Dry Ridge - Day 3

October 4, 2019

We went to see the Ark today. Please understand that my comments are probably not as positive as they should be; I felt lousy most of the morning. I started some new oral diabetic meds over a month ago and they have dramatically reduced the amount of insulin I need. We, my Doctor & I, keep adjusting the dosage down but I am still having occasional problems with low blood sugar. Plus I was tired because I didn't sleep well last night. (A 16 ounce Dr Pepper at the Ark finally got by blood glucose back to a comfortable level.)

I plugged the Ark address into google maps and we headed out. The GPS said it was further south of the campground, 17 miles, than I remembered when I checked at home, but I just figured it was my faulty memory. When we knew we were within a couple of miles of the turn I stopped looking at my phone and looked for a sign, Kathy was driving. Finally I knew we had passed it. I checked Google maps and sure enough, we were a couple of miles past the turn. We did a U-turn and headed back. When we got to the turn there was no sign, but we saw a lot of traffic, including motorhomes, coming back out of the area. We headed in and after half a mile hit a construction gate. Google had routed us to the closed construction entrance. We had no problem turning around and going back out but the people with the motorhomes towing cars probably had to unhook their cars so that they could turn around. There was LOT of traffic that had been routed to the construction gate. We managed to find the right entrance and get parked.

See the little "building", far in the distance, in the center of the photo. That is the Ark.

 In the above photo note the logs at the far edge of the parking lot. I zoomed the lens on the camera and below you see the same logs and the Ark. It was a LONG walk. Not really, you boarded a bus at the edge of the parking lot and it took you up to the Ark complex.

The Ark from near the bus drop off point. The Ark is 510 feet long, 85 feet wide and 51 feet tall. It is the largest "timber frame" structure in the world.

 There were long, switchback, ramps in the center of the Ark to get you from floor to floor. They wrapped around a central, slot corridor that ran from the bottom of the Ark to the top. The photo below is looking up towards the top. The top is enclosed but there are windows down the upper walls. The windows let in a lot of light.

 The photo below is looking down the central corridor from the same landing.

The Ark is interesting and there is a LOT of information to look at as you walk the floors, but overall I was disappointed. We watched part of one movie about Noah being interviewed by a non-believer. I thought the Noah character came across as being "cheesy", just my impression. Also, the information along the Ark walls strongly pushes the "young earth" theory, that the Earth is only around 4,000 years old. Some very good scientists back this theory. Whether the Earth is 4,000 years old or millions of years old doesn't make any difference in my belief that there is a God who created it, and us.

In terms of construction the Ark is not a boat. It is a timber frame with interior and exterior dimensions similar to what people think the Ark might have been (the exterior dimensions are recorded in the Bible).

I was expecting to see some fantastic, historic woodworking joinery, instead most of the joints were made with modern steel connections and bolts. I would have to do some research but I don't think men had knowledge of how to work iron during the time of Noah. The size of the some of the timbers is pretty awesome.

Another negative for me was the crowds. It was Friday, and school was in session. On the way out I noticed that the parking lot was less than half full. The crowds in the Ark made it very difficult to try and read the information posted along the walls. I can't imagine what it must be like on a weekend when school is not in session.

After leaving the Ark we had lunch at a buffet on the grounds. The food was good and at $11 per person (seniors), including drinks, it was a great deal for an all you can eat/drink buffet. We sat on one of the exterior balconies.

 Our view during lunch.

Goodbye Ark. It was finally cool today. When I got up this morning it was a lovely 64 degrees in the trailer. A light jacket definitely felt good outside.

Back at the campground I took a much needed 3 hour nap. WiFi service doesn't reach our campsite so Kathy went up to the office and spent some time catching up on the Net.

After my nap I was doing some reading and came across Luke 10:20, The 72 disciples had just returned after being sent out to pave the way for Jesus' visits to outlying communities. He had given them great power before He sent them out. When they returned Luke 10:17 says, "The 72 returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!" Luke 10:20 is part of Jesus' reply, "Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

We are all sinners, and will all continue to be sinners as long as our earthly bodies draw breath. Romans 3:23 says "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". Even though we still sin occasionally, we who have accepted Christ as our Lord are given the free gift of eternal life in heaven. Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

I, as someone who has accepted this free and glorious gift, need to spend more time being thankful for it rather than being concerned about earthly issues. It is the most wonderful gift that I will ever receive.

Tomorrow it is on to the Creation Museum.

May God bless you and yours.

Grayville, IL - Dry Ridge, KY

Today we traveled from Grayville, IL to Dry Ridge, KY. We are 498 miles from Centertown. 

We had a minor problem when ready to leave the campground and Grayville and needed a welder. Two phone calls and I found one 7 miles from us. We pulled into his place and he had a welder pulled out into his garage door waiting for us. 15 minutes later we were back on the road. God is good!

Saw lots of harvested corn and soybean fields today, not all of them, but a good percentage. Dry Ridge, KY is about 30 miles south of Cincinnati. Just before we arrived at the campground we saw a tobacco barn full of tobacco, haven’t seen one of those for some time.

High temperature today was 89. The humidity must have been low because it didn’t feel all that bad. But it was to hot to eat lunch in the trailer. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel for lunch. It was a good lunch, and reasonably priced. (Reasonably priced for old farts like us who drink water rather than paying the ridiculous amount of $2.69 for and ice tea or soft drink.)

Traffic was light again today, with one exception while in Louisville area. We made the change from I64 to I71 with no problem. After getting on I71 another interchange of Interstates required that we be in the left lane to stay on I71. We were in the middle lane. I put my left turn signal on and a guy beside us in a pickup sped up to open a slot behind him. As I started to move left the car behind him accelerated and closed the gap to the point where as I started to move left the front of his car was probably slightly in front of the back of our trailer. I stayed in the  middle lane and he pulled up to make sure we couldn’t get in the left lane. There was a long stream of cars behind him and we either had to get in the left lane or miss our turn. The guy in the pickup must have been watching because he slowed down, forcing the car that had just filled the gap to slow down, so that we could get in front of him. The speed limit in this area was 55 and I had been driving 55 in the middle lane. People going 65-70 were passing us on both sides. I sped up to 65 so as not to hold up the guy in the pickup. Then it happened, we put our guardian angels to the test. First, THANK YOU to those who have been praying for our safe travels! The ramp curved around and down under an underpass. It was as close to a blind corner as you  can get on an Interstate. As we were going around the corner, at 65 mph, traffic in front of us was stopped. I almost bent the truck brake pedal. I didn’t think we would hit the car in front of us hard, but did think we would hit it. We managed to stop with at least 4’ to spare. Guardian angles can really slow down a truck and trailer fast!

Fuel prices – I filled up at MFA in California before we left, $2.709/gal. Topped off at a Flying J in MO, $2.719 but that was with a 14 cent/gal discount with our Good Sam’s RV card. Filled up at a Road Ranger when we left Grayville, IL, $3.079. Filled up at a Pilot during our trip here, $2.989, I think we got a 7 cent/gal discount. We are averaging 10.4 mpg. The GMC is supposed to have a 25 or 26 gallon fuel tank but I’ve never put more than 20 gallons in it, even when it said empty. The maximum reasonable distance between fuel stops is only 200 miles, which is ridiculous. When I am back home I’m going to carry a 2 gallon can of fuel with me and run the truck out of fuel just to see if I still have five gallons left when the gauge reads empty.

At 10:30 it has cooled down to 68 degrees, but the humidity is 75%. The AC has been running. It probably won’t run much more, the temperature 52 by 8AM.

We arrived at Northern Kentucky RV Park about 6PM, because of our late start. It is an old park that is shutting down at the end of October for a $500,000 renovation during the fall, winter and early spring. The people running the place seem like nice folks. Richard, the guy who showed us our site, told me that the vast majority of people who stay here are here because they are going to the Ark or the Creation Museum, or both.

Spaces are not large but OK. Lots of shade. The front of our truck was in the road as I unhooked. There is lots of vehicle parking on the other side of the road. They knew we were staying 3 nights and that we would be unhooking so this site is fine. 

 As you can tell, it was almost dark when I took the photo below. It gives you a better idea the size of the sites.

Tomorrow we are going to the Ark Encounter. I talked to a guy parked behind us. They went to the Ark yesterday and he was glad to have seen it.

God is good, may He bless you and yours. He sure blessed up many times today.

Fall 2019 Trip - Grayville, IL

Wed, Oct 2, 2019

First day of our 2019 fall vacation. It was warm and very humid (nasty) in Centertown this morning. The plan had been to leave between 10 & 11. We finished up loading the trailer by 10 but both needed a shower by then.

As I was getting ready to get in the shower Kelsey, our granddaughter texted me to say that the Sheriff’s office had called her and told her that her concealed carry permit was ready to pick up. She asked me if I had picked mine up yet. I had filed my paperwork last Tuesday; she filed hers later in the week. No one had called to say mine was ready so I called the Sheriff’s office and was told that they had tried to call me but couldn’t reach me. The lady read by phone number of  the paperwork and it was correct. ???? I toyed with the thought of stopping, with the truck and trailer, on our way through Jefferson City, but couldn’t imagine being lucky enough to find a large enough parking space within reasonable walking distance from the Sheriff’s office. Kathy suggested that I take the van and go in and pick it up. She would take her shower and do a few odd and ends around the house while I was gone. I did just that.

We ended up leaving around 11:30. Traffic was light the entire day. About 1:30 we stopped at a Flying J for fuel and for lunch. Didn’t need fuel all that bad but knew if I filled up then I could make it to the campground without another fuel stop. We ate at the Denny’s in the Flying J. The food good and reasonably priced. We got a discount on the fuel because we are Good Sam’s (RV club) members. Normally the fuel was $2.859 with a credit card. We paid $2.719.

The it was on to the Rest Up Camping & RV Corral in Grayville, IL. We arrived around 5:30. Just after we crossed the Mississippi and entered Illinois I looked at the thermometer on my truck, it read 95 degrees. It pretty much stayed at 95 degrees until we were almost at the campground. It was still in the high 80’s when we had finished setting up.

The campground is only a year old. It is part of a larger complex with a restaurant and other things. Lots of stuff for kids to do.

Our pull-thru campsite, site #3. It was level and the water/sewer/electric was conveniently located. With todays temperatures some shade would have been welcome.

 Looking through the trees and over a ditch at another section of the campground.

 They also rent cabins.

We saw several corn fields that had been harvested and one guy combining beans. It looked fairly dry the entire 280 miles we drove today.

I mentioned earlier about picking up my Missouri concealed carry permit. Kathy, Kelsey, Andy (Kelsey's husband) and I took the training and we have all applied for the license. Kelsey and I have ours. Kathy didn't file the paperwork until a few days ago so hers wasn't ready yet. Not sure about Andy.

Below is Kathy's qualification target. There are 20 holes in the target, all inside the 9 ring. To qualify you only had to get 18, out of 20, in the torso. We all did 20 practice shots then the instructor stapled new partial targets over the holes and we shot 20 more rounds. He said Kelsey won the match. She shot pocket size .380 and put all shot inside a circle the size of a grapefruit. The instructor said he shoots a lot and could not have done that well with her gun.

Supposed to be another hot day tomorrow, as we continue on to Dry Ridge, KY tomorrow. Praise God for AC, and a lot more.

God is good, may He bless you and yours.

Burrrr! Cold Here

I know there are many places in the nations where the cold is a lot worse than here in central Missouri, but, as hot as it gets here we should be considered as being in the south. Last summer we had 55 days with highs about 90 degrees. Thankfully it was not as hot as it was in 2012, the year we moved here, 58 days above 90 and 12 days above 100.

I think the "official" overnight low/wind chill was -4/-22. Todays high is forecast to be 8, with an overnight low of 8, at 1PM it is 5 degrees. We aren't supposed to have much wind so that is good.

I'm thankful for our outdoor boiler. It burns a LOT of wood but kept our house at 69, where we had the thermostat set, with no problem. I burned 3 of these wheelbarrow loads of wood during the last 24 hours. Almost all of it was good solid, dry oak. I can easily put an entire wheelbarrow load in it at one filling. I filled it about 8:30 last night and checked it about 6:30 this morning. There was still enough wood in it to provide heat for another couple of hours.

Our snow is gone, except for piles left by plowing. I was out helping a guy get some wood into his house yesterday afternoon and we got a light dusting of snow. Between the dry air and the sun it was gone within an hour.

Kelsey is making great progress at her Bank Building. The electrical wiring is roughed in, new windows are in and so is the furnace. She hired contractors for that work. Yesterday she ran water lines to the bathroom and stubbed a line in for the upstairs. She is a VERY talented young lady.

God is good, may He bless you and yours.

Jan Photos

Nolan's birthday cake - Jan 3rd. Birthday theme was construction. There is a wheeled in front of the cake and a backhoe dump truck on top of the cake "mountain". My old hard hat is full of rice krispy treats.

Jan 12th - We got some snow.

Nolan & Gram playing in the snow.

Finished clearing away tree top that fell across driveway.

Jan 13th - Driveway mostly cleared. Snow had compacted some but there was still 13 inches on the top of Kathy's van.

Tree top on ground and show laden branches on our woodshed. 

I finally cut the tree down and cleaned it up on the 16th.

Dec Photos

Sunday lunch at Viets Restaurant when Doug came to pick up their dogs. Kathy was their dog sitter while Doug & Anthony were on vacation.

Nolan likes his food.

Nolan - King of the Rock Pile

Kathy fixing Christmas Dinner for inmates and staff at the Moniteau County Jail. Ladies from our church small group made some sides but Kathy cooked the turkey & dressing and ham and did most of the work. She loves doing it. My contribution was helping carrying the food into the jail, for the staff to distribute to the inmates.

Christmas Dinner at out house.Kathy at the end of the table. Then on the left side Kelsey, Andy, Anthony, Doug and Art.

 On the right side; Lois, Jewel (friends from Centertown Baptist Church), Tanner (neighbor whose wife & kids were visiting relatives in Florida), and Sharon (friend from CBC)

Dec 31 - Our pond finally got full.

 And overflowed.

Some Photos Oct & Nov

Lydia and Nolan watching videos at Gram's.

Lunch at Aunti V's, Angola, IN, during our trip to MI. Clockwise from left: Kathy's sisters Nancy and Cindy, my Mom Beverly, my brother David, Cindy's husband Ed & Kathy.

 Kathy and her sister Judy having breakfast at Hamilton Lake in Indiana.

Nolan loves his ice cream.

 We have been running our Hardy outdoor boiler through a lot of Oct & Nov. It also preheats our hot water. Below is my wood supply in mid-Nov. The Hardy is quite inefficient but it sure saves us a lot of propane.

Our Hardy outdoor boiler.