Boone Tavern

Posted by dkrashb on May 4, 2013

Boone Tavern Histamaticized with Tintype effects

Sometimes, a five-year age difference can make a big difference. Most of the time, my husband and I remember a lot of the same things from childhood, ranging from the kinds of candy we found at the drug store to popular clothing styles. Although, things he remembers from high school, I remember from elementary school.

Every once in a while, we find a TV show that was a big part of Pat’s youth was one I’d never heard of. Daniel Boone was one of those shows. While Pat watched every episode both in its debut and in re-run, I vaguely knew there was a show called Daniel Boone, but I had never actually seen it until I got hooked on retro TV a couple years ago.

I don’t think Daniel Boone ever waited for gaps in car traffic to snap a picture of his namesake tavern

Watching Fess Parker battle bad guys on the American frontier felt nostalgic to me even though the show wasn’t part of my childhood. My brother and I used to play cowboys and indians as children and Daniel Boone with his coonskin cap was a pretty constant hero figuring into our games.

This may have been fueled, in part, because of family lore. Daniel Boone apparently came through the region my family settled in a few generations ago. I remember having a newspaper article in my photo album (curtesy of my mother) that described the experience of my “aunt” Polly (I think she was really my great, great, great aunt Polly and long gone by the time I arrived on the scene) with whom Daniel Boone stayed for some period of time. I can’t look up the details anymore, but in my memory, Daniel Boone lived with her family for several months when she was a girl.

The long-side of Boone Tavern surprised me with its size

For many years, I believed I was related to Daniel Boone. Who knows? Maybe I am.

Whatever my relations, whenever I passed the exit sign on interstate 75 that says, “Historic Boone Tavern,” I always want to stop. On this trip home from Columbus, I decided it was time. I was surprised to realize Boone Tavern is in Berea, Kentucky. This is the approximate halfway point between Columbus and Chattanooga and another place I’ve always wanted to stop. So, taking the opportunity to feed two hawks with one rat (as my friends at Save Our American Raptors would say), Tisen and I took another breather from the drive home in this small town.

The sign definitely takes me back to childhood

Boone Tavern is an operating hotel today. Apparently it is not kept in its original state–a sign proudly declared it’s air-conditioned. Tisen and I didn’t try to go in together and it was too hot to leave Tisen in the car, so we made a lap around downtown Berea, checking out Boone Tavern from two sides instead of sipping a cold adult beverage at the bar.

Tisen making the most of the Kentucky grass

Tisen was unimpressed by the view of the tavern. However, he did seem to take a special liking to the grass in the small park across the street from the tavern.

Big Bone Lick

Posted by dkrashb on May 3, 2013

The sign at the entrance to the park

What’s in a name? That which we call a park by any other name would smell as fresh. So why not call it something that makes people think, “Hmm. I really must go see what that is some time.” I think that’s what the creators of Big Bone Lick State Park in Kentucky thought when they chose the name of the park.
Never mind that the area was a “lick” (as in “salt lick”) in ancient (and even more recent) times that attracted animals large and small with its mineral deposits. Never mind that native americans talked about the “big bones” left behind by the giant animals that were trapped in the bog. I’m pretty sure that someone in marketing decided naming the park “Big Bone Lick” would attract more tourists.

The one short stretch of shade on our way to find the bison

They were right.

After all, how many times have I driven by signs advertising parks I can’t remember the names of? But “Big Bone Lick” has been the subject of several conversations–visitors often comment about it when they arrive at our place after having made the journey from the North.

Tisen casting a dark shadow that he tried to figure out how to stand under

Since I’d decided to take a day off work to drive home from Columbus with Tisen at a leisurely pace, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to find out what Big Bone Lick was all about. As is typical of Tisen and my walks, we hit the park at the peak of the afternoon sun. But on this day, I was surprised just how hot it was as we made our way up the trail in the harsh light. Tisen couldn’t stop panting–I’m sure he was wishing his fur coat had a zipper so he could take it off.

If bison could pant, I think this guy would be panting

But the park had something I wanted to see–Bison. I guess it’s appropriate and historically accurate that the park should have bison. I just wish they could roam free throughout the park rather than being fenced in. For a moment, I flashed back to Montana’s approach to “fence them out” vs “fence them in,” but then I remembered the dead horses we saw on the road outside of Glacier National Park and decided I didn’t want to see any run over bison.

Even the bison were shedding

We followed the signs that said, “Bison.” When we got to the “Bison Viewing Area,” there were no bison. Just empty pastures with nothing like bison in sight. I think someone was confused about what “bison viewing area” meant.

When I first spotted the bison, I thought I was seeing round bales of hay or something

I felt betrayed by the park signs. I looked at my poor, hot dog standing in a shadow panting like it was 100 degrees out and decided we’d better head back rather than keep looking. However, there was another path that headed back towards the car. I thought it would be shorter and, since it bordered a bunch of paddocks, perhaps we would see bison by going that way. Both turned out to be true. Although Tisen was less patience than usual waiting for me to take pictures, we left the park happy.

Caverns and Tripods

Posted by dkrashb on April 7, 2013

One of my favorite shots of formations in the cave

Caves are dark. Really dark. In fact, the darkest places on earth. They are one of the few places you can go where no light penetrates. Of course, most cave tours don’t let you experience total darkness. This would be a problem trying to make your way through the narrow, rocky path with slippery spots, tripping hazards, and so many places to hit your head that the guide has special names for the worst of them.

Sabre Tooth Tiger–definitely could have used a tripod

But, some cave tours do turn off the lights for a moment so you can experience what total darkness is really like. The expression “can’t see your hand in front of your face” came from cavers. It is absolutely true when you are in total darkness–you have to imagine your hand is where you think it is because there is no visual confirmation.

The Iguana formation

Obviously, just about anything that contains the root “photo” in it doesn’t work in total darkness–photosynthesis, a photodiode, photoreactions, and certainly not photography.

After all, “photo” means light and when we’re talking about total darkness, we’re talking about rendering anything based on light useless. Our own eyes as well as our cameras are unable to see anything in total darkness.

Mini-stalagtites growing from the ceiling

That said, I wasn’t trying to shoot in total darkness. I was trying to shoot in the dim lights provided on the tour. This isn’t much light. There are a few choices to make in these conditions:

Crank up the ISO setting as high as is tolerable.
Sacrifice depth of field for a larger aperture opening to allow more light in.
Use a flash.
Use long exposures and set the camera on a tripod for sharpness.

Waterfall formation

I decided against choice 4. While I could have asked to see if bringing along a tripod would be a problem, I felt there was too much risk of damaging formations and/or tripping over them if I were trying to carry my big, bulky tripod through the cave.

I brought a flash unit, but decided against using it because, in part, of the un-predictability of flash bouncing off strange shapes and formations. Plus, I only had one flash and it was going to have to be on my camera. I was confident I would not get the kind of lighting I needed from that.

Big room view

I did open up the aperture a bit (from f/22 to f/16) to get a slightly faster shutter speed even if meant slightly less depth of field. I definitely cranked up the ISO setting. However, I drew the line at 8000 ISO. Higher ISO settings get too noisy for my tastes, especially when the scene is quite dark.

This meant shutter speeds as slow as ⅖ of a second. That may sound like barely an instant, but it’s actually quite challenging to hold a camera perfectly still that long. In the end, I was mostly pleased with the images I got, but all would have benefitted from a tripod.

Raccoon Mountain Caverns

Posted by dkrashb on April 6, 2013

A highly reflective pool below cave formations

As unbelievable as this may seem, there is a place within 15 minutes of Chattanooga that we haven’t been to before. It’s called Raccoon Mountain. There is the Raccoon Mountain Caverns part of Raccoon Mountain, a tourist attraction advertised by a multitude of billboards.

Outside the gift shop, an old cable car did not instill confidence

Then, there is the Raccoon Mountain Reservoir part of Raccoon Mountain. While I’m anxious to hike in the Reservoir part of the mountain, it was a rainy Sunday and my husband is still struggling with stress injuries in his feet, so, it was a good day to go discover the caverns part of the mountain.

A city of stalagmites

We headed out with the Tom-Tom app running on my iPhone since we weren’t sure how to get there. However, given that we knew we needed to take interstate 24 towards Nashville and once on 24, there was a billboard telling us where to turn every 100 yards or so, using the GPS was probably overkill.

We made it there without a single wrong turn. When we pulled into the drive, there were two directions to go: one was to the campgrounds while the other was toward the gift shop. The “campgrounds” reminded me of my very first “camping” trip as an adult. I went with a group of friends who had to explain to me, first of all, that we would be parking next to the tent. I had visions of us backpacking into the woods, so this notion of sleeping where we would park was somewhat disappointing. However, I still pictured us with a secluded camping site next to our parking spot. When they started loading up their truck with coolers and junk food and cases of beer, I grew suspicious that we were not going to enjoy the outdoors at all.

In fact, we paid for a tiny little campsite that had just enough space for the truck and two tents next to a fire ring and a picnic table. The site was so narrow, there was less than 3 feet between our tent and our neighbors’ tents on either side. There was little shade, no privacy, and I really thought we would have had a better time camping out in our friends’ backyard where we’d have had far more privacy and indoor plumbing much more conveniently located.

While the campgrounds made me worry about what the caverns were going to be like, there was no need to panic. The caverns were well maintained, respected as a natural artifact, and lighted with natural lights (I don’t know why, but I’m just not a fan of colored lights in natural caves).

Stalagmites in silhouette loom in the background

The 45 minute tour we took covered only about ⅓ of a mile in the largest open area. They also offer “wild” cave tours that involve dragging oneself through mud and tunnels and the like. I’ve done that once in my life, but that’s a long story. Maybe some other day we’ll come back to experience the less traveled part of the caves.

The lower right area is just big enough for a raccoon den

Over Googled

Posted by dkrashb on February 15, 2013

Distant Arch

Madrid is full of arches. Sometimes in surprising places. Buildings converge and converge again and just where it seems there should be a dead-end, there is an open arch leading into a square.

Sometimes a really big square.

Places that, if they existed in the US, would have 4-lane roads, lots of traffic, and would be surrounded by parking garages suddenly appear through a discrete arch in the midst of narrow pedestrian passageways. It gives the feeling of stumbling upon a well-kept secret.

This particular arch led to an extraordinary square that once again made me wish I’d looked up some kind of information about Madrid. Since I have the luxury of google to assist me now, I discovered it was the Plaza Mayor, one of the more famous plazas in Madrid that was originally constructed in the early 1600’s.

Discovering the arch opens into a huge plaza

It’s kind of interesting to have wandered around just seeing what we saw without knowing what it was we were looking at. I’m sure someone knew. They probably even told me. But, it’s nice to know that I made it to the Plaza Mayor while I was in Madrid. Kind of a second surprise to find out where I was! 🙂

The main sculpture in Plaza Mayor

That said, I find myself googling a bit too much to see if I can identify any of the other sites we walked by. Over-googling leads to regrets. It starts innocently enough. You wonder what that cool statue was you saw. You google something vague like “Madrid Square with Horse.” Along with the photos of the place you actually were, you see photos of places like Plaza Puerta del Sol, Plaza del Callao, and Plaza Espana. The list goes on. You look at the images and think, “Really?? I was minutes away from this incredible place and I didn’t get to see it!?? Really??!! I spent 18 hours getting from my house to the hotel in Madrid and I didn’t get to see any of this stuff!!??!”

I was perfectly content that I got to spend one afternoon wandering around Madrid taking in whatever was in front of me. Then, I over-googled and now I wish I would have done a little more research before the trip and made some sort of plan on how I was going to get to at least a few more of the incredible sites in the city’s center.

Sadly, it’s been nearly 15 years since I was last in Madrid. There’s no telling if I will ever be there again or not. You’d think I would think about these things before I went on a trip instead of after.

Another arch leads away from the plaza

When I was much younger, I wanted to take a summer off and backpack around Europe. There were rumors that people used to do that in college. I never took a summer off to do anything like that. Maybe I’ll take a summer off some day and make it to all the plazas in Madrid.

Archway towards the market

Market and outdoor diners through the arch

Entertainment in Madrid

Posted by dkrashb on February 13, 2013

Another lovely fountain in front of a horse monument (yeah, I should have bought a tourist guide book)

One of the popular sources of entertainment on a sunny Sunday afternoon in the center of Madrid seems to be street performers. We discovered a clown of sorts performing in one large square. We stopped to watch for a while, but as hard as the crowd was laughing, his humor didn’t translate for us.

Reminds me of when I was in Korea as a teenager. I went to see one of the Beverly Hills Cop movies with some Korean friends. It was in English but subtitled in Korean. I would laugh out loud about 10 seconds before the rest of the audience. That was embarrassing enough, but what was really embarrassing was when I would laugh so hard my eyes would water and the rest of the audience never started laughing even after they got caught up reading the subtitles. Not sure what was lost in translation, but I felt a little exposed laughing in the dark surrounded by people wondering what was so funny.

A relatively empty passage leading to an arch that opens onto another square

Back in Madrid, as we wandered from square to square and fountain to fountain, we discovered different forms of street performance around every corner. There was the fairly traditional “dress like something that shouldn’t move and hold really still” approach. Then, there was the “put three heads on a table and try to startle passers-by” approach that seemed like it had been borrowed from a haunted house. There were also collections of puppet-like animals that would start making a variety of noises as people walked by.

There were the requisite magicians as well. While I was tempted to take some shots of all of these clever performers, etiquette requires change if you take a picture. Since I only had American dollars on me, that wasn’t an option.

I did cheat on this rule. Two magicians were clever enough to create the illusion that one of them sitting on the ground was holding a chair over his head in one hand while the other magician sat in it. This was just so much effort on their parts that I had to take a picture.

Clever street performers

Unfortunately, so as not to breech etiquette too much, I took the shot from far away–hopefully you can tell from the image what they looked like. We figured out that the hand holding the chair was fake and that a metal support was going up the sleeve and down to the seat the guy on the bottom was sitting on, allowing him to balance the weight of the guy above him. It’s still rather ingenious.

I have to wonder what makes a person decide to invest this kind of creativity into their street art. Are these guys engineers Monday-Friday and magicians on Sunday afternoon? Were they watching some other magic trick one day of perhaps a guy spinning a chair on his hand and they suddenly looked at each other and said, “Hey! Wouldn’t it be cool if . . . “?

Whatever their story is, I appreciate the trick.

Another look at the cobblestone street bordered by buildings

Cherokee Removal

Posted by dkrashb on January 27, 2013

Wide view of map of the removal routes of the Cherokee

The Hiwassee Refuge, like many natural areas in the vicinity of Chattanooga, was once part of the Trail of Tears. As such, it includes the Cherokee Removal Memorial Park. This park honor the Cherokee and memorializes those who died during their passage from Blythe’s Ferry or the after-math of living in a much harsher climate.

Looking at the routes from Chattanooga

The memorial includes a map of the routes the Cherokee took to get to Oklahoma where they were given land in the form of a reservation. It’s hard to imagine making one’s way from this part of Tennessee all the way to Oklahoma by foot–especially when there were no direct routes.

The road from the Memorial to the Overlook

I try to imagine what it would be like to have someone tell me that I was no longer to live in my home and if I didn’t relocate to some reservation some 800 miles away (by highway today), I would be removed forcibly by the military. It’s not the kind of thing one associates with being an American.

We like to think we are the land of the free. As a culture, we believe we have the right to the pursuit of happiness. It’s hard to understand that the Cherokee were seen as hostile non-American inhabitants who were preventing progress. Those were different times.

View from the Overlook at Cherokee Removal Memorial Park

In the US today, we allow people to establish their own religions, create their own communities, and even exempt them from US laws that apply to other US citizens (for example, the Amish are exempt from registering for being drafted into the military; many groups are exempt from federal taxation). I guess our willingness to allow these divergent views is based largely on whether these groups are perceived as a threat.

TOS volunteer with a scope on a Bald Eagle Nest

The Cherokee, who supported the British during the American revolution and periodically raided settlers’ establishments after, were perceived as a threat. Yet, we were the foreigners at that time and we wanted what they had. It didn’t really occur to people that perhaps it wasn’t right to take over land and displace the people who were living there.

I guess we came by our desire to conquer new lands honestly. After all, our ancestors were Europeans who had a long history of seeking new land and taking over wherever they went. If I recall my Western Civilizations history correctly, there were centuries of people committing genocide to claim new territories.

Another view from the overlook

Unfortunately, it took a couple of world wars to figure out that when we try to destroy other cultures, it only leads to more pain.

The accessible walkway up to the overlook

Yet, maybe this lesson isn’t over. I think of the contentious issue of illegal immigrants and the challenges people who wish to move to the US now face. It’s as if we have become the Cherokee–we have a lifestyle and we want to maintain it. We perceive newcomers to our land as a potential threat to that lifestyle. I suppose the Cherokee were not the first to claim the land–and we probably won’t be the last.

How to tell when your sensor is covered in dust (taken with Pat’s camera)

New Tricks

Posted by dkrashb on January 7, 2013

Menacing yet living peacefully with so many fish

The Secret Reef display at the Tennessee Aquarium is yet another place where one can easily lose track of time. The tank extends from the top to the bottom of the Ocean Journey building with ramps that lead visitors deeper and deeper until you end on the ground floor with the reef over your head.

This provides ample viewing opportunities to see animals at all depths of the tank. If the sea turtle happens to be surfacing for air, you can see it at the top. If it happens to be eating, you’ll see it a couple floors down, and if it decides to take a nap, you might also see it on the bottom. If you’re really lucky, you’ll get to see it at all the levels.

The sharks seem to float through the center of the tank, mostly. They are the most ferocious looking of the creatures in the tank, yet they float docilely by the rest of the members of the community. I have to imagine that they don’t eat their neighbors–the aquarium couldn’t afford to keep replacing them. My theory is that even a species that’s been around since the time of the dinosaurs can learn new tricks when its well fed.

My other favorite residents are the two green sea turtles. Stewie is a giant–or at least he looks giant compared to the size of the rest of the inhabitants. Every time he floats into view I think of the Disc World series by Terry Pratchett. For those of you who are not geeks, this is a sci-fi/fantasy series of books that take place on a planet that rides on the backs of 4 elephants who are, in turn, riding on the back of a giant sea turtle who swims through space. Presumably he’s much larger than Stewie.

Stewie swims out of the shadows, giving us a clear view of his stout tail

Doesn’t Stewie look like he could carry a planet through space?

When I see Stewie, I find myself thinking perhaps it is not completely preposterous that a planet might be propelled through space on the back of a sea turtle. Although, the books are, of course, tongue-in-cheek.

Stewie poses briefly

The other sea turtle bopping about in the secret reef tank is Oscar. Oscar has a bit of a story. The first time we ever saw Oscar, he was wedged under a rock at the bottom of the tank and appeared to be dead. Apparently visitors report a dead sea turtle in the tank every time Oscar takes a nap (which is a daily occurrence).

In reality, Oscar was rescued following a collision with a boat. He lost most of his back flippers and ended up with air trapped under his shell. As a result, he floats abnormally for a sea turtle. So, he wedges his head under a rock and his rear-end floats toward the top, looking very odd indeed. Fortunately for Oscar, he’s doing quite well at the Tennessee Aquarium and has quite the fan club.

Who says you can’t teach an old turtle new tricks?

Stewie turns slowly having noticed food

Poppin’ Penguins

Posted by dkrashb on January 6, 2013

These guys played statue for me

I love penguins. I suspect this started in childhood. Mr. Popper’s Penguins was one of my favorite stories. I fantasized for weeks about how to build a giant ice sculpture for the penguins I wanted to live in our basement.

Imagine my surprise when I saw my first live penguin display and there was no ice. Seems penguins do just fine without it–at least the species in the aquariums and zoos I’ve been to. The important ingredient seems to be making sure they have a place to swim.

My adult fantasy has nothing to do with taking penguins home with me (taking care of a dog is enough responsibility), but with getting a great shot of one of them popping out of the water.

It fascinates me how they can build up so much speed underwater in a relatively short distance that when they decide to beach, they can propel themselves straight up into the air and land on their feet. It’s the equivalent to flaring a hang glider to land, except that they are moving in the opposite direction of gravity and through the resistance of water.

Alas, the penguins do not accommodate me. In all of my visits to the Tennessee Aquarium, I have either been behind crowds of children and couldn’t get an angle on a popping penguin or the penguins weren’t popping. On our latest visit, they weren’t popping.

One of the few penguins in the water glided along slowly

Rather than demonstrating their underwater and water-exiting talents, they swam rather lazily like they’d just eaten and were afraid of getting a cramp. They waddled about in their penguin waddle way and made noises at each other up on the surface. This was amusing in and of itself.

Moving awkwardly across the surface

Any of the young penguins that had recently hatched the last time we visited had either become full-fledged, and undistinguishable, adults, or been sent elsewhere. Gone were the rock nests and none of the penguins were stealing rocks from others. They were, however, stealing fish.

They cackled at each other and sword-fought with their beaks, although no one actually tried to land a jab. They seem to be arguing about the rations each bird was entitled to from their recently served meal. From the looks of them, there’s plenty of food to go around.

This guy really wants all the fish

I particularly enjoyed watching one getting ready to enter the water. He waddled over to the edge, slowly raised a foot like he was going to do a dramatic dive into the water, and then hopped down to a lower ledge that was all of 3 inches below the water line. Apparently he wasn’t up for a swim yet, but felt like wading.

This guy thought long and hard before deciding to get closer to the waters edge

Making a less than dramatic entrance into the water, this guy plopped instead of popped

One of these days I’m going to take a day off when all the kids are in school and go sit myself in front of the penguins all day long until I catch one of those little men in tuxedos popping out of the water.

In the meantime, I might have to go re-read Mr. Popper’s Penguins.

Open Mouths

Posted by dkrashb on January 5, 2013

Continuing our visit to the Tennessee Aquarium, I discovered a topic I never expected to write a blog post about. Let’s talk about mouths for a moment, shall we?

Some mouths are terrifying. Think Jaws. Think Tyrannosaurus Rex. Now, think Alligator. Not so very different, in my book, than thinking about being bitten by a dinosaur. After all, the American Alligator actually did live with the dinosaurs.

Even sleeping the alligator looks menacing

The relatively small Alligator that lives in a rather cushy environment in the Tennessee Aquarium by Alligator standards (I should think), chose a rather interesting spot to hang out for an afternoon nap. The only thing that would have made his choice of places to sleep better would have been if the glass would have been antiglare. Since I can’t imagine the aquarium staff has been training the alligator to nap where it can be viewed up close, I’m guessing this little nook was designed to be exactly what an alligator looks for when it comes to nap nooks to increase the odds that visitors would get to admire this guy’s teeth up close. They sure are white. There is something disturbing about an animal whose teeth are so prominent they don’t fit inside its mouth when it’s closed.

I think this might be as close to cuddling as alligators get

Catfish are another creature that has a scary mouth. They also co-habitated with T-Rex. Perhaps I have stumbled upon a pattern? While the teeth of a catfish may not be so prominent or sharp as the alligator’s, there is just something downright menacing about the way their mouth looks to me. It comes as no surprise that there are several types of catfish who have been rumored to kill people (although not substantiated). This catfish was enormous. While not even close to the top of the scale for big catfish, he seemed big enough to swallow a small child whole. I don’t think this catfish actually has any interest in eating small children, fortunately. His markings make me think of my dog, making him a whole lot cuter than most catfish.

This guy doesn’t look so scary with his back turned

The next in our series of mouths is a crazy turtle. An alligator snapping turtle, to be exact. Unfortunately, his lure doesn’t show in the shot (through thick glass), but this guy hangs out with his mouth open and wiggles a lure that is part of his tongue to attract fish. An underwater fisherman. I’m just guessing, but I suspect this guy may be even older than the alligator–he looks like a rock.

So frozen people stop to ask if he’s dead, this guy waits for imaginary fish to swim by

I don’t recall the name of the next open-mouth participant in today’s post. I assume he is gathering something edible by filtering the water, but he kept swimming around with checks billowing like sails. I missed a shot of the inside of his mouth reflecting light and shimmering like a silver bowl. He just glided by with his billowing mouth below his paddle of a nose looking some sort of bizarre submarine.

If this doesn’t speak to the diversity of the planet, I don’t know what does

This guy’s cheeks puff out as he takes in water while swimming with a wide open mouth

In the end, I was the one who left open-mouthed.

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nomadicmainstream

Combining living on the road with a mainstream lifestyle

Category Archives: Sight Seeing