Blogs from Kentucky, United States, North America - page 24

Marion, Kentucky is a small town in Western Kentucky with a population of around 3000 in town and about 10000 in Crittenden County. There is some small industry in Marion that adds several jobs to the economy. Schools were consolidate years ago with a single high school serving the county. The city has imposed a 3% eat in tax on all food that you purchase and eat in the city. In addition there is a $1 per night room tax on motels rooms. While the purported reason of such taxes is to promote tourism, that cannot be said to be the case as a lot of people such as this writer will decide to stay in a neighboring town rather than pay the extra taxes. The downtown area is well maintained and there ares still some ... read more

Oct 10, 2009 Day 1 - Just want to let everyone know we are actually on our way. Left Baraboo the first time at 6:30 AM this morning. When Wayne realized he forgot some of his cloths on a hanger we turned around and went back. We should have checked that list one more time before we left. We departed for the second time at 6:50 AM. It’s time we get South. The temperature was 29 degrees F when we left. We had a smooth uneventful trip and arrived in Paducah, Kentucky at 6:00PM. The temperature is 62 but is suppose to get down to 45 tonight. We found a very nice motel for $49 for the night. And that includes breakfast. We had dinner at the Texas Roadhouse. We made reservations to launch Amber Lee ... read more

We decided to spend a couple of weeks in middle America. First stop was Bardstown, Ky. A quaint little town in the green rolling hills of Kentucky. Fortunately, it is also part of the bourbon trail of kentucky. There are eight distilleries who have banded together to promote Americas whiskey. We were able to visit Makers Mark, Woodford Reserve, Jim Beam and Heaven Hill. Makers Mark and Woodford Reserve were in beautiful country and had fantastic tours (and whiskeys too). You get to see every facet of the production from fermenting the mash, to distillation, aging and bottling. We tasted the mash from the first day of fermentation to the last day when tasting actually does give you that bitter beer face! Fortunately distilling and aging does make a better drink. The Jim Beam tour was ... read more

This is my first post so hope I don't screw it up too badly. Paducah is a small town located on the Ohio River in Western Kentucky. The population is now around 25000 as many people have left for the surrounding suburbs. When I lived ibn Paducah and where I graduated from high school there were several thousand more residents. The downtown area of Paducah used to be a thriving retail area in the 1950s and 1960s however with the edition oif a large mall west of town the area began to see many store closings over the next few decades and now while there are some preservation efforts underway the downtown area is not one for shopping. There is a very nice downtown arts center theater which occasionally has some name stars appear. This has ... read more

Yesterday after staying in very classy but (our most) expensive B&B in Waynesville N.Carolina (a pleasant town way off the Bue Ridge) We visited Mount Mitchell (see pics) and the Museum of Minerals in North Carolina a really good example of interactive learning which explains the way minerals and rocks are formed, and also the importance of mineral mining in this area of the US - not least that it is today the main producer of computer chip grade quartz (silicon chip?). We also visited the Cherokee Indian Museum a particularly sobering experience which charts the demise of 12000 year old culture at the hands of white settlers and the British Crown within a few decades - complete with false treaties, forced deportations on trains and concentration camps. Sound familiar ? After that we went over ... read more