Road Trip with a Purpose...

When one finds one has a Friday afternoon and all day Saturday that one can choose anything to do, one finds a purpose and accomplishes a goal. This was Claude and me on Friday, July 13th and Saturday, July 14th. Here is the back story.

In February 2020 Claude and I will celebrate our 50th anniversary. We talked about it and both determined we don't want a big party thing at all. Not my style in any shape, form or fashion. I told Claude what I really would love to do is have a family thing with our kids and grandmonsters. He agreed wholeheartedly. We sent a text message to all the kids and grandmonsters telling them we wanted to hold a weekend open in the summer of 2020 for a family time with all of us. They wholeheartedly agreed. 

When this Friday afternoon and Saturday became available, we decided to fill it by looking at possible locations to hold said family time. We would be off Friday to check out Jellystone Park in Cave City, Kentucky near Mammoth Caves. 

We were really pleased with this location. Lots of things for people to do in the area. Jellystone Park has two swimming pools and this new beach area. A fishing pond with another one going in now. A waterslide area. Volleyball area. Basketball area. Some big thing to bounce on. Mini-golf. Etc., etc., etc. The cabins all looked great and they could be all close together. Grills outside each one as well as a little kitchen in each cabin. 

After pronouncing this good, we checked into our hotel. Then picked a place to have dinner. We thought we might like to have all the family go to eat one night at a local restaurant. We picked a BBQ place since all our family like that. It was absolutely, hands-down the worst meal we have ever had. Instead of finding a place we could take all of us, we eliminated a place for any of us to eat. 

We found a Dairy Queen and had a Mango/Pineapple Smoothie and an Orange Julius. Then back to the hotel to rest for the remainder of the evening. 

Saturday we ate a brief breakfast at the hotel and then off to drive back roads to French Lick, Indiana. Just a note here...the back roads in Kentucky were prettier than the back roads in Indiana. Just sayin'. 

We drove past Patoka Lake which would afford possible activities. The goal was Big Splash Adventure. After a U-turn, we found the road up the hill to our destination. This place has hotel rooms with an indoor and outdoor pool. There is a restaurant on site. It has a connection to a mini-golf just down the hill. There are lots of things to do in the town including go-karts and horse back riding. This place also provides a great possibility for our family outing.

Again we decided to try one of the local eating establishments as a possibility for a family dinner. This time we went with a Mexican restaurant. It was excellent. Whew!

Then we pointed the car to return home. Got to I-64 and found this back-up. Goodness. We made it through better than we anticipated.  

It was a great trip for us. We found two really good possibilities for our family. We have a few more we want to check out. Need to have our decision before next summer so we can book early. We'll just have to look for another weekend that we can get a day or two away to check them out.