Kentucky wins 2 awards USA Today (by Jeff Schrembs)

    Kentucky. The name is more than just the home of the reigning NCAA Men’s Basketball Champions. Kentucky is a beautiful place and home to generations of hard working, honest, caring, and loving people.

Kentucky is where I was born where I grew up knowing the value of hard work. The wonderment of having grandparents/cousins/uncles/etc. to lean upon. The knowledge that nothing is handed to you and that in this life you have but your name, your word, and your reputation.

Where families can disagree but where they stand together when it counts. Where the beauty of the rising sun, the photographic splendor of the grass, and the majesty of the crisp air breeze wraps around you.

Where life lessons are handed down by those who sacrificed, worked, built this country, and went off to war to defend us all. Where two of the most “different” families (one having made the US it’s home since the first ships landed here and the other coming here after the horrors of WWII) one could conjure up made their home, built their families, sought the dream of a better world for their children and where now their grandson types these words.

Having left (physically) Kentucky 4 decades ago the respect I have for the Commonwealth, and the people, has never left me. Some of my most cherished memories were made there and I hope that the time will come that one day I can return if only to introduce my children firsthand and to pay my respects to old friends…and new.

Of all places in the United States in this weekend's edition of  USA Today via the Travel Section (i.e. Friday July 20, 2012) Rand McNally (think map company) ongoing articles entitled “Best of the Road” named Kentucky to be both the “MOST BEAUTIFUL” ( Bardstown, Ky) and “FRIENDLIEST” (Murray, Ky). Kudos to Kentucky and to USA Today for recognizing the TRUTH about Kentucky as opposed to the (unfounded and in some cases vicious) stereotypes.

Here is the official link http://travel.usatoday.com/destinations/bestoftheroad/story/2012-07-17/The-five-best-small-towns-in-America-2012/56276500/1

Here is a link to all of the Best of the Road places in Kentucky per Rand McNally: http://www.bestoftheroad.com/competition.do?state=KY&cid=201&tId=&sort=Vote