A fall trip (part 1)...

For years and years, we went to Myrtle Beach with our sons every fall. We had some very great fun times. Now that they are in college, we don't do that any more. Donna asked about going again and I simply cannot bring myself to go there without them.

Last year we went to Nashville because we just had to go somewhere for a week. We planned it out a bit better this year and decided to go to Williamsburg Virginia. We saw that our route would take us right through Lexington on I-64 to give us the bonus of seeing Josh twice in one week.

We left on a Friday and headed to Lexington. We picked up Josh at UK (he's working a few afternoons a week in computer support for the Math Department). He wanted to go to Red Lobster for the "Endless Shrimp". His roommate Cory met us there. We polished off about 240 shrimp between us, but I was the only one to break 100. We went and got our rental car at Hertz at the airport. You are probably asking "Don't they have rental car places in Paducah?". Indeed they do. However, I could rent a car there for 169.00 with tax and everything for a week. To rent a car for 10 days to cover the whole trip in Paducah would be closer to 350.00. We just drove our van and left it with Josh while we were gone.

On Saturday, we stopped to see Josh before we left, then headed out. We got to West Virginia. I found out the state is very hilly. It seemed like we were either pulling up a mountain or speeding down one the whole time we were in the state. We stopped in Lewisburg since it was about half way. We got there just in time to watch the UK South Carolina game. It did not go well. Uk got down big at the half so Donna and I went to dinner at Applebee's. I noticed Kentucky making a slight rally but was still not optimistic. We got back to the room and KY really started coming back. They shut out South Carolina the whole second half. UK finally took the lead with a minute or so left on a 4th down pass from Hartline to Cobb and got the 2 point conversion to go up by three. I was on the edge of my seat now (I am surprised I didn't get us tossed out of the hotel by my yelling). South Carolina drove to the end zone. With a few seconds left, South Carolina went for a TD instead of a field goal. UK tipped the pass in the end zone and intercepted it. I was ecstatic. This was the first time UK had beaten them in 10 years and the first time they'd beaten Steve Spurrier in EIGHTEEN tries.

We got up Sunday and ate at the hotel (Hampton Inn of course). We went to the Lewisburg church of Christ. Everyone was very nice and friendly. We headed out after that. The rest of the drive went well except for the part of I-64 that combines with I-81. I've never seen so many 18 wheelers on one stretch of road. Donna was a nervous wreck.

We got to Williamsburg and checked into our resort. It was beautiful. I did get talked into signing up for a free lunch and survey the next day (more on that later). We unloaded and headed for Williamsburg church of Christ. The brethren were very nice as well. The preacher there is Bill Butterfield the brother of Tom Butterfield who preached a Gospel Meeting at Central a few years back. We grabbed something to eat and headed back to the resort.

In Part II, I'll let you know about we we saw and did in Williamsburg

A little Political Humor...

I read this in the Reader's Digest today. I found it quite funny, based on your political leanings you might not...

A Republican and a Democrat were walking down the street when they came to a homeless person. The Republican gave him his business card and told him to stop by for a job. He then took $20 out of his pocket and handed it to him.

The Democrat was impressed, and when they came to another homeless person, he decided it was his turn to help. So he reached into the Republican's pocket and gave the homeless man $50.

The Big E

I saw on the news today that the Executive Inn was going to start being demolished tomorrow. For those of you non-Paducah people, the Executive Inn was the hotel in Paducah from the early 1980's until a few years ago when it was allowed to fall into serious disrepair. WPSD asked for people to post memories of the hotel, so I thought I'd blog a few of mine.

• I remember right after it first opened, Brent Starkey, Kenny Martin and I (and probably a few others) walked from their house to the hotel. We were just wandering around the place taking in how huge it was when we were approached by a security guard telling us "You boys ain't allowed in here".. We laughed about that all the way back to their house.


• I took this girl I was dating to "Mr. G's Gourmet Room" (I think it was called) to impress her. It had beautiful views of the Ohio River. I remember they gave us sherbet between the salad and our main course as I found out later "to cleanse our palates". I also ordered a dessert I always wanted to see it flame up when they made it (Cherries Jubilee). I was horrified to see how they made it burn. Fortunately, it burned away as fuel before they poured the hot cherries on vanilla ice cream.


• Later I took her for her 21st birthday to see some red haired country singer she really liked in the showroom. I wasn't a big country fan at the time, but I remember thinking "Hey, she's pretty good, she might really make it big some day". Her name was Reba McIntire. I remember the girl I was with talked me into buying Reba's latest album for sale right after we left the showroom. Donna and I still have that album.


• I saw several more shows in that showroom. We saw John Anderson. I remember he sang with his eyes closed (yes, we were that close unfortunately). He also sang one of my least favorite songs "Just a Swingin" and that he looked like "death warmed over". We also saw a pretty good Beatles tribute band (1964 I believe). I remember "John Lennon" throwing picks at Donna trying (I felt) to flirt with her. She's always been beautiful, so catches a lot of guys eyes.


• Their restaurant had and excellent prime rib buffet on Sunday where they carved it right in front of you. I enjoyed that several times. Makes me hungry right now just thinking about it.


• USEC would hold "galas" every year there for their employees in the showroom. They'd feed us really well and then have entertainment. Bowser of Sha-na-na was there several times, but I remember most Paul Revere and the Raiders because they are Jim Faughn's favorites.


• They had some pretty good events in the convention center. I remember baseball card shows and taking the boys to a train collectible's show. I also remember in the infancy of quilt show that Donna wanted to go see it so we went about 4 on a Saturday afternoon only to be turned away since "we're ready to close up the show". My how that has changed.


• Our house had a minor fire (burning our basement and smoking up the rest of the house) in the summer of 1984. I was on my first business trip ever (to Boston for computer training). My parents and sister Melissa stayed at the Executive Inn for the first few weeks while the house was being cleaned. I remember ordering room service one night while there and getting asparagus. I never ordered that again.

It was sad to see the place fall into such disrepair. I hope they build something just as neat when they rebuild (although I doubt they will). Oh, maybe you are wondering why it was called the "Big-E"? I had some visitors they were coming to our plant from Oak Ridge ask that once. I told them just to watch as they approached the hotel and they'd know. There was a large E (it was lit up as a green "E" at night) that you could not miss as you got close.