prior to before: January 2013

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Along US 70 West in Tennessee

It's still Day 3 of my trip south and it's still morning in Tennessee. I'm now traveling west on US 70, going from Dickson to Huntington. It hasn't warmed up at all from the previous night of freezing rain which hit western Tennessee; the storm even dropped some snow in northern Mississippi.

The day before I had driven through Kentucky and couldn't really find anything I thought was Kentuckian. Most everything looked like something I might see in rural Michigan.

But this home and property seemed like Tennessee to me.

Still cold, about 20 or so degrees as I recall. See the drips of ice?

And an out building for power equipment, tools and such.

Here's a small house I liked.

The Dixie Radiator Service in Waverly, Tennessee

This trailer was across US 70 from some railroad tracks.

I like house trailers so I pulled over to take a look. Because of the location it may have once been used as an office or a work area of some kind. I like the built-on in the front. Anyway, now it's just some junk storage for someone.

This is from the Broadway Street/US 70 bridge going over the Tennessee River just west of New Johnsonville, Tennessee.

I was plenty nervous up there. It was cold, windy and that railing was low, probably only about 3 foot high. I was parked on the side (the shoulder was wide) and taking pictures while trucks rolled by. I didn't get too close to that edge.

The rusty superstructure is for the train tracks below.

And Bogle Motors in Bruceton, Tennessee caught my eye as I drove by.

The lady who was there to open up the place pulled on the lot in her pickup and we waved to each other as I drove out. If it was a few minutes earlier we might of had a nice chat but I'd been on the road for awhile and I wanted to hit Huntingdon where I was going to turn south towards Mississippi.

Monday, January 28, 2013

String Number 3

I haven't done a Diva's Challenge in a while and haven't even put pen to paper in the past few weeks. Anyway, here's my crack at this week's challenge, string number 3 - it's a little busy for my tastes so I used the string as a see-through to what's underneath.

I got back a couple weeks ago from a trip heading south, from Detroit to the Gulf, driving the back roads and shooting some photos. I invite you to take a look at the previous few posts and I hope you come back over the next week or so to see what else happened.

Along Tennessee 48 South

The icy cold and gray morning of January 16th, was the beginning of Day 3 of my trip south from Detroit. The storm that was supposed to be bad, wasn't so bad. There was ice by the roads but not on the roads. Still, it was a bleak day.

I was moving along Tennessee state road 48 going south, about 30 or so miles from Hopkinsville, Kentucky and it was another gray day ahead. I left Detroit to get some sunlight and warmth but the weather had not been my friend. So I moved along.

I wondered what the day would bring. I had a full tank of gas and I was still enjoying my first cup of road coffee, when I saw this surreal sight...

Montgomery Central High School

This is Montgomery Central High School in Cunningham, Tennessee.

The domes are of a thin shell concrete construction sitting on a man-made lake. The thin shell of concrete needs no interior columns or exterior buttresses and allows large areas to be spanned with curved shapes.

This is not a new construction technique. The earliest known concrete shell was the dome on the Pantheon, built in 126 AD. Another famous but more recent thin shell concrete construction is the Sydney Opera House. See more examples HERE.

And further down the road, what a night of freezing rain looks like the next day.

It was cold, about 20 degrees, and it wasn't going to warm up much for the rest of my day.

In Dickson, Tennessee, another antique stop.

I was still too far east though. I wanted to get into Mississippi from below Memphis. I'd never been on the west side of Mississippi that far north.

My drives from Detroit to Mississippi and back were by traveling I 65 through the length of Alabama. In the mid-1970's, it was just about getting from home in Detroit to the US Navy Seabee base in Gulfport in the fastest way possible. But this time I wanted to leisurely drive the Mississippi delta.

So at Dickson, Tennessee I get on US 70 heading west.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

US 41 and Hopkinsville, Kentucky

Before the end of an overcast January 15th, I got a motel room then went back out for a short drive around Hopkinsville, Kentucky. I would have liked to have had more time there. It seemed like an interesting place to take photos.

Edgar Cayce, the "Sleeping Prophet," spent some of his early years in Hopkinsville and it was where his gift was first discovered. He's buried in Riverside Cemetery in Hopkinsville.

L & N Railroad Depot

Built in 1892, this was the L & N Railroad Depot at 425 E. 9th Street. Because it was the only legal spot to drink alcohol between Evansville, Indiana and Nashville, Hopkinsville got the nickname "Hoptown" because train passengers wanted to know if it was ok to "hop off" and get a quick drink.

A wall in the center of town.

Across the street is the vacant Gold Gallery.

Ferrell's Hamburgers

As I drove through Hopkinsville, trying to stay on US 41, I saw this sign for Ferrell's Hamburgers and it was the main reason I wanted to stop and take some photos. In the photo above, as I have it cropped, Ferrell's is not much bigger than that one room. I wish I had time for a burger but it was late in the day and I had more photos to take.

Not sure if this was a single family home, a group home, a building turned into apartments, I just don't know, but it was a nice looking, old building.

Across the street was this shotgun home owned by someone who was into local politics.

An antique stop on US 41.

All afternoon there were radio reports of a sleet, freezing rain, and snow storm coming to western Kentucky and Tennessee and that's just where I was. So I went to sleep that night not knowing how much road I would be able to drive the next day.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Along US 62 in Kentucky

This was Day 2 (January 15) of my trip heading south from Detroit. I didn't know how long I would be gone or how far south I would get. Maybe Gulfport, Mississippi: I was in the US Navy Seabees, homeported there in the early to mid-1970's so that might be a destination. Honestly, all I had planned was to take back roads and listen to local radio as I drove. But anxious to get south, I spent the first day speeding through Ohio and north Kentucky till I got past Louisville. It was getting dark by then so I spent the night at a Motel 6 in Shepherdsville.

So it's Day 2 and here's some of the sights along US 62 in Kentucky going from I-65 and Elizabethtown to US 41 and Nortonville.

It wasn't easy either to take pictures along this road. There was no shoulder so I had to turn around alot then find places to park or shoot quick and roll on. But I was trying to go slow and rubberneck so I had to wave around the cars behind me or pull off when I could and let them go past. No one seemed upset about it though (must have seen my Michigan plate).

I pulled over here because of this little house (above) but realized it was probably a craft shack used by the house next to it to sell antiques or something homemade and was probably filled with storage of whatever they were selling.

But it's obvious why I pulled over for this guy (below). I don't recall this being a working business but it wasn't abandoned either.

A rusted railway bridge.

This black barn was way up a steep hill at a driveway I used as a turn around.

This was (probably) another craft shack on US 62. A house was next to it.

This train car is a display at a little park along US 62. I saw others like this on my drive.

A house along the road.

Trailers loaded with logs.

One of many antique stops along the way.

An abandoned school. Lots of this where I come from.

Here's a freshly painted building. It used to be a gas station but there were no pumps in front so it's probably being converted to something else.

Somewhere ahead is US 41 where I'll turn and drive south to Hopkinsville, Kentucky.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Driving the Brent Spence Bridge

This is from Day 1 of my trip going south. I've driven over this bridge, back and forth, about a dozen times in the 1970's and about half a dozen since. I wanted to get through Cincinnati and into Kentucky but knew before I left Detroit that morning that I would spend some time filming this bridge. Here's a montage of clips as I drive over the Brent Spence Bridge on January 14th.

Wikipedia: The Brent Spence Bridge is a double decker cantilever truss bridge that carries Interstates 71 and 75 across the Ohio River between Covington, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio. The top deck carries southbound traffic while the bottom deck carries northbound traffic.