Lets Cover Some Miles and Memories

Hello everyone! It's Jennifer! I am FINALLY finished with my fall class so it's time to get you caught up on Suki's Adventures! For time saving purposes, I am going to combine Evansville, IN with Richwood, KY. Here's why: We went to Richwood, KY on April 25, 2017 for Suki's dad, Keith, to work a UPS contract. Sometimes, at the beginning, they may not have all of the supplies or parts yet. This was the situation, so we only stayed one week there and were sent to Evansville, IN to help out on a FedEx project for a week, then back to Richwood.

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I am going to do this one pretty brief with more pictures and less text. So please be patient with me. I am basing most of it from memory. We really had a great time while we were in both places, although Evansville was a quick trip and only one day of site seeing. Evansville, IN was full of history. It was very pretty. The location of the KY job-site was called "tri-state" because it was centrally located near the state lines of Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. It was very easy for us to travel to Indiana or Ohio in less than an hour. A lot of times, our adventures were so adventurous that we would literally flip a coin to decide which direction we would go. That is part of the reason that we call this "Suki's Adventures" because most of the time, she gets to go with us. However, had I known then, what I know now, I would have made sure to take her more often!

So, lets get started!

Let's talk about the Jail and Sheriff's Residence in Evansville, IN. The jail is located on the corner of Vine and Fourth and across the street from the Old Vanderburgh County Courthouse. It was built in 1890 and began being used as a jail in 1891.

The architect who designed the Sheriff's Residence and Jail is Mr. Henry Wolters. It is designed to resemble a real castle in Baden-Wurttemberg Germany, The Castle of Lichtenstein. They have several similarities such as being made of stone, having the crow stepped gables at the top and rounded towers.

What is really interesting (to me haha) is that there are underground tunnels that connect the jail to the "Courthouse Catacombs" across the street. During the time that the jail was in use, the tunnels were used to allow the more dangerous inmate to move easily between the jail and courthouse. The jail was only a functioning jail for about 80 years, until 1969. Today it is used as the law office of "Woods and Woods". As far as the tunnels, they are now used for fun! At time of print (2016) the town gets scary in October and the tunnels turn into a haunted house for Halloween!

In the background of the above picture, you can see the Old Vanderburgh County Courthouse.

The Old Vanderburgh County Courthouse was designed by the same architect that designed the Jail and Sheriff Residence, Henry Wolters, of Louisville, KY. It is based on Beaux Arts architecture that was, at that time, starting to replace the Victorian styles. The courthouse takes up a whole block in downtown Evansville, IN. At one point, it has once been a turnaround basin for the Erie and Wabash Canal.

There are fourteen main statues around the courthouse that were carved by Franz Engelsmann of Chicago, IL. Here is one of them, The Ten Commandments.

Construction began in 1888 and the courthouse was finished in 1890. If the walls could talk I'm sure it would have many stories to tell. It was used as a military headquarters during a flood in 1937. It has also been stops on the campaign trail where speeches were given on the steps by President Harry Truman in 1948 and then in 1960 President John F. Kennedy.

Today the Old Vanderburgh County Courthouse is used as the home of the County Engineer and Veteran Services. It is also a highly sought after event venue for private parties, weddings, etc.

Another very pretty historic building in Evansville, is the Willard Library. Here is a picture of it. From what I could tell, the library is still in use today.

Before we left Evansville, we had to take a "selfie" of course!

Next on the list is Cincinnati, OH. It was just a few miles away from out job-site in KY so we went to visit on a day trip. Suki didn't go with us that day so I'm going to just share a few pictures of the city, the Cincinnati Bengals stadium and the home of the Major League Baseball team, the Cincinnati Reds. Here ya go for your viewing please. :)

Another short day trip was Louisville, KY. Louisville was neat to see. It was busy. It is home to the main Hub to the United Parcel Service (UPS). Louisville sits on the Ohio river and when you cross the river, you cross into Indiana. While visiting Louisville, I just snapped pictures as we drove through. It was pretty quick because it was a rainy day.

Ok so let's talk about the little spot in Kentucky. We stayed in an RV park that was about 30 minutes from the job. The town was named Sparta, KY. It was beautiful but it was so sad. I remember while we were there, I did some Google research and found that in 2014 the population was less than 300. Apparently several years ago when the coal mines closed, people left and the towns just died. In picture three, that is pretty much the entire town, in a single picture.

Now, one thing I can for sure say for Kentucky, it was BEAUTIFUL. A lot of times, a picture will touch my heart and when it does, I will edit it to add scripture. That happened several times with the pictures that I took while in Kentucky. Oh, and remember I said that when we would flip a coin to decide our direction? We made a left turn and came to a stop because of the deer in the road pictured below.

We had to get to another RV park that was closer to the job site. It was great to only be a few minutes away from civilization again. Goodness knows I'm all about the country life but a few amenities are nice! Like, a store within 30 miles, etc. Again, I have to say that Kentucky is beautiful. The RV park that we stayed at was on a lake, Boltz Lake. You wouldn't know that there was a major interstate just a mile away. Also, the town that we were in, Dry Ridge, KY was just a few miles away from The Ark Experience, a life size replica of Noah's Ark, but I will go to that in the next blog entry. It for sure deserves one of it's own. Here are a few pictures from Dry Ridge KY that includes a "photo shoot" of our special girl and a memory of how happy she was to see her Nanny!

One last adventure before we leave KY. I love waterfalls. Keith knows this and does his best to find me one everywhere we go! Suki got to go with us and explore. She got to play in the water and chase a frog! Of course taking a picture with her is always a chore but hey!, we got it done! The next pictures are taken at Cove Springs Park in Frankfort, Kentucky. They were taken on July 3, 2017. Once again, Kentucky is beautiful.

Until next time, God bless, and as Suki says, hugz and slobbery smooches...

OH,,, These pictures were taken anywhere between May and July of 2017 but I am writing this entry just a little over a week before Christmas in 2018. How in the world did I forget this last picture???? Look who we saw in Darmstadt, Indiana!!!!

References:

***all photos taken by Jennifer George, may be used with permission

About the Old Courthouse. (2017, May 20). Retrieved December 15, 2018, from https://oldvanderburghcourthouse.com/about-the-old-courthouse/

Smith, D. (2016, August 1). History Lesson: Old Jail & Sheriff's Residence in Evansville. Evansville Courier and Press. Retrieved December 15, 2018, from www.courierpress.com