Back to Abe'sCabin

After a couple of busy days I'm back to blogging. Hopefully I can remember the last several days....

Last Friday was a short day and work ended about noon. I had thought I would attend the nearby "newgrass" festival on Saturday to see Sam Bush and Grayton Beach's Dread Clampett.  But as much fun as that would have been, I was missing more fun with my wife and kids. I mean 550 miles doesn't seem that far....
So quickly checked out of the hotel, through dirty clothes in the suitcase, and headed South with Bowling Green classic rock blasting. The hour plus to Nashville went quickly and once out of the metro area, I got ready for the long leg of the trip. There just ain't much to look at between Guitar town and B'ham.
7 hours of driving and for the first time in my life I was wishing my family lived in Flomaton. Tired and seat sore, I opened the front door and surprised my lovely wife. Every mile and minute was soon forgotten.
I was able to spend two nights in Pensacola with family and had a great meal of BBQ shrimp. Man, do I miss running to Maria's for seafood.
The drive back to Kentucky was made easier with an audiobook from the library. "Goodnight, Texas" ,it was an interesting story of a coastal Texas town and it's citizens dealing with a dieing shrimping/fishing industry, a beached monster of the deep, tourists, and a hurricane. If i could write a book, it might read a little like this book.


Work on the Abe Lincoln, or ABLI project has been focused on finishing, since the Park will be opening the Memorial on Friday before Labor Day. A crew is completing the cleaning and polishing the "Tennessee Marble" wainscot and floor borders. This 'marble" is actually a limestone quarried from Knoxville, Tn.. I was able to put  previous experience in the stone industry to use, finally. This stone is so American in it's beauty. It's used on both the exterior, as a veneer and the interior, as a finished wall, flooring, and as surrounding trim on the front and rear doors. The stone also is the baseboard throughout the building.
Tomorrow will be an site inspection from a few NPS personnel to hopefully accept the building for beneficial occupancy. I'll let you know how things go....
d