We took two days to go from Branson, MO to Louisville, KY. The first day we spent about eight hours driving the back roads across southern Missouri and crossing the Mississippi in extreme southern Illinois, then immediately crossing the Ohio River into Kentucky. We ended the first day in Bowling Green, KY in a small motel across the road from the National Corvette Museum.

On Wednesday we took a factory tour of the GM plant in Bowling Green which produces the Corvette and the Cadillac XLR.

We crossed the Mississippi River at Cairo, IL and pulled into a small park on the river. The river was in flood and was expected to peak the next day. Some parts of the Mississippi were experenceing flooding but around Cairo the water was still contained within the banks and levees. The trees in front of the car appear to be about six feet under water.

From the bridge over the Ohio river we could see about 50 barges tied to the river shores. The locks on the Mississippi have been shut down because of the flooding, stopping river traffic on the river North of St. Louis.

A bridge over one of the rivers in the Land Between the Lakes recreation area in eastern Kentucky.

Driving. Driving. Driving.

The entry to the General Motors plant in Bowling Green, KY. The plant tour was excellent. They showed us large parts of the frame and body assembly and the marriage of the frame to the body. They weren't able to show us the paint shop because it would contaminate the paint jobs on the cars.

After the GM plant tour we went to the National Corvette Museum, also in Bowling Green, KY.

The museum had a lot of vettes on display. Many were privately owned and on loan to the museum, including this rolling frame display donated by GM. They have an excellent cross section of years and models of vettes and did a good job of explaining the evolution of the vette and the manufacturing process.

A small portion of the vettes on display.

More vettes.

I really liked the color of this '69 convertable.

After the Vette stuff we stopped at Abraham Lincoln's birth place near Hodgenville, KY. They enclosed his birth home in this granite building.

Lincoln's birth home. He lived here until he was about two years old. Except he never lived here, in the '70s they dated the logs and discovered the cabin was built about 50 years after Lincoln was born.

It is almost certainly very similar to the original cabin, it is sobering to contemplate living in a home such as this.

While at Lincoln's birthplace we saw this beautiful blue and black butterfly.