OutDigest: [New post] Three Days of Travel

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Three Days of Travel

by Ellen

This post is more of a travel journal for me for our days of travel between The Badlands in South Dakota to Lexington in Kentucky on Our Land That We Love Tour. Tomorrow I'll share the photos from the cemetery we visited in Louisville.

Friday September 24th our route to Omaha, Nebraska took us through more of Iowa than Nebraska. We traveled I-90 from the Badlands to Interstate 29 south through Iowa to Omaha. These photos are proof positive that taking photos from a moving car isn't the best way to do it.

Sapp Brothers headquartered in Nebraska. Because we were in Omaha we thought eating steak would be appropriate. We found Gorat's Steakhouse and were able to get an early table and meal. Gorat's where the food was good but the ambiance could be described as 'faded glory'. The service was good and the food was good and we'll leave it at that. We paid about the same for steak here that we did in Wyoming $67.00 for two steak dinners.

After dinner we found a Costco to fill our tank up with gas. We paid $2.739 per gallon. Then we checked into our hotel for the night. We tried Aloft a new offering from Marriott properties. It was a modern, trendy property with minimalist interiors. No free breakfast. Our AAA rate was $125.00 and with taxes the total was $147.71. This new modern concept was not pleasing to us or comfortable for us.

On this day Friday September 24th we drove 469 miles and it took approximately 6-1/2 hours.

Our drive to St. Louis on Saturday September 25th took us south through Missouri. The miles we would drive were 431 and it took approximately 6-1/2 hours. We filled up with gas from Costco again in Independence, Missouri at $2.579 per gallon.

Our hotel in the burbs of St. Louis was a Residence Inn and we enjoyed the extra space. Our AAA rate was $137.00 for the night with the total after taxes $157.43. We also topped off our gas tank at another Costco closer to our hotel at $2.699 and did a little shopping while there. We found a Mexican Restaurant for Linner.

Early Sunday morning the 26th of September we tried to travel on Interstate 64 to Kentucky. What a sad photo of the St. Louis Arch. We ended up on the wrong highway when google was over zealous in making sure we would miss road closures in Louisville, Kentucky 250 miles away! They wanted us to go north to Indianapolis so my vantage point for getting a clear and good shot was lost. We got off that route pronto and reconfigured to go our original route with plans to deal with the closures when we got closer to Kentucky. Back on Interstate 64 we traveled through parts of Illinois and Indiana before we crossed into Kentucky.

When we made it around the detour to get into Louisville we took a short side trip to Cave Hill Cemetery. We had a little time before we needed to carry on to a scheduled tour of Bulleit Distillery in Shelbeyville at 3:30, which we enjoyed.

It was a good day of travel after our early morning google maps mess up. While we were at the Bulleit Distillery we asked the staff for a recommendation for dinner. One of the recommendations was for the best barbecue in Kentucky which we decided would be our choice. Red State Barbecue on Georgetown Road in Lexington did not disappoint.

Delicious! We both got the brisket. This was a self serve type of arrangement where you go up and order at the front counter and pay, you are given a number and you wait to hear your number when your food is ready. There was a constant stream of people coming and going picking up orders or ordering in and eating. I didn't keep the receipt and we paid cash so I don't remember the total but it was very reasonable. This was one of our favorite meals on our trip.

Our hotel for this night was in Georgetown at the Lexington Georgetown Fairfield Inn. Our AAA rate was $129.60 and with taxes $142.88. This property was rundown and not a favorite. The staff was friendly. Our total miles this day were approximately 337 miles with driving time at 5 hours.

We were in for an amazing experience on Monday September 27th with a short drive north of Georgetown. That post or more likely posts will be for another day or days. But first, Cave Hill Cemetery tomorrow.