Arriving in Palmyra, IN at Buffalo Trace State Park was definitely an experience. After the long drive with an antsy dog and 7 screaming cats, the problems we encountered on the road with things literally falling off of the house, arriving to the park at dusk and trying to back the house in as the sky grew increasingly dark, coming into the house to find everything that had fallen off of walls and out of the refrigerator, and just dealing with the overall stress of our first big move – it’s safe to say we were exhausted.
We did a quick Yelp search of nearby food options (not too many out in our neck of the woods) and found a bar about 15 minutes away that served food. I’m not sure what we were expecting but the Bradford Tavern definitely wasn’t it. We were a little hesitant at first – this was a kind of ramshackle building on the corner of two country roads and it definitely didn’t look like the type of bar or tavern that we usually visit. The parking lot was full, however, and our stomachs were empty (we hadn’t eaten all day due to nerves about travelling) so we took a chance. Our first encounter with another patron was when we were trying to determine how to get inside the building as nothing was obvious as being a door.
Our dilemma was resolved when a man burst from the side of the building and almost hit us with a flying cigarette. It turns out that smoking is still legal indoors in Indiana. The man apologized and held the door for us as we walked in. The bar was packed and, as it was the Saturday before Halloween, half of the patrons were in costume. It was hard to tell if the other half were in fact wearing costumes, too, or just regularly dressed in lots of leather and flannel. There was a monk playing pool with a scantily clad referee and a lady Freddy Krueger at the table behind us. The bar tender was running herself ragged but eventually managed to take our food order between serving other patrons and taking drags from her cigarette. We were highly skeptical but the food was actually delicious – probably made more so by the fact that we were so hungry. It was your standard bar fare (chicken fingers, fries, mozzarella sticks, a soda and a well-deserved Bud Light) but it was served hot and promptly and it really hit the spot. We practically inhaled our food, paid our bill, drove back to Buffalo Trace Park, climbed into bed and passed out.
When we woke up the next morning (after sleeping like the dead all night) we were finally able to relax and take stock of our new home for the next two weeks. We quickly cleaned up the messes of the day before and took note of what needed to be more secure for the next move. We set up our outdoor canopy and our table and chairs and fired up the Blackstone griddle for breakfast. The campground was beautiful. The park had been full of campers and visitors on Saturday night when we arrived as the park was in the middle of their Halloween/Trick or Treat event but as the week went on, things thinned out to only a handful of other campers staying during the week. The trees had begun to change color and the ground was carpeted with leaves that crunched with each step we took. The weather was cool – just the right temperature for a cozy hoodie over our pajamas. We could smell the smoke from other campsites and just see the pond off in the distance at the end of the road. We sat and ate our breakfast and felt so at peace – this was our life now.
We had lost track in all of the excitement the day before but we now knew that all of the hassle and headache and drama had been worth it.
We spent most of our first day in Palmyra relaxing and recovering from our ordeal on travel day but had made plans to go out to dinner with a friend that John had made online playing Fortnite a few years ago. We had never met in person but he lived in the Louisville area so we decided to finally meet face to face. This was the weekend before Halloween (Angel’s favorite holiday) and we had found out about a street in Louisville that supposedly goes all out with decorating each year and people were welcome to come walk around the neighborhood. This is known as “Halloween on Hillcrest” and is used to collect food and money for a local food pantry.
Back in our hometown, there was a street called Central Avenue that turned into “Christmas Central” each year for Christmas during our childhoods. For the most part, about half of the homes there participated and we were expecting about the same at this event. Boy did we underestimate! In the several blocks that we walked, there was one house that hadn’t decorated at least a little. Some houses had simple decorations – a few skeletons posed in the yard or some lights and carved pumpkins- and others went ALL OUT. We saw houses that were Hocus Pocus themed, or Wizard of Oz, and one that was all alien stuff. There were houses with mannequins and inflatables and so much more. One house took a simple yet terrifying approach with a creepy old baby carriage and a blanket on the lawn covered with disturbing dolls. Yet another house had just about every square foot covered with skeletons who had met their unfortunate ends – between recreating movie scenes like Titanic and taking pages from history with “The Last Ride of Bonnie and Clyde” complete with vintage car and bullet holes there was something new to see each time our eyes scanned their property. Despite the fact that it started raining while we were walking around, it was well worth it to see all the hard work these people had put in to their decorations.
After checking out all of the Halloween decorations on Hillcrest, we drove to Momma’s Mustard, Pickles, & BBQ on Hurstbourne to meet our friends. It was wonderful finally having faces to match the names of John’s friend, his wife and their son although it was strange calling him by his name and not his gamer tag.
This marked the first actual restaurant that we got to try in our new lifestyle. We ordered the sausage sandwich with mac & cheese, fries and cornbread and a variety of sliders with the Bourbon Bread Pudding for dessert and I think that it is fair to say that it did not miss the mark in the least. All of the sliders were fantastic BBQ (except the bologna that was weird) and the cheesy corn was an absolute delight. The wings had a great rub on them and they were super juicy once thru the smoked crust so those are definitely worth stopping in for on their own.
The first move definitely had its ups and downs but now it is time to actually experience the time that we have in Louisville. We plan on checking out tons of food and museums and tours so make sure to check back often. I think that we will try to do blog posts on Wednesdays and Sundays and see how that works out for us so let us know what you think and what you want to see on here. Thanks so much for reading and I will see you next time!
