Category: USA

Kentucky 2020 Day 2

NATIONAL CORVETTE MUSEUM, BOWLING GREEN KY
Mary Jean at the National Corvette Museum!
The museum has some cool displays with older Corvettes in vintage scenes. The white Corvette on the right is from the very first year, 1953.
Service station scene
1958 Covertte, serial number 00002!
Showroom scene
Garage scene
Real #3 driven by Dale Earnhardt
Her dream car! 2020 Stingray!
This is a cool picture of a Corvette, composed of small Corvette pictures…
This dark circle is the headlight on the driver’s side.
There are 7 generations of Corvette design. This is the first generation, represented by a 1962 model.
1967 model from the second generation
1977 model, 3rd generation
1986 model, 4th generation
2004 model, 5th generation
2007 model, 6th generation
2019 model, 7th generation
In 2014, the museum suffered a sink hole collapse that swallowed over $1 million worth of valuable Corvettes!
These are some of the valuable Corvettes ruined by the sink hole collapse.
Looking down 30 feet to the bottom of the sink hole
The red tape is the outline of the sinkhole.
The Skydome today.
This was the 1 millionth Corvette ever produced, and it hung on during the collapse and suffered very little damage. Miraculously, several Corvettes survived or were able to be restored.
The museum conducts a raffle for a new Corvette every month. Each winner comes to the museum for the “Presentation”. Here, the winner of this blue Corvette is being taught about his new car.
We watched as the winner of this Corvette drove away!
The Bowling Green plant is the only plant in the world that assembles Corvettes.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN BIRTHPLACE NATIONAL HISTORIC PARK, HODGENVILLE KY
President Abraham Lincoln was born here on February 12, 1809. This was the first Lincoln Memorial! There are 56 steps up to the memorial building, representing one step for each year of Lincoln’s life. He was only 56 years old when he was assassinated in 1865.
A replica of Lincoln’s birthplace house is inside the memorial.
President Theodore Roosevelt (in top hat) laid the cornerstone on February 12, 1909, the 100th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth.
This is Sinking Spring, which was the spring that provided water for the Lincoln farm.
Sculpture of the Lincoln family in the Visitor Center. Abraham is the baby in his mother’s arms. The girl is his sister Sarah holding their father’s hand.
Abraham Lincoln’s parents, Thomas and Nancy Lincoln
Abe certainly looked like his mother!
Lincoln family Bible
Replica of Knob Creek house, where young Abe lived as a boy. This is about 10 miles from the Sinking Spring farm.
This field would have been farmland tended by the Lincolns.
Statue of President Lincoln in the town center of Hodgenville KY
Young Lincoln reading, facing the Lincoln statue.
Bucolic scene near Hodgenville

Kentucky 2020 Day 1

So we left Virginia for a short trip around Kentucky, with a few stops in West Virginia on the way home.

Our 7 hour drive south took us by this scenic overlook – Veterans’ Overlook in Bean Station TN, which overlooks the Cherokee Reservoir.
We drove through the Cumberland Gap Tunnel, which brought us from Tennessee to Middlesboro KY.
CUMBERLAND GAP NATIONAL HISTORIC PARK – KY/TN/VA
Colonists discovered Cumberland Gap as an easier path for westward travel and exploration in the mid-1700s. Daniel Boone made this pass legendary, blazing the trail west into Kentucky, where he encountered the Shawnee and Cherokee, sometimes as enemies and many times as friends. Boone’s encounters with the Indians is depicted in one of the four relief sculptures on the US Capitol doors. This is Daniel Boone Country!
This area has seen a lot of action over the years!
We were surprised to see so much color – we thought we would be a couple weeks early, but this was really colorful and beautiful!
Mary Jean at the top of Pinnacle Overlook. She is standing in Virginia. Kentucky is to the right on the picture, Tennessee to the left.
Cumberland Gap TN
Kentucky
Walking up to the Tri-State Peak. The trail is 1.2 miles long, uphill all the way, and gets pretty steep at the end.
We started around 9 AM in light fog.
“Indian Rock” marks one of the documented trails that Daniel Boone used in 1775 from North Carolina to Kentucky.
The sun peeking through the fog.
This is the Cumberland Gap “Saddle”
Daniel Boone monument.
This is a steep path. The picture doesn’t really capture its steepness.
At the top of Tri-State Peak, where Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee meet at a point. This is the Kentucky sign.
The view of Kentucky from the Kentucky sign
Tennessee sign
The view of Tennessee from the Tennessee sign
Virginia sign
View of Virginia from the Virginia sign. This is the trail we hiked.
This is the far southwest point of the state of Virginia. The round marker is the point. Mary Jean is sitting in Virginia, Tennessee is on the right, and Kentucky is on the left.
Survey marker at the point
Standing in three states at once!
Colorful view on the hike back down
Warrior!
THE ORIGINAL KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN, CORBIN KY
This the location of the very first Kentucky Fried Chicken! The original restaurant was named Sanders Cafe, and was attached to a motel. Of course, it is under renovation so we could not visit the museum. We did get our lunch at the drive-thru. This will be a pretty neat site when it is finished.
Colonel Sanders statue in town.
CUMBERLAND FALLS, NEAR WILLIAMSBURG KY
Cumberland Falls is nicknamed the Niagara Falls of the South
So here we are at Cumberland Falls!
Beautiful waterfalls – 125 ft. wide, 68 ft. tall, 3,600 cubic feet of water over the ledge per second!
Unfortunately, the most recent full moon was October 3, so we did not experience the moonbow, but if we did, it would look like this:
(nighttime picture from the internet, not me!)

Woodrow Wilson

Presidential Museum, Staunton VA

(Thomas) Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the US.
He was the eighth (and so far, last) president born in Virginia. He was born in this house in Staunton VA in 1856. This was the manse for the Presbyterian Church. His father was a Presbyterian minister.
Due to COVID, the birthplace house was not open for visitors, but I was able to see the foyer through the front window.
Rear of the manse.
Entrance to the museum
Bust of President Wilson, wearing a mask. He was president during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, so he actually did wear a mask back then!
President Wilson’s Pierce Arrow, which he used is his post-presidency days (1921-1924).
Wilson’s desk at Princeton. He went to UVA law school, practiced law in Rome GA, where he met and married his first wife. Ellen Axson, another Presbyterian minister’s child. First Lady Ellen Wilson died in 1914.

Wilson earned a PhD in Political Science from Johns Hopkins University, still the only president to have earned a PhD. He subsequently taught at Princeton University, and later was president of Princeton. He also served as governor of New Jersey for two years before winning the presidency in 1912.

President Wilson suffered several strokes, including one before he ran for President. He suffered two debilitating strokes in 1918 as president, and was largely unseen the last two years of his presidency. He required assistance when leaving the White House in 1921 to attend President Warren Harding’s inauguration.

He lived in Washington DC after he left office, and died in 1924. He is buried inside the National Cathedral in DC.

Wilson’s desk lamp.
Due to a schism in the Republican Party, (Theodore Roosevelt ran third party after he failed to gain the Republican nomination from President Taft), Wilson won a decisive Electoral College victory, even though he won only 41.8% of the popular vote. Roosevelt and Taft combined for 50.7%.

President Wilson was a racist in a big way. The first major movie ever screened at the White House was “The Birth of A Nation”, which was glorified the KKK from the Reconstruction Era. He also continued segregating the Civil Service.

President Wilson’s White House phone.
President Wilson’s progressive policies expanded the Federal government bureaucracy. He also opposed voting rights for women.
Three constitutional amendments were ratified during the Wilson presidency.
17th: Enabled direct election of Senators
18th: Prohibition of alcohol manufacturing and sale
19th: Women’s right to vote
After campaigning in 1916 that he kept the US out of war, President Wilson led the US into World War I after the Germans sunk the Lusitania, which killed 1198 people, including 128 Americans.
World War I poster.
It was interesting to see these posters after seeing the World War II art posters at the FDR Museum in New York in 2018.
Trench warfare display
Medic tent. It may be hard to see in this small picture, but there are rats all over this display!

After the war, President Wilson worked tirelessly to institute his “Fourteen Points” toward worldwide peace, which culminated in the creation of the League of Nations, which was a precursor to the United Nations. The League of Nations failed when the US Congress rejected it. It was a huge defeat and embarrassment for President Wilson.

Natural Bridge VA

We took a day trip to see Natural Bridge VA. We had never been here before.
After you walk down 137 steps, go through the gate, and there it is! It is much larger than you can tell in a picture. It is really quite a sight!
Looking up at the bottom of the bridge. Route 11 runs right over the top of the vridge.
Looking up at the bottom again.
George Washington climbed 28 feet up the rock and etched GW in the rock.

Cashiers NC

So a nice trip to the mountains of western North Carolina – the Highlands, originally settled by Scottish immigrants.

Laurel Knob, the tallest crag east of the Mississippi. It is 1200 tall, and is considered the finest piece of granite this side of Yosemite in California! A rock climber’s challenge, but there is only one route that is open to the public for climbing.
Large cleft in Laurel Knob
Bear Mountain in Lonesome Valley development.
Independence Day fireworks for Lonesome Valley owners. A spectacular show!
Silver Run Falls on the Whitewater River near Cashiers. One of many waterfalls close by.
Scenic Overlook at Tamassee SC on the way to Clemson
With Jacob at Clemson. He’s a sophomore now!
Memorial Stadium, aka Death Valley, home of the multiple-National Champion Tigers!
This rock is from Death Valley CA. Before each home game, the Clemson football players touch this rock for good luck, then run down the hill to take the field.
Clemson campus
Fort Hill, the home of John Calhoun, who held numerous political offices in the first half of the 19th century – Congressman, Secretary of War, Vice President under two presidents John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson), US Senator (twice) and Secretary of State. Calhoun’s son-in-law Thomas Clemson ultimately bequeathed Fort Hill plantation to create Clemson University (originally Clemson Agricultural College).