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Celebrating our two-lane highways of yesteryear…And the joys of driving them today!

Dixie Dreamin', Dhw


BabyBoomerBob
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First of all, sorry I'm so blasted late with this writeup. I won't bore you with details, but things aren't the best with me right now.

 

Once again, photos at http://community.webshots.com/user/babyboomerbob

Two folders this time, Louisville Interlude and Dixie Dreamin', Louisville to Nashville.

 

Starting at the end of the Phantom Highway, we returned to Louisville on the US 31 bridge, then headed straight until we got to Broadway, then west to the intersection with Dixie Highway. On the way, we took pictures of neat looking buildings and signs, particularly the old railroad station and the adjacent former headquarters of the L&N Railroad. That's the folder called Louisville Interlude:)

 

Dixie Highway heading south is an unnumbered city street, but it merges so smoothly with US 31W-60 that I hardly noticed it:) On the unnumbered stretch we stopped to photo a water tower shaped like a bottle of J. B. Foresters:) <J. B Forester>

 

It was getting past lunchtime, but we didn't see much in the way of mom and pop places, so we stopped at a well known chain:) The picture of the surf board was worth the stop, though:) <Dixie Highway Hooters>. Incidentally, the Hooters on Kingston Pike in Knoxville also has plastic palm trees out front, but no one complains, possible because they're orange:)

 

Now for a brief routing note. The old highway bears west onto Main Street through West Point. Where it rejoins 31W, DeLorme indicates you can go straight onto Wilson Road. We didn't find the continuation. Just as well, since Wilson Road is off limit to the public through Fort Knox. You have to take US 31W to Radcliff, (although you can swing left and take Main Street through Muldraugh). At Radcliff, go right on elm, then left on Wilson and you'll be back on the old road. Wilson Road goes almost to Elizabethtown, but there are a couple of intersections with divided roads where you have to turn right then turn around to get back.

 

Elizabethtown is a place we saw twice, once with the Bourbon and Coke Cruise, and once on our own. Taking pictures at the courthouse square, I managed to demonstrate my talent for getting pictures of the back of Denny's head:) I took a picture of the wall with the embedded cannonball, and yes Denny, I took a picture of the chimney pot I found:) But I didn't post it:) <next 5 pictures>

 

On out to the Schmidt Museum of Coca Cola Memorabilia. I'll let the pictures and their comments speak for themselves Coke sure has had one bang up advertising campaign over the years:)

I did get a group picture (minus myself, of course:) out under the great big coke bottle outside. I thought putting the name of Elizabethtown on the bottom of the bottle was a nice touch:) <Coke Museum pictures>.

 

At Rowletts, the DHW veers west on a road listed as the L & N Turnpike Road. This is the stretch Pat found and I missed:) We stopped to take pictures of a marvelous old sign advertising "Mammoth Onyx Cave" <Mammoth Onyx Cave... Old stone arch...> The name almost certainly was given in the 20s, during a time known as the "Kentucky Cave Wars". Mammoth was still a privately owned tourist cave, and all the other caves wanted to get the tourist dollar and would do anything to get it. Guys would jump onto a car's running board and tell the driver that Mammoth Cave was closed because of a cave in, or a bridge washed out or whatever, but they had this other cave that was very much open for business:) There's no doubt the name Mammoth Onyx Cave was intended to be confusing and deceitful. But those times are long past.

 

Now to Cave City and the Wigwam Village. Once again, I'll let my pictures do most of the talking:) The stretch of old Dixie Highway behind the motel was particularly fine. <Wigwam Village pictures>

 

Heading on south on US 31W toward Bowling Green, we stopped ad an abandoned motel. It looked to have been abandoned quite a while, so why the satellite dish?:) <Abandoned Motel>

 

We came to Bowling Green at a bad time...Monday morning rush hour:( It's a pretty city with lots of neat architecture, but the traffic was horrible:( It really deserves a return visit.

 

We approached town from the Old Louisville Road stopping when we reached the Barren River Bridge. The bridge is now for pedestrians only and is part of a riverfront park. <Old Louisville Road Bridge and the three following pictures>

 

Another routing note. It's not so easy guessing an old alignment in a city. I think I messed up in Bowling Green. From the bridge I continued SW onto College Street. I would up on a one way road circling Western Kentucky University. A pretty drive, but hellishly congested:) I *did* wind up going straight onto US 68, but I think I should have gone parallel to the river and turned left onto 68 through town.

 

Beyond Bowling Green, US 68 has been straightened and widened to a four lane divided highway. An old stretch veers off to the left through Auburn, then an even older stretch veers off to the right:) Drive through Auburn and go straight on Echo Valley Rd. until you have to get back on the four lane.

 

Russellville turned out to be a nice surprise. We stopped at the town square and I took some pictures of the local architecture. I found one historic plaque most interesting. The western part of Kentucky had the strongest Confederate sympathy, and delegates from about half the counties met in Russeville and seceded from the Union. It was largely a symbolic gesture, since Union forces ran them out of town shortly thereafter. The plaque further states these counties were accepted as the thirteenth Confederate state. I was taught there were 11 Confederate states. But I'd also noticed 13 stars on the stars and bars. A bit of web research revealed some counties in Missouri had also seceded. So the mystery of the thirteen stars was solved:) <Russelville 01-05>

 

From Russelville we headed south on US 431. Got a couple more routing comments, then I'll shut up on this:) North of Springfield, TN, Delorme shows a section of old 41 heading off to the left, then crossing the present highway and passing through Springfield. The loop that swings left is no longer open. There's a quarry or something smack dab in the middle of it. But the old road through Springfield is still there and if you follow Main Street, it takes you completely through town. I stopped to get a picture of the courthouse. <Robertson County Courthouse>

 

I must confess, by this time we were getting pretty tired. We knew we had to get on home and I had to get up early the next morning, so we copped out and got on I-24 the first chance we got. But we'll be back and do Nashville up right:)

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Good stuff, although i am a bit disappointed by the lack of a chimney pot (something I didn't even know existed two years ago) photo.

 

I knew nothing about the seceding counties so I was also surprised by Russellville when I was there in December 2005. I still didn't know about the Missouri counties until I read your report. I guess we could have had West Kentucky & West Missouri to go with West Virginia.

 

As many time as I've been to Bowling Green, I've never stopped and don't even recall noticing, the old pedestrian bridge. Is it the bridge that both DeLorme and Google Earth label Old Louisville Road? I'm now guessing no because, after I wrote that question, I successfully ran a route across it with DeLorme.

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OK, I know we're getting used to "then & now" photos with spreads of 80+ years but sometimes you just gotta lower your standards and take what you can get. I submit this

cmc_04232004.jpg

April 2004 photo as the "then" mate for BabyBoomerBob's definitely "now"

Abandoned motel 02.

Hey, three years ago was kinda then, wasn't it?

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Good stuff, although i am a bit disappointed by the lack of a chimney pot (something I didn't even know existed two years ago) photo.

 

I knew nothing about the seceding counties so I was also surprised by Russellville when I was there in December 2005. I still didn't know about the Missouri counties until I read your report. I guess we could have had West Kentucky & West Missouri to go with West Virginia.

 

As many time as I've been to Bowling Green, I've never stopped and don't even recall noticing, the old pedestrian bridge. Is it the bridge that both DeLorme and Google Earth label Old Louisville Road? I'm now guessing no because, after I wrote that question, I successfully ran a route across it with DeLorme.

 

Indeed it is the Old Louisville Road Bridge. The picture I took of the old road looks east from the east end of the bridge. College Street heads west from the bridge, straight to Western Kentucky University.

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