Louisville and The Ark Encounter

Quick! What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word, “Kentucky”?

The Kentucky Derby?

Kentucky Bluegrass?

Kentucky Fried Chicken?

“What? Why are you vacationing in Kentucky?”, I hear you thinking. There’s actually more to see here than you are imagining.

We were visiting our #1 son to see how he, an ex-Californian, transitioned into being Kentuckian.

Here’s a sorry sight for you Californians. These were the latest gasoline prices at a Louisville Costco.

Lunch was at The Cracker Barrel, a Southern-cuisine restaurant.

The Sunrise Sampler, with two eggs, bacon, ham, sausage, and hashbrown casserole, was very good, but the sides (“the fixin’s”) made it outstanding — bacon-flavored gravy, homemade buttermilk biscuits, grits, and fried apples! Just what you’d expect from a Southern entrée: tasty flavors and belly-stuffing portions. It was yummy y’all.

Our waitress taught us that we could smother the biscuits with jam and/or butter and/or gravy before we eat “those bad boys.” I’ve heard Paula Deen use that term for, if my memory is correct, deep-fried Snickers. Apparently, the term refers to dietary items high on the list for those desiring to look like the Michelin Man.

What makes The Cracker Barrel even more attractive is its country store.

This rack of sodas (or pops, or soda pops, depending on where you live in the U.S.) really brought back memories. I haven’t seen a Double Cola (on the bottom row) since childhood.

https://www.crackerbarrel.com/

The big event of the day was visiting the Ark Encounter (“Ark” as in Noah’s ark).

Someone came up with the incredible idea of reconstructing the ark of Noah, as described in the Bible — not a scale model, but life-sized! As you might imagine, it’s difficult to describe in words: colossal, enormous, and other such words are fitting, but inadequate.

It’s four-stories high, and a football field and a half long!

After passing the ticket counters, you board a bus for a slow, winding ride up a hill to the ark. On the path before the entrance at the ark’s stern, there was Monument Walk, a series of pictorial representations of scenes from the Bible (only one is shown here).

The interior setup is much like the best of modern museums, with displays, dioramas, interactive exhibits, and many actual artifacts, like fossils and remnants of historic Bibles.

The design of the walkthrough of the Encounter engaged visitors to thoughtfully consider the many practical questions the biblical ark poses, and give them plausible answers.

At the beginning of the path through the interior, it becomes so obvious that a great deal of imagination went into what it may have looked like. This is where the small animals were kept. Each “cage” has a ceramic water bottle and a wooden food chute.

This 180-degree panorama is a partial view of Deck One.

There was a sense of humor here and there.

Here’s the inside of the rear of the ark. Lots of wood in there!

These were jars of water, olive oil, and sacks of feed grain.

One of the interesting speculations (since it isn’t specified in the book of Genesis) was that the ark held dinosaurs.

There were miniature dioramas. Here was a snake god receiving human sacrifice.

The building of Babel.

I think each figurine was hand-made and painted.

Here’s the front end and the exit.

Compare the size of the people near it to comprehend the immensity of this structure.

Here’s the other side of the ark.

There were live animals on display inside, like porcupines and llamas.

And outside were emus, yaks, kangaroos, and more.

And there even was a reconstruction of an ancient zipline.  😉

This was a remarkable product of engineering and craftsmanship on display. Even if you don’t believe there was a Noah’s ark, this one is worth a visit.

https://arkencounter.com/