Kings Mountain National Military Park

Our first national park stop of the day was Kings Mountain National Military Park.  I enjoy going to all national park sites, but I especially wanted to visit this site as it was a Revolutionary War site far from the

Thomas Jefferson called it "The turn of the tide of success." The battle of Kings Mountain, fought October 7th, 1780, was an important American victory during the Revolutionary War. The battle was the first major patriot victory to occur after the British invasion of Charleston, SC in May 1780. The park preserves the site of this important battle
--from Kings Mountain NMP website

In the parking lot there was a map explaining the land set aside for both the national park and the state park.

 From the parking lot we walked up to the visitor center.

 There was an open form gift shop inside the visitor center.

I really like this design used on the park's merchandise.

 After walking through the gift shop we entered the exhibit area.  As the forest was important to the battlefield the exhibit area started out with replicas of large trees and the forest undergrowth.

 This area featured a screen with figures painted on it, but the screen was actually one that you could see through when the lights were turned on.

 This view is of the interior of a cabin as viewed through the screen above.

The kids were fascinated staring through the screen.

The kids (and I) always enjoy seeing models.  They like all kinds of models just because they think they look cool, while I think they're a great way to show what a historical event looked like.

Before too long we reached the end of the exhibits inside and headed towards the outside.

 While Amy didn't feel up to a hike I wanted some exercise, so I took both of the older kids with me and headed out to follow the battlefield trail through the woods.

There were a number of interpretative signs along the trail.  The girls would spot one and encourage me to come and take a picture of it and then read the content to them.

 I had to stop and take some pictures of the blossoms when I spotted them.

 At times both girls would run down the trail full of energy.

There were a number of monuments to spots where various people had died.

 It was a gorgeous day, but a bit warm when we were out of the shade.  Looking up the trees were still beautiful to look at.

We saw quite a few ferns carpeting the forest floor.

I really like signs like this that show you exactly where you are in relation to the historical events that happened on the site.

 We took a short detour to see the Hoover monument.

 When President Hoover came to the site in 1930 it was the first time a president had come to a Revolutionary War battlefield in the South.  Only a year after this speech Congress authorized the creation of Kings Mountain National Military Park.

On this site President Hoover addressed an audience of 75,000 at the celebration of the sesquicentennial of the battle of Kings Mountain Oct. 7, 1930.
--sign on the monument

 After walking through the woods for a while longer we came to an open spot with a large memorial.  I first misread the map and thought it was one further along the trail, but it turns out this was the centennial memorial.

Here you can see the various monuments on the walking trail.

 The girls had been tired for a while but when we reached this bench they begged for a rest stop.

The U.S. Monument was being renovated (though not being worked on the day we visited) and so we had to leave the path to detour around it.

 This marker shows the spot where the British Colonel Ferguson was killed.

 At long last we came back to the visitor center and headed back towards the air conditioning.  As I recall the kids took a very good nap in the car.

Quite a few more pictures (especially from the walking trail) are available in this album.

~Matt

Bald Rock Heritage Preserve

In May we took a trip to the Carolinas.  We wanted to visit a number of National Park sites in South Carolina, however the weather turned out to be one of the hottest ones that spring.  We hoped to camp at a campground in Mount Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina, but it was unfortunately full when we arrived.  We drove down the road until we had cell signal and looked up more campgrounds.  We ended up finding a fun place just north of the border between the Carolinas.  Thankfully it was high enough in elevation that it was cooler than it was just a few miles away in South Carolina.

On our first drive out of the campground we spotted a sign for Bald Rock and I decided to stop to see what was there.

Just past the parking area is a small wooden footbridge.

 Once you cross the footbridge the trees open up.

 The view of the neighboring wilderness is quite beautiful from on top of the knob.

 You can see miles of trees in all directions.

 Unfortunately a number of people have decided to cover the rock with graffiti, transforming a beautiful natural spot into something that doesn't look as nice as it could be.

It didn't take too long to walk around, but I'm glad I took the time.  I got to stretch my legs briefly before we headed back on to the road.  A few more pictures are visible in this album.

~Matt

Library Sale

Today was the first day of the December Kenton County Library book sale.  I've learned that if I want to get the best choices I have to be there on the first day of the sale, which is normally Sunday.  I've noticed that there are often used book dealers there at the head of the line with their scanners, trying to find out what books are the best values for them to snap up.  I'm not totally opposed to them going to the sales as they're just trying to make a living, but it does seem a shame when regular people just trying to find a good deal have to struggle to get in ahead of them.  But anyway, Sunday is always a good day to hit the sale as you'll usually find the best selection.  Most of the books that haven't been put out yet are in boxes below the tables that you can browse through, so you're not really missing much.

When we first arrived at the library many people were lined up waiting outside.  It is normal for a few people to be waiting since the library doesn't open until 1:00 on Sunday afternoons, but there are always more on a book sale day.

I forgot until we entered that the book sales are in a new part of the building instead of the meeting room at the front of the library.  Thankfully there are handy signs to guide you in case you forget.

The room holding the sale is decently large and can hold a number of tables and people.

I have a friend that really enjoys Winston Churchill's books and so I keep a lookout for ones she doesn't have whenever I go to a sale.  Sadly she already had this one.

This was what our basket looked like partway through collecting books (okay, this was near the end, but before a couple of the best finds had been made).

I've enjoyed Star Trek for many years, so I jumped at the chance to pick up another reference volume when I saw the Start Trek The next Generation Companion.

Dragons and Unicorns, A Natural History by Paul and Karin Johnsgard is a volume that I'd never heard of before.  It is a number of years old, but looks to be an intriguing book purporting to examine the history of dragons and unicorns.

 I really enjoy reference books based upon fantasy and sci-fi universes.

 It even has maps, which is another huge plus to me because of how much I enjoy geography.

My wife really enjoyed Kay Thompson's Eloise books, so she grabbed these two as soon as she saw them.  The one on the left (The Absolutely Essential Eloise) contains the original book as well as a scrapbook of material about the book.

She also knows that I really enjoy Bill Peet's illustrated children's books, so when she found three hardcovers she put them into our basket.  I absolutely love his illustrations and his stories are so clever.  I might already have The Wump World and Huge Harold, but I think they're in paperback, and even if I have them it is definitely worth having another copy as I hope our kids read these books many, many times over the years.

No Such Things is a wonderful tale about various imaginary creatures that Peet invented and then proceeded to illustrate, like the Snoof with backwards facing feet.

I've enjoyed every one of Terry Pratchett's books that I've ever read, so a while ago I made a list of all the ones I was missing just so I would have an easy time figuring out which ones I should pick up at library sales.  I haven't seen one at a library sale and this time I found two (Guards, Guards! and Wyrd Sisters), but I already had a copy of the other one, so I left it for some other fortunate treasure hunter to discover.

I've enjoyed Jan Brett's illustrations for a number of years.  When my wife found Daisy Comes Home I knew that we had to get it as the story looked quite charming, and it is set in a different location than many of Brett's tales.  I've tried to make sure our kids get stories from around the world and not just from North America and Europe.

I lost track of the books that Donna Andrews wrote a number of years ago, but I have many of her first few books, so when I found these three I realized that it was a great opportunity to start catching up on the ones that I'd missed.  I found The Nightingale Before Christmas and Six Geese A-Slaying in the Christmas book section and then picked up The Real Macaw in the mystery section.

 Amy also found the classic volume When We Were Very Young by A. A. Milne.  I'm sure it will be fun to read these to our kids.

I didn't spot the small Tolkien section until just before I got ready to leave the sale.  There were a number of volumes that I already had (The Hobbit and various volumes of The Lord of the Rings), but then I saw these two books and knew that I had to get them. I heard about Tolkien's Roverandom a number of years ago and had mentally added it to the list of books I wanted to find.

 Tree and Leaf contains two stories by Tolkien, On Fairy-Stores and Leaf by Niggle.  They're both excellent, but On Fairy-Stories is definitely a classic treatise on the writing of fantastic fiction and the creation of secondary worlds.

We ended up with all of these books for just $17.75.  I really like the Kenton County sales as they tend to have the best prices in the area.  Cincinnati sales have good selection but are much more expensive.

I hope that you've enjoyed reading about this books, though probably not as much as I'll enjoy reading these books over the coming days, weeks, and months.  You can see all the pictures from the sale in this album.

~Matt