Greetings from Weird Kentucky!

Weird Kentucky:Your Travel Guide to Kentucky's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets is officially my new favorite book. I have been eying this book at Barnes and Noble for sometime and finally bought it last Friday. Weird Kentucky is a very informative and interesting read. It covers everything from odd attractions, urban legends, local heroes and villains, UFOs, and one of my favorite subjects cryptozoology. For those who don't know, Kentucky is a jacked up, scary little place! The word Kentucky actually means "dark and bloody ground or cursed ground" (insert obnoxious font color for effect here!). The first group of natives who settled in Kentucky left because they felt that it was cursed and living there would bring them back luck. Thanks to Daniel and Squire Boone for braving the curse!

I have not finished the book yet but here are some of my favorite facts/anecdotes from the book so far....

• Kentucky was almost called Transylvania. (Bummer, right?) When Kentucky was first settled a section of it was called Transylvania which actually means "across the forest". Transylvania University is in Lexington and several of my friends went there. According to the book, the university's lawyers had to send a letter to several companies who were making vampire themed Transylvania University shirts to inform them that it was in fact a real college.
  
• Roman coins have been found all over the state. Did Caesar visit Kentucky?
  
• Redheaded mummies have been discovered in several Kentucky caves including Mammoth Cave. These are most likely Vikings. My ancestors perhaps?
• There are secret underground tunnels in Lexington that were also filled with redheaded mummies. The caverns are much like the catacombs in Paris and Rome. They also included hundreds of human skulls and human sacrifice artifacts. My sweet little city sure has a shady past!
  
• In the 1830s, a cholera epidemic killed thousands of people in Lexington and Main Street was lined with their corpses. Sweet!
  
• There have been many Bigfoot sightings in Kentucky. I think Bigfoot would like it here. There are plenty of caves and woods for him to wonder around in.
  
• Kentucky houses a Dummy Museum and the Creation Museum. Creepy.
  
• Charles Manson was from Kentucky. Again, creepy!
  
• And much, much more!
  

Kentucky isn't all bourbon, derbies, and fried poultry! It's freakin' weird!

Neat places I have been

I love traveling to anywhere and everywhere. From across the pond to my home state of Kentucky, I am lucky enough to have been to some great places. Here just a few of my favorites and some that stand out.

Topsail Island, North Carolina

I used to visit this tiny island off the Atlantic Coast with my dad when I was around 11-13 years old. This is not my favorite beach but it always stuck out to me because of it's history. In the 1700's, pirates used to hide on this island and attack merchant ships coming to the American Colonies. It is believed that Blackbeard's Treasure is buried somewhere along the North Carolina Coast. The name Topsail came from the merchants who could see the top of the sails of the pirate ships. The island was not fully settled until the 1940s. It is still scarcely populated and honestly not the most exciting place on the planet but it is very pretty. I have not been to Topsail Island since I was 13. I would love to go back and see how it has changed.

The Winchester Mystery House
San Jose, California


I love this place! Every time it is mentioned on one of those haunted shows I am glued to the TV. I went there with my grandmother and some cousins when I was 12. This place is just too weird not to love. As a fan of all things weird and creepy I am so there! It was built by Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester rifle fortune.There are many different versions of the Winchester Mystery House story but this is the one I remember. After her husband and daughter died, Sarah contacted a medium who told her that the Winchester family was cursed because the guns had killed so many people and that their spirits wanted revenge and that she should to build a house and if she was to stop building it then she too would die. She had round the clock building on the house from 1884 to 1922. The house contains doors that go nowhere, blank windows, and many more oddities. It is supposedly haunted and is a great piece of Victorian architecture.

Blarney Castle outside of Cork, Ireland

(I actually took this picture!)
I kissed the Blarney Stone in 2006. The legend goes if you kiss the stone then you will be blessed with the gift of gab and flattery. I already had it so I am double blessed! It is a little unsanitary so germophobes beware. The act of kissing the stone is pretty scary, someone holds and leans you across a gap upside down but it is so worth it!


Mammoth Cave National Park
Edmonson County, Kentucky

I have been to Mammoth Cave many times in my life. Whenever someone visits Kentucky for the first time it is mandatory to take them this cave. Mammoth Cave is well, freakin' mammoth! It is the longest cave system in the world. It is over 367 miles long with new parts discovered every year. There are several famous features of the cave system including the Grand Avenue and Fat Man's Misery. A part of the Green River also runs through the cave. The cave is also home to the endangered Albino Kentucky Cave Shrimp. This cave is huge so I am just going to stop. If you want to know more just read the wiki page. (I did to brush up on my cave facts!)


London, England

Not only is the home of some of the world's most famous landmarks, London is my favorite city. I didn't get to spend as much time there as I would have liked to which is why I want to go back so bad. Luckily from where I live you can get there in about 9-10 hours. I could go on and on. I guess you just have to go to experience the awesome that is London.

(I took this picture too!)

Disney World
Orlando, Florida

I love Disney World. I have been 5 times and have many found memories of Mickey and the gang.

"Raintree County" a personal look at a almost Civil War classic

Raintree County (1957) is not a good movie. It was a huge bomb. For starters, it was trying to rival Gone with the Wind by attempting to be the greatest Civil War romance movie ever made (EPIC FAIL!).

At the time it also held the record for being the most expense movie ever made which MGM bragged about during it's production. The film stars Elizabeth Taylor as Susanna Drake, a overly dramatic Southern Belle from New Orleans who manipulates Northern poet John Shawnessey (Montgomery Clift) into marrying her and leaves behind is true love Nell (Eva Maria Saint). The rest of the film is North vs South and John trying to figure out Susanna's past (SPOILER ALERT: She is nuts!) The rest of the story is a love triangle between Susanna, John, and Nell which sounds a little like another big budget Civil War romance from about 20 years before this one, doesn't it? :)
I do have a special place in my heart for this film because my grandfather was an extra in it and half of it was shot in my home state of Kentucky. The other half was shot in Natchez, Mississippi. I have been to some of the locations where it was shot. Including the Rhodes House in Danville, KY. I could not find a picture of it but it is Eva Marie Saint's house in the movie. I have also been to the Liberty Hall historic site in Danville which served as another location in the film.
The historic town set is also at the Pioneer Playhouse in Danville. You can actually walk through the set which has pretty much turned into a antique mall and something to do while you wait for plays to start.

All of these locations are easily recognizable in the film.
My grandad was back from the Korean War and he needed money and having been in some plays in college he was cast in the film as a Union solider who gets shot. He has told me many stories about being in the film....
The first thing my grandad told me about this movie was that he was shocked at how time consuming making a movie is. He also said that he watched Lee Marvin and Montgomery Clift's do 27 takes of a scene where Lee Marvin slams a door in Montgomery Clift's face. The stars and director of the film stayed at the historic Old Crow Inn while filming in Danville which I think was also used as a location in the film.

There was also a night when Montgomery Clift, Lee Marvin, and Rod Taylor (who co-stars) got really drunk and walked down the road naked. I love it! He said that Eva Maria Saint was very nice and talked to him for awhile one day between takes. Between shots another day, Montgomery Clift was standing above the set on a ladder dumped a bucket of water on Elizabeth Taylor. I am sure she was not pleased. He saw Elizabeth Taylor a few times and said that she was very beautiful but extremely short.
During a shooting break is when Montgomery Clift had the car wreck while leaving Elizabeth Taylor's house which left half of his face paralyzed and caused some of his teeth to get lodged in his throat. Elizabeth Taylor heard the car wreck and promptly pulled the teeth out of this throat. What a good friend!


Sadly, my grandad does not have any pictures of his experience. He likes to talk about it a lot which is good because I always love to hear his stories.
While this movie is not a great movie, the plot is a little ridiculous, and in some scenes it's a little cheesy. It has great location shots, wonderful costumes, and all of the actors have a great Southern accents (I know because I have one). I am pretty sure this movie is out of print and very hard to come across but occasionally it will show on Turner Classic Movies. It's no Gone with the Wind but it is worth the watch!