Four states in two weeks...

Namely Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky

After a very stressful drive into Chicago (for me, not Mark – he was quite comfortable navigating multi-level interchanges that make Birmingham’s spaghetti junction look like an infant, a 12 lane highway and multiple closed lanes and coned off areas) we arrived at our salubrious pitch for the next four days - the truck marshaling yards at McCormick Place, the largest conference centre in North America. This was where all the tour buses and trucks park once they’ve unloaded their passengers/cargo for the events held there. The nearest RV park to Chicago was at least an hour’s drive away. As we only needed somewhere to sleep, a quick walk to the bus stop and a short 15 minute ride had us in downtown Chicago – perfect.

Our first stop was to the top of the Sears Tower, now known as the Willis Tower. The Skydeck is 1,353 ft/412m high and from here, we could see all the way to Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin

We walked all over the city and joined a couple of tours with local guides where we got the inside story on many of the buildings. We were rather footsore at the end of 3 days, but it was worth it

We also visited Peoria, home of Caterpillar. It showed the history and how the company evolved over the years. Mark was rather disappointed as he expected more information on machinery that wasn’t even covered, but I guess they only have so much space.

We crossed over into Indiana and stayed at a small village called Shipshewana in an Amish community. The town of Middlebury only 5 miles away, is where the majority of motorhomes, 5^th wheels and caravans (travel trailers) are made in the US. We had to go on a couple of factory tours to see how Badger was made and how 5^th wheel’s were manufactured. All in all, very informative.

Next, on to Ohio and Dayton for the National Museum of the US Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where we were 2 years ago. We just happened to be there for the official opening of the fourth hangar, where lots of R&D, presidential and experimental planes that we saw previously on the air base are now on show. It is now easy to walk around them including the only surviving North American XB-70 Valkyrie, Bockscar the B-29 Superfortress that dropped the Fat Man atomic bomb on Nagasaki during the last days of WWII and old Presidential planes.

Kentucky was our next state and on to the Bourbon Trail. We visited Woodford Reserve (premium/craft brand), Maker’s Mark (medium) and Jim Beam (common). Not being a whiskey drinker, I didn’t know anything about bourbon. To be called bourbon,

• It must be produced in the US
• It must be made for a grain mixture that is at least 51% corn
• It has to be aged in new, charred white oak barrels
• Distilled to no more the 160 (US) proof (80% alcohol by volume)
• Barrelled for aging at no more than 125 proof (62.5% alcohol by volume)

There are a few more regulations around labeling the age of the bourbon. 

We also spent a day at Mammoth Caves, the longest known cave system in the world. It currently has 400 miles/640 kms of surveyed passageways and more are being discovered on a regular basis. It was interesting squeezing our way through Fat Man's Misery, a winding passageway that was only two feet wide in places from the waist down and Tall Man's Misery where even I had to bend double.

We’ve also been doing the barbecue trail with lots of ribs, pulled pork and brisket. I can understand why they gave the world KFC and kept the good stuff for themselves! Mark has already blogged about that :-) 

Tomorrow we head for Memphis in Tennessee.