When you go, your mouth will likely water with all of the delicious barbecue being cooked by all kinds of different vendors there. You'll see booths all about with the cooks' special (and sometimes top secret) recipes for the meats they grill. There's something for everyone there from chicken to chops, it'll be difficult at the least to just drive by heading to work. It resembles a big picnic with all of the traditional extras, such as potato salad and baked beans. Booths are also set up to treat the kids with funnel cake for those who have a sweet tooth. Everything that you can think of having piled on your plate at a great cook out is available here, with over 35 different types of barbecue and extras.

Music lovers will definitely enjoy all of the variety of local bands who provide entertainment at this festival. Country and Rock/Alternative bands will be performing at this years Barbecue On The River. Those included at the 14th annual celebration include Vintage Alley, The Redding Brothers, Bawn in the Mash, Awards Presentation, Timeless, and Lew Jetton & 61 South. There will be songs to get you to dance and those classic love ballads which will hit all of the lovers there close to their hearts. Main stage entertainment includes Special D, Partial Post, and The Cruisers.

The biggest part of the contests is the Iron Chef Style event which several different local media personalities compete for the title. There's also a Line Throwing contest in which cash prizes from $75 to $125 is awarded to the best. Magicians, comedians, and mad scientists will be there to keep young and old entertained. Visiting you will likely see a singing cowboy doing various rope tricks and remote controlled boats racing. Children will have live entertainment such as a Veggie Tales autograph signing and participation in the Clay Station booth. Other activities will include the opening of the River Heritage Museum to the public and receiving a barge ride across the river.

There are all kinds of great reasons to visit the 14th Paducah, Kentucky Barbecue On The River festivities, but the best reason is to bring the whole community together in the name of charity. The whole family can join in on all of the entertainment and good food. You can see old friends and meet new ones as well as being exposed to more culture and creativity. No two of these occasions are ever alike, but they are sure to be enjoyed by all.

Arran is a small island, 20 miles long and 56 miles round, located off the south-west coast of Scotland.

Ferries run from the Scottish mainland to the Isle of Arran. Most people reach the island via Ardrossan which has a direct rail service from Glasgow.

The history of Arran is of strong interest to local Archeologists, tourists, and residents.

The first people on Arran to leave visible signs of their life and times here were the Neolithic people, who lived on the island in the period between 4,500BC and 2,000BC. They were farmers, and traces of their field systems have been found on Arran. However, they have left their most distinct legacy on Arran in the form of stone circles, standing stones and cairns. We do not know what these monuments were used for, but it is safe to assume that they had some kind of ceremonial function.

Machrie moor standing stones is a small ancient circle protected by a stone wall. Continue on the footpath and you will reach the main site, three-quarters of a mile across the fields.

Robert Pollock has produced an excellent guide with diagrams which details these and other circles on this site. Two of the circles have recently been excavated, and the amount of peat growth over the original prehistoric ground surface can be seen as a tidemark on the stones. Indeed one of the circles had completely disappeared under the peat.

Druid Stone is likely to be a Neolithic or Bronze age stone, despite its local association with the Iron Age priesthood. A druid was a member of the priestly and learned class in the ancient Celtic societies of Western Europe, Britain and Ireland.

Ruins of Lochranza Castle are located north of Brodick.

It features the striking ruins of a 14th century castle, a former hunting lodge of the Scottish Kings.

It has been claimed that Lochranza Castle has literary connections, being used as the basis for the castle in the Tintin adventure "The Black Island".

Brodick Castle is made up of red sandstone and it lies at the foot of Goatfell Mountain 1.5 miles out of Brodick; the main port on the Isle of Arran off the west coast of Scotland.

The name Brodick comes from the Norse words, meaning 'broad bay'. Arran means 'peaked island' in Gaelic.

It's a fascinating Island filled with mysteries and folklore. Visit now before the times destroy it.

The biggest part of the state, west Texas, has little more than miles and miles of miles and miles, and begins on the other side of Ft. Worth. By contrast, the community of West, Texas, on US 35, is on the interstate linking San Antonio, Austin, Ft. Worth and Dallas, and is near Italy, TX, if that helps.

The Czech settlement, named for its founder and first postmaster, Thomas West, circa 1882, is just north of Waco and an hour and a half south of Ft. Worth and Dallas. Which is why no one can whiz past West without pulling off the freeway to fill up on either dessert pastries, or lunches of ham and cheese or sausage-filled kolaches. Over the years, we thought we had seen all there was to see of West, TX and kolaches.

In fact, it occurred to us as we left the I-35 at exit 353, that we had never been into the town of West, just into the bakeries that line the service road we had just crossed. We were, therefore, delighted to learn that there seem to be as many kolache bakeries in West as there are streets. And there we discovered Gerik's Ole Czech Bakery. How had we missed it?

For, inside the comfortable, antique-furnished combination café, kolache showroom and mega-bakery which supplies fifteen convenience stores daily, we found the kolache that approaches the perfection for which we were willing to divert from our destination. Mary, who presides over the glass showcase filled to bursting with kolaches, placed our choices on paper plates, accompanied by plastic forks and spoons, and invited us to use the microwave seated on the old cabinet under shelves stuffed with kolache baking awards, many in the shape of rolling pins.

I imagined vivid flavors of the cherry, lemon and blueberry kolache assortment bursting in my mouth but the pull of chocolate is hard to overcome, so we gave into our chocoholic roots. As we dug into the baked pastry cup, in the center of the perfectly finished crust, were chocolate, cream cheese, caramel and large pecans which made up the concoction, as our plastic forks sank through the award-winning chocolate treat,, we grinned as the crust and filling disappeared on our tongues.

Not only were Gerik's choices of fruits, poppy seed, sesame seed and sausage-filled and various chocolate combinations of kolaches offered, but it was easy to see why they were judged the best year after year. Considering the difference from those we had eaten from the competition on the highway,which did the job for which they were intended, Gerik's kolaches had flavor, presentation and a weight not usually seen in pastry when hefted. I felt like we struck kolache gold!

We had not seen the prices in Gerik's anywhere else for years - a kolache is $1, with a price break for a dozen -- $11, and a huge cup of coffee, sized for dunking, is 55 cents.
The truth of quality, however, was revealed when the crust was challenged to the ultimate determiner: the coffee dunk test. A+! Over all, we agree with the wisdom of the judges!