Wallace Station- Versailles Kentucky

We stopped by Wallace Station the other day for lunch after seeing a segment on KET it.

There was a line out the door, and it did take a few minutes to get to order, but it was worth it! And, I would expect the lines to be getting longer since Wallace Station is getting some exposure from "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives".

We actually did not know about this until we went inside and saw Guy's signature on the wall. Pretty cool. I am not sure which show I like more, this one, or Man Vs. Food. I guess that is a debate for another day.

Here are the basics. The restaurant itself reminds me of one of those friendly little country stores you find in rural areas. It was crowded, but there was still plenty of seating.

Sanwiches are about 7-8 bucks each and they are worth it. I had half of my triple decker at Wallace Station, and the other half I ate later that evening for dinner. I really could have made that sandwich 3 meals.

We shared a "Danger Brownie" too which was unreal. I don't know if it was the sugar, or the little burbon ball on top, but I was dizzy (in a good way) after a few bites. My wife had to drive home.

The guys running the place were great too. They were all super friendly. We asked for a box for our uneaten half sandwiches, and they wrapped them up for us!



http://www.wallacestation.com/Wallace_Station_Deli_and_Bakery/Home.html

Roadside America, Shartlesville PA

Laurence Grieringer spent 60 years building what has become known as Roadside America. He became pretty obsessed with building his miniature town.

On a personal level, I am a bit jealous of him. I think many guys think it would be fun to build a miniature city. I have built a few HO scale buildings myself over the years, and I do hope someday to have the space and time to work on an actual small city and train lay out.

It looks like Laurence spent his time going the scratch building way, making and designing his own buildings in the Reading PA area.

In some ways, Roadside America is very easy to describe. It is in a big room arranged in a big square with room to walk all the way around the miniature city.

It is much more complicated than that. There are many buttons to push which prompts certain things to happen on the layout. Farmers work, people dance, and vehicles move.

Every half an hour there is a light show, as the city goes through a day cycle. American images are projected on a wall as patriotic music plays. I know many people might think it sounds cheesy, but it is authentic cheesy. I have heard the display has been part of Roadside America for decades. Even if you are not one to wear a red white and blue shirt on the 4th, this will bring a tear to your eye. It might be too Mayberry for some, but it is real, and it is sincere. I told the very polite lady working there that I enjoyed the show part of it, and she seemed to take pride in it being a part of Roadside America.

I took a lot of pictures during my trip to Roadside America, but, like many other great roadside attractions, my pictures are not a fair representation. It is easy to show a detailed photo of one or two of the buildings, or one photo of as much of the layout as I can fit in one picture, but there is so much more going on.

The attraction dates back to the 40s and it has remained pretty much unchanged since the passing of its creator in the early 1960s. There are no real digital enhancements, and even it's web presence is minimal (see their web site).

So, the next time you are driving through Pennsylvania, try to make sure you stop at Roadside America. Check out Laurence Grieringer's creation, and enjoy the fact that such a town still exists.
http://www.roadsideamericainc.com/

Louisville Zoo

It is hard for me to say that I like one zoo more than another. I like them all. I love seeing animals. I used to feel that zoos were wrong, keeping animals in cages and all, but I don't feel that way anymore. I think there is a lot to gain from zoos. Also, I was told that there are animals that actually have longer life spans in captivity than in the wild.

Anyway, here are some picture I took at the very happening Louisville Zoo. They have a nice, clean facility with all of the great stuff you would expect at a top level zoo. I personally liked the bat exhibit, which was attracting a crowd.

Lost Sea Sweatwater, TN

I think I have a pretty good understanding of this cave/lake inside of the cave.

The cave name is Craighead Cavern and the lake inside of it is known as the Lost Sea.

This was one show cave we really wanted to hit on our way through Tennessee. It looks great, and it has a very interesting history.

I like how some show caves actually have an entrance through their main building/gift shop. I think it is kind of cool how you have to go inside of a place to get to the cave. There is a tunnel from the main gift shop/ticket area into the cave that reminds me of something out of Stargate, or some other cool sci-fi show.

Jaguar remains were found here in 1939. A nightclub was also in operation during the 1940s.

There is a lake here, which was once considered the largest lake in a cave in the world. I believe the guide told us that it is now the second largest, as a bigger one was discovered outside of the US (so it is still the biggest cave lake in the US).

During your cave tour, they actually take you out on the boat. There are fish in the lake.

The lake's history is pretty exciting. In fact, the legend of the lake is one of those stories that almost sounds made up. The legend makes me appreciate how big and unexplored our great country still is.

In 1905 a young boy was exploring the cave, and after climbing around, and not really knowing where he was in the dark cave, he threw some rocks. The sound that the boy heard was a clear plopping sound- the sound of his rocks going in to a body of water.

When he got out, he went around and told people that there was a lake in the cave. Pretty much no one believed him until decades later, when other explorers came across the lake.

Our tour guide told us that when the cave started taking passengers out on the lake in boats years later, that little boy, now a mature adult, was the first tourist to go.

And the legend of the lake gets even better. During the 1970s, a guy named Jim Wyatt explored and mapped out some of the underwater caverns with a team.


You must check out Jim's web site about his mapping adventures. He had access to the caverns, and to their entire underwater system.

http://thedecostop.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15078

Please take a moment to check out Jim's article. Jim is just writing a short description of what he did in the 1970s but it sounds very exciting to me.

On Jim's web site he described the bottom of the like as being very silt like, comparing it to jello. There were no rock bottoms, and in some places the silt was up to 6 feet deep.

Jim described overhead cave ceilings with caked on silt. Obviously, every time they breathed, some of the silt and rocks would fall.

One event pretty much seems to have ended their exploring the Lost Sea. During a dive, a large rock fell near the divers. The rock was described as being the size of a Volkswagen Beetle!

Wyatt notes that the bubbles they were sending up were causing debris to fall. They had little visibility to begin with, and the water was cold.

Jim's group ended their exploration. He says, on his web site, that he feels there were many more passages to be explored there.

Cathedral Caverns Alabama

We found ourselves driving from Huntsville Alabama to Gatlinburg some time ago. We had picked up a brochure about this cave somewhere on our journey. It sounded interesting form the description.

To be honest, this was a "maybe" on our trip. Its one of those things that looks fun, but because of other things on the schedule, you could take it or leave it.

We had left Huntsville a day earlier than we had expected. Plus, we started seeing a lot of signs for Cathedral Caverns, so we thought what the heck. We had time.

Cathedral Caverns was easy to locate, and it wasn't far off of the main road. There were signs up everywhere, boasting of their many world records (which, I have read on other web sites, are mostly exaggerated records, but they were still impressive).

We got to their main visitor area/cabin. It had a very informal feel. There were a couple of staff people who sold us tickets, and then casually chatted with us while we waited for our tour to start. We set on the cabin porch, calmly talking, and rocking in their rocking chairs.

The main cave entrance is really right next to the visitor center/cabin. It is very convenient. I have been to many other show caves where you have to buy a ticket at a visitor center, and then hike up hill a ways before the tour even starts.

We had a very casual tour with a great tour guide named Penny. She seemed to love the cave, and told us a ton of history on it.

Somehow, there is a sharks tooth stuck in the ceiling of the cave at one point.

There are many cool formations here that look like other stuff. They have a lot of cool lighting too that creates the formations.

Penny told us there was a crystal room that you would have to cross a rocky area to get to, and you would have to be pretty small to squeeze into the opening leading in to the room. The room was not on the tour, and even veteran staff at the cave had not attempted to go there.

There was a Disney film taped inside the cave at some point too.

Oddly, even though this is another of many show caves we have visited, it really stood out. The cozy visitor cabin is a great place to relax while on the road. The walk through the cave was not too strenuous. It was pretty flat compared to most. Also, we didn't have to go out of our way to get here. This was, by far, the highlight of our Alabama trip.

Sedona Arizona area and the Grand Canyon

Since I have been covering places on the Western side of the US lately (I promise to get back to Kentucky and the near areas soon) I figured I should take a moment to cover one of my favorite non-Kentucky areas- Sedona Arizona!

I made my first trip to this area several years ago when my wife's work sent her to a training there. At first, I thought about not going. At the time I figured Arizona was just a big state with a lot of dusty cacti everywhere. It just didn't sound spectacular. I am embarrassed to admit that I almost passed on going out West! We thought about it though. My wife's work was covering pretty much all of her expenses. I could piggy back on this trip for the price of a plan ticket. What the heck, I finally decided, so I went.

For our first trip to this area, we stayed in the Phoenix area at a nice resort. My wife went to her training. I slept in, went to a nice coffee shop near the hotel (I had to specify that I wanted my coffee hot in this area) and read. After that, I went swimming for the rest of the day.

Her training ended after a couple of days, and we rented a car to venture out of Phoenix. We went to the Grand Canyon. We were still on a time limit, and we didn't have time to really go in the Canyon. We were still able to appreciate it.

I have mentioned before that there are some sites in life that look perfect in pictures, but you cannot appreciate the place until you are actually there. The Grand Canyon is that way. It takes a moment for your brain to comprehend it.

Here is a bit of a funny personal story about the Grand Canyon, not that any of my readers (mom) would care.

A few weeks before we realized we would be going to Arizona, a co-worker of mine said that she had always wanted to go to the Grand Canyon. After several decades of thinking about it, and trying to get everything together, she had decided that this was the year she would go.

Well, after various expenses and situations came up, she realized that she just wasn't going to be able to make it to the Canyon. She was very sad about this, but she said she was glad that my wife and I would be able to get there.

Being the good friend that I am, I made a point to send her a post card on our trip daily. I told her about all of the sites, and I told her about how my wife's work took care of most of the trip. I even called her from the Grand Canyon to tell her about how amazing it was. I also figured that, since I was her friend, I should get a picture of me talking to her on my cell phone, with the Canyon in the background. I very kindly gave her an 8x10 of me, talking to her on my cell phone in front of the Canyon when we came back.

For some reason, my friend did not appreciate this kind gesture.

So, back to our trip near Sedona. We had a great time at the Canyon. You can't take a bad picture there.

We drove through Sedona on the way there, and on the way back to Phoenix. I don't even know how to start describing this place. I hate to use a cliche, but it is other worldly.

The sky has a nice blue to it, and the ground is red. There is a nice warmth going on too.

Sedona has a reputation for being a "New Age" type place. There are a lot of psychics (we will save the debate about the legitimacy of psychics for another day), UFO fans, and crystal shops. If you are in to that stuff, you will, without a doubt, love Sedona. If you could care less about the New Age movement, you will still love Sedona.

Personally, I loved all of the art shops, and the spectacular view. Wherever you are in Sedona, the view is amazing.

We loved the "Red Planet Diner" too. It has a funky, alien theme. Go for that, and go for the food. Even without the cool decor, the wings and shakes are worth a stop.

Oh, there is a cool magic/novelty shop there too, that we love. Check out their site. They have some cool Sedona info there to:
http://www.funstoreusa.com/

When we first arrived in Sedona, we stopped at a little jewelry shop. A friend once sent me a card of Snoopy Rock, and I asked the person running the store where Snoopy Rock was located. She told me to go to the door and look slightly to my right. I love this huge formation.

The first time we drove through Sedona, we stopped at an art/jewelry shop owned by Robert Shields of Shields and Yarnell (don't ask anyone in their 20s or younger if they know who Shields and Yarnell are.... you will feel old. Trust me). I thought that was so cool. We came back through on our second trip, and the shop was still there, but it was not owned by Shields.

Sedona is one of those places that you have to go to to appreciate. On my next trip to the area, I think I want to just walk around and admire the scenery, and appreciate the moments that I will have there.

Meteor Crater is in Arizona too, and its another favorite spot.
http://www.meteorcrater.com/