Across Five States Today!

After a restful evening in West Virginia, we left the "wild and wonderful" state and headed towards Missouri. 

Our first stop was Shawnee Park in Louisville, Kentucky.

Shawnee Park borders the Ohio River which separates Kentucky and Indiana. 

 Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of American landscape design, was commissioned to design the park. Completed in 1892, it was the last park system of his career. 

We crossed into Indiana, the Hoosier State, and passed mile after mile of farms, farm equipment, and oversize load trucks transporting farm equipment.

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The area is part of the midwestern corn belt. Popcorn salesman Orville Redenbacher was born in Indiana.

From Indiana, we took what seemed like a brief traipse across Illinois before crossing into Missouri. 

After settling in at our airbnb and grabbing some dinner, we headed toward the famous Gateway Arch.

Sam and Ruby are dwarfed by this structure - the tallest manmade monument in the United States. 

At 630 feet, it's more than twice the height of the Statue of Liberty!

Unfortunately we were not able to ride up to the top of the arch. Hopefully next time.

Every great road trip comes with good food. Here we are at Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams. Jeni Britton is a James Beard award-winning ice cream maker creating one-of-a-kind ice cream flavors with Direct and Fair Trade ingredients. Wildberry Lavender, Darkest Chocolate, Salted Peanut Butter with Chocolate Flecks and Wedding Cake (vanilla cake with lemon, blackberries and buttercream icing) were our scoop choices. Yum!