Keeneland

Day 119 of trip, October 5

Today was a day to experience a real Kentucky tradition...horse racing. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I know very little about horses or about racing, betting, odds, or traditions related to horse racing. But Pete, Barb, Curt and I all piled into the car and headed for Keeneland, a VERY nice racetrack. 

As we got closer, the scenery started to look like what you'd expect Kentucky horse country to look like: rolling hills, curved white fences, lovely farms, etc.

We got our first taste of how classy Keeneland was when Curt read that they have valet parking. We thought we'd try that, since we figured it would be quite a long walk from the parking lot. So as we pulled into Keeneland, we asked the first lot attendant which way to go for valet parking. He glanced in the car and said, without missing a beat, "They won't let you into valet parking with blue jeans." Oops. We needed the exercise anyway, so we proceeded to the parking lot for blue jean wearers. (I never knew parking lots had dress codes!)

Out front we could see the horses being walked in preparation for the first race.

We found our seats in the stands and the races began. 

As the last of the big spenders, we each allotted ourselves $20 for betting. There were 10 races, and you could place $2 bets, so that sounded like a good plan. With the wind whistling through the stands, and the temperature in the 50s, we had to dig deeper into our pockets to find things from the concession stands to keep us warm.

We kept track of each other's bets and rooted for each other's horses. We'd lose a couple of dollars, then win a few. Buy more hot coffee or popcorn with our winnings, then bet again to lose a couple. 

Ready to start...

They're off!

Away they go....

...and here they are for the finish!

Pete was the only one who kept his $20 bill in his pocket most of the day. He was saving it all for one bet. The couple across the road from them are the trainer and exerciser for a horse named Don't Tell Sophia, and she was scheduled to run in the 9th race. 

At one point my brain felt overtaxed at trying to figure out which horse to bet on, so I called my friend Jan in Kerrville, who loves horse racing, and told her I'd place a bet for her. Her horse didn't do any better than mine had. Oh, well. 

I held back on a few races, figuring I'd put my last $5 on Pete and Barb's neighbor's horse. We all wandered out front again to watch the horses being walked. This was really going to be a big race, with the winner not only receiving $300,000, but also being allowed to enter the Breeders Cup Race, which Curt said is second in prestige only to the three Triple Crown Races (Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes). Pete put down his $20. After looking at the race book and recognizing the competition, Curt put his last $2 on his favorite jockey, who had already won two races today. I quietly said to him, "What do you think? Should I bet on Pete's friend's horse?"  Curt said, "she doesn't stand a chance, racing against all these big names." So I figured I'd keep the $5 in my pocket and not go home empty-handed.

The race started, and Sophia came out of the gate last. She lost ground in the first turn, and continued to fade in the straightaway. By the time she entered the second turn, she was so far behind the rest of the pack that she didn't even appear on the projected screen showing the race. We all felt so sorry for Pete's friend, who had worked so hard training her. And then coming out of the second turn, she started to close the gap between herself and the next-to-last horse. One by one she passed them all up, until she reached the finish line well ahead of them all. It didn't seem possible to come from that far behind to winning in the last quarter of the race. The crowd went absolutely wild! And of course, we were delighted for Pete and especially thrilled for his neighbor! What fun to know a winner!

Here's the happy better with his fistful of winnings. That boy knew what he wanted, he waited for it all day, and it worked for him!

Back out in the blue jean parking lot, I got my prize for the day. My first set of fall trees of different colors. Have I mentioned that I love fall?

(And for what it's worth, I still have my $5. Oh, well.....)

After a delicious dinner at Pete and Barb's house, we said our fond farewells. We hope to get together at Christmastime in Kerrville, hoping that our whole Bible study group will be able to have a reunion.

A couple of last photos for the road....

The good one...

And the scary one.

Old friends are so much fun!

Kentucky: Old Friends and the Shaker Village

Wednesday and Thursday really weren't much to write about. Camp chores, lots of correspondence details, and moving camp from Carrollton, KY to the Frankfort/Lexington area. I'll spare you the details of doing laundry, studying maps, and mailing packages. Curt did say that Kentucky gets first prize for the narrowest roads we've driven on so far! 

But one interesting thing in this part of the country (Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky) are the decorations on the outside of many of the barns, known as hex signs. There are two schools of thought on the hex signs. Some believe they originated as purely decorative expressions of the Pennsylvania Dutch, and others feel that they were a talisman to protect against evil spirits. Modern day hex signs look much like quilt blocks and add a burst of color to the barns in the countryside. Here are a few for you:

Some barns have murals painted on the side as well...some for decoration and some for advertisement .

And some are just beautiful old barns:

One more (totally unrelated) sight I saw from the car is my favorite spare tire cover of the whole trip. It made me smile....and think of Hawaii:

Yesterday (Friday) afternoon, we set up our camp along a lovely canal from the Kentucky River.

I love this shot with the fall leaves slowly riding the current downstream:

We came here to visit our friends from Kerrville, Pete Huey and Barb Taylor. They were in our small group Bible Study from church in Kerrville. Shortly after we left on our trip, they came to Kentucky, where Pete is spending a year teaching Accounting at Midway College. What fun it was to reconnect with them! After we had some appetizers in our camper, the four of us went to Pete and Barb's (henceforth P&B) favorite Friday night pizza place. We haven't had pizza in ages, and it was delicious!

Today, Saturday, Curt and I drove over to the place that P&B are renting for the academic year. It's stunning! It was formerly a Bed & Breakfast, so it's beautifully furnished, and it's situated on a gorgeous horse farm. The boundaries have fallen for them in pleasant places! Here's some of the scenery near and at their house, which is the upstairs portion of the house in which the owners live.

In a bit I'll tell you more about that rock fence in the above photo.

Here's the view of the garden from the dining room window:

Some of the horses which P&B are encouraged to ride:

This amazing type of rock wall/fence is seen throughout the area. We learned later, at the Shaker village, that it was built by Irish and Scottish laborers for $1000 a mile. I can't imagine the work that goes into a mile of this type of fence!

The four of us piled into P&B's car and we took a beautiful scenic drive through the Kentucky countryside to the former Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill.

If you don't know about the Shakers, they were a devout Protestant Christian people who lived in communities in the Eastern United States. The Pleasant Hill group reached their peak of almost 500 members in the mid 1800's. They lived communally, as brothers and sisters. They did not marry or bear children, so the only way their communities could grow was through converts. Sometimes whole families converted to the Shaker sect, so there were children in the communities, but they lived in separate houses from their parents. When they reached age 21, they had to make a decision whether to become a Shaker or to return to "the world," which is how the Shakers referred to non-Shakers. 

They were a very devout, peaceful and simple people, embracing equality of races and genders (at a time when that was not AT ALL a popular mindset). They valued humility, cleanliness, hard work, fresh air, farming and gardening, serving one another, simple living, owning very few possessions, and consecrating everything they did to God. Work was as much an act of worship as the hymns they sang and danced in the house of worship. They are known worldwide for their craftsmanship in many areas, such as beautifully made simple furniture, baskets, leatherwork, amd domestic arts such as sewing, knitting , spinning, weaving and rug making.

This man is making shoes by hand:

And this young woman is weaving a large rug:

Even brooms were made by hand.

This is the wash house where the women ("Sisters") did all the laundry for the community:

This is a Family house where the brothers and sisters lived, slept and ate. Each had taken a vow of celibacy, much like those who enter convents and monasteries. 

The men and women lived in the same house, but they entered through separate doors, used separate staircases (below). 

They ate on opposite sides of the dining room, and, of course, their bedrooms were on opposite sides of the large open hallway.

The rooms and halls were enormous, high-ceilinged, and had many large windows. I can't imagine trying to heat a 5-story stone house like that with wood or coal in the winter. The rooms must have been FREEZING! 

A couple shots of the kitchen area, where only the sisters were allowed:

I could go on and on. The village was so beautifully restored and preserved, and so skillfully presented to the public, while still maintaining a very real sense of peace and serenity. We could have easily spent the entire day here. Had we known it was so extensive and so beautiful, we would have pushed ourselves to get there earlier. We'd all recommend that anyone in the area take time to visit this beautiful place. But allow yourselves at least 6 hours, not the 2 1/2 hours we spent!

Tomorrow promises to be a contrast for us, but we want to experience another aspect of the Kentucky heritage, so check back in and see how our day turns out!