National Historic Bridge Day

Today is National Historic Bridge Day

I have long held a fascination with bridges. Covered bridges, long bridges, beautiful bridges, rickety bridges. In honor of National Historic Bridge Day, I wanted to share some of my favorite bridges. These are not all listed on any historic bridge site, but they are bridges that I like or have memories of.

1. Covered bridge; Milton, WV. Probably one of the first covered bridges I ever crossed in my life. When I was younger, my Uncle Charlie lived in Milton and we crossed this bridge when we would go to visit him.

2. The Harrisburg Covered Bridge in Sevier County, TN. This is on one of the county backroads and in a very beautiful section of the Sevier County. The Harrisburg Covered Bridge was once the center of several commercial activities. The bridge is one of only twelve remaining covered bridges in East and Middle Tennessee. It is 83 feet long and sits on a limestone foundation.  

    

3.  The Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant, WV. There is a sad story to this bridge. On December 15, 1967 at 5:00 p.m. the Silver Bridge collapsed taking 46 lives and injuring 9 others. I was only 11 and we were laying in the floor playing when the announcement came on TV.

     

4. The East End bridge in Huntington, WV that crosses over to Proctorville, Ohio. This is one of the first bridges of this type I ever saw. It is absolutely beautiful.

5. The New River Gorge Bridge; Fayetteville, WV.  At the time of its completion in 1977, it was the highest and longest arch bridge in the world with a height of 876 feet and a main span of 1,700 feet. It is so loved by bungee jumpers, that they have a National Bridge Day where they close it so people can come and bungee off the bridge. We took the scenic road that goes down under the bridge one time and it was totally awesome.

6.  Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, Charleston, SC. This is another unique structure. On some of our trips from Myrtle Beach to Charleston, we were able to watch part of the construction of this bridge. On our last two trips there, we have been able to cross it. It is a truly fascinating experience.

7.  The Old Martha Bridge in Barboursville, WV - This is the second scariest bridge I ever had to cross. My parents didn't drive so any time we went to the doctor who's office was on the other side of this bridge, we would walk. It was awful. The flooring was metal and you could see right through it to the waters of the Mud River. I have a fear of heights anyway, and to look down and see that swift muddy water was a nightmare I never want to relive. But yet, it still brings bittersweet memories because it was one of the bridges of my youth. I can still remember when they finally closed it to build a new one.

8.  No. 7 was my second scariest bridge to cross, but the #1 scariest was when Daddy would take us to see Uncle Kenneth when we were visiting my grandmother. We would take the shortcut across the old train trestle that crossed the Coal River. It was high, it was scary. The trestle had gaps between the railroad ties so you had to watch every step to make sure your foot didn't trip or slip between the ties. There were no sides on the trestle. It was scary, but I never told anybody I was scared because everybody else walked across it like it was not big deal. I still get butterflies thinking about it. This is not the exact trestle, but it is a picture of one just like it.

9. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel in Virginia. This is another scary, but unique bridge. You are on a bridge then you go under the water in Chesapeake Bay and come out on the other side on a bridge again. Talk about freaky. It wasn't scary, it was just sort of an "uh-oh" feeling. It is an experience that's for sure.

10.  Bridge at the Old Mill in Pigeon Forge, TN. It's not the bridge that is the attraction on this. It is very short and simply provides a passage over the Pigeon River to get to the Old Mill. It's the view from this bridge that makes it so spectacular.

Thoughts of Thanksgiving

I love holidays. So this time of year is one of my favorite seasons. Halloween is behind us and now we can start looking forward to Thanksgiving. A time for family and loved ones to gather around the table. A time for turkey and ham and all the trimmings. A time to put aside our grievances and petty differences and just be thankful for what we DO have instead of worrying about what we don't have.

I did get some good news this past weekend regarding the holiday. As you know, Hubby is the cook in the family. He has worked in the food industry for over 18 years. He just started a new job last Thursday and we were worried about Thanksgiving dinner this year. I make dessert and deviled eggs and he handles the rest. He loves to do it. What would I do if he had to work on Thanksgiving? Who would prepare the meal? I could feel a panic attack building. In the food industry in a tourist town, you always have to worry about working a holiday because it is so rare for a food place to be closed.

Well, it turns out the new company he works for closes on Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I was so excited to learn about this. I won't have to starve on the holidays.



Happy Halloween!

Things I love about Halloween

1. Candy. Lots and lots of candy. I always buy more than I think we need. That way we get to enjoy the leftovers.

2. The kiddies in their costumes. I always love to see what unique costumes come by the door. Some are store bought, some are homemade and some are so elaborate it makes me want to drag out my camera.

3. The smiling faces. Not just of the adorable children who smile so happily, but of the parents who seem to enjoy it as much as the kids.

4. Little ones who you can tell are experiencing their first Halloween. Some just kind of look at you like, I don't know you but Hey, Wow! I got candy!

5. The liveliness of the neighborhood. People milling about. Neighbors on their front porches. Socializing with people you know who bring their kids by. Of course, the past several years, we have missed this. We lived in a neighborhood that was off the beaten path and only had about 5 or 6 kids. Once they became teenagers, we just had one or two stop by. The last two years we didn't have any. But since the move, we live in a neighborhood that is closer to civilization and has more kids so I expect to have some tonight, even if it is not a lot. It will still be more than none.

6. Did I mention Candy? Yes, I do like that about Halloween.

7. The various trick-or-treat sing song. "Trick or Treat" or "Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat." Here, just take the candy because I really do not want to smell any feet tonight.

8. The decorated porches. I love seeing how people decorate their houses for Halloween. Whether it is with lights and witches brewing at their cauldron or simply a cared jack-o-lantern, I just like to checkout the decorations.

9. Did I mention Candy?

10. And my 10th favorite thing about Halloween.....the LEFTOVER candy. 

Praising the Lord

This picture really touched my heart. So many times we pray for something and thank God when our prayers are answered. But how many times do we stop in our busy life simply to praise his name? We should start our day every single morning by raising our hands to heaven in reverence and simply praise His name.

Naked Hot Chocolate

I need to find me a good cup for my hot chocolate. I'm very picky about the style of cup and the looks of it. Right now, I'm using Hubby's Krispy Kreme cup, but I don't really like it. I want something pretty to drink out of. It's a girl thing. I do love my coaster though. My grandson, Garret, made it for me and I use it all the time. I'm heading to Dollar Tree today so maybe they will have some neat cups. They normally do.

For the past couple of weeks, I have drank my morning hot chocolate naked. I cannot seem to remember to write topping on my grocery list and forget about it until I drink my chocolate again. So today, it is on my list. Question is, which topping do I want?

I love miniature marshamallows in my hot chocolate.



But I also love Fluff (marshmallow cream)

But then again, my favorite hot chocolate from any place is Cracker Barrel. It is loaded with whipped cream.

Once I have my house decorated for Christmas, I buy a box of those small candy canes and I stick one in my hot chocolate. You can buy peppermint hot chocolate but I have never found any that was as good as sticking a candy cane in the hot chocolate. The way everybody is already putting Christmas stuff out, I may find some candy canes at Dollar Tree as well.

Craft Ideas

I was just complaining yesterday that the stores already have Christmas trees decorated in their windows and Christmas items on sale in the store. I wish they would at least let us get through Halloween. Then it hit me, I'm just as bad. I've been accumulating patterns and ideas to make some homemade Christmas crafts this year. So I got to thinking about it. If I want to make crafts for the holidays, I usually decorate on Thanksgiving weekend so I will need to have them done by Thanksgiving. Which means I only have four weekends to buy the stuff and work on the projects. Since I have plans for 2 of those weekends and it's just too hard to do crafts after working all day, that gives me two weekends to make Christmas crafts. So maybe it's not such a bad idea to get started on Christmas before Halloween. Here are some of the items I would like to choose from when I decide what to make.

How precious is that? It is just rolled felt using a glue gun. Simple. I let the kids put up a tree in my home office every year and I thought these would be some great decorations to put on it.

I'm going to get Christmas scrapbook paper and make hands of the grandkids, hole punch the palm and put yarn through the hole to make some more Christmas decorations for their little tree.

I have a very precious friend who is going to crochet me this little wreath. I think it is adorable. I want it to pin on my coat for the holidays.

 

 

I don't have a stair case, but I think this garland is pretty neat. Of course I could do it with just NOEL and hang it above a door or something. I'll have to think about that.

Another very easy craft to make. I'm thinking about making some of these without the band and using them as filler in a basket of pine cones. We'll just have to see how it looks before I decide.

 

 

If I make this little bird, it would be out of red felt for a cardinal and then have a little spring of holly or a green button where the wing connects. Just thinking about this one.

These little snowmen made from jar rings are just adorable. They appear to be very easy to make. Felt is so cheap and you can make so many crafts with it. I have the rings already here left over from apple butter jars over the past year.

Well, that's it for now. I'll let you know what I get made as we get closer to the holidays.

Duncan Hines, Betty Crocker or Pillsbury

I love to bake. Cakes, cookies, brownies, just about any kind of sweet. I like to do a lot of "from scratch" recipes and some I do as semi-homemade. I have compared all three of the cake mixes and can easily give Duncan Hines the first place ribbon. The best way to compare is with chocolate cake mix. That is where the noticeable difference is in my opinion.

Betty Crocker with their Super Moist cake mix at times, even when baked completely still has a doughy taste to me. I think they went over board on the moistness. Short of burning your cake, it still doesn't taste quite done.

As far as Pillsbury, the chocolate does not taste rich enough. It seems like they went a little easy on the cocoa. Perhaps it is the brand of cocoa in their cakes, but it just has a flat chocolate taste in my book.

Hands down, Duncan Hines is my favorite. It is the perfect combination of moistness and chocolate flavor. When you bite in to a Duncan Hines cake, it makes you want to close your eyes and sigh. It's that good.

But I do love all three of the products recipes. They offer a variety of different recipes for your tasting pleasure. I receive coupons and newsletters on all three of these products because I do love trying new dessert recipes.

But something I never thought about when looking for new recipes is Martha White. I stumbled across a Martha White Facebook page and found some wonderful looking recipes. I am going to try their recipe for turtle fudge chocolate chip cookies.