St. Augustine, FL.

Several friends told us that we had to stop by St. Augustine while in Florida. I wish they had suggested allowing more time to explore the area. St. Augustine is the real deal.


If you know me well, you know that I love some of the more odd and historical touristy towns. I simply can't get enough of Salem Massachusetts. Savannah Georgia comes to mind too.


Well, St. Augustine is in the same family of towns as those two. Some interesting and odd events have occurred in these areas. Some of the structures and stories linger in the towns and add to the legend of the places.


And, to be honest, all of those towns have a "tourist trap" feel. I hate to use that phrase because some think of tourists traps in a negative way. Personally, I love them.


So, we drive in to St. Augustine and we immediately realized we needed to utilize our time wisely. There is a lot to see.


The staff at the visitor center were very helpful. A couple of trolley services sold tickets there, and there was a very nice gift shop. As I went through the gift shop, another staff person took a moment to tell me about how proceeds from the gift shop benefited their local historical society.


A highlight was the "Fountain of Youth." We really liked this place, and I will get a separate entry up for it.


St. Augustine is simply enough an attractive city. It looks nice. There are fun little shops everywhere, in addition to the museums and other places of interest.


There is a gift shop next to the jail we stopped at. Not to get off track, but the two of us each had a delicious hot dog and we shared a sweat tea for $8! For a touristy stop, and a nice hot dog and drink, I was very happy with the value.


The oldest Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum is there too! Who doesn't love Ripley's?


We visited the St. Augustine Lighthouse, which has been covered a lot lately. The place was cool, but it is a bit out of the way compared to some of the other attractions. It was fun (and exhausting) climbing the stairs to the top and all. If you only have a day in St. Augustine, I might suggest staying in the main area, since there is so much to do. Hit the lighthouse on your second day if you have one.

This is definitely I place I will visit again soon. I barely had time to see the main attractions, and I did not have enough time at any of the them.

Funnel Cloud in Beaver Dam!

Go to the CNN.com web site. They have an amazing video of a funnel cloud in Beaver Dam from a couple of days ago. I hope all of my friends there are OK.

I know the exact spot where the video was made.

Green River is up in Calhoun!

I took some pictures near Calhoun recently of the Green River. The rain has been non stop!

St. Augustine Lighthouse

We did have a moment to visit the St. Augustine Light House recently!

Northern Kentucky River Monsters

I was able to check out the Northern Kentucky River Monsters a few days ago!


I am really happy that some indoor football action is going on in the state. Check out my other blog for some old articles on the Lexington Horsemen.


Speaking of the Lexington Horsemen (also known as the Kentucky Horsemen) there are some former Horsemen players on the River Monsters team!


Jared Lorenzen (who spent time with the New York Giants in the NFL) was going to be the teams GM. Somehow, he has found his way back on the field!

The Bank of Kentucky Center in Highland Heights is great too. It has a very new, clean feel to it. It felt like a small stadium, almost custom built for arena style football. I like this place.


I did see some weird things. The cheer leading team is called "The Bait." Seriously. I did not make that up. In fact, I wish they hadn't made that up.

Their mascot looks like the Swamp Thing. Check out the picture. Also, I did not see the mascot interacting with fans. Then again, it is a scary looking mascot.

Get out and see this team! They are putting on a great show, with seats as cheap as $7. Parking was easy too!

Oh, and their merch was very reasonable. They weren't trying to rip anyone off with shirt prices from $10-$15. I bought 3.

Again, it takes a lot to put a pro team like this together, find a venue, and players. PLEASE get out and support this team!

Greetings From Kentucky

I LOVE this old postcard! I love the fact that it shows two of my favorite Kentucky landmarks!

Natural Bridge, KY.

Another great Natural Bridge postcard, this one is postmarked 1973. For some reason, I think this shot makes the bridge look a lot smaller than it is.

Kennedy Space Center Complex- Florida

Going to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex was, without a doubt, one of the highlights of not just this road trip, but of all of our road trips.

I am still amazed by space travel, the Apollo program, the ISS, and our Space Shuttles. I have to admit that it makes me a little sad that these things are a bit undervalued these days.

Ask any kid- heck, ask anyone, when the last Shuttle went up. They can't tell you if it was last month, last year, or a decade ago. They can name the American Idol winners in order though I bet.


Space Exploration is still exciting. It is still relevant. It gives me goosebumps!

At the Apollo/Saturn V Center, they showed that great film of JFK talking about going to the moon. They played that great quote about choosing to go to the moon because it is hard.

I thought about a friend recently arguing that there is no reason to go to the moon again. Man, could we use a little Kennedy attitude now!

So, getting the chance to visit the Kennedy Space Center was very exciting for me personally. We bought a ticket that included a bus trip through the launch areas. This was a great value, as our guide pointed out not only the launch pads, but a lot of wildlife. We saw manatees, turtles, and eagles (look at the picture!)! The photo of the alligator was taken from my car while the gator was in a ditch directly across from the main visitor center area.

I could go on and on about this area. I felt a little down on the bus ride back to the visitor center. They showed a video hosted by Gene Cernan (the last man to walk on the moon as of this time). In the video, Gene talks optimistically about the future of space exploration, even after the retirement of the Shuttles. Well, you may know that our space program is a bit in limbo at this time. Its future is uncertain. Not only that, but there are many people working at Kennedy Space Center that, after the Space Shuttles are all retired, will likely be unemployed. The Kennedy Space Center area could be devastated.

For now though (and hopefully in the future) the area is lively. LUCKILY, they were just awarded one of the shuttles, which should draw some visitors and help out.

A cool feature at the Space Center is that they have an actual astronaut at the Center each day! While I was there, Apollo astronaut (APOLLO ASTRONAUT!!!!) Al Worden was there! Seeing Al do his presentation, and getting his autograph was worth the ticket price alone.

Anyway, The Kennedy Space Center is a must visit at least once in a lifetime.

Main Street, Lexington

Second Street, Owensboro

"SECOND STREET BY NIGHT, OWENSBORO, KY."

This is another great old postcard. It is hard to find many postcards of Owensboro from any era!

I found this one recently. It might get framed because it is spectacular!

Random Thoughts On Friday

I thought now might be a good moment to mention space. You know, the final frontier.

I love space exploration. I read books about space whenever I can. In fact, right now, I am reading Apollo astronaut Charlie Duke's book.

Duke mentions that, while he is on the moon with Apollo 16, he gets word that a budget has been passed for the space program, which includes the shuttles. Charlie thinks about the possibilities of a space station, and a moon base.

Well, the shuttle program came (and is almost over). The space station happened. The moon base obviously did not happen.

How exciting it must have been for Charlie Duke, on the moon, to get such great news about something so wonderful. The future must of seemed so limitless then.

I know the Apollo program was watched closely by everyone. I remember watching some of the shuttle launches in school.

But now, I fear our feelings of aw have gone away. Our enthusiasm for the space program seems diminished. I truly hope this changes soon.

NASA did announce the museums getting the retired shuttles a few days ago. Again, I checked several sites before the announcement. I didn't see many that were pushing the story heavily. I REALLY hoped that one would find its way to Dayton, but that did not happen. Some other worthy museums got them. I was pulling for Florida and Dayton. I was 1 for 2.

Titusville Post Office- FL.

Highlands Hammock

http://www.floridastateparks.org/highlandshammock/default.cfm highlands Hammock was one of the first parks to become a state park in Florida. The Civilian Conservation Corps had a big hand in building and developing the park. There is a museum devoted to the CCC at the park. We stopped here as we were told it would be a great area to see some of the wildlife of the area. We were not disappointed! Check out the alligator! He was probably less than 15 feet away from us! I know, if you live in the area, it is no big deal. To me, it was pretty cool!

Macon GA- Cherry Blossom Festival