Friday night was a Cruise-in on Main Street in Beattyville, KY. There was a great varitey of classic cars to browse though while listening to a great DJ mix of oldies, rock & roll, and country music. The Lee County High School Band provided snacks and cool ice treats. Participants came from Lee and surrounding counties and there were even a few people who traveled in from Paris, Kentucky. The first 50 cars received a free "Working Man's Weekend" themed dash plaque. It was a great event by the Downtown Beattyville Alliance. Saturday night was an evening of LIVE country music in the amphitheater on Happy Top. Musical guests included Doug Moore, Brad Alford & Saddletramp, Chad Warrix, and Keith Anderson. Had a great Sunday of mud racing in the Lee County Industrial Park. There were 1,000 people sitting on the hillside and on hilltop bleachers. The sun was hot and we passed out Beattyville/Lee County brochures for people to use as fans. The road workers did a great job keeping the track good and muddy for all the participants. It was a great day in Lee County! For more photos and video check out our Tourism Facebook and YouTube channel. Arrived at the Convention Center at 8:30am this morning and loaded a dolly full of our new brochures. As I loaded and wheeled toward South Wing A, I passed the horse stables. Such beautiful animals getting ready for a day of competition and their attendants were whistling as they spread straw. Entering the building, I showed my security pass to the lady at the table and headed to our booth. It is magnificent seeing the arrangement of space in this building and all the people in the state who submit items for exhibition. Heading to the "Pride of the Counties" section, I passed a decorated fish tank section, of all things. Did you know that you that you could decorate a fish tank and display it? I saw a Star Wars themed fish tank and had to do a double take! There in the middle was a large Darth Vader helmet fish house. Next, I passed fine art, photography, and sculpture. It is amazing seeing all the artwork of talented children and adults from all over Kentucky. Someone had made a replica of the Roman Coliseum and even placed miniature gladiators inside fighting. I also saw an octopus made out of pop cans, a large mosaic of Jesus, and melted crayon art painting that was really neat. Right next to the counties booths there are food vendors of all kinds. My favorite item today was the homemade ice cream. Peaches are in season now and it makes a great waffle cone! Our booths look amazing and the center table is for signing in for prizes. We had visitors starting at 9:05am and there was a constant stream all day. The main questions were "Have you done the zipline?" "What is a Woolly Worm Festival?" and "is this free?" We went though several large Sam's Club bags of candy and had to limit the amount of Woolly Worm ink pens on the table or we would run out. Everyone really liked the miniature Woolly Worm Racetrack that Mr. Begley allowed me to borrow for show and tell. We also had to restock the All Things Country Magazine stand several times today. It was a good day of talking with different people. One of my most interesting conversations was with the Executive Chief of the Crowne Plaza Hotel of Louisville. He loves cooking with moral mushrooms and was very interested in the hunting season, where they were found in our area, and the Estill County Mushroom Festival. Daniel Wilkes from Torrent Falls Climbing Adventure also worked the booth today from Wolfe County and gave away two climbing passes. This is the first year for Wolfe and Estill County, and the second year for Lee. Powell County has attended for several years now. People would comment about how different it was seeing multiple counties in a booth together like this, and other counties would come over to investigate too. It was a great day! After having a really good chicken, bacon, ranch wrap with beer battered fries for lunch in Cliffview at the Mountain Grillhouse Cafe, l drove around to see some active zip lining. There was a group of about 10 people getting ready to start on the first trail. A mommy dear and her two fawns were grazing right next to the road. They didn't even move when I slowly drove by, stopped and took their picture. It's not every day you see a site like this. It is a rare site for visitors from the city on vacation. That's one thing about living in the Red River Gorge and Eastern Kentucky...you get to experience wildlife up close. On Saturday, there was a storm that went trough Beattyville. It only lasted a short 10 minutes but caused around $10,000 worth of damage to the new Beattyville City Park playground equipment. Just recently, May 18th, the community got together and installed $30,000 worth of equipment through a Playful City USA/Snapple/Kaboom grant. The large tree just happen to fall on the largest and most expensive unit. The group of volunteers who put so much work into the park beautification was near tears when they saw the damage. They were just waiting on the restrooms to be finished before having an official grand opening celebration with a ribbon cutting. This will have to wait just a bit longer. The City of Beattyville is looking into insurance and warrantee information for the equipment. The photo was in this week's Three Forks Tradition newspaper in Beattyville, Kentucky. The caption reads: "The folks crowding around the L&A (Louisville & Atlantic) engine are celebrating the completion of the Yellow Rock Tunnel in 1901-1902 to open a rail line between Ravenna and Beattyville. This train was the first to make the trip. A few short years later the L&A sold to the & L&N (Louisville & Nashville). Lee County will be returning to the Ky State Fair August 15-25th for the second time. That's right, donut burgers, fried kool-aid, and access to over 800,000 visitors! We will be in the "Pride of the Counties" exhibit and sharing booth space with our neighbors Powell, Estill, and Wolfe Counties. Estill and Wolfe have never been before so this is a great opportunity to regionally promote our area. We will offer brochures, sign ups for prizes, and great conversation to people visiting our booth. We are currently looking for volunteers to man the booth and gift items to use for prizes and giveaways. I can't wait till this year's activities. Maybe I can get my picture with Duck Dynasty! Subscribe to our blog by filling in your email address on this page! At each blog post you will get receive a email from us! Make sure we don't go in your junk folder! 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Traveled to Hazard, KY to the KRADD building and participated in the Berea College's Entrepreneurship for the Common Good Class Workshop. Students were split up into traveling groups and went into counties all over the KRADD region. They wrote reviews on large social media platforms (such as Yelp, Trip Advisor, Facebook, Pinterest) to boost small business listings and visibility online. In the workshop, business owners attended and learned how these media platforms can be used in their business advertising, promotion, creating a relationship with customers, and overall impacting bottom line sales. It was a great workshop! Well done Cheyanna, Brock, Solomon, Mila, and Amber! Visit again soon! |
AuthorDedra Brandenburg Archives
September 2023
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