National Miner's Day

   Today, December 6th, is National Miner's Day. It is meant to reflect and honor those who have sacrificed so much. Mining is one of the most dangerous jobs and yet vitally important to every day life. Thank you to everyone who has ever worked in a mine and continue to do so.

National Register of Historic Places

   The National Register of Historic Places was created in the United States in 1966 after the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act. The NRHP is the official list of buildings, structures, sites and districts that have been regarded as deserving of preservation. There are more than a million places in the register, with roughly 30,000 added each year. Inclusion on the list does not guarantee protection, and many properties are lost each year due to demolition and neglect.

Why Do Places Become Abandoned?

   I am obsessed with "abandonment". I am not really sure why. One reason may have to do with my love of history. These places were once a place where people lived there lives. Of abandoned stores, they were a place of employment and where all the locals got their essentials. Perhaps they came to the store once a month, and maybe they even brought eggs from their farm to trade for flour and thread. Many stores were also the post office and a place to just hang out, talk to friends and neighbors, learn the town news.

The Art of the Welcome Sign

While traveling through other states, one of our traditions is to get a photo of the "Welcome to 'Our State'" signs. No, not like many tourists, where you stop the car and have all the family pose in front of the sign-we don't have time for that sort of thing! But I get the shots nonetheless. And I love seeing how different states choose to welcome visitors who have arrived from their neighboring state.

"Welcome to Alabama the Beautiful" and an addition mentioning the current governor; Interstate 65. Short but sweet with a  nice little slogan and an extra sign that might have to be changed every few years.
Many more after the break....

Along Kentucky Back Roads

Broadbent B&B Foods factory building near Cadiz. Reported to have been built in the 1940s by World War II Austrian prisoners of war from a nearby camp. Unique architecture. The company recently moved and the building is empty.

More from Kentucky after the jump...

Finally a day trip!

  Hooray, we finally took another day trip! I will add some photos later this morning, but right now I want to write out our basic route.

  We started out driving the new full route of Tennessee State Route 840, which recently opened a new stretch to make it a complete half loop around Nashville.

 

Space Shuttle

The Space Shuttle Discovery is making its last flight today, from Florida to Washington DC.

This particular Shuttle is the Atlantis, that I had the fortune to see while piggybanked on the 747 at an Air Show at Fort Campbell, Kentucky in 1998.

Signs from the Road II

Bringing the bikes

Playing with the zoom lens. I like this shot. Kinda wish I had gotten more of the canoe in the shot.

Corvette Museum

This is as close as I've ever gotten to it. Not that I like Corvettes or anything. I'm more of a Porsche gal myself.

Bowling Green, Kentucky

Construction

This was an odd construction set-up on the interstate. Two lanes in the middle were singled out. I can't even remember why-it was just strange, not like anything I'd ever seen before.

Gas prices, sheesh

So this was last July. Price for regular was 3.79. And this was why we didn't take to many trips for the last few years.

Welcome to Kentucky!

I love Welcome signs. :)

Rain

It rained almost the whole trip to Kentucky in July 2008. Had to take some photos of something!

The things you see

This is what I love about travel by road. Oh the things you will see! And the fact that I have a camera that I can attempt to capture some of these images now so that they are not only relegated to memory only makes it better.

This is at the Cave City exit in Kentucky. We didn't visit Dinosaur World, but we did take the exit to go see the Wigwam Motel!