Columbus to St Louis, Missouri

Two phrases we've heard often now from people we meet:

'I could listen to your accent aaaaall day!' and,

'You've seen more of America than I have.' Some people even ask if they can come with us on our journey! 

We set off for Dayton, Ohio, and the National Museum of the United Sates Air Force. 

The museum was free to enter, with maps available for a donation. There were many volunteers inside, happy to point us in the right direction. 

It was the best museum I have ever been to - if you're interested in either aviation or military history, this is an incredible source of information. 

The aircraft are not replicas in the main, and their histories are recorded on the information boards. The displays are extremely well presented, with fascinating stories and names to the photos. Incredible research has gone into this. If you wanted to read everything, it would take a couple of days. 

South from Dayton the countryside flattened out and we saw more factories. The houses appeared to have been built around civil war era - white weatherboard, huge barns, freshly mown grass, neat. 

We passed through Cincinnati, which looked like a great town to visit. 

Big driving holidays always leave me feeling a little guilty that we don't stop in every interesting town, but it's an impossibility within a relatively short timeframe. Even if we were here for six months we still couldn't see everything. 

The grass became electric green in colour as we travelled through Kentucky, the bluegrass state. The trees had more leaves and it was significantly warmer. 

Our second stop was at the Buffalo Trace  Distillery in Frankfort, where Blanton's single barrel bourbon is created. It was an impressive site with old red brick buildings and a heady air of warm bourbon. We wandered the grounds, which were well signposted with information boards. 

We stayed just outside of Louisville for the night, and found in the morning that it was another pretty city, with many ornate bridges. 

Through Indiana, the Hoosier State, to

Illinois. The highest point in these two states is around 1200 feet, which is pretty low. I'm looking forward to being back in the mountains, although it is nice and warm here. 

A couple of hours through Illinois and we arrived in St Louis, Missouri. We've stayed here before, but not had time to look around. 

We started gaining time back today - plus one hour! 

We arrived in St Louis just before an enormous thunderstorm hit the city. It lasted well over an hour, after which we took a cab to 4 Hands Brewing Company to sample more American craft beers.