Road trip summary....get your coffee and sit a spell

So here we have the long-awaited and much talked about review of our trip to Northern Kentucky last week.

The focus of the trip was to visit both the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter. These two places are about 45 minutes apart so Russ found a nice little apartment type VRBO in Union, which is about half way between.

It was a lovely community and apparently one of many small towns that have exploded on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River. We would drive from one to the next with only a sign alerting us that we had traveled into a new one.

Kentucky is beautiful with rolling hills and lots of horse farms and large properties of land not dedicated to corn and soy beans. Now don’t get upset with me. I love the Midwest and where we live and the fields are beautiful to me year round, but I do love returning to the topography that is Kentucky as I remember it.

Lots of twists and turns and ups and downs on those roads, which make me think we would have challenging bike rides.

We arrived in Union late Sunday afternoon and after checking in, we found a restaurant for dinner and huge Kroger store to grab some breakfast things.

The first day we went to the Creation Museum. With begin fall and a weekday, there were not a ton of visitors – enough to make it comfortable but not so many that it was cumbersome to get through the museum and grounds.

The museum is very easy to navigate and we enjoyed a couple of 3D presentations and then just walking through the displays. As a Christian, I believe in Creation as it is told in the Bible. The information gathered through research confirms what I believe and filled in some of the missing pieces that I didn’t need to help me believe, but encouraged my faith.

Science actually proves what I believe, but I didn’t need the proof, if that makes sense. I still and always will have questions because I am finite and limited in my understanding, but I found several facts that helped.

We had lunch outside and enjoyed the grounds as well.

There are pretty trails to walk as well as a small zoo area.

After we left the museum, we took a drive around Cincinnati and back and forth on the bridges. I used to go to the Reds games back in the day with my parents, so it was fun to see the city from so many perspectives.

The next day we went to the Ark Experience, which was also easy to navigate. Again, many aspects of a worldwide flood have scientific information and research that affirm it happened.

And again, I didn’t need that to believe, but it encouraged my faith.

My only concern about the Ark was that visitors need to stop and read well the caveat of those who developed the whole experience. They clearly state that while the dimensions of the Ark have been recreated from the actual measurements in Scripture, the living arrangements, care for animals, number of animals and how that worked are all left up to artistic license and logic of possibility.

We do this all the time with Scripture.

We fill in the blanks with what is possible knowing what we know about the times or the culture or just laws of nature and gravity. But I would caution anyone who has visited or does visit to be keenly aware of what is Scriptural that we can know as truth and what the imagination has embellished because there are many who hold to the whole story of Creation and the Flood as just a story and if we don’t live our own faith based on what we have been told in Scripture as the truth and fight for things that have been concocted by those who have added things to help us grasp how it could have taken place, I fear we will not help others to see why the truth is so important.

Which brings me to my final point regarding our visit to these two places.

The central focus, the main message of both the Creation Museum and the Ark Experience is to point to the plan of God to give us a Savior. Sin entered the world through God allowing us to choose to love and obey Him or try things our way.

Adam and Eve chose the latter as do you and I, every single day. We need God and we need His guidance. But we have within us a brokenness that leads us to stray.

The cost of sin is death and Jesus was the substitution for the death we are due. By receiving the gift of salvation through acknowledging we need a Savior and He is the only one who can save us, we have been brought back into right relationship with God.

That is the message of the Creation Museum and the Ark.

Everything points to the Gospel – the good news that our enmity with God is finished on the Cross.

Please keep in mind though…

Are there cheesy names for the refreshment stands? Yes

Do they have a souvenir cup that offers “floods of refills”? Yes

Are there numerous opportunities to buy souvenirs? Yes

Because we are humans.

Because people who come want all the trappings of a destination experience.

As we walked and read and processed, we also took in all the other parts that come with any type of museum experience.

But underneath it all, the heart beat that we felt was the love of God for us through His Son, Jesus Christ. I left both places with the biggest takeaway being how thankful I am that my hope is in Christ alone. He is my life and my light and I am so very thankful for what He did for us.

Our last day we visited the little town of LaGrange, KY.

We have been there to visit my sister several years ago and it was such a quaint place we decided to go check out the shops and have lunch before heading home.

The town is unique with the railroad line running straight through the main downtown area. Literally. Not a cross over…right down the middle of the street.

We had fun watching a few short trains go by and checking out the shops. Lunch was delicious.

If you are in central Kentucky, definitely worth a stop. I wrote about a bed and breakfast we stayed in on one visit and when I find the link, I will add it…sigh. Out of time.

But as we were driving home along the Ohio River, we spotted a really fun place that we are adding to our list for the future. Madison, Indiana is a beautiful town of restored houses, Clifty Falls State Park with trails to hike and blocks of shops and restaurants along the river.

We came home filled with lots of pondering thoughts and grateful for the ability to enjoy this time together.

God is good and we are very thankful for His care for us <3

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