Day 39: All of Ohio

While the neighborhood of our accommodations in Louisville, KY was not ideal, it was in a beautiful building built in 1880. It was fully renovated about 15 years ago. The proprietors did a nice job. It wasn't creepy.

It kind of looks haunted in this picture, but I think it's just the angle. 

Breakfast at bed and breakfasts always tend to be very fancy.

This would be no exception

Course 1: A yogurt parfait with fruit and a piece of cinnamon cake. And I was full.

And this was my second course. Egg souffle with ham and potatoes. It was tasty, but I was already full. I ate as much as I could

James's second course was the french toast. He was in the same boat as me- too much food

We do a quick check to make sure there is nothing else we should do while in Louisville. We didn't come up with anything so we pack up the car and head out of town.

Mile 7484: Leave Louisville

...and James was trying to tell me yesterday that Kentucky is not the South. The accents, the "yall" on  a water tower? All signs point to the South

Mile 7585: Arrive in Cincinnati, OH

The Cincinnati skyline

We spot the welcome to Ohio sign. The drivers seem to be as aggressive as they are on the east coast and  tailgate like they do in WI. It seems to be the worst of all driving worlds. 

It was just about lunch time, so we break out our trusty Road Food book. It directs us to a place famous for chili (we double check that it is still in business on Yelp).

Camp Washington Chili

The inside didn't look too crazy, but the parking lot was full. They also had a drive through

I ordered a plain chili with a side of cheese. It was hard to tell if the main course was the chili or the cheese (look how huge the side of cheese is).  The chili was very good. It was sweet, had hints of cinnamon and the spice came at the end. That is the classic Cincinnati style of chili. 

James had chili 5 way. What does that mean you ask?

This is as he dug a little deeper. Chili, pasta, beans, onions, and cheese.  Amazingly, his shirt made it out unscathed. 

Cincinnati Ohio didn't seem that exciting, so we got back in the car and headed for Columbus Ohio.

We caught up on the 10 commandments during the drive

Mile 7692: Arrive in Columbus, OH

We did a little tour around town. German Village is a quaint neighborhood with cobblestone streets and brick houses. Restaurants, shops and bars are mixed throughout the neighborhood. We went through the Brewery District and there wasn't much there. It seems Columbus neighborhoods can be hit or miss.

Columbus skyline

We checked into our hotel which is just South of the North Short neighborhood. It smells like baked goods outside. We learn that there is a bakery down the street. We resist temptation and make it into our hotel. After spending most of our day in Ohio, we decided we were moving onto Pennsylvania tomorrow. This is a change as we had originally planned to "flee to the Cleve" (30 Rock reference) tomorrow.

Although our trip is hippie-style, we still need to research neighborhoods, book hotels, research dining options, driving routes, etc for every destination. It's at the point in the trip where this has become exhausting.  It's at least 2 hours worth of work every afternoon/ night (unless we are staying with friends).

Dinner time! We are meeting friends Danny and Tim. Danny suggests a place called Rigsby's in the North Short neighborhood. It's just a few blocks from our hotel.

James and I got there a little early with the plan to have a drink at the bar. Twenty five minutes later and some strange rules about bar seating, we got our glasses of wine.

North Short neighborhood. It was pretty fancy

Not allowed to sit at the bar due to reserved seating. I was a little confused. 

Dinner was delicious despite the strange bar rules.

The biggest piece of burrata I have ever seen

Half eaten again- mushroom and truffle oil risotto. It was delicious

James' sardine salad. He missed the opportunity for a picture of his gnocchi.

I can't believe that we didn't take any pictures of Tim and Danny. I swear they were there. We were so focused on remembering our food pics. After dinner, Tim insisted that we go to Jenny's for ice cream since it was right next door. As you have noted earlier, we are not big desert eaters and we have been trying to stay in shape despite our luxurious meals and hours in the car. Damn that Tim.

Jenny's

You can try as many flavors as you want. I had the salted caramel. It was decadent. 

Tomorrow: Checking out Pittsburgh PA

Day 38: A tale of two Louis's

We had a nice start to Day 38, taking our time getting up before heading to the hotel gym.  Hotel breakfast, then on to Louisville, Kentucky.

On the way out we wanted to see the famous arch a little more closely.

The arch and downtown buildings

As we got closer, we realized our route was
blocked by "A Taste of St. Louis".  We considered
stopping, but it wasn't clear when it started.

After several detours, we made it to across the
street from the arch.  It is more impressive than it looks
in our pictures.

On to Louisville.  I had trouble all day, calling St. Louis Louisville, and vice versa.  It was confusing.

Mile 7216: Right after the arch, we rolled into Illinois.

Just over the Mississippi, in East St Louis, is Barack Obama Blvd.

Not a whole lot else happened until for a while.  The roads east of the Mississippi are more familiar looking--lined with trees (not farms or desert/mountains), more trafficky and slower, with 65 or 70mph speed limits instead of 75 as is common in the west.  We drove for a while longer, then ran into Indiana.  Neither of us had been there before to our recollection (although it would be pretty easy to forget).

Mile 7342: Indiana

We passed French Lick at one point, where Larry "Legend" Bird grew up.  Somewhere in here we unwittingly stumbled into the Eastern Time Zone.

A while further down the road, we came upon Kentucky.  We debate for a while whether this is "The South" or not.  Kate thinks so, but I'm not sure.

Mile 7450: Kentucky sign

Lending support to her point, some people in Louisville had a mild Southern accent.  Kate was fascinated by the fact that people a couple hours west and north had completely different accents.   We got deep and philosophical on the question of why do people develop accents at all... we didn't come up with much in the way of answers.

We had high expectations of Louisville, unlike Kansas City and St. Louis.  We were staying in a section called "Old Louisville" which was touted as having many homes from the late 19th century.

When we arrive, it is clear that the gentrification process is not fully complete in Old Louisville.

Kate is skeptical

We drove around Louisville for a while.  There were some 'up and coming' neighborhoods, but it wasn't like we could walk to places.

We did run into this one cool-ish neighborhood along Bardstown Road.  We were able to get into the #2 restaurant in Louisville, Jack Fry's.

Jack Fry's

The interior was somewhat Tornado Room-esque

Menu was very well done.  We both had a
tough time deciding between several appealing
options.

Kate's short ribs were phenomenal.  My chicken was just OK.

We also had dessert.  I think that was maybe the second time
on the whole trip.  The turtle cheesecake was amazing.

 We went to dinner at 5:30 because the restaurant was notoriously hard to get into, and just about everything else was closed (because it was Sunday, of course).  We were tired and full after dinner, but couldn't really go to bed at 7:30, so we decided to walk around the corner to what appeared to be the Irish Pub district.

There were 5 Irish pubs on one block.

This is when we noticed one of the stranger aspects of Louisville.

It's hard to see, but this is a 'gang' of about 30 guys in their
20's and maybe 30's, riding these tiny scooters around on the
street, doing wheelies and such.  It was really odd.

These tiny scooters were then followed by slightly larger scooters, then as it got later motorcycles came out.  Just one of the several things that we felt made Louisville an odd place.

Tomorrow: Friends in Columbus

Day 37: There is Something Good in Kansas

We were in no rush this morning. We took our time before heading out to see more of Kansas City. I had no idea Kansas City would be so cute.

The Country Club neighborhood

I was a little confused about the mission style architecture, but it was so cute, I didn't care. Kansas City is very vibrant. We were excited to see the older downtown area, so drove to check it out. After one street closure, we could see something was going on. They were having a rail parade? That sounded boring, so we did an about face and decided to head to lunch.

More activities in Kansas City- Breast Cancer Awareness- they dyed the fountain pink

We almost got derailed on our way to lunch, but managed to stay in control . We skipped Bacon Fest

Our lunch destination was voted the #1 BBQ place by both Zagat's and Yelp. As we pull up, I see the line out the door. It was only 11:30. I suggest we move on, but James (who doesn't wait in line for anything) was excited to stay. It did smell good outside.

Oklahoma Joe's is a gas station/ convenience store/ bbq restaurant.

We finally make it to the front of the OUTSIDE line. Yes, the line continues inside

Great sign. Our wait was almost an hour

This was the special- the burnt end sandwich. They only have it on special day/ times. Right before we placed our order the guy added this to the specials. Burnt ends are the edges of the brisket. It is extremely tender and still has all of the seasoning from the outside edge. It was awesome. Don't worry- we only ate a couple of the fries, but they were great too.... old bay seasoning

Also awesome was the Z Man. This is what almost every review mentions on Yelp. It was brisket, provolone , onion rings and their bbq sauce. It was incredible.

I was happy we stayed, but I may need larger pants. We were leaving straight from here to St Louis MO. I pull out the map and we get on the highway. But wait- what? Somehow we were back in Kansas. We crossed into Kansas City KS from Kansas City MO. How did that happen? It turns out Oklahoma Joe's is in Kansas! We were excited to find out that there is something good about Kansas after all.

Mile 6965: Leave all of the Kansas Cities

In just 4.5 hours, we are entering St Louis

Nice touch. Not every city welcomes us

A view of the arch from our hotel. We got a great deal on Hotel Tonight, but it was stressful. You don't know what's available until noon the day of your stay. We used it a couple times and it has some nice hotels.

We walked around St Louis for a bit.

St Louis also turned out to be a cute city

Look at all of this culture... the world's largest chess piece. The sign you see on the right shows you the scale. 

James ducked into this place called Culpeppers. I was confused about why, until...

Yeah. Virginia Tech was playing. This is James not caring about Virginia Tech. I'm not sure his words and actions were aligned.

After another tragic Virginia Tech game, we head out to dinner.

We went to a tapas restaurant called Taste

It was terrific weather, so we sat outside. Isn't this cute?

We needed some greenery, so we ordered the chopped salad. All that white stuff was blue cheese. I'm not a fan of blue cheese, so I was hoping I could eat around it. No luck.

I know, we were doing so good for a while there. My new trick is to put my iphone where the plate will go. It backfired this time. This was amazing. It was a little masa cake on the bottom, barbacoa (shredded beef) on top, with red onions, cilantro and queso fresco. Yum.

Tomorrow: A close up view of the arch and then on to Louisville, KY