crafts, making actual products that are either used in the displays or sold in the gift shops.

Spinning yarn and finished yarn died different colors

New linen dresser cloth. It takes 2 days of hard work to set this machine up!

We ended our day at the Shaker Village with a late lunch at the Shaker Village Hotel. The food was very good. We each had different entrees and only one was disappointing, chicken croquettes. We finished our meal with one of their special lemon pies. These aren’t traditional. They are 2 crust pies with a whole lemon filling. Whole lemons are sliced thin and allowed to sit overnight in sugar. To my taste they had a strong lemon sweet and sour flavor. I liked it. What I liked best was the Colonel’s Choice, an iced tea with a wee little bit of 100 proof bourbon and Cointreau. I think Donna and Pat liked it too!

The group with 7 month old steer and heifer being trained as oxen.

They will spend their entire lives as a team.

Forrest and Pat

Day 11 – Farewell to Louisville

Monday, July 26, 2010

The Rally folks announced we had until 11 am to hit the road. What they didn’t say was the generators were being shut down at 9 am. This wasn’t an issue for us since we had a generator, but for those with travel trailers (Walt and Cathy), the heat returned very fast. We bid farwell to Walt and Cathy and Jim and Sandy who were heading out in different directions. Dean and Jean left last night, late after getting some new window shades installed.

We had an uneventful drive to Frankfort to our new home for 4 nights, Elkhorn Campground. It has grass, trees and shade! We stopped in a Flying J for lunch. This place had 8' wide and 40' long 'parking for RV's. Maneuvering space was near non-existant. We all hung over fore, aft, starboard, and port. The food was horrible...undercooked chicken, dried out fish and something that resembled turkey slices! Only thing good was the ice cream. I certainly do not see what other RVers rave about in these dumps! This dump was at Exit 43 off I-64! Avoid it!

Ann bought a cake to celebrate Katherine’s birthday…an ancient 32! Forrest and Pat got ice cream, so we had an outdoors birthday party! Happy Birthday Katherine! We had to eat both cartons of ice cream...it was melting! A tough chore but we managed!

Day 10 – The Belle of Louisville

Sunday, July, 25, 2010


The Belle is a true steam powered stern-wheeler built in 1916. They do have a calliope that was played before departure. Since we were unaware of how things worked and we had a large party, we got there early. Since we were on the ball, so were they. Our group of 16 Potomac Dogwoods was seated at 3 adjoining tables, two next to the windows. The second deck with the dining room is air-conditioned. This was a huge plus, as it was extremely hot and humid again today. The high was 94 today, with a dew point of 73. That puts the heat index at well over 100! It was cooler today…Hah! Enjoying the splendid sunshine before boarding:

Our meal was served right after departure. The meal was a buffet featuring the standard fried chicken, ham and roast beef. Amazingly, about 200 diners got served in about 15 minutes with no fuss! Beer was $3.50 for a 16 oz draught. The food was good. A live blue grass group entertained our group. We had good food, good music, and a relaxing afternoon watching the Ohio River slip by. A great way for the Dogwoods to get together and spend the last day in Louisville. By the way, the correct pronunciation is "Loo-Vill."

After the cruise we drove across the river to view the Rapids of the Ohio River. Yes there really are rapids on the Indiana side just below the dam. The area is quite pretty and you can go fossil hunting out on the limestone shelves. It was much too hot for that today! We ate so much on-board we all voted to pass on a boutique ice cream parlor we stumbled across! Not an every day happening!

Also, we did not go over for the amateur hour entertainment (?)! Now if Jim E. was singing….  We did hear the entertainment was excellent! A distinct improvement over the previous night with "professionals"(?).

Day 9 – Off to Bardstown and My Old Kentucky Home

Saturday, July 24, 2010


Today Katherine wanted to stay here with Cathy. Ok with us. We got a good start and headed south to My Old Kentucky Home State Park, where the house is located. The Park is beautiful with old Oak trees dotting the lush green grass landscape. The house is nestled among the trees and has six rooms included in the tour. As with almost all ante-bellum mansions, the designs are nearly identical. You enter into a grand wide hall that stretches to the back of the house. My Old Kentucky Home is a bit different, being “L” shaped. There are two rooms on the left and one on the right. As both the first and second floors have 16’ ceilings, the staircase is “U” shaped with a landing. The original 3rd floor had 16’ ceilings but burned off. When the house was repaired the ceiling heights were lowered. This floor is closed to the public. Three generations of the Brown family lived in the house. The property was sold to the state in 1922.

Stephen Foster was a family cousin. He was visiting this house when he wrote “My Old Kentucky Home,” the Kentucky State song that is sung before every Kentucky Derby. Much of the furnishings are original with the rest being period pieces. Interestingly, the house never had indoor plumbing! When the house was last refurbished to 1840’s decor, they used period wallpapers. To say the least, the patterns are bold and busy! The windows must be 10’ tall and the heavy curtains are “puddled” on the floor. No pictures are allowed in the house.

The Guides told of several macabre happenings in the house. During the first generation, a party was held for some family celebration. Attendees drank well water contaminated with cholera, nine died, including 3 family members. The second event involved the second-generation occupant. He and his wife were caring for a sick young child. She left the room, he sat on the windowsill for some air, drifted off to sleep, and fell out the window to his death. The sick child grew up and married but had no children. She lived to the age of 84 and died two years after selling the house to the State.

We stopped and walked around the old downtown of Bardstown. Several buildings appear to have cast iron decorations of the front. There is an old drug store that still has a functioning lunch counter!

Our final stop was the Heaven Hill Distilleries and the Bourbon Heritage Center. We could have signed up for a tour, but the next was the 1 ½ hour Deluxe Tour. We passed on that but enjoyed the small museum. I was good, no tasting! And yes it was free!

We passed on tonight’s entertainment, a Neil Diamond imitator. Reports were the band was good but the lead singer was NOT anywhere close to the real thing! Glad we did not rush dinner!

Day 8 – Louisville High Light Tour

Friday, July 23, 2010

Our Tour departed right on time for Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby Museum. As we drove up we saw the traffic and crowd control fences all over the area. We wondered what the “Hullaballoo” was. Well, we found out, the “Hullaballoo” is a 3-day music rock music festival, starting today! We finally got into the dive in front of the Museum after the bus driver moved some barricades. We received a resounding non-welcome, portending bad things to come. They took us out into the Museum garden to see the real thoroughbred they have. This was all very nice, but where’s the “walking tour of the track,” “the signature Twin Spires,” and the famous Grandstand with the Millionaire Rows promised in the Tour promotional materials? They are not happening today or any time this weekend! At this point my blood pressure went ballistic. I quietly asked the Guide about it. She said Good Sam/Affinity was informed some time ago that the Tour could not go on as planned. OK, speak to the Good Sam/Affinity folks back home. some "Museum pictures and our sole view of Churchill Downs are below.

The rest of the tour went as promised. The Museum had fine 360-degree movie on the Derby. There are many historical exhibits and you can se all past races. Katherine did a race on the simulator and won! Good for her. After the Museum we had a barbeque lunch at Mark’s Feed Store. The food was very good although we were really packed in. We had too many people in too small a facility

After lunch we drove downtown where the sights we pointed out. Our final stop was the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum in Louisville. Unfortunately we were packed in the Theater. Two full buses at one time are too many people for them to handle, just like lunch. Formerly, bats were turned by hand, now it’s all automated. Some steps are manual, especially for major league players. They get only the top quality wood. The logo and signatures are burned on individually as is the finishing where they are hand dipped in the lacquer finish.

Well, once back at the Rally I headed directly to the Tour desk where they appeared to be completely unaware of the Churchill Downs fiasco. They said they were never told of the change and agreed it was significant. I suggested a partial refund to all tour participants was in order. We’ll see what happens. My major gripe is we do not get to see Churchill Downs, which was the single most important site I came to see! Had we known we could have gone any day prior to today!!! Put this together with a call from my brother about my sister-in-laws health put me in somewhat of a foul mood. It’s amazing what a couple of “T-N-T’s” will do!

Tonight’s entertainment was Tanya Tucker. She put on a great show featuring many of her past hits. She also did several from her newest album that features county classics of the past. Her daughter also did 2 numbers without mom. She too has that great voice. After the show we ran into Walt and Lilli H. who were with us on the Great River Road Caravan.

Day 8 – Get Her Fixed!

Thursday, July 22, 2010


This is the way we fix the rig, fix the rig, fix the rig. I hopped in the car and drove around the Fair Grounds looking for the mobile repair folks I met yesterday. I caught them just getting started over by the Expo Center. A quick check of the rig determined my charger/converter (original equipment) was trash and was so from the day it was designed, let alone built (in China of course). He said I was lucky it lasted nearly 6 years. I went off to Camping World in the Rally Expo to buy a new one. Called the repair guy and they beat me to the rig. We are now back in operation at full voltage! Wonder of wonders, the RV status board now works again! I think it might like a full 12v to work properly. While at the Expo I arranged with Roadmaster to get my tow bar serviced. I picked that up later in the day after a complete disassembly, cleaning, and replacement of the seals. I asked how much? Nothing! It was free! I got an earfull about WD-40 and tow bars...never the twain shall meet!

While I was doing the work, Donna and Katherine went to the Expo to wander the aisles and see all the stuff. I went over and did the same in the afternoon. We decided to permanently abandon the Rally shuttle service with old school busses with no A/C. In my opinion they are dangerous to health with outdoor temperatures in the mid-90’s and heat indices in the mid-100’s.

We had cold sandwiches and a salad for dinner tonight. We made it to the fountain in front of the Freedom Hall for the VA group picture. Opps! Wrong night. We did get reasonably decent seats for the evening entertainment, Bob Newhart. He did about an hour routine, which included some video. I enjoyed the show immensely, but you really must appreciate his extremely dry style of humor!

After the show we ran into Bernard and Margie, glad to catch up with them! We got back to the rig and it had cooled sufficiently to sit outside. Turned out to be a decent evening and no bugs to bother us. I guess we can conclude the day with “Mission Accomplished.”

Day 7 – We are here!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Most of us had a lazy day. I rained hard overnight. Our “dusty” of yesterday became greasy gray mud this morning. So everyone must shed their shoes before coming indoors! We went to register this morning and got our badges and other goodies. As we drove around we noted we are in the ONLY non-paved lots. There must 50 acres of unused paved lots nearby, which are also closer to everything! The shuttle service is terrible which is why we drove. On the way out we visited the antique RV display. Some neat old trailers and their owners were there to talk all about them. They were really neat. We will go back and take some pictures.


I went back to the rally office to complain about the mud and who was there but our old friend Jan. Quite appropriate to be “grumpy” and be there to bitch and run into Jan! ;-) If you know Jan you understand. Dave was working elsewhere. Dave and Jan were Dogwoods and Dave was VA State Director.

Forrest and Pat arrived today. They drove by this afternoon and visited for a bit. They are on the other side of the complex from us. Also here are Bernard and Marjorie from Richmond, also former Dogwood members. Marjorie is a former Dogwood President. So I guess that makes a total of 10 current or former Dogwoods here at The Rally.