The Great Outdoors with Nick Jakusz - In the Books!

Nick is packing up the RV and taking his family on a week-long road trip powered by Terry’s RV Center in Frankfort!

From March 26 – April 1st, The Great Outdoors with Nick Jakusz will feature photos, videos and updates from their travels to Indianapolis, Louisville, St. Louis and back in a 30-foot Coachmen Freelander from Terry’s.

Follow along here and on our social media pages to get a glimpse into the RV lifestyle.

To start making your own family memories in the great outdoors, visit Terry’s RV Center in Frankfort.

Nick and his family will be staying at KOA campgrounds during their trip, provided in part by KOA – Kampgrounds of America. Book your stay at KOA.com.

SATURDAY: Homeward Bound

Saturday was the final day of our trip…a five hour drive straight up I-55 back home. We did make a stop in the durty south just to break things up. What up, ATL!

FRIDAY 4/1: City Museum, St. Louis

This place is BANANAS! Some very creative minds and talented artists turned a 100-year-old warehouse into a labyrinth of tunnels, slides, climbers, bridges, and castles. There are secret passages and grand galleries. Playgrounds and ball pits. A circus and a train. A school bus dangling over the edge of the roof, and a Ferris wheel – also on the roof – and gigantic preying mantis at the top of a huge slide. I seriously can’t even begin to describe it, but it is a must-stop if you are ever in St. Louis. Hell…it’s worth the drive alone!! My favorite thing we did the entire trip was visit this incredible place.

You’ll find repurposed building materials and other items like cargo ship chains and propellers. Nothing here is plain or normal. Everything is thoughtfully designed. Everything is a work of art meant to be interacted with.

You will lose your child…it’s apparently part of the fun! They even say on the website that you’d better put your phone number on them before you get inside. There are holes and tunnels everywhere, and you have no idea where those tunnels end. What fun!

We finally had a semi-decent night to build a fire, cook some hot dogs and do the one thing you NEED to do while on a camping trip.

THURSDAY: 3/31: You Can Find me in St. Louis!

Today was a get-away day. We turned in our rental car, loaded up the RV and hit the road to St. Louis. On the way, we stopped in Corydon, Indiana. It wasn’t entirely random. It happened to be a good distance away for a pit stop, and it had another thing going for it. A pharmacy with a potty word, which Max thought was hilarious (and so did his dad)! Funny thing is we’ve been trying to get him to stop saying these “potty words” so much, then all of a sudden we ask him to read this sign…

Turns out, Corydon is a pretty nice little town with a lot going on! It does happen to be the first state capital of Indiana, after all, and boy do they lean into that! Historical markers are everywhere! Tons of cool shops and stores in their downtown area and it rests in the rolling hills of the southern Indiana. I highly recommend a stop for a Butt Shake and some history if your in that neck of the woods.

We continued on another 4-ish hours until we came to a rest at the St. Louis West / Historic Route 66 KOA Holiday. A scenic spot where we laid our heads for the night before our big adventure tomorrow!

WEDNESDAY 3/30: Sun Valley Horse Farm

Wednesday was one of the better weather days we have had. It was at least sunny and warm, but the wind was blowing around 40 mph all day, gusting up to 60 and that wind ushered in some overnight thunderstorms. We booked a tour at Sun Valley Farm, a breeding farm for race horses for later in the afternoon. Before we left, we explored the area around the beautiful Louisville South KOA Holiday. They had some nature trails that led to a pretty cool little mini-cave!

We raced out to the Lexington area to visit Sun Valley before the storms hit. If you didn’t know, Kentucky is home to some of the best racing thoroughbreds in the world, apparently because of the limestone-enriched Kentucky Blue Grass they much on all day. Lexington is the center of all this racehorse action with plenty of different farms to visit. It also happens to be foal season and all the mamma horses are having their baby horses! We toured the foal barn to give babies a little love. My six year old even asked the tour guide where the baby horses come from. Mr. Tour Guide didn’t answer and left that up to my wife and I!

TUESDAY 3/29: The Mega Caverns

Tuesday was a day filled with pretty much two things: exploring a 4 million sq. ft. subterranean cavern, fossil hunting…and my kids playing on a jumping pillow.

We originally wanted to check out Mammoth Cave, but to be honest, we didn’t feel like making the 90 minute drive, so we settled on the Mega Cavern. I know…not the same, right? One is a natural wonder encompassing the world’s largest cave system. The other is a former limestone mine. Both are underground, but that’s really where the similarities end.

Mega Cavern is impressive in it’s engineering and straight-up size! Because of it’s design which include natural stone support structures, it’s technically a building, and at 4,000,000 sq. ft. is the largest building in the state. It’s really too much for me to explain here, but if you are a nerd about stuff like this like I am, you’ll find it very interesting! Look it up!

We had a bit of time before dinner, and we weren’t really sure what we could do! We randomly decided to check out the Falls of the Ohio state park, which has quite a trove of fossil beds! That worked out because my six year old son is a dinosaur freak and loves to go exploring. He was in his element, for sure!

After a tram tour of the cavern, some fossil hunting, and a quick stop for dinner at Troll Pub Under the Bridge, we made it back to the Louisville South KOA Holiday, and just let the kids be kids…jumping around and rough-housing on a giant inflatable pillow.

MONDAY 3/28: The Basketball “Field of Dreams”

Monday was a travel day to get from Indy to Louisville, but before we left I had to make a quick stop in Knightstown, IN. It’s about a half hour east of Indy and it’s the basketball equivalent of baseball’s Field of Dreams. It’s Hoosier Gym…the gym that served as the home court for the Hickory Huskers, the based-on-a-true-story team from the 1986 classic.

The gym is meticulously maintained by a staff of about a dozen volunteers. During business hours, the gym is open to the public, allowing any and all Hoosier fans to run the picket fence, do their best under-hand Ollie free throw and defiantly state “My team is on the floor.”

You can even go into the locker room to make sure your team knows how many times to pass the ball. It’s written on the blackboard, afterall!

Playing with my two kids on that floor is an all-time experience for me! I will never forget it. I only wish my own dad were there to experience it with us.

On that note…my homage to the movie Hoosiers…starring my two kids!

Swung through Indiana on our travels and had to stop at Hickory High! Husker all the way!#Hoosiers #HickoryHuskers #IllMakeIt #FourPasses #JimmyChitwood pic.twitter.com/TAUyTkukDv

— Nick Jakusz (@NickWithAMic) March 29, 2022

SUNDAY 3/27: The Children’s Museum

We knew when we booked a “spring break” road trip that Mother Nature may make us pivot a bit. Sure’nuff, it’s friggin’ freezing ’round here, so we spent the day inside at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. Let me make this very clear…this isn’t JUST a children’s museum. It’s a legit museum with so much to do you can hardly fit it into a single day!

We rented a car, left the RV plugged in and headed to downtown Indy, just 25 minutes from the awesome Indianapolis KOA Holiday! At the Children’s Museum, we hit the Dinosphere (complete with a huge collection of actual dino fossils and knowledgeable paleontologists), played stuffed-animal vet with Doc McSuffins, checked out the Barbie exhibit which included some cool female-focused artifacts like Ella Fitzgerald’s Grammy and Amelia Earhart’s flying goggles, walked through a space station, stepped aboard a train then an airplane to Greece, climbed on a huge jungle gym, got retro in the American Pop showcase with comics and music archives, rode a 100-year-old carousel, and played every sport possible in the Outdoor athletics complex! I’m telling you…the Children’s Museum in Indy is a destination for anyone with kids!!! No brainer.

Anyway…enjoy some photos from today. Can’t wait to see what our three days in Louisville have in store! Til then!