05Apr 2017 by David Kravetz

D is for Diners, Dives and Drive-ins – #atozchallenge

A to Z Challenge, Alabama, Back Roads, Backroads Discoveries, BBQ Places, Burger Joints, California, Cross Country Road Trips, Eateries, Family Travel, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Ontario, Oregon, People Shots, Place Names, Roadside Attractions, Route 66, Selfies, Tennessee, Texas, Town Names, Travel Blogging, Unexpected Discoveries, Unique Eatery, Unique Places, Vintage Neon, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia
What is April A to Z? Every April, bloggers from all over the world participate in the April A to Z blog challenge, and you can too. It’s a lot of fun and it’s a great way to meet other bloggers. To play along, all you do is make a blog post for each letter of the alphabet during April, then visit as many other bloggers as you can. Road trips would never be the same without the opportunity to stop at local diners, dives and drive-ins (OK...I gotta give credit to Guy Fieri). Food is such an important part of a road trip. Obviously, no matter where one drives they always come across the chain shops like McDonald's, Wendy's, KFC, etc. With those places, the food you get is…
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23Sep 2016 by David Kravetz

Life Gets Busy But I Still Try To Enjoy The Ride

Antsy McClain, Backroads Discoveries, Bike Trails, Cross Country Road Trips, Eateries, Family Travel, Kentucky, Landscapes, Ohio, People Shots, Random Thoughts, Roadside Attractions, Selfies, Tennessee, Unexpected Discoveries, Unique Eatery, Unique Places, Vintage Neon, Virginia
Recently, life has gotten pretty hectic for old Sumoflam.  So much so that my blogs are taking a beating and seemingly forgotten.  I am now teaching Japanese full time at the University of Kentucky and that, coupled with my website work, has taken a toll on available time. Traveling, blog writing and photography are my passions.  They are my art.  When I can't be working on them, it hurts. I feel like I am missing out on some of life's joys. Today we are traveling to the Pittsburgh area and I had a few minutes to write a couple of notes.  I have had some travel opportunities in the past few weeks...Ohio, Nashville and now Pittsburgh.  These make me happy. So, for the past couple of months we have seen…
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04Aug 2016 by David Kravetz

Ohio’s Amish Country – Holmes County, OH

Amish Country, Backroads Discoveries, Bike Trails, Bridges, Covered Bridges, Cross Country Road Trips, Farmland, Giant Things, Landscapes, Ohio, People Shots, Place Names, Roadside Attractions, Selfies, Unexpected Discoveries, Unique Places, US Highway 62, Wildflowers
We took a road trip to Holmes County, OH in late July 2016 for Julianne to ride the Holmes County Bike Trail and the Mohican Valley Bike Trail.  (I will have Bike Trail posts about both of these coming soon) While she rode, I visited a few of the places in the area.  I had visited the area in 2008, including the town of Charm.  (See my post HERE) In another trip in the early 2000s, we had also visited the unique town of Berlin.  I never did a post about the town and hope to make it there again sometime in the future.  On this particular visit, we didn't make it to that part of Holmes County.  Rather, we focused on the towns surrounding the bike trails, beginning with…
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25Jul 2016 by David Kravetz

A visit to Damascus, Virginia

Backroads Discoveries, Bakeries, Bike Trails, Bridges, Cross Country Road Trips, Eateries, Farmland, Flowers, Ghost Signs, Giant Things, Kentucky, Landscapes, Murals, Muscovy Duck, People Shots, Roadside Attractions, Selfies, Street People, Tennessee, Train Bridges, Unexpected Discoveries, Unique Eatery, Unique Houses, Unique Places, US Highway 119, US Highway 23, US Highway 58, Virginia, Wall Art, Wildflowers, Yard Art
Last weekend we made a trip to Damascus, VA with the goal of Julianne and our daughter Marissa riding their bikes on the Virginia Creeper Trail, one of many wonderful Rails to Trails bike trails that can be found in this part of the country.   I will have a different post about the Virginia Creeper Trail as part of my Bike Trail Series, but I wanted to post an article about the non-bike portion of our trip to Damascus, Abingdon, and Bristol, VA.  Besides the bike trail, there is so much more to see and do on a  road trip down to this part of Appalachia. We began our trip by leaving early in the morning on Saturday to drive to Damascus via the towns of Hazard and Whitesburg…
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05Jul 2016 by David Kravetz

An Afternoon in Pittsburgh

Backroads Discoveries, Bridges, City Skylines, Cross Country Road Trips, Eateries, Family Travel, Ghost Signs, Giant Things, Murals, Museums, Pennsylvania, People Shots, Roadside Attractions, Selfies, Street Art, Train Bridges, Travel with grandchildren, Unexpected Discoveries, Unique Eatery, Unique Places, Wall Art
As noted in my previous post about Prosperity/Canonsburg/Washington areas of Pennsylvania (see post HERE), we took an afternoon with my wife's sister and her family to take a drive around Pittsburgh.  Obviously, an afternoon does no justice to a large beautiful city like this, but that was all the time we had. Fortunately, I have been to Pittsburgh before and have knocked out a few places worth visiting (see my post which includes some Pittsburgh sites HERE).   Our drive took us past the amazing glass structure built by PPG -- their headquarters.  Some call it the "Glass Castle" and indeed, it looks like one. Actually named PPG Place,  this amazing building is one of six structures designed by architects Philip Johnson and  John Burgee and completed in 1984.  The…
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01Jun 2016 by David Kravetz

Cleveland’s Little Italy – A Trek Back To My Birthplace

Backroads Discoveries, Bakeries, Eateries, Family Travel, Ghost Signs, Murals, Ohio, People Shots, Place Names, Roadside Attractions, Selfies, Street Art, Street People, Unexpected Discoveries, Unique Eatery, Unique Houses, Unique Places, Vintage Neon, Wall Art
My thanks to the following for their assistance in this post: Anthony Gambatese, Nicole Laurienzo, Ray Kristosik, Nancy Phillips, Nancy Starvaggi Schaffer, Dominic Gogol and my great Laurienzo family. Nearly 60 years ago I was born in the neighborhood known as "Little Italy" in Cleveland. I was not there for long as my mother took me and left when I was nearly 9 months old in 1957.  My first trip back there happened around 1993 or 94, and I haven't visited but only four or five times since, and typically for one or two hours at a time as I passed through to another destination. In mid-May 2016 I had the opportunity to visit for an extended time and get to know the neighborhood that I could've grown up in.…
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11May 2016 by David Kravetz

The Wigwam Drive-In Restaurant – Ravenna, KY

Backroads Discoveries, Eateries, Family Travel, Kentucky, People Shots, Place Names, Roadside Attractions, Selfies, Staycations, Unexpected Discoveries, Unique Eatery, Unique Places
Earlier this week I was gazing over Facebook and came across a post by one of my friends about their trip to out of the way Ravenna, KY to eat at a place called the Wigwam Drive-In Restaurant.  Mind you, Ravenna is a town of just a bit over 600 fine folks.  The town sits along the Kentucky River in Estill County, KY and KY Highway 52 runs through the town (it was called the "Wam" back in the 50s and was a popular cruising road -- think American Graffiti).  The town borders the larger sister city of Irvine, which has a population of a little over 3000. So, I wondered two things after reading that post.  First was why a friend of mine would drive an hour south into…
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19Apr 2016 by David Kravetz

A to Z Challenge: The P Towns #atozchallenge

A to Z Challenge, Backroads Discoveries, Bakeries, BBQ Places, Bucket List Trips, Cross Country Road Trips, Eateries, Family Travel, Found Metal Sculptures, Geologic Formations, Giant Things, Iowa, Kentucky, LDS Temples, Lewis and Clark Sites, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Murals, Museums, Mythical Creatures, Nebraska, New York, Ontario, People Shots, Place Names, Post Offices, Random Thoughts, Roadside Attractions, Selfies, Tennessee, Texas, Town Names, Unexpected Discoveries, Unique Eatery, Unique Places, US Highway 20, US Highway 61, Vintage Neon, Wall Art, Washington, Water Towers, West Virginia, Wyoming, Yard Art
During the month of April I am participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge has each blogger select a theme and then do a post thematically from A to Z during each day of April , except Sundays. My blog is number 1337 out of 1670 participating blogs. This year my A to Z posts will take you across the back roads of America to many unique what other bloggers will be posting about, check out the link: A to Z Theme Reveal List for 2016 The P Towns   Pella, Iowa There are a few towns claiming some Dutch heritage, but not many like Pella, Iowa.  Home of the largest working Dutch windmill in the United States (and a few smaller ones as well), a…
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15Apr 2016 by David Kravetz

A to Z Challenge: The M Towns #atozchallenge

A to Z Challenge, Arizona, Backroads Discoveries, Big John, Bucket List Trips, Connecticut, Cross Country Road Trips, Dream Highways, Eateries, Family Travel, Found Metal Sculptures, Giant Things, Illinois, Large Statues, Murals, Museums, New York, North Dakota, Ontario, Pennsylvania, People Shots, Place Names, Roadside Attractions, Saskatchewan, Selfies, South Dakota, Unexpected Discoveries, Unique Eatery, Unique Places, US Highway 160, US Highway 19, US Highway 2, US Highway 89, Wall Art, Wisconsin
During the month of April I am participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge has each blogger select a theme and then do a post thematically from A to Z during each day of April , except Sundays. My blog is number 1337 out of 1670 participating blogs. This year my A to Z posts will take you across the back roads of America to many unique what other bloggers will be posting about, check out the link: A to Z Theme Reveal List for 2016 The M Towns Mount Horeb, Wisconsin There is no better place to catch some trolls than in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. Indeed, the main attraction for the town are the trolls. The town has created a "Trollway" along Wisconsin Highway 151 with…
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31Aug 2015 by David Kravetz

Washington State: Fat Smitty’s – The Quirky Burger Joint

Backroads Discoveries, Cross Country Road Trips, Eateries, Family Travel, Giant Things, Large Statues, People Shots, Place Names, Roadside Attractions, Selfies, Unexpected Discoveries, Unique Eatery, Unique Places, US Highway 101, Wall Art, Washington, Yard Art
Every so often I come across an eatery that looks so quirky and fun that I must stop there.  On my recent trip to Washington, we stopped in one of these places.  Weeks before the trip, my daughter and son in law apprised me of these place near Port Townsend, WA and said that it was "So Sumoflam" that we would go there. Fat Smitty's is a funky little burger joint sitting on US Hwy 101 at the junction with WA Route 20 in the Discovery Bay region of Port Townsend.  The outside is decorated with a couple dozen chain saw carved statues of food and other oddities.  Colorful and fun, it is a must stop! So, on our trip to Neah Bay in July (see post here) we stopped…
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