🚗2017 July 11, Tuesday, Day Trip to Hopkinsville, Kentucky

Ate a waffle topped with cool whip, blackberries, and walnuts for breakfast. Hubby put syrup on his waffle.
We stopped in Loretta for lottery tickets before beginning our journey to Hopkinsville, KY.
We were traveling I-24 past the Nissan Stadium, Home of the Tennessee Titans, around a quarter till eleven.

Nissan Stadium, Home of the Tennessee Titans 

We arrived at the Rest Area in Oak Grove, Kentucky, around 11:30AM. We always have to stop and check out the rest area/Visitor Center in every state. Mississippi has some of the best rest areas that I have seen.
Kentucky is known for its thoroughbred racing tracks and Kentucky Bourbon Trails, and we saw a little of both here.

Horse Racing and Kentucky Bourbon

We were seated at Logan's Roadhouse in Hopkinsville, KY, at 11:57AM. Hubby ordered the Logan's Roadhouse hamburger, and I ordered the Cod Fish with homemade chips.
The girl who waited for us was very busy, and it seemed to take quite a while to get our food.

The fish I ordered was undercooked and not very good, and hubby said his hamburger had no taste.

Cod Fish with chips, coleslaw, and tater sauce
The fish was tough, and the breading was not done on the inside, but it did look good.
When cooked right, it is delicious.

The real American Roadhouse Hopkinsville, Ky

Pennyroyal Area Museum on Ninth Street.

Former United States Post Office Building, now PennyRoyal Museum 

We were greeted by the curator, who was eating her lunch. We paid the small admission price, and the curator gave us a short history of the PennyRoyal Museum.  
She said the museum was a former Post Office, and it still had windows where people would send packages and purchase stamps.
She also said that we could send a postcard to someone or to ourselves, put it in the mailbox on the table, and they would stamp it. 

Don't forget to send a postcard and put it in the mailbox here.

Upstairs in the PennyRoyal Museum, we saw a display about the early life of a Pioneer in Hopkinsville. 

Pioneer Life in Hopkinsville

Behind the loom was a quilt telling the history of Hopkinsville
25th Annual Quilt Show
Hopkinsville Heritage Quilt
Quiltmakers
Designed by Dixie Thomas
pieced by Kathy Croft
Quilted by Edna Baker, Linnie Wallis, Kathy Croft, Nell Young & Betty Young 

Downstairs, we saw a York Square Grand Piano 1870 made by Weaver Piano and Organ Company and a Winton Upright Piano, 1920 made in Chicago, Il.
We saw local notables such as Billy Boley, the Ventriloquist. 
We saw Robin Penn Warren, the National Poet, and several displays about Ringling Bros Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows.
We saw The Mechanical Wonder Horse, ridden by three generations of children from 1907 to 1994.
We saw a display of the Brook Memorial Hospital and Doctor Phillip C. Brooks.
We saw a hand-carved wooden display about the Trail of Tears by George Barrette Floyd.

 Wooden Carved replica of the Trail of Tears

Display about Edgar Cayce, the Sleeping Prophet

http://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/the-life-and-times-of-edgar-cayce.aspx 

The Kelly Encounter (Little Green Men)
The Kelly–Hopkinsville encounter was a claimed close encounter with extraterrestrial beings in 1955 near Kelly and Hopkinsville in Christian County, Kentucky, United States. 
UFOlogists regard it as one of the most significant and well-documented cases in the history of UFO incidents, while skeptics say the reports were due to "the effects of excitement" and misidentification of natural phenomena such as meteors and owls. Psychologists have used the alleged incident as an academic example of pseudoscience to help students distinguish truth from fiction.

The Tobacco War 1904-1911
http://www.nkyviews.com/Other/text/text_night_rider_movement.html

There is a story behind each display that could be told. 
I bought three postcards, and we paid $2 each to visit the Transportation Museum.

The Transportation Museum was located across the street from the Pennyroyal Museum. It was once a Fire Station. 

There was a crew of men working on the roof, and they were repairing the Clocktower. (Many years ago, the Captain's room caught fire and burned the first clock tower, which was larger than the one now on top of the firehouse.)
The firehouse was built before automobiles, and the first fire truck was pulled by horses.

The curator said
We have the first (Auto) fire truck ever used by the fire department
It was bought by a former firefighter, and he restored it to its glory days.
He gave the town the firetruck when he found out the town was opening a Transportation Museum inside the old firehouse.

We saw a couple of Dalmatian dogs, a couple of fire trucks, a carriage, Firemen's boots, caps, and the original fire pole the firemen used. We saw a couple of miniature train displays, benches from a train depot, a sleigh, and three different Gasoline tanks: the Shell, Gulf, & DX.

First Gasoline-powered Fire Truck and Dalmatian 

The Clock Tower is being repaired.

Firemen's hats

Miniature Train Display and another fire truck.

Our next stop was the Casey Jones Distillery.

The Casey Jones Distillery

 Grape, Peach, and Apple Casey's Cut
Casey's Moonshine, Barrel Cut, and Total Eclipse Moonshine.
Lights Out

At the distillery, we sampled the Casey's cut Eclipse-A-Rita, the Peach, and Apple.
We were shown how the Moonshine was made and how it was bottled.
There was a wedding later that day at the distillery.

Many different events happen here, including the upcoming Total Eclipse on August 21, 2017.
The weekend of August 18 in Hopkinsville is the place to be for the greatest view of the total eclipse.
There will be music, vendors, hot air balloon rides, and much more.

Our next stop was the Commemorative Trail of Tears Park.
Inside the small cabin, we meet a Cherokee Indian Woman.
She told us how this very spot was a chosen way to stop for the Indians on the Trail of Tears.

The nine flags representing the states of the Trail of Tears
Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.
The removal of the Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole

https://www.britannica.com/event/Trail-of-Tears

Commemorative Trail of Tears Cabin

Statues at the Trail of Tears

We stopped at Chick-fil-A in Hopkinsville, where we ordered Lemonade, Peach Milkshake, and some chicken fingers.

Chick-fil-a Hopkinsville KY 

Peach Milkshake (my favorite), Chicken strips, and Lemonade

Our next stop was the Fort Campbell Memorial Park. 

As we traveled through Nashville, we encountered work traffic.

The sunset on the clouds as we encountered our last mile home
around 8PM

2009 ~ Saturday, August 1, Historic Markers in Waterloo, Alabama

We stopped along the side of the road to take a picture of the site of Civil War site of Wilson's Camp and spring.

There was activity by both the Union and Confederate soldiers in Florence during the Civil War.

Wilson's Headquarters and Camp

At this site from mid-January to mid-March 1865, Maj. Gen. James Harrison Wilson, U. S. Army, assembled the largest cavalry force ever massed in the Western Hemisphere. Five divisions totaling 22,000 camped from Gravelly Springs westward to Waterloo. Wilson made headquarters a mile east of the springs at Wildwood plantation, the boyhood home of Alabama senator and governor, George Houston. After intensive training, Wilson's Cavalry crossed Tennessee to invade South Alabama and Georgia, a campaign which included burning the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa and the capture of Pres. Jefferson Davis at Irwinville, Georgia, in May 1865, after Lee's surrender. Donated by C. L. Culver

Gravelly Springs

We traveled into Waterloo where we saw a barge traveling down the Tennessee River

Waterloo

Settled 1819~Incorporated 1832

One of Alabama's oldest incorporated towns. Waterloo was an important Tennessee River port during the steamboat era. In the low~water season after large boats from Louisville, Cincinnati, and other places downriver unloaded here: smaller craft transported goods and passengers upriver to Florence at the foot of the Muscle Shoals. Following a disastrous flood in 1847, the town was moved from its location on the riverbank, now under Pickwick Lake, to present higher ground. Union gunboats shelled it in July 1862. Gen. William T. Sherman crossed the river here, in November 1863, and made temporary headquarters in Dr. O. B. Sullivan's home.

Barge traveling on the Tennessee River 

Boaters on the Tennessee River

Trail of Tears

Thousands of Cherokee Indians passed through Waterloo in the 1830s when they were forced by the U. S. government to move west on the "Trail of Tears". Most came by boat from Tuscumbia and camped here to await transfer to larger steamboats. During the encampment, several births, deaths, and escapes occurred.

One party of 1,070 Cherokees traveled overland from Ross' Landing in Tennessee due to low water in the upper river. Following the general route of U. S. Hwy. 72 to Florence, they arrived here on July 10, 1838, in miserable condition after a 23-day journey.

About 17,000 Cherokees were driven from their homeland in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Most traveled by land through Tennessee and on to Oklahoma. Great suffering and about 4,000 deaths occurred along the trail, especially during the winter of 1838-39

Trail of Tears Marker overlooking the Tennessee River 

Edith Newman Culvert Memorial Museum 1872-1995 

 Main Street and County Road 45 on Main Street.

The Newman House was restored and presented in 1995 to the citizens of Waterloo by Ezra Lee Culver, as a memorial to his wife, Edith Elizabeth Newman Culver. Built in 1872 by Hiram L. and Julia Ann Young Richardson. This house was purchased in 1918 by Joseph Newman, a native of Ohio and a U.S. veteran of the Civil War. His son, Clarkson Lytle Newman with his wife, Eunice Lindsey Newman, became the next owners. Their daughter, Edith, was reared here from her childhood until her marriage. The house remained in the Newman family until its dedication as a museum on October 14, 1995.

Capture of John A.Murrell

Natchez Trace Outlaw

— 1834 —

 John A. Murrell, known as the "Great Western Land Pirate," was captured near this site in the winter of 1834. He was said to have killed over 400 people, including many kidnapped slaves. His arrest was brought about by the clever maneuvering of Tom Brannon, a local African American slave. An attempt had been made by the outlaw to recruit Brannon as a contact man for his far-reaching empire of crime. Brannon was awarded $100 for his bravery and his name was publicized across the country.

Nelson Rivers Starkey Bridge City of Florence 

this is where the Capture of John Murrell marker is located 

Nelson Rivers Starkey Bridge City of Florence 

this is where the Capture of John Murrell marker is located 

Pestilence Before 20th Century

Before the 20th Century During its early history, this area was faced with periods of infectious epidemics. One of the most feared was the smallpox plague. It became a serious threat at the end of the Civil War, believed to have resulted from the frequent movements of troops here during the war. Yellow fever, a rare plague in the northern hemisphere, appeared here in the fall of 1878, resulting in 42 deaths in Florence. Four nurses from the Howard Association, a New Orleans charity organization, were sent here to assist with the sick and the dying.

Pesthouse and Cemetery 1866

Following an outbreak of the dreaded plague, smallpox (Variola), at Florence during the winter of 1865-66, the Board of Alderman adopted a resolution on January 2, 1866, that a Pesthouse be “erected at the vineyard as soon as possible.” According to tradition, this Pesthouse, believed to have been a simple two-room log structure, was located in this area where people with infectious diseases could be isolated from the community. Also located nearby is a small cemetery where victims of these diseases were sometimes buried in unmarked graves.

Macedonia Church of Christ 

 County Road 158 west of Road 5

Tracing its roots to the early 1800s, The Macedonia Baptist Church originally met in homes with Joseph Fanning, a visiting evangelist. In 1834, J. W. Smith supervised a building on this site. In 1880, T.B. Larimore, an evangelist among Churches of Christ was asked to preach. The group then changed its name to Macedonia Church of Christ. This church has made a powerful local and worldwide impact. Its adjoining cemetery is the resting place for many of the country's beloved sons and daughters.

It started to rain so we finished up with the Macedonia marker

There are streaks of rain in the picture of the marker.

That afternoon after dark we took the grandkids to Heritage Park to watch the water show, and they all decided to get wet. 

When the water came up out of the fountains it was blue, pink, yellow, and white.