Possible meeting places in Kentucky OT

[Don Coatney]

My friend and Kentucky Col. Sandy Gorin sent me this interesting list of places to visit in Kentucky. Might make for a fun outing and meet up place to drive our old cars and trucks to next summer. I already had a meetup with forum member Richie Hodge at the Corvette museum.

KENTUCKY HAS SOME UNUSUAL ODDITIES

In Barbourville, you might snap a photo of an

oversized fiberglass rooster, used as a local

landmark or visit the small church in Knox County – 10 feet x 12 feet.

In Bardstown you could take a tour of the Tom

Moore Distillery and see the world’s largest

whiskey barrel or if visiting a cemetery there, see a 60 feet tall crucifix.

Bowling Green offers not only the Floyd Collins

Museum and the Corvette Museum, but if you drive

over to Western Kentucky University and are

patient, you might catch a glimpse of the white squirrel with dark eyes.

Cadiz, thought a small town, draws visitors by

their painted pigs. The pigs are stone however

and are found downtown in the business district.

This is in honor of the annual Country Ham

Festival, held every October for the last 34

years. Each of the pigs have been decorated to

match the business or civic group's theme. Gracie the Pig is on Marion Street!

Conkling, KY offers lovers of Abraham Lincoln a

treat. According to their history, Granville

Johnson, a hobo, about 70 years old came to this

area in the 1930s during the Great Depression. He

was sick, owned nothing and needed shelter. A

local family took him in. As he recovered his

strength, Granville would take a hammer and

chisel and climb the hill behind the Williams'

farm, day after day, mysteriously. At summer's

end, Granville unveiled for his hosts a thank-you

gift -- a life-size sculpture of Abraham Lincoln

cut into the flat side of a large sandstone

boulder near the hill's summit. Granville claimed

that he was an Italian sculptor and then wandered

out of town, never to be seen again.

If you like science fiction, it's as if a little

silver saucer landed on a Kentucky hillside to

give people across the river in Cincinnati

something to look at. The portable, prefabricated

home design from 1968 is by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen.

In Dundee, KY there is a metal goat used as a

weather vane on top of an 80-foot spire on top of

the local lodge hall. Once used by the Methodist

Church on the first floor and a Masonic Hall on

the second floor, this goat was been swinging in the wind for over 100 years.

At Fort Mitchell, KY you might be entertained –

or maybe a little unnerved at the Vent Haven:

Ventriloquist Museum. Tours are given there and

there are hundreds upon hundreds of vents (as

they are called) including many celebrities.

Franklin, KY offers a giant Indian who stands

atop a pedestal, wearing a long feathered

headdress and with a spiked war club in his hand,

guarding the Dixie Discount mart. Or, you might

like to see the large bull (fake of course!) at the Lucky Lotto on 31W.

Georgetown, KY offers Pete, The Talking Crow

(sort of). He was only in town from 1829 and

1832, but Pete the Talking Crow left behind an

enduring, obnoxious bird legend. Hat shop owner

Dave Adams would attend horse races with his crow

Pete, who developed the habit of yelling "Go!" at

the horses. Accounts at the time claim after

repeated false starts, officials were forced to

use a bell instead of a shout to start the

horses. The crow was shot in 1832 by a boy

visiting town (Pete didn't have time to yell

anything) and was buried in a coffin in an

unmarked grave at Georgetown College. But, you

can still experience Pete. An animatronic version

of the bird entertains children at the

Georgetown-Scott County Museum. He talks -- but

in Japanese, ever since he was programmed for a

sister city visit in Japan, funded by Toyota, a

large manufacturing presence in Georgetown.

Now, if you’re not interested in white squirrels,

painted pigs or talking crows, you might like to

go to Guthrie, KY and see the Pink Elephant. This

is an old L&N caboose, and an old mansion,

complete with gargoyles and ramparts. If you

can’t get enough of pink elephants, you can go to

Henderson, KY; his mate seems to be there.

In Hazard, KY you can stop and do some shopping

at the Mother Goose Market. A round stone

building built to resemble a huge goose sitting

on a nest (of rocks). Built in 1940. The goose's

eyes are old-style automobile headlights, designed to light up at night.

Hopkinsville, KY takes us back to the time of the

Knights in Shining Armor. Located on the north

side of town, adjacent to University of Kentucky

Community College, one will find King Arthur’s

Round Table.Created in 1965, Round Table Literary

Park is a nicely shaded strip of woodland

interspersed with monuments drawn from the world

of Literature. The table has stone seating for

24, and there is also a Sword in the Stone. A

Greek/Roman amphitheater and the Delphian Tholos

Temple provide venues for annual literary events,

quiet contemplation, or a place to walk the dog.

However, if you’re still in the science fiction

mode, you might visit the little green men! On

August 21, 1955, the town was overrun by 12 to 14

small creatures "with big flapping ears, yellow

luminous eyes on the sides of their large heads,

and bodies with spindly arms and legs." After

terrorizing the 150 residents for hours, they

boarded their spacecraft and returned to outer

space. The incident has been duly whitewashed in Project Blue Book.

Last but not least in Hopkinsville is the

Memorial Manhole Cover. Hopkinsville, Kentucky -

Memorial Manhole Cover This comes with the

likeness of past newspaper publisher Joe Dorris

(Member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall Of Fame)

and is at the intersection of 9th and Main

Streets in Hopkinsville KY. Joe Dorris was. in

his later years, a daily columnist for the

Kentucky New Era newspaper and he liked to write

about old outhouses (privys) that were still in

use in Christian, Todd, Trigg, and Caldwell

counties in Kentucky. Because of this interest,

he became known in the region as "The Privy

Editor". The manhole cover has his likeness and

the words Privy Editor on it and was dedicated in

the early 90s by past Kentucky Gov. Happy B. Chandler.

© Copyright 8 November 2011, Sandra K. Gorin

[LAKOTA169]

You could add Tater Day in Benton, Ky

[55 Fargo]

How about meeting at a KFC for some of that secret recipe of 11 different herbs and spices, pay hommage to Harland Sanders....

[mikesinky]

you could also go to breaks interstate park. considered the grand canyon of the east. and see pikeville ky where they relocated the river filled it in and moved the town in what is considered by some as one of the largest engineered cut through projects ever done. make it in the fall and see the beautiful landscape with the colorful trees or if your in pikeville in spring you could always come during hillbilly days and support the shriners. just some things to do in the eastern part of the state.