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THE GREAT OUTHOUSE BLOWOUT
WILL BE HELD

Saturday, October 5, 2013

featuring

The "GREAT OUTHOUSE 300 RACE"

To download a "pdf" copy of the 2012 rack card, click here.


                                                                                                                           Photographer: Kirk Schlea

Team to Beat - four wins!

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Trophy Sponsor
Whittaker Bank, Harrodsburg, Kentucky

1st Place Prize -- $300
Tarter Farm and Ranch, Dunnville, Kentucky

2nd Place Prize -- $200
Stuart Powell Ford, Danville, Kentucky

3rd Place Prize -- $100
J & J Auto, Danville, Kentucky

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RICK McQUERRY

Race Director

The Great Outhouse 300 Race

  

Rick McQuerry  has been  The Great Outhouse Blowout  Race director since 2008.  But perhaps is best known as the husband of Jeanne and father of Jessica and Ryan.  Rick is Operations Manager at Rocky Top Log Furniture and Railing to support his habits of hiking and working with youth.  He is an assistant scoutmaster with Forkland BSA troop 71 and is on the youth leadership team at Centenary United Methodist Church in Danville, KY.   Rick may be reached at Rocky Top Log Furniture & Railing  1.800.332.1143 or rick@rockytoplogfurniture.com

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"GOB Concert Series"
Click here to view participants in the 2012 Blowout


Ron Orberson - Jerry Daugherty - Greg Underwood - Ronnie Orberson - Mark Carman

CHEYENNE

( To hear their sound and read more click below )

www.cheyenneband.com

One of the best knownbands to ever come out of central Kentucky, CHEYENNE and founder Ronnie Orberson have been entertaining audiences since 1972.  From Louisville to Nashville, and points in between and beyond, playing with national acts Exile, David Allen Coe, Bama Band, Johnny Paycheck,  CHEYENNE has gained the respect and love of their audiences all along the way.  

Disbanded in 2010, CHEYENNE is coming together for a SPECIAL CONCERT at the 2012 BLOWOUT !

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"DRIVE IT AND SHOW IT"
(CAR-TRUCK-MOTORCYCLE SHOW)


                                                                                               Photographer: Kirk Schlea

For information about DRIVE IT & SHOW IT, click here.

To join in on the fun and enter your own outhouse, or sign up as a vendor,
see the icons below.

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Other friends will be joining us at the Great Outhouse Blowout. 
To see who else is coming for the day, click here.

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2012 Moon and Stars Award Winner


Kirk Schlea, photographer

Self-taught with over 25 years of photography experience, Kirk Schlea shoots editorial, advertising and corporate work for clients such as PEPSI, CADILLAC, NIKE, ESPN, LEXINGTON CLINIC and PANINI AMERICA, Inc. Magazine and newspaper credits include SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, NEWSWEEK, TIME, SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE, KEENELAND MAGAZINE, USA TODAY, the LOS ANGELES TIMES, the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, and the LEXINGTON-HERALD, to name a few of over 200 that have published his photographs.

He has photographed U.S. Presidents, CEO's, professional athletes, major sporting events, medical operations, exotic locales, and even underwater hockey.  He was chosen as one of six photographers worldwide to cover the 1992 America's Cup sailing races for the OFFICIAL BOOK and the STARS & STRIPES AMERICA'S CUP BOOK.  He was official photographer for the 2002 and 2006 NATIONAL CIVIL WAR RE-ENACTMENT at Perryville, Kentucky, the GREAT AMERICAN BRASS BAND FESTIVAL at Danville, XFL ProFootball league staff photographer, and has been team photographer for the SAN DIEGO PADRES Baseball Club.

He's won awards from the California Exposition at Del Mar, First Interstate Bank, the San Diego Union-Tribune Newspaper, and Sea Magazine.  In 2004, Schlea wond Best of Show and First Place in the professional division of the International Equine Ideal Photography Contest and he was given the Heart of Kentucky United Way "Heart & Soul" Award for their 2008 campaign. 

Kirk can be reached at:
Kirk Schlea Photography/Schlea Visual Arts
859.332.7562 ph
859.516.3058 cell
kirk@schleavisualarts.com

 2012 Crescent Moon Award Winner

JOHNNY RANDOLPH

Johnny Randolph was Emcee for the original 1992 "GREAT OUTHOUSE BLOWOUT" that saw a 4 hour open air concert headlined by world renown guitarist CHET ATKINS and other music stars at the dedication ceremonies for Penn's Privy.  Randolph coined the term "We're making history here today" regarding the historic 1992 event.  Randolph is also recipient of  the Kentucky Broadcasters Golden Mic Award. 

For the past 6 years he has been semi-retired as a program consultant for WAKY (Oldies) and WLVK (Country) in the Louisville area.  He also does a daily three hour airshift on WAKY when in town. 

WAKY has been awarded dozens of "gold records" including Behind Closed Doors by Charlie Rich and was named national Radio Station of the Year three times in the 1970's.

 Before all this he was Operations Manager for WAKY and owner of five small market radio stations in Danville and Eminence Kentucky.

For more information on Johnny Randolph and WAKY click
  www.79/WAKY.com
   &  www.1035.com

 

2012 Golden Throne Award


Pioneer Playhouse Outdoor Dinner Theatre
The Eben Henson Family - Charlotte, Robby, Heather

Heather Henson was born and raised in Danville, Kentucky.  She is a former editor of children’s books with HarperCollinsPublishers in New York City, as well as the author of several books for young readers, including the novels Dream of Night, Here’s How I See It – Here’s How It Is and Making the Run, a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age.  Her picture books include Angel Coming, Grumpy Grandpa and That Book Woman, a Junior Library Guild selection, winner of the Christopher Medal, the Great Lakes Book Award, and a finalist for the Kentucky Bluegrass Award.  After many years of city living, Ms. Henson recently returned to her home state where she resides with her husband and three children on a family farm near Danville.

 Founded in 1950 by Col. Eben C. Henson, Pioneer Playhouse is the oldest outdoor theatre in Kentucky and has been called the “Granddaddy” of Kentucky Outdoor Dramas. The Playhouse was also instrumental in pioneering the outdoor theatre movement in the state.  In the fifties and sixties it received national attention as the “King of Summer Stocks” in New York trade magazines and in 1962 was the first theatre in the nation to be accorded the legal status of State Theatre (by act of Legislation).

Col. Henson built the theatre by acquiring many of the construction materials in unorthodox ways. He once bartered a fifth of whiskey for hand-hewn two hundred-year-old rafter beams and hired prisoners from the local county jail to help him lay the first foundations.  Those looking closely at the structural design will find it includes everything, from World War Two army barracks to movie sets from the Golden Era of cinema!

For most of the fifty years that Col. Henson and his wife Charlotte have dedicated to running the theatre, it has also been a School of Drama and was the first Governor’s School of the Arts in the state. After the tragic passing of Artistic Director Holly Henson this summer,  Charlotte, her son Robby and  daughter Heather courageously moved forward to achieve a record-breaking box office season of great plays.  The family is strong and the theater is strong and the show must go on.

More than 3,000 aspiring actors have strode across the stage since Henson turned an empty field into a theatre complex. Today the unconventional, hand-built theatre serves a pre-show dinner out of doors and a live performance Tuesday through Saturday, every summer, come rain or shine. (Indoors in case of rain.)  Visitors can stroll through a quaint replica of early Danville on a self-guided tour and enjoy a fine Off-Broadway or Broadway hit play in a rustic setting … beneath a spangle of stars!

A documentary about Pioneer Playhouse aired on Kentucky Educational Television and appeared nationwide on PBS stations in 2003, bringing floods of emails from theater buffs and former actors.

Admission for the Great Outhouse Blowout, including all other events, is adults -- $5; children under 13 -- $1; toddlers/babies -- free.
RV Parking/Camping is available.  Contact Penn's Store.


Bring chair or blanket
Open to public at 10am.
Check back for updates and more details.

For Updates Check FACEBOOK  @ Link Below

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Gravel-Switch-KY/Penns-Store/374200574897?ref=ts

For those of you concerned about the store and what is going on with the cleanup and with the well being of the pets there, click here for more information.

For More Information:

Penn's Store
257 Penn's Store Road
Gravel Switch, Kentucky 40328
Phone: 859-332-7706
E-mail: pennsstore@aol.com

GPS Coordinates: N37.549912; W085.028191

What is the Great Outhouse Blowout?

 

This event started out as a dedication of Penn's Store's new outhouse in 1992. Why would anyone celebrate getting an outhouse? Because the store had never had one. The store had no running water or restroom facilities of any kind, just plenty of trees. The store still does not have running water, but it does have an outhouse. Some of us thought that was worth celebrating, especially the ladies that stay in the store all day.

The dedication was held in 1992. Several of our musical friends lent their talents to the days festivities. The shows were headlined by Chet Atkins and Billy Edd Wheeler. Billy Edd wrote the song "Little Brown Shack Out Back".
 
A few years later we added outhouse racing. If you have never seen outhouses race, you are in for a treat. In fact, some of our competitors travel from far away places, even Canada. But our races are a little different than most. Our races are one-on-one drag races along a 100 yard road. The winners keep advancing until a final winner is crowned. 
 
The outhouses are not real outhouses. Although one year we did have a real outhouse compete. After the race, it was put to use by the Amish in the area. The racing outhouses are sleek, lightweight, and fast. Each year we see new designs. Everyone trying to get the best edge to win. Some of the racers have corporate sponsors that pay their entry fee, travel expenses, etc. But most teams are just groups that pool their money to build and race on their own.


 

Click here for nearby tourism information

For more information,  click on the outhouses below.






 

Check out our 1998 Blowout!


 

Want to find out about entering your own outhouse?


 

We also have booth space for vendors. Interested?


This page last updated 02/11/2013