Pidge goes West: The First Days

While Pidge will go North, South, and East – first she went West!

As I mentioned here, our first stop on this journey was to visit our friends in Lexington Kentucky. We set out Saturday the 13th and our 300-mile journey only took us 6.5 hours. They say for every 4 hours, add one when you’re traveling in an RV or towing something big. I tend to get really anxious about time, wasting it or things taking too long, but I knew this first trip would take a while. We were easy on ourselves and just took as many stops as we needed. (Maybe I’ll learn to chill the EFF out on this journey?! Who knows, pigs may fly!)

When we arrived in KY, our lovely friends Allie and DJ were ready for us…with all the RV gadgets we forgot or didn’t know we needed. Thank goodness for great friends! Allie had sent me a few investigative texts that day while we were driving and appeared at our RV site bearing some essential items. She had also made dinner, baked bread and chilled beer for us. They were seriously lifesavers!

Our first few days in Lexington were rainy and we were super exhausted from a week of cleaning and moving out of our house and many long nights of goodbye-ing with our friends. It was lovely to just relax in their huge, glorious RV while we ate, caught up and even watched Hocus Pocus!

When we ventured out, the first place we went was Buffalo Trace Distillery. Buffalo Trace has long been my favorite bourbon and I was super excited to check it out. I learned that its the oldest continuously operating distillery in the country. Apparently, during Prohibition, you could get a prescription for whiskey. Sign me up! The grounds and building were beautiful – we even toured a warehouse built in 1870 that has been used continuously since then. Despite all the cool history, the whiskey tasting at the end may have been my favorite part :).

 

On the first nice day we had, we ventured out to Mammoth Cave National Park – our inaugural National Park of the trip! This was my first time to KY and the drive to Mammoth Cave was really beautiful – low, rolling hills and expansive farmland. And, of course, tons of horses everywhere!

We did the History Tour at the Cave, which takes you on a 2-mile walk through the caves. When the cave was re-discovered in modern day, they found Native American lanterns TWELVE miles deep within the cave! Our guide turned off the lights at one point and used a lantern to mimic the level of light by which they would have been exploring the caves. It goes without saying that every human under the age of 4 on that tour was wailing. And then the park ranger blew out the lantern. That one got a standing ovation. Also – tuberculosis patients lived down there during the 20s. I’m sure that was good for the spirits!

 

Our trip to KY was equal parts relaxing, exploring and LEARNING! There is so much to learn about this mobile lifestyle and our friends were so incredibly helpful to us. DJ even spent an entire day fixing the plumbing work we JUST paid Camping World to do. Womp womp! But we learned a lot and feel more prepared for life on the road!