Mammoth Cave to Louisville to Home

Sorry for the gap in posts, I’ve been realxing at home now that our whirlwind roadtrip has come to an end. But I have more to tell yet!

Our most anticipated stop of our Spring Break roadtrip was to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. For those not familiar, Mammoth Cave is the world’s longest cave system and really dang cool. I had never been before, which is out of the ordinary for somene who has lived in Kentucky for over 17 years.

Mammoth Cave is moderatley priced, which us college kids absolutley loved. The tour we went on was called The Frozen Niagra and cost a mere $10. Not bad, right? The tour took about half an hour and was very relaxed. The guide showed us every kind of formation the cave has to offer…and it was BEAUTIFUL!

On your way out of Mammoth Cave you must stop in Cave City. It’s the kitchy-est thing I’ve ever seen, and I loved it. If you have a special affinity for rocks, like I do, Mike’s Rock Shop is your dream store. Also, Dinosaur World may sound tempting and exotic, but you might want to wait for the warmer months…we just opted for a quick stop in the gift shop.

After Mammoth Cave our next big adventure was getting back to Louisville. Not too difficult since we know the way pretty well. However, we decided to be tourists in our own city. If the weather had been warmer we were going to walk around downtown because it’s absolutely beautiful. Sadly, it was a bit too chilly for that so we stopped into Glassworks to see what they had going on.

Glassworks is a blown-glass gallery in downtown Louisville, and the art they produce is mind blowing. They offer self-guided tours around the gallery and studio for $4.50 per person, but they also have a Walk-in-Workshop. For a range of prices YOU can be the artist and make fusion glass pieces all by yourself! I chose to make a pendant for a reasonable $19 and I cannot wait to see it. They fire it in a kiln and you can pick up your little beauty when it’s done.

We spent the rest of the evening in Louisville at a friend’s house eating ice cream, watching movies, playing Guitar Hero and just realxing. It was perfect. The next day we all went our seperate ways to our respective home towns. This puts me in Richmond, KY where I am left to do some homework and fill out applications.

After all is said and done, I greatly enjoyed my Spring Break trip(s). The company was excellent, Kentucky was fun and cheap and it was all pretty much worry free. I highly reccommend a tour around your home state once in awhile. It’s certainly eye opening!

From Murray to Bowling Green

When traveling, you must expect the unexpected, but you must also accept the unexpected. Let me remind you…I’m on Spring Break. Typically, college students spend way too much money to go somewhere warm and do nothing but lay on a beach.

Not my friends and I. We save money by staying at family’s houses and not leaving the state…we also brave 30-50 degree weather, rain and snow.

Yes. Snow.

The day after the art show we all wanted to go to Nashville and visit the zoo, but when we heard it was snowing we decided against it. We ended up going to Bowling Green a little early and doing fairly cheap things like going to the mall and to the movies.

How come no one plays in arcades anymore? They’re so much fun! And not too incredibly expensive…as long as you don’t get caught up in those “win more tokens” games. Bust.

The next day we were in Bowling Green we decided to take in a concert of the symphonic kind. They played a night of John Williams music. Let me tell you, you have not lived until you’ve heard an orchestra play the Jaws theme.

More in the next post. It’s time for another free, family dinner! Handy tip: traveling to family’s houses is a great way to save money and get delicious food.

Happy Trails!

Natalie

Murray KY+Art=Adventure

Sometimes I consider myself an artist…sometimes I don’t even think about it. Technically, I’m a student who doesn’t know what she’s doing, but happens to do art sometimes and also happens to have a minor in the subject.

Last semester I took a Video Art class and ended up making something I was very proud of. I titled the video “Image” and, after some urging from my professor, submitted it to the Kentucky Girlhood Project. I had never submitted any of my work to a real gallery before, and I had no idea what I was doing. Miraculously, my video was accepted and was to be shown in the exhibit on Feb. 27th in Murray, KY. Which is where I went this evening with three of my good friends, my parents and my sister.

Enough about art and all that, back to travel!

I’ve never been to Murray before. I applied to Murray State University, got in, but swiftly decided that Bellarmine Univ. was a much better fit for me. Thank GOODNESS I did. I’ll explain the relief later.

My three friends and I packed up an SUV and began our journey on the Western Kentucky Parkway, one of the most dismal parkways in KY, especially this time of year. The only description I could come up with was….”brown.” Everything is dead along the parkway, especially traffic. So at least we made good time! The drive was made much easier by my friend Jon’s iPod and a special On the Go playlist we all contributed to. When you’re on the road for a long time you begin to learn that music by B*witched, Destiny’s Child and various Disney films are essential to staying awake and happy. Don’t ask why, just take my advice and find out for yourself!

Once we made it off the long, long, long parkway and into Murray we met up with my family and went to dinner. Nothing remarkable about that, sadly, but it was nice to see my folks and sister. After din-din we finally saw Murray State’s campus. It’s very quaint, and looks like a typical college campus only with more sidewalks and trees. I wish I had been able to see it in the daytime, because I’m sure it’s quite charming.

The gallery is very impressive. It’s open, pristine, multi-floored and full of interesting nooks and crannies. The exhibit looked fantastic, and my piece was the only video art there which was pretty cool. It was displayed very well, with a TV on a podium. I was pleased!

After the show my friends and I had dessert with my parents and then headed our separate ways. We’re staying at a friend’s house for the night before departing to Nashville tomorrow. As I sit here typing my friends are playing Pokemon. This is a very strange Spring Break. But I think it will end up being quite fun and memorable.

Enjoy your weekend….I’ll be back tomorrow….back from the ZOO!

–Natalie