James K. Polk Historic Site in Pineville, North Carolina

Pineville North Carolina was another stop for us on our trip.  We stopped here to visit the James K. Polk Historic Site.

At the site are a couple of reconstructed homestead buildings, and a very small museum about Polk.  Inside the museum/visitor center a short film is shown about Polk and his life.

An hour is more than sufficient time to visit.

Woodrow Wilson Family Home in Columbia South Carolina

We VERY briefly stopped by the Woodrow Wilson Family Home in Columbia South Carolina.

It is a bit odd the way things are set up here.  We parked near the home, but then saw a sign that we needed to go down a couple of blocks, to another home, to buy tickets for a tour.  There are actually several historic homes nearby, and the main office for all of them is operated out of one location.

So, we walked to the main building.  We asked about tickets and we were told that, on the day we showed up, school groups would be going through.  We could buy tickets for a tour, but we would be going in with the large school group tours, and we would be getting a very edited version of the tour.

You could tell that the person manning the ticket office felt bad about the situation.  He very kindly told us about some other events and sites in the area.

We decided that taking a few pictures form the outside would satisfy our need to see the Woodrow Wilson home in Columbia.

Photos from Florida

These are a couple more photos I acquired recently, most dated from the early 1970s.  I love both pictures.

I am pretty certain both are from the same trip, and the handwriting is the same on the back of each.

The one on the left notes that the subject, named "Roy" thought he was great.  "This is on the Gulf at St. Pete."  They note the sand was white, and there were many shells.

The back of the other photo showing the two cuties says that the picture was taken on Daytona Beach.

Melvins BBQ in South Carolina

After reading my pal The Carpetbagger's blog entry on the South Carolina BBQ Feud, I knew I had to visit at least one of the mentioned restaurants while in South Carolina!

We asked around a bit, and Melvin's was HIGHLY recommended by the locals.

We stopped by in the evening, after doing a lot of walking.  We each had a pretty big appetite.

We walked in to the sounds of Christian music, which was played the entire time we were there.  We also noticed later that the Ten Commandments were printed on our cups.  So, this is a business that is very open about their religious beliefs.

We ordered from the menu- I had a BBQ pork sandwich, with a side of greens.  My wife ordered the four sides meal.

When they brought our food out, we thought that surely the large tray was meant for a family of four seated somewhere else.  The sides were massive.  On most days one of their sides would have been a complete meal for me.  They must have weighted 8-10 ounces each if not more.

I did honestly feel some guilt about the piles of food we had here.  Luckily, our hotel had a fridge and microwave, so we were able to make a couple more meals out of this.

My sandwich was great too, and Melvin's had the standard tray of multiple sauces to choose from at each table.

You know I love BBQ in my neck of the woods.  I have watched several BBQ restaurants come and go in Kentucky.  I know one close to where I work lasted for about a year.  Me and a buddy went one day- but the place was very unsatisfying.  I think a lot of similar places have tried to skimp on quantity and quality.  Melvin's did not skimp on ANYTHING!

OH, and they have one of those great pepper bar areas.....  They had slices AND full peppers while I was there!  This alone was a huge treat!


This will be a place to visit again on my next trip to the area.  I would love to see Melvin's branch out more too.....  I would eat at Melvin's all the time if one was in my town!

Patriots Point- Mount Pleasant, South Carolina

I hope you won't hold it against me if I tell you that we briefly thought about passing on Patriot's Point.  It just seemed overwhelming.  We thought that maybe we should save this visit for another day.

Well, as we passed the USS Yorktown on our way to Fort Sumter, we knew we had to scrap some of our plans and make Patriot's Point a priority for this trip!

We arrived at Patriot's Point after buying our $20 tickets.  We decided to first explore the USS Clamagore, which was built during World War II.

Believe it or not, we have actually been on a few submarines.  They are cool as heck, but man are they hard to get around in!  If you are claustrophobic, you will certainly want to avoid them!  Plus, the "doors" are really just holes in walls that you must lift your legs high to squeeze through.  It is exciting checking one out, but be ready to contort your way through!

After exploring the submarine, we walked over to the destroyer, USS Laffey.  The Laffey also started her life in the mid-40s.  Like the Clamagore, you can pretty much explore every part of the Laffey.  We did.

After that, we decided to step on to the aircraft carrier, the USS Yorktown.  This is the main attraction here.  Sure, a destroyer and a submarine are mega cool, but an aircraft carrier makes anything else look miniature.

As we stepped on the Yorktown, we were greeted by the carrier's mascot, Scrappy!  Scrappy is named after a real life mascot that the Yorktown had in the 40s.

From there, we had a quick lunch on board at a Sticky Fingers restaurant.  They do have a more authentic cafeteria, but it was not open on the day we visited.


After a quick BBQ lunch, we explored the aircraft carrier.  As it is so big, they recommend that you do 1 of 6 tours.  We ended up doing 3 of the tours, and made our way, eventually, from bottom to top.  This was an exciting workout!  Our favorite stops while touring the Yorktown included information on the Yorktown's involvement in Apollo 8, and walking along the landing area and seeing the planes displayed.

After spending a long day here, we ended our time at Patriot's Point at the Vietnam Experience Exhibit.  This is literally a small area that has been made to look like (and sound like) an area in Vietnam during the Vietnam War.  It was effective.  We talked to a staff person there named Graves, who is a Vietnam War Veteran and he told us about his experiences.  I thought this was very nice, as I also talked to him about my dad, who was there too.  It always means a lot to me to talk to those guys.  It seemed that Graves was trying to talk to everyone who came through!  I love knowing that anyone who comes through there will have an opportunity to talk to someone who was there.  That really puts this part of Patriots Point over the top.  Elementary school kids that go there will get to see legendary watercraft used since World War II, AND they will be able to talk to a real Vietnam War veteran.

UK Basketball Cheerleaders 1970s

NOW seems like a good time to get some vintage UK Basketball pictures up!

This black and white photo came with some other photos from the early 70s.  This one is labeled simply "UK Basketball Game."

Random Thoughts on Friday

Man, it is a RAINY day in Lexington today!

Just a few thoughts.....

I just want all of my friends to know.....  You MAY NOT borrow my couch!

I always want to see UK win, and win big, but I get a little nervous most years around this time.  If the Cats win, we are all happy.....  but we are also scared that the town might be destroyed.

On another note.....

The Southern Kentucky Book Fest is in a couple of weeks in Bowling Green.  There are some interesting authors appearing.  Check that out!

There is a good stamp show in Lexington over April 11-12th.  Check that out too!

Fort Moultrie, Sullivan's Island, South Carolina

A day after visiting Fort Sumter, we went to Fort Moultrie, a fort that is really just as significant to the Civil War timeline.  AND, this site has a lot of other, non-Civil War history to it too!  In fact, the entire 171 year history of the defense of the American seacoast can be linked here.

We got to the visitor center as they opened.  The very cool staff (almost all National Parks have cool, knowledgeable staff) showed us a movie about the history of the Fort.  After that, we were free to walk around the actual site.

It was very odd, exploring this park with absolutely NO OTHER VISITORS!  We had the entire place to ourselves for some time.  The day before we saw Fort Sumter with lots of other people.

Fort Moultrie does have a bit of a second banana feel.  If you are going to Charleston, people say, you MUST see Fort Sumter.  Fort Moultrie doesn't have the same "National Park Rock Star Status" (I am so going to see about copywriting that phrase).

And that's sad, because it is awesome.

The site is hilly and cavernous (a perfect place to play lazer tag, or to serve as a real life Fort), and visitors are given a lot of free access.  A few rooms were glassed in, but otherwise you can kind of go wherever.

You can see Fort Sumter easily from here and visualize what the fighting would have been like in the first Civil War days.

Ft. Sumter- Charleston, South Carolina

Here are just a few photos from our trip to visit Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina.

South Carolina is an easy tourist town to navigate, and getting to the National Park Visitor Center was no problem.  For about $20 a person, you can take a nice boat ride over to the Fort.  The ride took maybe 45 minutes each way.  If you aren't up for the boat, you CAN see the island from a distance.

Its funny, I talked to someone the other day who also went to Charleston in the last couple of years, and they felt that going over to see the Fort was not the best use of their time.  They felt like it took too long, and there wasn't a lot to see there.

I firmly disagreed with my friend.  I felt that this one was an absolute "must see" in the area.  I mean, THE CIVIL WAR STARTED HERE!!!  Plus, it is a great boat ride over, and there are announcements about the sites as you ride.  For me, a nice ferry ride to a very significant Civil War site is an amazing way to spend a few hours.

Also, we talked to several rangers (at the Charleston National Park Visitor Center AND on the island) who made great recommendations for other things to do in the area.  One actually took our map and wrote out specific locations for us!

Check out my photos from where the Civil War started!

Charleston, South Carolina

This was our first time making it to Charleston South Carolina!

I know that Charleston gets compared to Savannah a lot, and I have been talking to a couple of friends lately about which of the two towns we liked better.  It is a very close call.

We didn't have time to cover Charleston as thoroughly as I would have liked to.  We were able to walk around some of the town, and we did visit the main forts, and Patriots Point.  More on those sites later.

Oddly (and unfortunately) we did have encounters with a few sales guys.  It wasn't as bad as what we have experienced in Gatlinburg, but man are these people a pain.  We have learned to be very careful about "visitor centers".

Charleston is a very comfortable city.  There is something very pleasant and comforting about seeing water as you drive around an area.

We did have a surreal experience while crossing a bridge in town.  While in the middle of the long bridge, a HUGE gust of wind gave my car quit a push on the side.  Well, me and EVERYONE ELSE slowed down by about 30 miles all at the same time!  It was a bit scary and strange.

In Charleston (and in the area around it) we really enjoyed a lot of sites.  I will mention those sites more soon, but for now, check out these random photos!

Windsor Hotel in Americus Georgia

While we spent a lot of time in Plains Georgia, we actually stayed in nearby Americus.

Lets be honest, Americus isn't exactly a major travel destination, but we were able to spend some time at the Windsor Hotel in Americus (technically, it is the Best Western Plus Windsor Hotel).

The hotel lobby area is beautiful, and it reminded us of the Hotel Alex Johnson in South Dakota.  The interior and exterior and really attractive.

We were thinking about dinner one night in the hotel's restaurant, but we opted for the bar- Floyd's Pub.  Floyd's had a very casual, friendly feel.  We had an amazing waitress who kept the refills on the table.  I had about the best bar sandwich I have had in years, and I had a great bowl of tomato soup.  My wife was in the mood for pasta, and though it wasn't on the menu, our waitress said it wouldn't be a problem!

Floyd's is easily the coolest hotel bar we've been to in some time.

AND, they had a very attractive balcony area with a nice view of the city.  There was a lot of space and furniture- 50 people could hang out here comfortably.

This is the place to be in Americus!

Andersonville National Historic Site in Georgia

After visiting Plains, we headed down to Andersonville for about half a day.  Again, this is the kind of place that I really have nothing new to add to the readily available information on it.

In a nutshell, Andersonville National Historic Site includes the site of the actual prisoner of war camp, the National Prisoner of War Museum, and the Andersonville National Cemetery.  The Museum covers POWs in other wars, and the cemetery is open to veterans of other wars.

At the visitor center, a 1 hour CD is available to listen to as you drive around the former prison site.  It gives details about the prison and what happened specifically at various sites that you drive past.  The CD could be checked out for free!

Allowing only half a day here was a huge error on my part.  I was able to explore each part of the Historic Site, but I would have liked more time at each.  Also, there is a private Civil War museum close by that we did not get to see.