Long Drive East

On Monday morning at an unbelievably early hour we started our trip to Louisville. The car was packed and after a quick breakfast and coffee for the road we were off. We headed to the north as we planned a trip to Voyageur National Park on the way! Is this a bit out of the way, yes but we have the time! This park is on the Canadian border so our mapping took us on a journey through never-before-travelled areas. We had a long day of traveling but we switched off driving every 2 hours and listened to the latest Daniel Silva novel. We arrived in Spearfish, SD about 6 and headed downtown to walk and find a restaurant for dinner. It was a cute town and we enjoyed stretching our legs before stopping at a local sports bar/restaurant for dinner. The food and wine were great and we played trivia as we ate. It was time for a warm tub bath and bed when we arrived at the hotel!

This morning after breakfast we headed out again! Our destination today is International Falls, MN. The drive was through beautiful countryside and we made a stop in Bismarck, ND to see the capital! This one was very different and even had a viewing area on the top floor. This building is 242 ft tall with 19 stories. It is built in a prairie-themed art deco style!! We pushed from the capital through rolling hills and farm land! We arrived at International Falls late and decided to drive straight to Voyageurs National Park in hopes of seeing the northern lights. It was about 29 minutes before we arrived at the park. We walked all the trails, set up time lapse photography, and looked in all directions but no lights were to be seen. We finally gave up and arrived back at our hotel in the wee hours of the morning. We slept long and hard that night... not. We were both so tired that it was a restless night!

After hitting the snooze several times we rushed to make breakfast. Then it was a walking tour of the town before we headed back to Voyageurs National Park. It was a cool morning and perfect for a hike! We visited the park visitors center and enjoyed a movie and a small museum. There was a great trail nearby and it was a lively hike and we enjoyed the colors on the foliage. We also saw some plants we had never seen before. But alas it was time to get in the car and head south to Duluth. The sun was bright and the sky blue as we drove into Duluth but by the time we made it to the Glensheen Mansion located on the shores of Lake Superior the fog covered the lake and the temperature had dropped. This is the most visited historic home in Minnesota. The 12-acre estate features gardens, bridges, and the famous 39-room mansion built with remarkable 20th-century craftsmanship telling the story of the Duluth region. We enjoyed this tour so much and even got to walk around the gardens and boat storage buildings. From here we headed to the Canal Park where we had planned to do the lake walk before dinner. It was so foggy we could not see the lake so we settled for dinner! After dinner the fog was even heavier so we headed to our hotel which we had chosen because it had a lake view... Oh well! After hot baths we read and were both asleep by 10.

We headed to Milwaukee after breakfast. We would have done our lake walk today but the fog still obscured our view. The trip was about 6 hours and once we had settled in our hotel we headed out to enjoy the river walk. It was a beautiful day and we walked until dinner time. We stopped for Thai food and were very disappointed in the taste. We walked some more and ended back at our hotel in time for drinks and snacks!

After a good sleep we packed up, ate breakfast, and headed to Louisville. Traffic and construction made the trip much longer than it should have been. Around 5:30 Trey called and said we needed to head to Coopers game. With new directions we headed across Louisville to the De Sales High School. This was a nice stadium and an aggressive team with an excellent quarterback. But in the end Kentucky Country Day School was too much for them and we won 63-31. We went for a celebration Mexican meal and had a great evening!!

Saturday, September 13, 2025, Louisville, KY

Up early this morning and off to Christ Church serve day. Hugh, Trey, and Cooper went to a landscaping project and Hudson, Elyse, and I went to fill bags for the homeless. We filled 1000 bags and finished before lunch.The boys did not finish until they had cleaned up all the tables and racks from the church. It was a lazy afternoon and we decided to go eat pizza for dinner across the river in Indiana!!

Sunday, September 14, 2025, Louisville, KY

Everyone slept in this morning and we had a great brunch when we awoke!! We visited Treys new office. In the afternoon we went to the park to play football and/or fly kites and drones. We played hard. We arrived back in time to clean up and have a lovely dinner out on the porch! The guys watched some football while the girls bathed.

After the boys went to school the 4 of us rode to the outlet mall for Hugh to get some new shoes at Cole Hahn. We then rode through the University of Louisville campus. This is Elyse’s Alma Mater and she told all about it. We went to have lunch with Hudson and found out he only had study hall and a club meeting left in his day so we signed him out and went to play the coolest indoor putt putt. We played hard and Trey won the first 9 and Hudson the second nine! Then it was home for homework and work before we had a light dinner and headed to Coopers football game. This is a home game so it was close by! The sun was hot and shining in our eyes for the first quarter of the game. Trey worked the chains and Hugh and Hudson sat on the visitors side in the shade to make pictures. Elyse and I gulped water and cheered loudly. It was a purely defensive game until halftime. Cooper played every down, center on the offense and outside linebacker on the defense. He had some awesome stops and blockiest a punt. KCD finally went ahead and won by a touchdown! It was a shower and bed when we got home!

We got up before 6 and dressed and had coffee and muffins before driving Cooper to school. He goes to weight training at 7. After saying our goodbyes we headed to Wichita. This was one of our 12 hour days thus the early start. The drive was uneventful and we switched off every 2 hours! We listened to a great book that had us on the edge of our seats so we did not mind the drive! We made excellent time and arrived in time to see a lot of the city on one of our GPS MY CITY tours. We love long drives and somehow had missed Wichita on any of our drives in this area. We stopped for dinner in the old town and then walked back to our hotel in the dark. After soaks in a warm tub it was off to bed!

This morning it was up at 8 and a nice breakfast before we got in the car again. On our way out of Wichita we stopped and did a portion of their river walk that we missed yesterday! We ended our visit at the Keeper Of the Plains statue which overlooks the river and is an iconic fixture in Wichita! Then it was off to Denver! This should have been an easy drive but we ran into construction everywhere!! We made it to Denver much later than we planned but after checking into our hotel we started out on a walking tour of historic homes. We passed the capital and other government buildings on our way to the first stop! The Byers-Evans House Museum is a late Victorian home that has since been converted into a museum. This site was built in 1883 by William Byers. Later, it served as a home to Anne Evans, who was known as a prominent arts patron. In fact, Evans was instrumental in the founding of the Denver Art Museum, the Denver Public Library, and the Central City Opera. As we were enjoying looking at the home we felt a sudden shift in the weather. The wind picked up, the temperature dropped, and very dark clouds rolled in. We made the decision to venture on but we picked up our pace. The next stop was the Molly Brown House. The Molly Brown House Museum, also known as the House of Lions, is a significant historic landmark in Denver. This museum was once the residence of Margaret Brown, an American socialite, philanthropist, and activist who gained worldwide fame as the "Heroine of the Titanic" for her courageous efforts in aiding survivors of the ill-fated ship. Her legacy as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" is celebrated in this museum, which offers a rich interpretation of her life. By this time it was starting to rain very lightly but we decided to head back to our hotel. We race-walked but also stopped for photos when we saw something of interest. By the time we made it back it was raining for real. Lucky for us the Embassy Suites had a lively cocktail hour going on and we sat and enjoyed a drink and light snacks as we plotted where to go for dinner. We were fortunate to have one of our top choices right next door! We went for dinner, played trivia, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It was still raining so we headed to our room for some relaxation.

This morning after breakfast we drove the short distance to Boulder. We enjoyed exploring the Pearl Street Mall area. I looked in kitchen and home stores and in Hugh did some shopping in an outdoor store. We both enjoyed the beautiful flowers that were everywhere. Back in the car we headed to Grand Junction and the Colorado National Monument. The fall colors on I-70 were spectacular. This was supposed to be a 4+ hour drive but because if wrecks and construction it took us almost 6 hours. The drive was going so slowly we decided to book a room and end our day there. When we arrived we headed to the park and the light was amazing. This is not a national park but it should be... beauty around every bend! We stopped and hiked, made photos, and had to hurry to get out before it became completely dark. Driving on the rim of these canyons in the dark would be horrifying! Back in town we found a dinner spot and then it was off to bed!!

This morning we headed toward home but as we approached Moab we decided to make a stop at Arches National Park. We had been there once before but it was in the 100 degree range and today we could enjoy it at 70. We got our timed entry and were waiting as it hit that time. We hiked all the short trails, climbed to see a good number of the arches, and truly had so much fun it was hard to leave. We arrived back home happy but a bit road weary. We had traveled 4,508 miles!