Barn Quilts

The concept of the painted "Barn Quilts" - like the one in Columbia, KY pictured above - goes back to the old traditional hex signs on the barns of the Pennsylvania Dutch, but the contemporary craze was started just a few years ago by a West Virginia woman named Donna Sue Groves. Reportedly, Groves began the project by painting a barn quilt in tribute to her mother, then just kept going with it via the Ohio Arts Council, encouraging more and more people to follow suit.


The Kentucky Quilt Trail is actually a related series of routes that are good places to gawk at barn quilts, all in the general area between Mt. Sterling, West Liberty, and Greenup. Trails travel through eight Eastern Kentucky counties in all: Montgomery, Menifee, Morgan, Bath, Rowan, Carter, Elliott, and Greenup.

Below: barn quilt in Dry Ridge, KY.

The Judy Drive-In

One of the absolute last of a dying breed, the Judy Drive-in carries the tattered flag of outdoor film enjoyment into the 21st century. The drive-in is so named for the tiny community of Judy, a suburb of Mt. Sterling.

Located at 4078 Maysville Road, the Judy Drive-In is actually one of the more progressive examples of this highly retro line of business. Not only do they show first-run movies, they broadcast the audio signal in FM stereo and actually encourage people to get out of their cars and stroll around the grounds, watching the film while listening to the audio on their walkmans. They also sell PIC insect-repellant coils. Their screenings go on rain or shine, and are only ever cancelled in the event of a severe thunderstorm.


On September 6th they'll be hosting a car show, "Cruisin' the Judy", with games, prizes, food, music, and Smokey & The Bandit showing on the big screen at dusk.

The Judy Drive-In opened on the fourth of July, 1952, and has been in continuous operation ever since.

(Photo above from UnK regular Nicosia's wonderful photo-travel blog, Roadside Weirdness.)

Giant Muskellunge

According to the new edition of the Kentucky Fishing and Boating Guide, a 14-year-old Mt. Sterling girl named Sarah Terry recently caught this record-breaking muskellunge (commonly called "muskies") in Cave Run Lake, Rowan County.

NUFORC UFO Roundup

It's been a while since I've checked out NUFORC's files of submitted UFO reports in Kentucky. Here's the latest ones they list:

7/14/2008: Fern Creek, KY. "VERY SMALL OBJECT , MOVING VERY RAPIDLY, AT VERY EXTREME ALTITUDE. THE OBJECT APPEARED TO BE FLYING VERY VERY HIGH AND AT A VERY VERY HIGH RATE OF SPEED.IT MADE NO SUDDEN ZIGS OR ZAGS, IT ONLY FLEW FORWARD, AND WITHOUT SOUND . I'VE SEE MANY PLANES FLYING AT VERY HIGH RANGES BUT NEVER AT THAT KIND OF SPEED!!!! TO THE NAKED EYE THE OBJECT WAS ABOUT THE SIZE OF A PIN HEAD. I DONT BELIEVE IT WAS A METEOR OR MODERN AIRCRAFT."

7/27/2008 : Florence, KY. "I left my boyfriends house in Hebron KY around 1:15am. I was headed south to my home in Crittenden KY. I noticed a large, bright orange light (about a half mile in front of me) in the sky along south-bound I-75 around the Dream Street area. As I got closer I noticed that the light was on the front of what appeared to be a triangular shaped object. It did not appear to be moving. My best GUESStimate was that it was about 50-75 feet in the air. As I drove underneath the object I saw two green lights and one red light, all of which were blinking as opposed to the one in front (the orange one) which was not blinking. I could not tell if the three blinking lights were on the bottom or the side of the object due to the fact that I was passing under it at around 60mph."

7/28/2008 : Mount Sterling, KY. "My children and I watched as blinking lights (red, white, green, and blue on some) moved across the sky at different directions. Then there were several more that even met up and went almost in circles before disappearing. Lastly, we even saw one meet another, then both go in the same direction with one following the other. They were definitely not plane, or helicopters due to the amount of them, lack of noise, and the strange flight behavior. It lasted roughly 30 minutes, and I would've watched longer, but I was getting tired. I wanted to film it, but my small video camera would not have captured it very well due to the dark night and they were pretty high up in the air. Some were barely able to be seen if not for the blinking of the lights. It was amazing and I wish someone else would believe us!"

8/8/2008 : Murray, KY. "Oval object shoots across the sky and explodes in bright flash. My step-brother, his friend, and I were walking down the road. The event occurred between 1:30 to 1:45. First we were just walking we were about 200 yards away from the house. And we all saw a flash of light and, then there was an oval shaped object that shot across the sky with a hissing noise. It left a bright trail that remained even after it was gone. But after it shot across the sky it had seemed to explode in a sudden silent flash."

8/9/2008 : "Two small orbs seen hovering over Dawson Springs, KY at a great distance. The objects were too far up to describe in much detail. There was one object that appeared to emit light or simply reflected sunlight. The other object appeared only for a few seconds and simply appeared as a dark spot. The lighted object moved only a small distance then stopped, moved back and then stopped and did this about 4 times before disappearing. I have taken photos of the objects as well."

(Photo above: UFO spotted over Louisville in 1973.)