Paintsville, Kentucky

We have waited patiently for this caravan to reach Paintsville, we have been told that a DQ here has the best chili dog in the world. We have not yet hat a chance to savor this rare dish but it's time will come.

We were the last to leave the Horse Park because we could not resist one last visit. After Shirley and I walked  over to watch the horses one last time by the time we returned the whole caravan had left without us. That was OK because we really enjoyed ourselves. The walk was hot and humid, but we did survive.

The arrival at Paintsville was rather uneventful but shortly after we unhitched we all drove into town to see the re-enactmant of J. C. Mayo who at one time was one of the richest men in Kentucky. He had a vision and got all the farmers to deed over their mineral rights to him and his company so he could mine the coal he had seen here. Unfortunately we forgot our camera so there are no pictures yet. The church was his gift to the community and his mansion across the street was for himself.

I was especially tired from the heat and probably the walk so we returned home and early to bed for an early wakeup, because we left to visit OSCAR. OSCAR is Oil Springs Cultural Arts and Recreation Center. I had never heard of it either. Here we were introduced to some of the "arts" that this group is working to save, such as spinning, weaving, quilting, and on and on. Some of us did painting, some clay, and some made figures in tin, the first step in making a pie safe.

This is a beautiful place and a beautiful venue. 

Lots of money here too.

Even the kids are at it.

Bill showing off his art work.

Shirley and her group painting flower pots.

Sure looks like hard work.

Art is all over the place.

...And more.

These apple dolls were made by an 83 year old lady.

And here we are.

And everyone else.

From here we were headed for downtown for lunch when all traffic was stopped due to an accident. We managed to get home and are having leftovers. When the road opens, if it does we are next planning to tour the Mountain Home Place and in the evening to be entertained by a group called "Five Miles From Nowhere." More on this later.


See Ya! Barry and Shirley

Win Star Farms, Equus Winery, Rebecca Ruth Candy, Viet Nam Memorial, Daniel Boons's Grave, Kentucky Museum of History, & Buffalo Trace Distillery

The next few days are kind of a blur. We visited Win Star Farms which is a stud farm. This is were many of the current crop of race horses are kept and are bred. In fact the horse our group felt would win the Derby lives here. His name is Gemologist and he was picked by the "smart" money to win but he came in 4th. Nevertheless I got to see him close up. It is a long story why but he is one fine looking animal. He had just come out from doing his studly duty when I saw him.

From here we went to the Equus Winery, we have a lot of wineries in California so we just tasted some of their wine and had lunch here. The tour could probably be given by either of us so we went back to the Horse Park because we do not have many horse parks in CA. Shirley when back alone, I stayed at home and practiced my instruments because they have been neglected as of late.

It felt so good to stay home we stayed at home the next day too. I practiced and Shirley practiced her dancing. Weather was nice and we just had an R and R day.

Today, April 10th, we drove with Bob and Carol and visited first the Viet Nam Memorial in Frankfort, it is very nice, it is a sundial where the shadow of the dial falls on the month the vets died. Very moving.

From here we visited Daniel Boone's grave which overlooks the town of Frankfort. From here we toured the Kentucky Museum of History which is one of the best museums we have ever seen. Hard to describe because it takes in all the history of Kentucky.

Lunch was relaxed and we had very good Italian food right across from the state capital which was the tour the day we stayed home so we really did not miss much.

Next was the highlight of the day. A tour and tasting at Buffalo Trace Distillery. If you remember they came to our camp about a week ago and gave us Mint Juleps. The tour guide was a riot, very entertaining and since this is now our third tour of a distillery we feel we have a vast knowledge of what goes on. As in CA with it's wineries, each distillery is the oldest, the first, and the only one open during prohibition.

It's a joke, but it seems the spiel is always the same.

Very nice memorial. The capital is in the background.

See how it works? Names of veterans are under the shadow giving the month they died.

Daniel Boone's grave.

The town of Frankfort.

Daniel Boone's marker.

The History Museum. 

I guess we are still on the Civil War trail.

Couldn't resist this old model T.

This old part of town reminded me of Rome, GA

Had to show the Horse Park RV section. Pretty nice.

It's off to Paintsville tomorrow, supposed to have the best chili dogs in the world. We will see.

See Ya! Barry and Shirley

McDowell House/Shaker Village/River Cruise

April 7th, we left for Danville, KY to visit Constitution Square and a tour of the McDowell House. This was quite a drive, but the house was very interesting, plus the guides were great. Dr. Ephriam McDowell performed the first successful abdominal surgery in 1809 when he removed a 22 pound ovarian tumor from a 46 year old lady. There was no anesthetic or antibiotics in those days, but she recovered and rode her horse home after about 3 weeks, and lived a full life. The rest of the house was very interesting and our guide was a very enthusiastic and funny elderly lady.

The house contained a lot of apothecary artifacts which I found very interesting and was so glad they have been preserved.

From here we drove to the Shaker Village, where we had a very nice meal then toured the village. At it's peak there were about 500 people living here but the industrial revolution ended their growth. They first came to America in 1774 where they landed in New York. In 1805 they settled in Kentucky and their village was called Pleasant Hill. We had a great time here and could have stayed much longer.

After or meal we wondered over the their meeting house, and a black lady with a beautiful voice and great entertainment skills enthralled us with some Shaker songs. She also gathered up a bunch of people  from our audience to dance with her. Shirley was one of the dancers, unfortunately no pictures were allowed so just imagine a very large black lady with a great voice and nine average sized people dancing with her. Naturally I was partial to Shirley.

This could have been just another old house, but it's occupants were so interesting we enjoyed it very much.

This was my first chance to photograph one of these walls. They are all over this part of KY because of the limestone rock as they plowed these stones were piled up and later rock walls were built by slave labor or in some cases by Irish immigrants.

One of the old Shaker buildings.

This was a dorm. Men and women were separated. They were celibate, but that was not the reason they are now gone. In Kentucky there are only 3 Shakers left and they are in their 90's.

A lady discussing and demonstrating a loom. We also had a demonstration of weaving yarn from wool.

This man is 70 and can sheer about 100 sheep a day. He too was very entertaining.

Couldn't resist the oxen. We saw some last year on our visit to Kentucky.

The plaque says it all. 

The trestle is over 300 feet tall and adds to the magnificent view of the area.

Next we took a boat ride on the Kentucky River and wished we had spent that time at the Shaker village. We have been on many beautiful rivers but no Shaker Villages. After the cruise we rushed back to the Village, but it was closing for the day so we did not see as much as we wanted to.

Dinner was with Carlos and Rosemary, who I call cousin. More on that at a later time. We had pizza at a place called the Grey Goose in Midway, KY.

Next, who knows?

See Ya! Barry and Shirley

Kentucky Horse Park

This was Sunday and we had the day off until 5 pm when we visited the Kentucky Horse Park. I really did not want to go. This was the first time we had had any time off and it felt so good to sleep in, clean off some chairs we had left out in the rain and just sit and read. Beautiful sunny day and we just wanted to relax.

Well, fearful we would miss something, we went the half-mile to the Park. What a treat. They have statues, a museum, a stadium, anything with horses you can imagine they have and do. The museum alone could take two days to visit.

I had to take this photo, my favorite all time horse for sure.

A statue of Secretariat, we learned his heart weighed almost 25 pounds, almost twice the size of  a regular horse. His record at the Derby still stands.

Another famous horse, was a little before my time.

One of the many displays in the museum, a jockey scale.

Many displays.

More displays.

Who is that masked man? Yes, we were given a bandana.

One of their retired horses.

Cigar in person.

After a great meal we had entertainment, clogging.

The girl in blue is my favorite clogger.

As far as our group was concerned, Shirley was the best.

I was so proud of her.

We had a tremendous guide, a great dinner and wonderful entertainment. It all ended way too soon and this place is on our next visit list for sure. Funny how things go, the Hot Brown we had eaten a few nights ago we did not like at all. Well, we had a Hot Brown casserole and loved it. Maybe we are becoming Kentuckians.

Gotta go this is a long day, leaving at 8:15!

See Ya! Barry and Shirley

Race Day the Derby

April 4th, our first night here it rained and kept us awake a lot of the night. But by morning it had stopped and even though it was a little threatening it did not rain all day. This was good because we had a hat parade with all the ladies on the caravan. Then we headed to Keeneland Racetrack where we had an air-conditioned room connected to Churchill Downs via television/computer/etc. where we could watch the races. We had a continuous buffet, betting on site, visiting, and just general excitement all in the comfort of our own private area.

The ladies were all dressed in their finest with their traditional hats. Some of the men looked like professional gamblers with their hats and suits. The day was long, we arrived at 11 am, and did not get out until around 7 pm. Unfortunately, we did not get rich. However, Bob picked the winner of the Derby and Carol picked 2nd and 3rd. Shirley and I did not do as well. The racing gods were not on our side.

Since over 150,000 people attended Churchill Downs this was a great place for me as I would have been out of there in 30 seconds. The caravan used to attend the races at the Downs, but nobody could see the races due to crowding so Keeneland was chosen as a substitute.

The famous Springtime in Kentucky Caravan hat parade.

I think every lady on the caravan had an outfit. The cutest one is 3rd from the left.

It was impossible to get one photo with them all in it.

This one was at the races with her jockeys.

This is where the common folk hung out, we were in the booths overhead where we could watch all the races.

This is the view outside.

We toured the outside to see what was going on.

Honest this is a midget thoroughbred.

The view outside from our room. We had a whole room full of TV's.

So a little tired and a little poorer we returned home for the night with the plan to have most of the next day off.

See Ya! Barry and Shirley