Welcome to Horse Country

Just one of many beautiful horse farms we saw

For our stay in the Lexington area, we had the pleasure of being hosted by our friends, Waverly and Delores Jones, who live in nearby Morehead, Kentucky. Even though they had told us that part of  Kentucky was particularly beautiful we were blown away by the lush pastures that looked like golf courses--not just on one farm but on gently rolling hills for miles and miles. Every place--whether small house or large farm--was surrounded by immaculately groomed landscapes. After seeing all that neatly clipped grass, Russ says that if he ever chooses a new career it will be selling lawnmower blades in the Lexington area. To make it even more picturesque, many of the farms were dotted with immaculate barns and bordered by long lines of beautiful stacked rock fences or the traditional rail fences, some painted white but many in the traditional black.

We couldn't have had better guides than Waverly and Delores to help us explore all that the area has to offer. Waverly took us on a driving tour through the heart of Lexington, pointing out the local landmarks and giving us a history of the city.  He made sure we saw all the sights even though we teased him about driving in circles since it seemed like wherever we drove we ended up back by Thoroughbred Park, with its dynamic sculpture of life-size horses in mid-race.

Russ with Delores and Waverly at Keeneland

They also took us to visit the horseracing track at Keeneland. It was at the end of a non-racing day so the track was deserted but Waverly and Delores told us great stories about the tailgating that fills the parking lot on racedays and the crowds of people who sit on lawn chairs trackside to watch the races. Until we saw the track firsthand we didn't realize that--unlike Churchill Downs--the track at Keeneland is covered with artificial turf.  Again, Russ was impressed by how beautiful the grounds were to the point that even the grounds around the parking lot with rows of perfectly aligned big trees were impressive.

Dinner at Shaker Village

The evening of our grand tour we drove out to Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill which is the largest restored Shaker village in the country. Looking at the beautifully balanced architecture and graceful furniture surrounding us, I marveled at the way the Shakers merged pure functionality with such beautiful design. We were too late to tour the buildings but we had a wonderful dinner at the restaurant there although I'm suspicious that the meal we had was a lot fancier than the simple food of the Shakers.

Russ and I may not be spring chickens but we're in good health so we usually have no problem being on the road away from our regular doctors. When Russ started having a change in the vision in one eye however,  he knew he needed to have it checked right away. Luckily Waverly has a good optometrist who saw Russ right away and immediately referred him to a retina specialist. Turns out that Russ had a horseshoe tear in the retina of one of his eyes and had to have on-the-spot laser surgery to repair it. (His retina is healing nicely now.) During the same visit I somehow managed to fall down a flight of stairs. I was lucky enough to weather the fall with only some pretty spectacular bruises but Waverly had to do double duty not only as our host but as our EMT driver too. He even made sure I got to stop by the Kentucky Folk Art Center in Morehead before we left town.

I'm a big fan of folk art like this

Our visit ended on a particularly happy note when we all went to Cincinnati for a Reds game. It was a perfect baseball experience--the weather was just right, we had great seats right behind home plate, the Reds won, and the stadium even had veggie dogs.

Thanks Waverly and Delores for a great visit!