Scenic road to KY from Wi...

Hello,

We are coming from Kansasville Wisconsin which is Southeastern WIsconsin about 20 miles of Racine. We are coming to Ky for vacation and want to see Mammoth Caves and are visiting someone in Elizabeth Town KY. I would love to take scenic hwys and byways instead of the interstate. I have 2 weeks for the roadtrip so time is not a factor. Can anyone help me map out beautiful scenic route, avoiding Chicago and Loiuveville at all costs. Wouldn%26#39;t mind taking the extra time to get there. Years ago we use to drive to Fla every year with parents and remember those old roads well. Do they still exist? Would love to give my kids same experience. Stopping at cracker barrels, stopping at gift shops and just taking in the scenery sounds awesome. Any help with mapping it out would be appreciated....

Thanks

please email ablueyedsissy@yahoo.com. We are leaving tues 7/22/08...thanks again...

Scenic road to KY from Wi...

Mammouth Cave is about 40 miles south of E-town. My opinion on the scenery of that part of the country is that it is rather boring. Louisville is actually a pretty neat city with the Slugger museum etc. actually and as long as you avoid rush hour, (3 to 6:30 roughly) sailing down I-65 is pretty simple.

Dunno what you want by ';beautiful scenic route.'; Indiana and Western Kentucky are flat, very rural. Not much to see. The big horse farms are in the central part of the state, near Lexington.

If you want some thing different, you might consider driving down the side roads from Indianapolis (which in my opinion are very boring, but the whole part of that state is boring no matter which way you go.) to Evansville, crossing the river into Henderson, KY. Fill up there, Henderson has the cheapest gas in that area.

Take Audobon Parkway into Owensboro and eat at Moonlight BBQ, or a similar joint if you can find one. Moonlight is the best known one. Ownensboro is the home of bbq for Western Kentucky and I believe is responsible for Burgoo, a type of vegetable stew. I forget exactly how to connect up with E-town from Owensboro, but they are about 40 minutes apart.

In the alternative, you could go through Louisville, switch to I-64, head to Lexington and stop around Frankfort. Small town, but the state capital is there and the Rotunda is impressive for such a small place. There is an old-fashioned candy shop there called Rebecca Ruth%26#39;s which does bourbon candy. You could hit the Bourbon Trail, but I don%26#39;t think the kids would enjoy watching you sample while they stand there. You can then take Versailles Road and see some of the Horse farms or go down to Midway or Versailles. Go goggle at the castle at Versailles. Then take Bluegrass Parkway (fill up with gas before you get on) into E-town.

FYI, get directions from your friend with landmarks. E-town has a bad habit of not marking their major streets. Been lost there more times than I want to think about.

Scenic road to KY from Wi...

Oh, just to add: You want to avoid Chicago (understandable) and Louisville (a little perplexed at this but ok) but you have no problems going through Indianapolis, the city of eternal construction?

Oh yeah, don%26#39;t want to go through Indianapolis either...lol. Ok, well if you say Louisville is not that bad as long as I avoid rush hour, I%26#39;ll believe you. I just read a few things about what a cluster --- I mean what a mess it is. Heard its worse than Chicago. Have to read your email more in the morning when my brain is refreshed, but guess its looking like there is no way around Chicago. Is there no way to stay on 41 most of the way ? My dad said he used to take that all the way down. According to all the maps I have checked out..you get rerouted quite a bit. Got an Rand Mc atlas at walmart tonight and was looking at that. Sounds like you are pretty familar with the route, do you go there often? Mind if I email with some questions tommorrow night after work? Thanks for taking the time to reply. Guess I am making too much of this. Just want a nice easy trip....thanks again...sissy

You are thinking of Spaghetti Junction. Yeah, that does become a cluster---- at rush hour. 65, 64, and 71 meet at that point and transitioning from 64 West to 65 North is a mess bacause of a short transition distance.

However, in your case you would likely have 2 options. Option one would be taking the interstate directly to E-town. In that case you would not leave 65 at all. There is one back up transitioning to 64 during rush hour, but in your case you are not making the transition, so stay in the far right lane and you won%26#39;t get caught in the back up too badly. Stay on 65 until you get out of Louisville. 65 South does back up during rush hour, but nothing like Indy in my opinion.

If you wanted to, you could hop 31 which will take you to Second Street bridge which will be a local access to downtown. Make a right and get over to the far left lane. Take Third Street down through Old Louisville and look over the Victorian neighborhood. Oldest collection of Victorians in the US and beautiful in my opinion. One street over is Central Park and St. James Square. Third street past U of Louisville will take you to Central Avenue and Churchill Downs. Right on Central will take you to Churchill; left will take you to the Fairgrounds on Crittendon Dr. Make a left there to get on 65 South again. If you want to go to Lexington, turn right on Crittondon and go over to Watterson Expressway. Take Watterson East (go under the underpass to get to it) to 64 and head to Lexington.

Option 2: go to Lexington for the horse farms. You will need to take the 64 turn off and be in the far right lane leaving Indiana. That lane does back up during rush hour because there is a bad design on both sides of the bridge. However, take the turn; follow the directions and head on to Lexington.

Of course you could decide to go through Evansville and avoid Louisville. You will still hit traffic in Evansville though, its a nice sized city but no Louisville.

Just returned from visiting KY for a conference in Louisville but spent a few days outside the city on doing the following: Stayed in Bardstown for 2-nights at the Hampton Inn - quite fine and then 1-night at the Shakervillage - all of this is off Route 64. We went up to Fort Knox to the Patton Museum (husband big fan), Mammoth Caves (2-hour history cave tour), Maker%26#39;s Mark Bourbon, ShakerVillage, Abraham Lincoln%26#39;s boyhood home, museum, and birthplace, and stopped in Frankfort to see Daniel Boone%26#39;s grave.

I loved this trip and would recommend seeing as much as possible. We did not have enough time to see much more than that but pretty much did a quite a bit during our time there driving around and enjoying the beautiful scenery - loved the people and sites.

In Louisville, my husband went to the Slugger Museum and the Fraser (? spelling) museum - he liked both. We went to 21C (hotel/museum) for a stop to check it out - quite eclectic. Also we went to Lynn%26#39;s Paradise Cafe as well as the Cave Hill Cemetery - Kentucky Fried Chicken guy Sanders is buried there and it is a beautiful cemetery - park like. I have a thing for vising old cemeteries - so seek them out when I visit cities in this country and abroad.

You%26#39;ll have a fabulous time - enjoy the roadtrip - take it all in!!!

This site might be of some help........

http://www.byways.org/

I agree that the interstate or Blue Grass Parkway drive to Mammoth Cave is pretty dull going, but I%26#39;m sure there are two-lane highways leading there; do a little more digging or wait for more responses...

As for seeing horse farms, by all means take Old Frankfort Pike from Louisville to Lexington (or Midway; a cute little stop for lunch), which is a designated scenic byway and lined with horse farms; you can even get out and pet the thoroughbreds.

Report back and tell us how it turned out!