While on our recent roadtrip going through southern Illinois, we stopped by Giant City State Park Lodge.  LOVED the lodge and park by the way.  I was really excited to see that the Lodge had a lot of cool local interest type books in their gift shop with many of them signed! I picked up "The Big Muddy Monster:  Legends, Sightings, & Other Strange Encounters."  It has been a fun read, giving info on all of the sightings involving "The Big Muddy Monster."  It also covers a lot of the other strange history in the area.  The book has a great chapter by Kevin Lee ..read more

I picked up "Somewhere in Crime" by Dave McVeigh and Jim Bolone while we were on Mackinac Island.  It was a perfect book to read in the area where the book was based. A bit about the book...  It is a book about a young boy staying on Mackinac Island and trying to solve an unsolved murder, while the filming of the legendary film "Somewhere in Time" is going on.  The entire book is pure fiction, EXCEPT for the movie.  The movie (and it's stars) are legendary, but the story in the book is all made up. I love the movie, and figured this would be a lot of fun to read while in ..read more

While we were on Mackinac Island, I found this cute young adult book.  I liked the cover enough that, even if the book was terrible, I would still be happy with the purchase.  Luckily, it was a fun book too.  AND, when I bought it, it was only 6 or 7 bucks, so I bought one for a young friend in Ohio too! It seems that author Johnathan Rand has written a TON of these books- kind of fantasy books for young readers.  In general, I don't like fantasy books, but this one was fun, and if I were a kid, I would devour them. I liked the fact that the book is set on Mackinac Islan ..read more

I wanted to mentioned the cool volume, "The Civil War at Perryville:  Battling for the Bluegrass" by Christopher L. Kolakowski which I picked up recently. This is another nice little volume from History Press covering a specific moment in the Civil War.  I really like these books because they are just a good starting point for someone new to the Civil War, or just developing an interesting in a specific battle.   The author does a nice job of explaining how the battle gets set up....  Both the Union and the Confederacy are kind of hesitant to do much with Kentucky at fi ..read more

We stopped by the legendary Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island Michigan ..read more

Cave City has a GREAT new coffee shop!  Check out Ace Coffee Co next time you are in the cave region ..read more

The other day I was at a Half Price Books, and I found a book there, named after another bookstore. I LOVED the now defunct Karen's Book Barn in La Grange.  I mentioned it here on this blog years ago.  It was a perfect little place, with a great selection of books and magazines, and they also had coffee! I was happy to see this book, for the great cover alone. Fortunately, the book itself is a very pleasant read! Scott Houchin has written a very nice book about his life circling around where he grew up- in La Grange Kentucky.  The stories are sweet and easy to understand.  ..read more

And we took a quick drive through Alanson Michigan ..read more

We visited Sammies Sandwiches in Union City Tennessee and we really liked what they are doing!  I cant wait to get back to town to enjoy a meal there again ..read more

I have mentioned it more than once, but I love this place.  Daniel Boone Coffee is a great place to relax while in the Red River Gorge area ..read more