American History Road Trip 2016-Day8-Ghost Town in Illinois/Amish/Kentucky Fried Chicken in Kentucky

[miss_mouse]

Trip Report Index

NYC - DC- Virginia - Tennessee - Kentucky - Indiana - Illinois

Day 8 – Wednesday 30th March 2016 - A Day of Adventures

Finding a Ghost Town, Amish Hunting and Kentucky Fried Chicken in Kentucky


Just to start, I'm Lisa - the planner and reporter. Ade is my hubby and he's our driver and there's Hollie who is 16 and Louis is 14.


We were awake on and off in the night. It was a really hot room.

We got up at 5.45am and took showers. It was great being on a different floor to Dad and Janet and not having to worry about disturbing them.



We decided to head out to Starbucks, just the 2 of us.

The kids slept in the den in the room next to us. Louis was already up and watching the HUGE tv.






Dad and Janet were up. We love their home.









We headed on our way to grab coffee.






The local police were all in there sat having their early morning coffee.


Whilst we were gone the kids had bother showered and Dad was making us breakfast.





Dad said these rolls were the closest he’d found to English bread. He misses certain things even after living in the US for over 20years.

We were all ready to leave by 10am.





They have a lovely big garden.





We were really pleased to go in Dad’s car.
He bought this 7 seater 10 years ago so the grandchildren would all fit, but none of us have been over. So the rear seats finally got used!

The plan today was to explore a little.

Kentucky, Illinois and we wanted to find the Amish.

We drove over the Kentucky Stateline through Henderson and past Dad’s work.



Along the Ohio river.

Lots of farmland, oil wells everywhere pumping away and coal shafts too.











And in to Illinois.

I don’t think we barely saw another vehicle.

We found an old historic town, Shawneetown.
Janet, my StepMom said it was the place to hang out when she was of highschool age.
It was now a proper ghost town.
Not a person in sight, everything just empty and left.
Very eerie.







This is the bank that loaned to money to the State of Illinois to build Up Chicago many moons ago.



The building is beautiful.




















We had so much fun exploring.
It was like being on a film set.















It was really creepy looking in to this old hotel.



After exploring we drove out a different way. Now this way was creepy.
Proper Redneck Country. It felt a little scary.







Full of trailers, Packs of dogs barking, it was filthy with rubbish everywhere, burnt out trailers, goats, chickens…..stuff everywhere!

I was pleased to get out of there….alive!



We drove on to Cave in the Rock.

I came here as a teen when I visited Dad and was happy to visit with the family now.




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Dad hadn’t been for a while, so Ade and I checked it all out first to see if it was OK for Janet to wander down to (she had a knee replacement a while back).











It was all very nicely laid out so we ran back up to get them.





I told Louis that we were travelling on that ferry next with the car but he wouldn’t believe me.
Still on the Ohio river.





We wandered around to the Cave in the Rock, which is why the town is named this.




The pirates used to travel up the river, rob the immigrants that traveled along the river that were looking for areas to settle and they would hide their ‘treasures’ in the cave here.



















Dad spotted a fire at the top.



He dialed 911 just to let them know not knowing if it was a planned fire seeing as no one was around to attend it.


The wall here surrounded the top of the cave, there was a hole. That’s where the light was coming through at the back of the cave from the top.
There was a big grid over the top.



We drove through the little town.



Proper old town America.



Then on to wait for the ferry.



It just travels to and from constantly all day long.



And it’s free!

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And takes you to the other side of the Ohio and in to Kentucky.



Another derelict petrol station.







We stopped off at a town called Marion.



Our first Amish buggy finding.

We’d hoped to see some Amish today and stop at an Amish bakery.

We stopped at this welcome centre and picked up a map of the Amish area.



Then we stopped at McDonald’s. They were all fancying ice cream.





I’m not a fan of ice cream so had an apple pie.
1 for 80cents or 2 for $1….a no brainer!

We planned our route.
It was such a dirty McDonald’s, the floor was so sticky!

And the locals were so odd.
Dad kept making reference to the movie ‘Deliverance’.



Back on the road for our Amish hunt.



Getting closer….

We drove around a lot seeing lots of Amish farms and a few empty buggies parked up.
We finally found this.





It looked promising.



The Amish man was friendly, not overly chatty, but did say I could photograph inside his store.



We bought their homemade plum jams to bring home for gifts along with bags of their homemade cashew brittle which was amazing!





We saw lots of little Amish kids on the drive, all coming home from school carrying their little lunch pails.



They would all smile and wave as we went by. They all looked do happy and care free.
Must be lovely not knowing all the nastiness going on in the world!

Every person that went by waved.









More digging oil wells.




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We stopped off at KFC on the way home.
Louis LOVES KFC, so we had to have Kentucky Fried Chicken whilst in Kentucky.



Did you know they have no fries in KFC over here?
Only mashed potato!
Really good mashed potato though.







There was a buffet option which looked a little ‘blaaaah’.

Dad and Janet both had Chicken Pot Pies.

We all had $5 boxes.
Chicken, mash and gravy.







I asked to swap my biscuit for corn and got told yes. Ade asked and got told no!



It was OK, but not great.



We drove through a Country Park on the way home.



There were a few little cabins. Janet said that they get really booked up during holiday season. They have log fires inside and are really popular over Thanksgiving.

We chilled out with Modern Family and The Middle when we got back.
It was Dad that got us in to those years ago, so we love being able to watch them together with him.

It was such a fun day exploring.
We absolutely loved finding old Shawneetown. It ended up being a highlight of the trip.
It felt so special being able to go on adventures with Dad.

Tomorrow is a shopping day planned.

Thanks for reading!

[tnkrbell]

Another great read Lisa. Louis looks delighted with his KFC. Bizzare how they let you change biscuit for corn but Ade not. Looking forward to reading more

[Nesbits]

What an interesting day. A derelict town, what a waste, I can't imagine that happening, I wonder why it did.

We have visited Amish restaurants in Florida, on the gulf coast. The food was wholesome.

[StorybookCircus]

I couldn't help but laugh when you stopped at a McDonalds and a KFC in "Amish country"! I'm guessing the Amish don't get to experience fast food, the rednecks must keep both restaurants going!

[Melbatb]

What an interesting day! The deserted town would have freaked me out I think. I wonder why it became like that!

[WileyCoyote]

What a fascinating day, the ghost town looked really interesting, in a weird way. The trailer park is very similar to where we had our random pig encounter on our March trip which freaked me right out

Lovely mix of sights , the caves looked really striking and lol at the ferry , Louis being a dis-believer ! Wot no fries at KFC ... Must admit I think it's nicer with mash n gravy .
Fab day with the folks.

[Pumba75]

Another great read and what an interesting day.
Can't beat family adventures.

Melissa x