According to Google Maps, we traveled 228 miles, and drove for 5 hours and 43 minutes during our week in Kentucky while avoiding highways. We had to cut out time short due to an impending tropical storm, and were unable to explore the western part of the state.
Each state we visit, we will choose at least one point of interest from each of the following categories: Famous Person, Famous Food, Roadside Attraction, State Capitol & State Museum, National Park, Historic Location, Can't Miss Attraction, and Made in the USA Tour. Some of the categories may have more than one selection, and sometimes a category will be vacant due to the lack of a candidate. Please click on the links below for the corresponding blog related our experiences in Pennsylvania over the past week.
Famous Person: Colonel Sanders
Famous Food: None
Roadside Attraction: National Quilt Museum *unable to go due to storm
State Capitol/Museum: Frankfort
National Park: Cumberland Gap National Historic Park
Historic Location: Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace *unable to go due to storm
Can't miss attraction: Churchill Downs
Made in the USA tour: Louisville Slugger
A breakdown of our expenses of the past week are as follows:
Gas: $ 83
Comments:
$ 1.88 gal. in Corbin, KY was the Lowest price paid.
$ 2.03 gal. in Louisville, KY, VA Highest Price Paid
Grocery Food: $ 19
Walmart $19
Comments:
We did great in this category
Dining out $24
China Buffet $11 (Unbudgeted and disgusting)
Pizza Buffet $11 (Unbudgeted, but interesting)
Mcdonalds $ 2 (Bought a hot tea because we needed their free Wi-Fi)
Comments:
We budgeted for eating out once per week and still continue to exceed this amount. We are actively working on this, and are making improvements. This issue is that we don't prepare food in advance, and then we realize we are ravenous and it is too late. Hoping to do so the night before.
Entertainment: $58
Kentucky Derby Museum Admission x2 $30 (Budgeted)
Louisville Slugger Factory Tour Admission x2 $28 (Budgeted)
Comments: We did great in this category!
Lodging: $ 0
Comments: We did great in this category again!
Miscellaneous: $35
Rosie’s Oil Change $28 (budgeted, 1 down, 9 more to go!)
Parking in Louisville $7 (unbudgeted, but unavoidable)
Comments: We did well in this category!
Kentucky Expenses Grand Total: $ 219
(Our expense list does not include re-occurring expenses such as insurance and cellphone etc. )
Is Kentucky Our New Home State?
Here are the rules:
Below are the 5 categories that are important to us in choosing our new home state. Each category is rated from 1 to 10 based on our personal experience in no particular order. 1 is the lowest and 10 is the highest for each category. Each category will receive 2 scores; 1 from Lori and 1 from Nate. The average of these two scores will determine the final score for each category. To determine a state’s final score, we will average the total score of each category. If a state’s final score is less than 8, then that state is eliminated from consideration. At the end of our yearlong cross country trip, the states that scored 8 or higher will be subject to further consideration. In addition, Lori and I each have 1 wild card option, which allows a state that otherwise would have been eliminated, to be considered as our new home state.
Economy:
Nate: 4
“Aside from the cities of Lexington and Louisville, the entire state as I saw it was struggling economically”.
Lori: 5
“Tourism from the horses races in Louisville brings in a lot of money for the state”.
Economy score: 4.5
Cost of Living:
Nate: 8
“I noticed that the prices of produce and other consumables were about 20% cheaper than Connecticut”.
Lori: 6
“I did not notice a lot of options for quality housing outside of the Cities”.
Cost of living score: 7
Quality of life:
Nate: 3
“We had to cut our visit to the state short due to impending Tropical Storm, eek!”
Lori: 6
“It was sweltering hot the entire time we were there; It was awful”
Quality of life score 4.5
Culture:
Nate: 6
“Family is very important to them, and the parks were always packed during children's sporting events”
Lori: 5
“The people of Kentucky appeared to like to spend time in their backyard having a BBQ and drinking”.
Culture Score 5.5
Environment:
Nate: 3
“I did not notice many colleges or universities in the state, where I could further my education”
Lori: 3
“The road system was extremely dangerous, and corners were clearly cut to save money”
Environment Score: 3
The verdict is in:
The final score for Kentucky was, 4.9 and Kentucky will NOT be our new home state. Neither Lori nor I opted to use our Wild Card Option on this state.
Below are the current standings:
Virginia 6.6
Pennsylvania 6.5
West Virginia 6.0
Kentucky 4.9