Grand Excursion

In summer 2005 towns along the upper Mississippi River replicated a series of events from 150 years early - when a flotilla of ships spent days and days traveling up the Mississippi River, from the Iowa-Illinois border - very near where I lived in 2003 and 2004 - to the Twin Cities, where we lived before that. On our way to Illinois (and then to Louisville) on a Memorial Day weekend trip to the Twin Cities five years ago - just before the "Grand Excursion" - we essentially did the Grand Concourse in reverse. We left St. Paul and stopped in Pepin, Wisconsin, to see the "Little House in the Big Woods," then drove along the Mississippi, criss-crossing between the states - stopping to go to the bathroom in Winona, MN; driving around LaClerc, Wisconsin; having dinner in Dubuque, Iowa; driving back past the Davenport (Iowa) mall (where Stephanie and Joanne had shopped a year before) - unti we arrived in Macomb very late at night. Stephanie and I thought of this trip as we sort of replicated this on the Ohio River, minutes after leaving the Creation Museum (including the petting zoo and the bridge) two weeks ago Saturday. we were in a hurry, because I wanted to try to get to a concert outside of Vevay, Indiana. So we left the museum at 5:45 p.m., took the Cincinnati beltway across the river (I'd only driven this stretch once before on my way in a rented SVU - going 30 mph in the snow - when my plane got snowed in in the Cincinnati airport - on my way back to Macomb after my Louisville job interview 5 1/2 years ago in January). (Pictured above) we quickly passed one of many coal-fired electric generating plants along the river. Indiana allows gambling on boats (mostly on the Ohio River or Lake Michigan) (some of these boats actually fake). Here's the entrance to a casino in Lawrenceburg, IN - the first town we drove through in IN (along the river).

Further into Lawrenceburg we drove across a bridge, close to a Seagram's distillery.

Yet another distillary.

One of the cuter towns we drove through was Aurora, IN, where we drove past the end of a church wedding. (For some reason there is no bridge across the river between Lawrenceburg and Vevay, IN - almost an hour away. Looking at a map with indistinct bridges, I thought there should be a bridge at Aurora or Rising Sun, and we could have driven along the river on the KY side, and then crossed at one of these two towns - but, in fact, no bridges.)

We kept driving through Rising Sun.

Below is a barge - like the barges we used to see heading up and down the Mississippi River from the Shepard-Warner expressway in St. Paul - and like the ones - in fact, this could be a Louisville-headed barge - in the Ohio River passing Louisville and Southern IN.

Around about now was 6:15 p.m., when Stephanie remembered that the Kentucky Derby race was slated to start in eight minutes. We messed around with the car radio and a transistor radio for the whole eight minutes until we finally found a station that was carrying the race, which thankfully started a little late. The station faded in and out until I eventually stopped along the side of the road - mid-race - to make sure we wouldn't lose the signal down the road. We had just 15-20 minutes to get to the casino in Florence, IN - but I thought we could afford a one-minute wait. The race was awful exciting - but it was hard to figure out on the radio what happend at the end. I've watched the race several times on YouTube - with the same announcer announcing the race on TV who was announcing it on the radio - and he doesn't mention the winning horse until basically AFTER the end. Mine that Bird was dead last through most of the race - way back - and didn't roar way into the lead - sneaking in on the rail - where he's hard to see - until the last few seconds. Afterwards, we heard a little analysis that helped explain what happened (though it was even more clear to me after watching the race on YouTube - partly to see where Mine that Bird came from). Calvin Borel rode horses to victories for the second time in two days (having rode Rachel Alexandra to victory in the Oaks race at Churchill Downs the day before).

Minutes later we drove through tiny Florence, IN (town with same name as KY town just miles away across the river where we had eaten lunch) and then suddenly saw the casino. After leaving the casino three hours later, we continued with our Ohio River version of the Grand Concourse. We drove past the bridge to KY at Vevay, through small Vevay and its open bowling alley and then down the road though the very cute Madison - scene of a fatal speedboat regatta several years ago and filled with historic homes - and drove past a famous hamburger joint I'd heard about from an admissions officer at the nearby (Presbyterian) Hanover College the day before. We made an emergency city park public restroom stop for me, and then drove across the bridge and over land towards Interstate 71, though yet a fifth county seat of the drive: Bedford, KY, county seat of Trimble County (two counties from Louisville). We'd lost Vincent on the phone (who wondered where we were) in Madison (which we hope to visit again) and then called him back as we entered Henry County near 71. Stephanie talked with him during our whole freeway trip home and told him we were about to drive into KY seconds before she opened the front door (surprising him with our sudden arrival). Great trip - but it was 11 p.m. and we were happy to see Frisco and him.

-- Perry