Saturday, January 7, 2012

Day 16 Texas Vacation Xmas 2011

We awake early and have a quick breakfast before hitting the road home.  It is another foggy start to the day.  We have another long day ahead of us.  A 600 mile / 1000 km day.   Our destination for tonight is Cincinnati Ohio.

7421 Arkansas, Little Rock - I-40 East - fog 7422 Arkansas - I-40 East - fog

Soon we are leaving Arkansas and entering Tennessee.  We cross over the Hernando De Soto bridge and pass by the “Great American Pyramid” in Memphis Tennessee.  This pyramid has a few other nick names.  The “Memphians” call it the “Tomb of Doom” or the “Pyramid Arena”

7431 Arkansas, West Memphis - I-40 East - Hernando de Soto Bridge and view of Pyramid in Memphis, Tennessee 7432 Tennessee, Memphis - I-40 East - Hernando de Soto Bridge 7435 Tennessee, Memphis - I-40 East - Pyramid from Hernando de Soto Bridge

A few hours further along, we see the familiar skyline of Nashville ahead of us.  We easily recognize this skyline because of the iconic “Batman” building.  This is the AT&T building in downtown Nashville TN.

7446 Tennessee, Nashville - I-65 North - Nashville skyline 7447 Tennessee, Nashville - I-65 North - Nashville skyline

The skies are clearing as we enter Kentucky.

7450 Kentucky - I-65 North - Kentucky Welcome sign and blue skies 7451 Kentucky - I-65 North - blue skies

We pass by a quilt barn and the National Corvette Museum as we race along I-65.

7452 Kentucky - I-65 North - barn quilt 7453 Kentucky, Bowling Green - I-65 North - National Corvette Museum

This RV caught our eye, there were lots of licence plates and bumper stickers plastered all over the back end.

7457 Kentucky - I-65 North

The moon was rising in front of us and the sun was setting behind us as we drove the final miles to Cincinnati.

7464 Kentucky -  I-71 North 7465 Kentucky -  I-71 North 7466 Kentucky -  I-71 North - sunset behind us

The Cincinatti skyline at dusk.

7481 Ohio, Cincinnati - I-71 (I-75) North 7482 Ohio, Cincinnati - I-71 (I-75) North 7483 Ohio, Cincinnati - I-71 (I-75) North

We arrived at the Best Western Mariemont shortly after 6pm.  This Best Western is rated the number one hotel in Cincinnati on Trip Advisor.  This is an old Tudor style hotel and we really enjoyed our stay here and when in the area, we will stay here again.

006468A

Usually we would stay at a hotel closer to the border or drive straight home, but a few days ago we got in touch with an online blogging friend of ours and agreed to get together for dinner.   We have followed Denny Gibson’s blog these last several years because of his association with the Lincoln Highway and Route 66 and other scenic / historic roads that we have travelled.  We read each others blogs and we have chased each other around the country on these back roads, but we never were in the same place at the same time.  This was the perfect opportunity to finally meet because Denny lives in Cincinnati.

We met Denny in the restaurant on the main floor of the hotel, where we enjoyed a couple of beers and burgers and some great conversations about road trips past and planned.  Thanks for your hospitality Denny, it was a great evening and very nice to finally meet you.  I know our paths will cross and we look forward to seeing you again.

7502 Ohio, Cincinnati - Best Western Premier Mariemont Inn - Denny Gibson, Karen & Bill in hotel restaurant

After dinner Denny recommended that we walk a short distance to a small ice cream shop.  Graeter’s Ice Cream… the richest, creamiest ice cream that I have ever tasted.  Even Karen would agree that it was very good and delicious, but for her nothing beats Baskin Robins Chocolate Fudge Ice Cream.  We were still very full from dinner, so it was single scoops for each of us.

7503 Ohio, Cincinnati - Graeter's ice cream dessert

Here are some pictures of our room. The room even had a fireplace.

7488 Ohio, Cincinnati - Best Western Premier Mariemont Inn - our room 7489 Ohio, Cincinnati - Best Western Premier Mariemont Inn - our room 7493 Ohio, Cincinnati - Best Western Premier Mariemont Inn - our room

I spent a few minutes trying to figure out where the TV was and then I saw this little note.

7515 Ohio, Cincinnati - Best Western Premier Mariemont Inn - our room

With the push of a button, the portrait in the frame rolled up and there was our TV.

7511 Ohio, Cincinnati - Best Western Premier Mariemont Inn - our room 7516 Ohio, Cincinnati - Best Western Premier Mariemont Inn - our room 7517 Ohio, Cincinnati - Best Western Premier Mariemont Inn - our room

Tomorrow we will drive the final miles to home.

2 comments:

  1. Dang! Guess you'll put pictures of anybody on here. Great meeting both of you. Next time through maybe we can get to some Aglamesis Ice Cream.

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  2. Sounds good, we are always up for some good Ice Cream.

    ReplyDelete