Blogs from Kentucky, United States, North America - page 17

It's been an actual whole year and 2 days since my last post from China--the move back post. I am writing from Louisville, Kentucky, our home for the past 10 months. It's been a great almost year in this fantastic city. We've really loved it here, though we miss Chicago. I am back to working full time, the kids made it through a somewhat rocky first year of school of public school, resulting in our decision to move to private school next year, but we are all well and happy. We've made some great friends, reconnected with some long-time friends, and have managed to stay in touch and connected to our friends and family all over the world through all of this change. How fun to be back here and ready to report again as Mark ... read more

Since I published a section on Paducah, Kentucky sometime ago I have acquired some additional photos and am updating the info. Paducah has just escaped the recent flooding along the Ohio and Mississippi due mainly to the flood wall which was built after the 1937 flood which took a toll on the city. The downtown are of Paducah has some retail including several restaurants however most of the old retail industry has moved to the mall area just off Interstate 24. Numerous attempts to resurrect downtown Paducah has been undertaken in past years. The addition of the Carson Performing Arts Center a few years go has certainly improved the area around second and Kentucky Avenue, an area that formally had old warehouses, etc. The Center brings in shows and other productions throughout the year thus if ... read more

Today is my first day in eastern Kentucky. Most of this part of the state sits on the Cumberland Plateau. Rivers have carved into this plateau for many centuries, creating small valleys locally known as hollows (pronounced ‘hollers’, go figure). The region is known for several things. For starters, it’s rather pretty. Most of the hollows are very picturesque. The second characteristic of the Cumberland, unfortunately, is poverty. This region contains the poorest rural counties in the US, with evidence of hard times everywhere. The most important local legacy, for better and worse, is coal. The Cumberland Plateau sits on the largest deposits of high carbon bituminous coal in the US. Companies have been extracting it ... read more

Well, I safely arrived at Fort Knox, KY, on Sunday after two short, uneventful flights. I'm staying in an old barracks with a group of other CULP cadets, primarily a team leaving tomorrow for Ghana (and working with CCS like my team). I'm also with 3 other China cadets. On Thursday, the four of us will fly to Newark, NJ, stay in a hotel for the night, and meet the 6 others (all from West Point) on our team up in Newark on Friday before we fly to Beijing. Our one cadre member, also from West Point, will join us there too. The four of us China men (that's what the Ghana group has affectionately started calling us, as they greatly outnumber us; there's been some fun rivalry/joking between us China men and the Ghana group) ... read more

Today dawned cold, rainy, and miserable. I decided to spend the morning somewhere more reasonable, hiding in my room catching up on paperwork. The rain finally stopped during the afternoon, and I had time to see things. I ultimately decided on one of Louisville’s biggest contributions to pop culture and an unmissable tourist trap. Louisville Slugger Factory Johann Fredrich Hillerich was a German immigrant in the late 1800s who was a very good woodworker. He made ice chests. Louisville at the time was home to an early major league baseball team, the Eclipse. One of the players, Pete Browning, asked Hillerich to make a bat for him. Hillerich, after much ... read more