The Trip

[cornerofmadness]

Because it’s me, it begins to rain (this is commonplace when I drive anywhere). I stop to mail a letter of recommendation on the way and because I want to be sure Mapquest has me in the right area since the road is this isolated one where the post office sits. My post mistress squints at the directions and says those don’t make sense and proceeds to sketch out a map for me. I don’t have the road she’s talking on my slightly older KY map but it’s a brand new road so...

I proceed along on the goat path of roads through OH. I found where all the hills in OH sank to. They’re all south, very nice twisty roads that if you roll down the windows you can hear the Deliverance banjos playing in the distance. I find 23 which she said to go on. I know almost instantly it’s a mistake because it’s almost a one lane road canting away from the river I have to cross. I turn around and get back on Mapquest’s 52. About five miles down the road I see Greenup damn (which she said to look for) and ANOTHER 23, this time State Route instead of county but at this point I’m leery so I don’t use it and follow Mapquest.

Big mistake since Mapquest had its head up its ass as per usual. At least they put mileage on where you’re supposed to turn so when I had gone 8 miles to the next exit which is 4 miles beyond what Mapquest said 60 was supposed to be I get off, gas up again and ask for directions. A local says a) you can’t even GET there from here. Mapquest took me the wrong way and in fact their directions had meant to take me 30 miles east to Ashland to get 64 (which runs to Lexington) then backtrack all those 30 miles and b) proceeds to give me the exact same directions the post mistress did.

So I go back, over Greenup dam and I’m on my way. The rest of the trip is non-traumatic (and about an hour longer even without the getting lost as I found out on the way home, than Mapquest said). I get to the hotel. evil_little_dog and silvrethorn are already back from their day at the Breyerfest convention. (silvrethorn placed in the ‘horse show’ with her Samurai display). I find out that ELD had similar Mapquest woes (and her’s SHOULD have been all major highways, how did they mess that up?). I learned the Georgetown DaysInn which has a three star rating is over rated by at least one and a half stars... We spend the night plotting out the next days tourism.

The next day I borrow a Breyerfest entry badge and do something I hadn’t planned on, going to the fest itself. While evil_little_dog waits for her lottery turn in the ‘big shop’ I wander around the Kentucky Horse Park and see all the horses. I even get to see the guest horses that Breyer uses as models for their horses, which is unusual since usually those stables are packed with fans. However, it’s early and there’s just me and one family. I got to see Friesian and Morgan, and my favorite, the Gypsy Vanners. A Leopard Appaloosa filly thought I looked fun to get attention from and the Curly Horse mustang liked me too. I was, however, a favorite of the Sulphur Springs Mustang who seemed to think I’d be nice to go home with (he was a cute little primitive horse). I wandered into the shop, didn’t buy anything and saw a little of the equestrian shows.

We returned to the hotel to pick up silvrethorn and headed out for touring. Unfortunately, its about 125% humidity out but only in the high 80's. At least it’s grey so the outdoor photos won’t be such a pain to take (sun is not always our friend). We went to the Mary Todd Lincoln house and just missed the tour so we kill a half hour waiting on the next one in the herb garden. They don’t allow pictures of the house where Mary spent her teen years. It had an interesting history. The house started as an inn, was bought by the Todds and after then and the judge ordered sale of the house (Lawyer daddy didn’t have a will...) It became a lot of things from brothel to hardware storage which what it was in the 1970's when they were going to tear it down for a parking lot for a basketball arena. The governor’s wife was appalled by this disrespect for a historic house and saved it. There were some Lincoln and Todd pieces in the house including something I’d not seen, a barrel desk (looks like you’re writing inside a huge bourbon barrel). I learned I had the same taste in curtains as the Todds... There was one kid on part of the tour that I wanted to KILL. He just kept loudly complaining he wanted to go because this was a boring waste of time and kept lying on the floor. When his mother would shush him, he’d tell her (he’s about 7-9) to shut up or he’d hit her. Man, if I said that to MY parents my face would have been slapped clean off. I almost said something to her because I kept wishing that the GUIDE would. This kid was majorly disruptive.

We also passed Transylvania University established in 1780 and the houses around it were absolutely gorgeous and most were being renovated. (Might look at jobs there) We then went to Lexington’s Cemetery (which is on the list of 10 best things to do in Lexington). It also has an arboretum in it. It has several famous ‘residents’ in it but most I didn’t know since they were more famous in KY than anywhere else. I did know Henry Clay a KY politician and we did find his grave (you’d be hard pressed to miss this enormous thing. None of us had a lens appropriate for photographing such a structure). Sadly the coal usage in the area (well past coal usage. I’m not sure they still use it) had a terrible acid rain effect on the statuary. Still, we got a lot of cool (and a few very creepy) pictures. By this time the steaming heat was killing me and I was whining. Also, I was apparently the sweetest thing mosquitos had ever tasted and I was one giant red welt.

We kicked about the idea of going to the winery (turns out all the distilleries are much further west and in spite of the fact that all three of us had found a reference to a distillery when we planned the trip months ago none of us could find that reference again) but we were hot, sweaty and tired (and I had a migraine) so we turned back. Sadly EVERYTHING closes at 5 pm in Lexington (how boring) and nothing is open on Sunday so we didn’t get to that Jim Beam chocolate shop either. We just hit the pool then sat around talking fiction all night (which was helpful to me)

silvrethorn left early the next day since she had a two day drive home. evil_little_dog and I contemplated some of the nature sanctuary trips since they were open on sundays but it was even more humid and in the 90's. It was so bad there was a dense fog that didn’t burn off until nearly noon. We opted just to bum around in the mall for an hour or so and headed home. On the way there, some issues of the new novel resolved themself so now there’s actually almost a plot to hang the scenes on. I get home to get a call from my parents who were in the NC mountains on vacation themselves. They had gone gemming and done very well including an 8 carat ruby which can be cut into about two 1 ½ to 2 carat stones. Neat.

Comments

[iheartnickcath.livejournal.com]

..Dudes you were in KY? I wish I would've known that!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

yep just there for a few days. i don't live very far from the KY border