Houston- day 5 – We crash at Brian’s place for a couple days.  There are a few chores but mostly we just hang out and catch up.  I do try the b’day cake recipe again but it isn’t much better, oh-oh.  Maybe one more try at Carol’s before I give up on vanilla cake.  We all spend one morning at Brazos Bend State Park where trails around the ponds are a great place for wildlife watching.  Typically, there are many gators but we see only a few today.  Birding is pretty good though – night herons are everywhere along with egrets, anhinga, blue herons and great blue herons.  We come upon a doe and very new fawn.  It jumps and prances around Mom then tucks in close to hide.  They are wonderful to watch.

We make the first of what will become a string of stops at regional dining favorites, Schlotzsky’s.  Monday morning and Brian is off to school (one more week to go) and we head on to Louisville to check in with Tammy.

Louisville – day 8- to spend some time with Tammy.  But first, a throwback morning.  We take the historic tour of Mammoth Cave.  There are more handrails and more of the path is paved but otherwise it looks pretty much the same as 30 years ago.  The moments when the guide turns off all the lights are still very impressive!   We move on into Louisville.  On our way into town we grab lunch at Ollies Trolly, burgers and fries liberally coated in their special spices.  Another foodie flashback and yep, just like we remember them.  Now it is all about hang time. We spend a day and a half at Tammy’s catching up and enjoying their wild-life filled back yard.  They feed all the locals so there are ground hogs, raccoons, squirrels and a myriad of feathered friends.  There are more foodie stops too. By the time we move on we have gotten our fix at Moby Dicks, Bob Evans, Godfathers Pizza, the Chiller Ice cream shop, and Krispie Kreme.  Better move on.