Brought to you by the letter A

My home is full of books, all kinds. Cookbooks, travel books, gardening books, art books, craft technique books, true crime books, and oodles and oodles of novels. I love books. And I love reading about books. Like this morning. I read Irene's blog post about a new book-related challenge:



Definitely up my alley. I knew right away I had to participate.

Art challenges require you to create a piece of art related to a theme; this challenge requires you to blog about a book starting with a particular letter. And since this challenge just started, we begin with A.

I have not chosen a novel as my contribution but, instead, a travel guide book the captain and I find essential when heading to Florida. Along Interstate 75, written by Dave Hunter, is an exit-by-exit map book, now in its 15th edition, covering all of I-75 from Detroit down to the Florida state line. But it's so much more than just an interstate map. Much more. With this book at your fingertips, not only will you know which particular hotels, restaurants and gas stations are at each and every exit, and on which side of the highway too, you can also discover what is historically or geographically significant about each area you drive through. You'll even find tips about interesting places to check out that are a few miles off the highway -- like the birthplace of Kentucky Fried Chicken in Corbin, KY, for example. The book gives a bit of the KFC history and also directs you off the highway so you can have a look where Colonel Sanders got his start so many decades ago.

Here's a picture at this historic site I took back in June:
We use this book as a reference whenever we head north or south on I-75. Want to know which hotel chains are at the next exit? The book knows. Looking for a particular restaurant chain or gas stations that offer diesel? The book has the info. We also appreciate Hunter's personal restaurant recommendations; we have discovered many great places to eat by trying his suggestions.

An updated edition comes out every two years; we buy ours at Chapters but you can also buy it from several other locations. Information on purchasing the book can be found at the book's web site, Interstate-75.