Big Bone Lick is located in Union, Kentucky, just minutes off I-75. What’s a lick, you ask? Oh, I’ll tell you. A “lick” refers to a salt lick, as in, the water there is really salty. Prehistoric animals used to wander over to the salt springs for a little lick of salty goodness when they…
Kaukauna is a small town in Wisconsin, just a few miles east of Appleton. A short jaunt down College Avenue will take you right into town. Kaukauna was incorporated in 1839 and is part of a region called the Fox Cities, which defines the northern shores of Lake Winnebago. The Fox Cities also include Appleton,…
Bradley County is located in southeast Tennessee between the TN/GA State line and the Hiawassee River. It covers over 330 square miles and includes the cities of Calhoun, Charleston, and Cleveland, its county seat. This land was part of the Cherokee Nation’s territory prior to the arrival of white folk. Starting in the 1790s, visitors…
Townsend, Tennessee is a mountain town roughly halfway between Maryville and Gatlinburg, with Highway 321/Lamar Alexander Parkway running through it. Townsend got its start in the 1920s as a hub for the railroad and lumber industries. It is called the “Peaceful Side of the Smokies” and is just a mile or so from an entrance…
CAMPBELL COUNTY Campbell County, Tennessee is located in Appalachia between its Ridge-and-Valley Range and the Cumberland Mountains. Its northern border is the Kentucky State Line and it extends down to Rocky Top, Tennessee, just north of Knoxville. Jacksboro is the county seat, and Caryville, LaFollette, and Jellico make up the rest of the county. It…
It was all the fumes and sound and fury that you could ever dream of.
Corbin is a small town of less than eight square miles in the southeastern corner Kentucky, a state that is kinda shaped like a piece of the fried chicken it is famous for. I-75 runs straight through Corbin, just north of the Tennessee state line. I am going to go ahead and lay my cards…
Crossville, Tennessee got its name by being widely known as a place of crossroads; of Avery Trace, Walton Road, and the Kentucky Stock Road, connecting various toll areas like Johnson’s Mayland stand and Kemmer’s stand. Travelers often referred to it as the way to somewhere else. Avery Trace was the original route, blazed by a…
Cookeville is located in middle Tennessee, about an hour from Nashville and an hour and a half from Knoxville. The small city spans about 22 square miles and is the “micropolis,” meaning the largest city of, Putnam County and the Upper Cumberland Plateau. Cookeville was formerly Cherokee land, taken over by white settlers in 1805.…
An easy ten-mile mountainous drive from Denver will take you into the community of Morrison, to the Red Rocks Geological Park and, what this park is most famous for, the Red Rocks Amphitheatre. You could also take the Red Rocks Shuttle from Illegal Pete’s or the Thirsty Lion Gastropub in Denver, to the park, and…
Grandfather Mountain is among the most rough and rugged mountains in Eastern USA and at 5,946 feet (1,812 m), it has the highest peak on the eastern escarpment of the Blue Ridge Mountains. My song for this entry is a heavy cover of Edvard Grieg’s classic “Hall of the Mountain King” by Apocalyptica: Daniel Boone…
One of my favourite drives for viewing fall leaves in East Tennessee is the Cherohala Skyway, a National Scenic Byway that connects Tellico Plains, TN to Robbinsville, NC. The Cherohala Skyway is also known as TN State Hwy 165 and NC-143. “Chero-” comes from the Cherokee National Forest, and “-hala” comes from the Nantahala National…
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