We awoke to a beautiful sunrise. The same casino that I photographed last night looked different at sunrise. It was good to see that the rain had stopped.
We began our journey to Louisville, Kentucky. Today, we would find ourselves in Missouri, Indiana, and Kentucky.
We were on our way when the navigation system in the car missed a turn. It had not done that before, but it soon picked another route. On that route, we saw a sign for the “National Shrine of our Lady of the Snows.” That looked like an interesting stop so after supercharging in Collinsville, MO, we headed for the shrine. When we arrived and started looking around, we realized that this was a visual experience of many individual venues that made up the shrine.
Our first stop was the Lourdes Grotto which was carved into the side of a rock wall. There were benches for services that are carried out there.
We wound our way through the grounds and saw the Ave Maria fresco’s.
Our next stop was at the Shrine Amphitheater Church.
We wound around to the Millennium Spire.
We finished our tour at the Church of the Lady of the Snows, and it was incredibly impressive. It was modern and beautiful. Whether you are religious or not, the architecture was a sight to behold. Ronnie and I blessed ourselves in the cascading holy water stones and said prayers for our friends and loved ones.
We continued on I64 towards Louisville and crossed the border into Indiana in Griffin, Indiana.
We were back in mountain country and the view of the mountains, and the clouds was beautiful. After the monotony of the last view days, we were happy to be back where we are happy. Ronnie and I are not large town people. We love mountains, scenic overviews, waterfalls, and things rustic.
We were not disappointed. Our trip through the mountains of southern Indiana and northern Kentucky was welcome to us.
What was not welcome was the sudden change from Central Time to Eastern Time. We had planned on arriving at our hotel at 4:35, unloading our gear and arriving at Ronnie’s niece’s house at 5:00 pm. I looked at the navigation screen in my Tesla Model X and it showed us arriving at the hotel at 5:35 pm. We had crossed the line from Central to Eastern time. I made calls to Patricia and Jimmy Helms to update them on our predicament. They were totally cool with it.
We crossed the Lewis and Clark Bridge over the Ohio River.
Our gateway into Kentucky happened in Prospect, Kentucky just before we entered a short tunnel through the mountains.
We checked into our hotel and after dumping our gear in the room, went to visit Ronnie’s niece, Patricia Helms, her husband, Jimmy Helms and their children, Isabella, and Matthew.
We had a wonderful visit and were glad that we could edit our trip to be there. Family is so important and for us, it was more important than wherever else that we could be.
© 2023, Herb Segars. All rights reserved.
