Back to that same old place, Sweet Home Chicago!

This year was our first Independence Day as American citizens. And the celebrations were as diverse as America itself: 

First the neighborhood party and backyard fireworks in rural Kentucky, then a patriotic symphony concert in Indiana and finally, on the actual 4th of July, 96 floors above the city of Chicago! Looking down at the city lights and the fireworks 1,000 feet below reminded us why Chicago was the place that made Sandra and me fall in love with America 30 years ago. Happy Birthday, America!

Celebrating America's Birthday in Chicago

But let’s pick up where we were at the end of the last blog post: Leaving Kentucky with the toilet brush head stuck in Joy’s septic tank….or so we thought. We had spent the better part of our last day in Kentucky trying to get it out. Well, technically, we spent the worse part of the day doing that. At some point we gave up, not realizing that on the very last flush, the brush head must have finally made its way through the drain pipe. Had we checked just one more time, we would have never met the nice people at the RV repair shop and we would have had to think of something else to do with those $300.

Digital Ceiling at the
Indianapolis Museum of Art

One of our favorite attractions on this trip was Conner Prairie in Indiana (Thank you, Ute for the suggestion!). This historical park and living history museum was right up our alley! Way up actually: The very first thing we did at Conner Prairie was to take a tethered helium balloon up to 370 feet above the park. This ride commemorates the historic 1859 balloon ride from Indiana to New York, which was the very first airmail delivery, predating even the Pony Express!

View from the balloon ride 
down at Conner Prairie

Next, we went to the Indian camp at Conner Prairie, where we had an interesting talk with a member of the Delaware Indian tribe. We really need to come up with better names. Calling them Indians simply because Columbus didn’t know where he was 531 years ago does not make sense. And Delaware might be the official name given to this tribe, but it’s not their real name, it was just the name of a close by river, which is named after Lord de la Warr from England. The real name of the tribe is 'Lenape', but apparently, they are ok being called Delaware Indians, just as long as we don’t make them move again.

Delaware Indian, not from India,
and not even from Delaware

They had to relocate 17 times, which obviously was a tragic injustice at the time, but comes in handy now because they were given the right to do business and being exempt from paying taxes in any of the locations they were chased away from. And in the last half century, America has gotten a little better at honoring the treaties made with native tribes, so they take advantage of that mostly by opening up casinos. And in an ironic reversal of history, now they are getting white people drunk to take their money.

William Conner is the namesake of this park and you can still visit his 1823 home. The Conners have an interesting family tree since it includes Europeans, Native Americans, Europeans raised as Native Americans and Natives raised by Europeans. The home of the Conners was the hub of activity in the area, their dining room also doubled as a post office and bank at times.

The “Prairie Town” at Conner Prairie is set in 1836. Which means we got there just a few weeks after the fateful events at the Alamo down in Texas. But most of the town seemed unaware of this or they didn’t remember. We enjoyed talking to the townsfolk, including the physician, the blacksmith and the storekeeper. 

General Store of the fictional Prairie Town,
where it's always 1836

Time flies by when you are having fun. Just when we thought it was time to leave, we realized it was 1863 and the Confederate troops attacked. They ransacked the store we were in and burned down a house. But don’t worry, we heard that the Union troops came to the rescue soon after we left.

This part of the park is set in 1863,
which means this poor building gets
attacked by Confederates every day

We stayed at the Conner Prairie until the evening, when they held their annual “Star Spangled Symphony”. This is a patriotic symphony concert featuring American classics and classical American music. And Scott, the Emcee of the evening, just happens to be our friend Ute’s college buddy. 

"The Star Spangled Symphony"
at Conner Prairie

We met Scott during intermission and to our surprise, he thought that our story of coming to America, living in Hawaii, roadtripping through the country and now celebrating our first 4th of July as American citizens fit right in with the patriotic theme of the evening. So after intermission, he told the story on stage and we got a round of applause from a few thousand people just for doing what we love doing.

With Ute's college buddy Scott

The concert was cut short by one song because of an approaching thunderstorm. Weirdly enough, they continued the whole fireworks show, even while demanding that everybody leaves the amphitheater. For the grand finale of the fireworks, there were only a handful of people left. Maybe the organizers were afraid of being sued. That is such an American thing, it would fit very well with the patriotic theme.

Happy 247th Birthday, America!

We had time for one more round of disc golf, one more BBQ and then it was time to get Joy ready for storage while we are heading to Europe. We found a nice, secure summer home for her outside of Chicago. We promised her to be back in time to bring her somewhere warmer before the winter.

Joy's home, sweet home for three months

We spent 4 days in Chicago with our friends Terry & Jeanne. This was serendipitous timing since our friend Achim from Germany was visiting them at the same time. Luckily, they have a large enough place to accommodate this German invasion. 

Seems like a few new buildings popped up
 just since we were in Chicago last year

As mentioned before, Chicago is the city that made Sandra and me fall in love with America. So it’s only appropriate that we spent our first 4th of July as Americans here. Just walking through the city is an experience, whether it’s through the free Lincoln Park Zoo, along Lake Shore Drive, on the Magnificent Mile, along the Riverwalk or through the deep canyons between the skyscrapers in the Loop. We already picked out a few condos that we will probably never buy.

We love the new and improved
Chicago River Walk

We will also never get tired of taking the architectural cruises on the Chicago River. There is always a new building added or we simply forgot the stories behind the old buildings. 

View from the 96th floor at the Hancock
during the day

...and at night!

Our favorite Chicago traditions is to go up to the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor of the John Hancock building. It is a happy coincidence that the place with our favorite view also serves our favorite cocktail. We actually went there twice, the second time was on the actual 4th of July when we could see the fireworks going off all over the city. We love the Signature Lounge as much as 30 years ago, the only difference is that now we can afford to order a second round of ’Signature Coladas’.

The Signature Colada,
just as good as 30 years ago!

Not to be outdone by the Conner Prairie and to extend the festive season, Chicago also organized a patriotic symphony concert. This one was on the 5th of July at Grant Park and was even free. Unfortunately, the thunderstorm came even earlier this time. Only about 20 minutes into the concert the skies opened up and the musicians and audience ran for cover. 

At Grant Park Music Festival,
Terry caught one of the flashes! 

Our new Chicago tradition is to visit the Driehaus Museum just around the corner from Terry and Jeanne. It’s a Gilded Age Mansion with an interesting history and changing exhibits, the current one being about Hector Guimard and the Art Nouveau movement.

At the Driehaus Museum, a Gilded Age
mansion between the skyscrapers 

One place that will definitely not become a tradition is the ‘Harry Potter Magic at Play’ experience. It sounded interesting, but I thought it was almost comically bad. The only good thing about it was the lighting. By that I mean that the lighting was so good that, even if you tried, you could not avoid seeing the string on the feather, which you were supposedly lifting with a magic wand. At least I found out that I am a Hufflepuff, but later I learned that this was just a random recoding in the background, not even a random announcement from the sorting hat. And what's the point of building platform 9 1/2 if you can't walk through the wall? So many missed opportunities.

Don't judge by the smiles and save your money,
instead of going to the Harry Potter experience,
have another Signature Colada!

Now we are on the plane to Europe. Even though the baby in front of us has stopped crying, we did not change our mind about having one. But we are sure glad our parents did, so we are on our way to spend some time with them and thank them for that.

And that’s the news from Lake Michigan, where all Germans come to celebrate America, where all the Catan games are exciting and all the buildings are taller than average.
Aloha,
Chris & Sandra

The best of Kentucky - from Lucky to Yucky!

We had been to Kentucky a few times before, but it was the only state we had never slept in. Now we not only know what it’s like to sleep in Kentucky, we even know what it’s like to sleep on the grounds at the Kentucky State Capitol! We now also know who the Shakers were and why they are no more. And we learned that, as nice as Kentuckians are, our favorite Kentuckians are the ones from Indiana and Ohio.

Bourbon is everywhere in Kentucky

We spent our first Kentuckian night at the Carter Caves State Park. We toured three different caves, including one with a waterfall and one that was used to mine saltpeter during the War of 1812. There is also a very cool natural tunnel. This state park is nothing to sneeze at, but was great to snooze at. 

Natural Bridge (or Tunnel?) at the Carter Caves State Park

We spent our second night in Kentucky at the “Abettor Brewing Company”. At first,we thought that was a weird name. Now that I understand the double entendre, I think it’s a better brewing company name. 

"Abettor Brewing Company"
is a better brewing company

And they actually did have (even) better beers than most breweries! But we thought the best part was talking to the owner, who has once lived on Molokai out of all places! He didn’t look familiar, but we might have seen him from our lanai once.

Caves and beer are accepted in Kentucky, but the state law says that after two days in Kentucky, you have to do something related to bourbon or horses. We are pretty sure that drinking our Bourbon from Virginia didn’t count, so we visited the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. We enjoyed learning about the evolution of horses, about the different breeds and actually meeting some Triple Crown winners. 

At the Kentucky Horse Park

Amongst other things, the Kentucky Horse Park specializes in serving as a retirement home for champion race horses. I think it’s really nice that the horses who made millions of dollars in prize money for their owners get to retire in comfort and are celebrated as rock stars long after their racing careers. We got to meet “Funny Cide”, who apparently was a very beloved underdog because he was owned by a bunch of regular folks instead of some rich guy. Because there were so many owners, they traveled in a school bus to the races, rather than in the customary limousine.  

I never realized how similar
horse and human skeletons are 

We thought the Horse Park was interesting, but I can only imagine how fascinating this place must be for somebody who enjoys horses as much as we enjoy presidents. Speaking of presidents: Lincoln was born here, but left at age 7, so he is rightfully claimed by Illinois. Other than that, there is not much presidential history in Kentucky, but that doesn’t stop us. If you think we’d retire from road trips when we have been to all presidential libraries and birthplaces, think again. In Lexington alone we visited the homes of Mary Todd Lincoln and of Henry Clay. And if we try to visit all the sites of first ladies and of people who tried but never became president, we’ll never run out of sites to see.

Mary Todd Lincoln House in Lexington

Up until that point, Kentuckians had been very nice to us. But of course it pales in comparison to the hospitality of our friends Elke & Mark at their Kentucky lake house. By coincidence, we arrived there on my birthday and they were not just willing, but eager to play games with us. My favorite was “Piece o’Cake”, my kind of birthday cake and no sugar headache!

Birthday Cake game with Elke & Carl

They don’t just have game loving neighbors like our new friend Carl, they also have neighbors willing to put on a 4th of July party a week early, just so these two new Americans can celebrate two Independence Day parties in their first year as citizens. 

Just a little backyard fireworks show

Happy Birthday, America!

The only risk of staying at Elke’s of course is that you could starve. They don’t offer their guests much to eat, other than breakfast, lunch, dinner and a few snacks in between. But that’s where our friend Brad came to the rescue, driving all the way to Kentucky with 20 pounds of the best non-German potato salad we ever had.

Breakfast with old and new friends

We had heard about the “Shakers” many times, but really had no idea who they are. If you are equally unaware, I strongly recommend visiting the “Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill” by Harrodsburg, KY. Or, if that’s not on your route, you can just read the next few paragraphs. It won’t be as much fun as visiting this fabulous site, but at least you’ll know what’s shaking: 

Technically, Shakers are called “The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing”, but that’s not a catchy name. The term Shaker was first a derogatory name based on their spontaneous dancing during worship. But when they realized they needed a catchier name to recruit people, they embraced the term “Shakers”. 

 

Garden and home of the hardworking,
forward thinking, celibate, dancing Shakers

The movement was started by disillusioned Quakers in England. They started their own religion based on the revolutionary idea of equality between genders and races. Yes, these people believed that a black woman had the same values and rights as a white man. No wonder people thought they were crazy. 

They came to America in 1774, just in time for the revolution. This “Shakertown” was one of their Utopian Societies, where they lived as a commune, sharing all the work and all the wealth. They were hard working and pretty successful for almost a century. But there were three reasons for their eventual downfall: 

1. As pacifists, they did not fight in civil war, but they helped the hungry and the wounded on either side, depleting their own resources. 

2. They emphasized teaching young members numerous skills and crafts, many left when they grew up and could put those skills to use for their own benefit instead of the whole community. 

3. They demanded celibacy from all of their members, eliminating the most obvious recruiting option. 

Excellent tour at the Shaker Village

Shakers still exist, but there’s only two elderly Shakers in Maine left, of course both of them celibate. Soon, there will be no Shakers left, but at least their crazy ideas of equality for all genders and races is slowly catching on.

Old Fort Harrod State Park is a reconstruction of the first European outpost in what is now Kentucky, but was the wild west part of Virginia in 1775. The history of this place is slightly different, but the exhibits were familiar: We’ve seen a lot of historical craftsmen and women, but we probably need to see a few more before we can make our own soap, weave our own cloth or forge our own tools.

Old Fort Harrod State Park

Frankfort is one of the smallest state capital cities and one of our favorite. Like many other states, they learned the hard way that stone buildings are more fireproof than wood buildings. The current Kentucky State Capitol is the 4th capitol building. It’s our number 33 1/2 for those of you keeping track, which I assume is nobody.  

The building from the outside is your normal state capitol, impressive, but not unique. But we loved the inside with the open halls and staircases and the dome actually changes colors. There is a larger than life Lincoln statue in the center of the rotunda. It’s nice they embrace the “Great Emancipator”, even though he left the state at age seven. Up until 2020, they also honored the other Kentucky born president, even though he was the president of the sworn enemy of the United States. Now there is a prominent empty space. Knowing Kentucky, they probably will fill it soon with a horse or a barrel of bourbon.

Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort

Our favorite thing about the Kentucky State Capitol was that they let us park overnight on the capitol grounds…that was a first for us. Just shows, it never hurts to ask. 

Impressive Covid Memorial on the
Kentucky Capitol grounds,
first one we have seen anywhere

I will not bore you with all the details of the other museums and historical buildings we toured in Frankfort. But here’s the most interesting little bit of history, which I will share so that we don’t have an unfair advantage in the next trivia game: No state governor has ever been assassinated. But a governor has died of an assassin’s bullet. What? How is that possible?

In November 1899 William Goebel narrowly lost the election, but did not concede. While the investigation was still ongoing, he was shot. The very next day, the General Assembly overturned the results and Goebel was sworn in immediately, only to die three days later. So he wasn’t a governor when he was shot, but he did become the only governor to die by assassination. 

Still think we are more divided than ever today?

Since this all happened over a century ago, I think of it as interesting history…so why did I title this blog “from Lucky to Yucky”? Well, we felt pretty lucky that we got to experience this beautiful state and spend time with old and new friends. We also felt lucky to find this beautiful campground right at the confluence of the Kentucky and Ohio river for our last night in Kentucky…and then it turned yucky:

Our toilet brush has a brush that is screwed on. Or I should rather say that was screwed on. Now it’s in our black water tank and all our attempts to get it out have been unsuccessful. Unfortunately, a toilet brush head is almost perfectly designed to clog a drain pipe and Joy’s drain pipe is almost perfectly designed not to be easily accessible. So tomorrow we will try to get some professional help, so that we are just happy-go-lucky again, not happy-and-yucky-go-lucky.

Aloha,

Chris & Sandra

Almost heaven, West Virginia

Almost heaven, West Virginia
Appalachian Mountains, New River Gorge,
Life is good on the road, driving past the trees
Good up on the mountains, good down in the valleys,
On country roads, we feel at home,
Joy is the place, we belong
West Virginia, mountain mama
Joy is our home, on country roads...

With all those hills and valleys,
I'm not sure Joy thinks it's 'almost heaven'

The West Virginia Visitor Bureau is milking that line from John Denver’s song for all it’s worth and I can see why: It’s a beautiful state; driving on the winding roads through the green hills of West Virginia, it’s hard not to hum that song. The scenery is almost heaven, but we haven’t found a town yet where we would want to live. Actually, for the first 10 days in West Virginia, we didn’t see any sizable town at all. Or like our friend Kelly used to say: “There’s nothing to see but scenery!”

78.5% of West Virginia is covered with trees

We left Virginia via the Shenandoah National Park with a short hike on the famous “Appalachian Trail”. Since we will probably never hike the whole thing at once, we are a special kind of “sectional AT hikers”, we hike the 2200 miles in sections. We completed over 3 miles on this trip, so we should be done by 2723. 

Silly sectional hiker on the AT

The Skyline Caverns was our last highlight in “East Virginia”. The caves are not as spectacular as the nearby and very popular Luray Caverns, but getting a private tour made up for the difference in ornamentation. 

Skyline Cavern

And they do have the best examples of anthodites in the world. Now if you ask yourself “What are anthodites and how do they form?”, then you are in very good company. Apparently the leading scientists and speleologists of the world are wondering the same thing. The signs at Skyline Caverns, our tour guide and information I find online all contradicts each other: Anthodites might form only in vacuum sealed caves or not. There might be one, three or a dozen places where they were found. The Skyline Caverns might or might not be the place where they were first discovered. But at least everybody seems to agree: Anthodites are very rare and very pretty.

The rare and mysterious Anthodites

And then we came to West Virginia….

Now be honest: Do you think of West Virginia as a backwards hinterland, left behind by modern developments? How about this: On our first day, we did not have ANY cell phone reception. They did not even have any radio stations. It gets weirder: They have a rule in that area that you can’t even have wifi or a microwave oven!

But there is a very good reason for all that: This is a “Radio Quiet Zone”  because this part of West Virginia is home of the Green Bank Observatory. They are the opposite of backwards…they are on the cutting edge science. Radio astronomy science to be precise. They have the largest fully steerable radio telescope in the world. The National Science Foundation operates a museum and gives tours. We got to stand right under the Green Bank Telescope. But taking a picture from close up with a digital camera (even a phone in airplane mode!) would interfere with their observations of galaxies thousands of lightyears away. So we had to settle with a picture from a distance. Luckily the telescope is 485 feet tall, so you can probably still spot it:

Two football fields would fit inside the dish
of the Green Bay Telescope.

West Virginia has one thing in common with Kauai: It’s pretty and it’s green almost anywhere you look. Every few miles there’s something to see: A pretty waterfall, wild lilies and mountain laurels, a bog with carnivorous plants or an observation tower to get above the trees so you can see all the other trees. Green hills for as far as you can see, just no beaches and no Na Pali coast.

Cathedral Falls, WV

One night we spent at a very low key golf course. We got to pay for the round of golf, but it was the second time that strangers insisted on paying for our meals. Not sure whether it was because they were intrigued how two Germans from Hawaii ended up at their little country club in the remote hills of West Virginia or whether they just felt sorry for us because they saw us golf.

This shot cost me par,
but it might have won us a free lunch

I have come to find out:
I'm better at floating down a river
than hitting a golf ball

The New River Gorge was called the New River Gorge long before they knew that the New River is actually one of the oldest rivers in the world. But it’s still a very appropriate name because it is now “America’s Newest National Park”!

The grand view from Grandview

The New River Gorge claims to be the “Grand Canyon of the East”, but so do at least five other places. None of them look anything like the real Grand Canyon or are anywhere as big. But the New River Gorge is gorgeous, has some cool rock formations, grand views, a very impressive bridge and an interesting history. 

The National Park ranger insisted
not to call Thurmond a ghost town,
six people still leave here.

This idyllic national park once was the site of the most prolific coal mines in the country. What appears like ghost towns now were bustling boom towns. The coal trains still run through the valley, but otherwise nature is restoring the idyllic beauty.

New River Gorge Bridge,
taller than the Golden Gate Bridge and
the longest single span bridge in America 

On the Rock Cliff Trail
in the New River Gorge

There used to be thousands of coal mines in West Virginia. Only about 50 are still active today. One coal mine in Beckley is re-opened as an exhibition mine. It is humbling to learn how hard the work of a miner was. We feel like wimps in comparison. The fact that people took these jobs, despite the dangers, hardships and the fact that they often got paid in ‘fake’ money that could only be used in the company store means that people back then were a lot tougher and much more desperate than we all are today. We love history, but we are sure glad we live today.

The West Virginia State Capitol 

Charleston is the capital of West Virginia. With only about 50,000 residents, it is one of those small town capitals, even though in this case it’s still the largest town in the state. Of course our first stop was the capitol building. It’s very impressive: Taller than the Capitol in Washington DC and easier to find RV parking close by. Surprisingly they stayed under budget when they built it almost 100 years ago, despite using lots of gold and marble and installing ridiculously fancy chandeliers.

The little white dot in the dome is a chandelier,
8 feet across and weighing 4000 pounds 

To me, visiting state capitols is every little bit as impressive as visiting the huge cathedrals in Europe. The architecture is awe inspiring and the free tours usually include a quick civics and history lesson of the state. As an extra bonus, Charleston has the free State History Museum right next door. I wish all West Virginians would take advantage of that. Maybe those West Virginians who still fly confederate flags could learn that their state was literally formed for the purpose of leaving the confederacy. Maybe those people are the reason why John Denver said that West Virginia is only "almost heaven". But if it weren't for those roadside reminders, you wouldn’t know: Every single person we talked to in West Virginia was very friendly.

The golden dome of the capitol
in Charleston, WV

Charleston seems to have it all: One of the best capitol buildings, great museums, a riverfront, a large market and beautiful surroundings. We even happened to be there during their FestivALL celebration, with lots of free music and food. They are really trying, but it still has the feeling of a town in decline with abandoned buildings even in downtown. 

Every fun festival has to have a balloon artist

On our way out of West Virginia we came through St. Albans. It is the kind of small town where if you don't  pay attention, you might think you are still in Charleston. But we stopped because they offer three RV camping spots right along the river for free. At that price, it was not surprising that the three sites were already taken. But campers are nice people and Kiwis are nice people so it’s not surprising that campers from New Zealand are extra nice. They let us pull up next to them and soon we were sitting there with our new friends and neighbors talking late into the night. Then this truck drives up. At first I thought we might get chased away since we were not really in an official spot. But this guy just wanted to tell us about the kayak and music festival they had in town. Turns out he was the mayor of St. Albans and rather than chase us away, he convinced us into staying for the weekend in St. Albans. 

We can't be with Ronja on her road trip in New Zealand,
but we can be with New Zealand road trippers.

We only saw a few of the 2,000 kayakers on the “Tour de Coal”, but we listened to plenty of the music at the “Yak Fest”. What a fun street party. It’s the kind of event where everybody seems to fit in, no matter who you are or what you wear. Really fun atmosphere, cheap beer and good music. We are glad the mayor went out of his way, even late at night, promoting his hometown festival.

Buck Covington has performed in every
state except Hawaii and we don't watch
American Idol, so we HAD to come here
to see him.

Yak Fest 2023 in St. Albans, WV

Backstage at the Yak

I feel a little guilty for not putting Charleston or St. Albans on the list of places we’d want to move to when the volcano blows, even though they organized all these fun things for us and we enjoyed our time here so much. But now we are actually leaving West Virginia. We are spending just one more night at the Beech Fork State Park tomorrow, then we will be in Kentucky …unless the governor stops by the state park and organizes another festival for us.

And that’s the news from Lake West Virginia, where all the festivals are fun, all the hills are good looking and where two Germans from Hawaii definitely stand out more than average.

Aloha from Almost Heaven,

Chris & Sandra