Through three states today - Saturday, July 23, 2011

Today was another long day, but a very good one, as we drove through Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky.  After leaving the Hampton Inn this morning, we decided to do a little sight seeing on the way.  We found out about a tour of the covered bridges of Indiana, so after a little research, found that 3 of them were sort of on our way.  So, off we went in search of the bridges.  Now, they didn't build these bridges near the Interstates.  As we followed the directions, the roads became less and less well paved and more suited for pickup trucks than Midgets, but we forged on.  After awhile, we came to the first one, and shortly after the other two.  These are very old, wooden, covered bridges, two of which are still in use.  Instructions tell you to cross them at walking speed!  Construction is very interesting, with all the beams, trusses and decking made out of wood.  At the last bridge, a fellow in a red pickup truck pulls up and says he just wanted to look at our cars.  Turns out he is from Indianapolis, down in this area doing some work, and he just bought a '72 Midget for his wife and he has an old Triumph!

After seeing the last bridge, we headed south, stopping in the very interesting city of Vincennes, IN. which is the home of Red Skelton.  This is the oldest city in Indiana.  We went downtown looking for a place to eat lunch and were surprised at the downtown.  Main street has many old, interesting, historical buildings.  Being Saturday, there weren't many cafes open, but we did see a place called Zander's.  It is an ice cream and sandwich shop and turned out to be a good find.  We all had panini sandwiches, which were very good.  And then, we had some of their ice cream for dessert.  They had at least 20 flavors of ice cream and a small cup had three scoops (but the scoops were smaller than a normal scoop) of whichever flavor(s) you wanted.  It was a very good find for lunch and dessert!  After lunch, we walked down the main street looking at the buildings and came across Jewel Craft Jewelers.  It is located in a 1913 building which was originally the First National Bank building.  It is of Neoclassical design with a Corinthian temple front.  But, the neatest part of it is that they have left a lot of the bank interior intact, including the original bank vault, with its intricately designed, 15 ton door!  We finally left Vincennes and headed to Evansville.  Just as we got into town, I started smelling that overheating brake smell again, so we pulled over into a nice shaded commercial fueling center.  This time, the right front brake smelled, but there was no smoke and after a few minutes, we continued on and had no further problems.  We drove around the Evansville downtown, which was bigger than Vincennes, but not as interesting.  Before leaving, we drove down to the waterfront along the Ohio river.  We then continued on to Madisonville, Kentucky where we stopped at our 5th Hampton Inn.  (We should have cut a deal with the company before the trip!).  After checking in, it was about 7:00 and we were ready to eat dinner.  We called an Italian place but it was too busy, so we found a local Mediterranean restaurant and what a great find it was.  The Cafe Fatemeh is locally owned and operated.  It is a small place but with a big heart.  Sam Shamsabadi, the owner and chef, was very appreciative of our visit and made every effort to make our meal great.  We started with a spinach dip with pita bread and it was delicious.  That was followed by a Mediterranean salad with was also very good.  The next course was a small bowl of chicken soup, compliments of the chef, which, again, was very tasty.  But wait, there's more!  The main course was Persian Delight (see picture), also very good.  And, finally, there was dessert (on the house!) which was Persian ice cream with rose petal extract.  A delicious, sweet finish.  The service was excellent and the chef personally thanked us for coming.  If you are ever in Madisonville, the Cafe Fatemeh is worth looking for.  We made it back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.  After two long days, tomorrow should be a little easier.  We plan on going to Murfreesboro, TN and maybe eating at the Kleer Vu Cafe again!!

Covered bridge in Indiana

Another covered bridge

Original vault in jewelry store

Exterior of Jewel Craft Jewelers

The ice cream choices at Zander's

Zander's Ice Cream and Sandwiches

Our dessert!

Persian Delight

Spinach dip

Our hosts,  Sam and Abbas Shamsabadi at Cafe Fatemeh