Category Archives: Postcards

Postcard From Bowling Green, Kentucky

National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky

We’re currently in Billings, MT and enjoying our first “non-get-up-and-go” morning since we left home.  It’s been 5 days of beautiful but somewhat grueling driving, done on purpose because our ultimate destination is still a few days away!  We’ve seen some amazing scenery and I’ve taken (more than) a few photos, but haven’t wanted to spend my down time on the computer.  So here’s a tidbit to keep the flow going.  I’ll probably work on a few more soon but it’s time for breakfast! 😉

Postcard From Elburn, Illinois

Eddie Gaedel Pub and Grill in Elburn, Illinois

This is a little town we passed through on our way to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.  We stopped for lunch at a place called ‘Eddie Gaedel Pub and Grill.  Who was Eddie Gaedel?  Glad you asked!

Eddie Gaedel was the smallest player to appear in a Major League Baseball game.

Gaedel gained recognition in the second game of a St. Louis Browns doubleheader on August 19, 1951. Weighing 65 pounds (29 kg) and standing 3 feet 7 inches (109 cm) tall, he became the shortest player in the history of the Major Leagues. Gaedel made a single plate appearance and was walked with four consecutive balls before being replaced by a pinch-runner at first base. His jersey, bearing the uniform number “​1⁄8”, is displayed in the St. Louis Cardinals Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

St. Louis Browns owner Bill Veeck, in his 1962 autobiography Veeck – As in Wreck, said of Gaedel, “He was, by golly, the best darn midget who ever played big-league ball. He was also the only one.”

More at Wikipedia

Downtown Elburn, Illinois

Postcard From Emlenton, Pennsylvania

The Emlenton Bridge over the Allegheny River near Emlenton, PA

The Emlenton Bridge is a steel-deck truss bridge that spans the Allegheny River just south of the town of Emlenton, Pennsylvania, United States at approximately mile marker 44.4 on I-80. With a height of 270 feet (82 m) above the river, the Emlenton Bridge was the highest bridge in the Interstate Highway System when completed in 1968 (The Lewiston-Queenston Bridge is higher but is technically an international bridge, not part of the Interstate Highway system). This record was held until 1971 with the opening of the Fred G. Redmon Bridge near Selah, Washington.

The Emlenton Bridge remains the highest road bridge in Pennsylvania; with an overall span of 1,668 feet (508 m) it was the largest bridge constructed as part of the Keystone Shortway project. With the completion of the Interstate System, it is likely that the Emlenton Bridge will remain the fifth-highest bridge in the system for a significant time, behind the Glade Creek Bridge in West Virginia, the Pine Valley Creek Bridge in California, the Galena Creek Bridge in Nevada, and the aforementioned Redmon Bridge.

An interesting fact about the Emlenton Bridge is that due to its size, and geography of the land, it is actually located in three different Pennsylvania counties. One side of the bridge is in Venango County, the other in Clarion County, but the southwest abutment resides in Butler County.

(From Wikipedia)