We embarked on the third and final (and longest) leg of our 2023 baseball and national parks trip on Tuesday, June 20 with cool weather and rain. We're not jumping right into baseball on this leg - our first game is not until a week into this leg in St. Louis. Since we had to get from Durham to St. Louis anyway, we took in two national parks and some other attractions on the way.
Our first stop on June 20 was Beckley, West Virginia. This served as the jumping off point for a visit to New River Gorge National Park and Preserve (hereafter called New River). New River is the newest National Park receiving this designation in 2021. However, New River was established as a National River and Preserve in 1978. You might be asking, what is the New River and is it really that New? The New River has its headwaters near Blowing Rock in the North Carolina mountains but west of the eastern Continental Divide (got that?). So the New River flows into the Mississippi eventually and actually flows north where we viewed it (much to Melinda's consternation).
We made three stops in the park. We first drove an hour to Sandstone Falls (not quite Niagara but also not developed). From there we drove to the Sandstone Visitor Center which required crossing the river at the cool old town on Hinton. We then drove to the Grandview Visitor Center (actually more of a Visitor shed). There we saw the view of the loop in the river above. Finally, we drove another 45 minutes to the New River Gorge bridge which was built in 1978 for Highway 19. In addition to hiking to the viewpoint on the left, we also drove a one way road down to the river and crossed on a wooden bridge while viewing the big bridge from below (see picture below).
From there, we drove on Highway 60 along the river to Charleston WV. While driving the curves of Highway 60, we recalled a memorable trip from Charlottesville to Iowa in 1987. Our kids were 4, 2, and 1 at the time and we took Highway 60 (I-64 wasn't completed back then). Along the curvy road the kids started a serial puking contest with Melinda leaning over the front seat trying to clean them up and me helpfully yelling "Stop throwing up!" while continuing to drive since there was nowhere to pull over. Thankfully, we kept our lunch down this time.
On Thursday, June 22, we drove from Charleston to Louisville, Kentucky. We wanted to come here because we'd heard good things from family members about both the Louisville Slugger factory/museum and about the Muhammed Ali Center. On Friday, June 23, we spent the morning at the Louisville Slugger building. FYI, the big bat leaning against the entrance is made of metal, not of wood. However, the big bat I'm holding in the picture was made of wood and it was heavy - I didn't try to swing. The tour took us into the factory while they were making bats and lots of behind the scenes information into what goes into making a bat for major leaguer. In addition to the tour, they had a nice museum.
In the museum, one of the things you could do was hold a bat used by some famous major leaguers - for picture taking purposes. In the picture to the right, Melinda is holding a bat used by Hank Aaron - pretty cool. The stance is a little open, but it's been a few years since she played softball in Vienna. Another great thing about the Louisville Slugger building is that it's right downtown in Louisville close to restaurants and to the Muhammed Ali Center. We had a very nice lunch in downtown Louisville and then walked over to the Ali Center (note: Muhammed Ali, born Cassius Clay, was born and raised in Louisville).
For our readers under 50, Muhammed Ali was perhaps the most famous man in the world in the second half of the 20th century. He was the greatest boxer ever (self-proclaimed). He won a gold medal in boxing at the 1960 Olympics (at 18 years old) and was a three time world heavyweight champion. At the museum, there was plenty of information on Ali's boxing career - we even watched highlights of the Thrilla in Manila in 1975 (which I remember listening to live on the radio in my dorm room).
But there was much more to Muhammed Ali than just boxing greatness. His controversies, conversion to Islam and name change, refusal to serve when drafted in 1967 (and more) were part of the fabric of the turmoil of the 1960's and 1970's. As a result, the museum did a great job of helping the patron understand what was going on in our country during those decades and how Ali fit in.
On Saturday, June 24, we had our first day of sunshine since we stated this leg. We drove from Louisville to Mammoth Cave National Park. This cave is indeed mammoth with over 200 miles of cave mapped to date and more being discovered all the time. We only took the self guided tour which was relatively short but still impressive (see the picture of Melinda below in the area called the Rotunda. She's pretty dressed up for spelunking, huh?!). We then hiked down to the Green River and back up. When we got back to the cave entrance in a good sweat, we stopped at the entrance to feel the cool 55 degree air coming out of the cave - natural air conditioning.
As mentioned earlier, we're trying to see family and friends around the country as we travel. Just 45 minutes from Mammoth Cave is Bowling Green, Kentucky - home of Melinda's high school friend (and bridesmaid in our wedding) Gina Nutter. Melinda's family and Gina's family have been close since they both lived in Vienna, Va. in the 1960's and 70's. We had dinner with Gina and her brother Mike on Saturday evening, and it was great to catch up with them and talk about old times from when they were growing up in Vienna. Below is a picture of Melinda with Mike and Gina.
Next stop is St. Louis.
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