June 27 - 29, 2013
Thursday
Today we drove through four states, our biggest state day
yet: starting in Missouri, we then drove across a piece of Illinois, a piece of
Indiana, and finally into Kentucky. Lexington, where Jack’s nephew Franklin and
his wife Joanne live, is the land of Kentucky bourbon and Kentucky
thoroughbreds. As we get closer to the city we see billboards advertising Wild
Turkey and Four Roses distilleries. Then we begin to see the rolling bluegrass
hills and the classy horse farms and training stables. Some of the horse barns
around here look more like southern mansions!
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Just a "small" Kentucky horse barn. |
It’s great to see Franklin and Joanne again—we always
enjoy catching up with their lives and hearing the exploits of their daughters
and grandkids. Joanne is an RN who went to nursing school later in life, after
their daughters were older, so it’s been interesting to follow her nursing
career. Franklin is a very accomplished, retired mining engineer and a train aficionado, with a world-class
collection of model trains and train memorabilia. Jack loves talking with him. Always lots to see and talk
about!
After supper, Joanne and I go for a long walk by the lake
in their neighborhood; I’m hoping to see some birds, but don’t see anything new
tonight. I have hopes for some water birds while we’re here, but forgot to
bring my binoculars this time. Maybe later…
Friday/Saturday
After breakfast we drive down to nearby Frankfort, the
capital of Kentucky, to visit a historical museum and the old capitol building.
The most amazing thing is the self-supporting stone staircase in the old
capitol, which was built around 1830. The staircase has no mortar or supports;
it’s held in place by interlocking stairs and a big keystone at the top. We
have a great morning touring around and a tasty lunch in a cute café in the
historical section of Frankfort.
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| The old Kentucky capitol building. Carol, Joanne and Franklin at the rather oversized entrance dooorway |
After lunch we visit the Kentucky Horse Park, a big
thrill for me, since there are several “celebrity” horses that I’m excited to
meet. This is a huge and beautiful park devoted to the horse and particularly
racehorses. We take a brief tour of the facility on a horsedrawn trolley and
then go to the “Hall of Champions,” where we get up close and personal with some
famous horses: Go for Gin (Kentucky Derby winner), Funny Cide, (Kentucky Derby
and Preakness winner—came close to being a Triple Crown horse), and—my
fave—Cigar, voted Horse of the Decade of the 1990s, had a 16-race winning
streak in his heyday, and when he retired was the top money-earning horse of
all time.
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Cigar - $10,000,000 career winnings and 16 straight stakes wins. |
Also, Man o’ War, arguably the most famous racehorse of all time, is
buried here (embalmed in a casket). His memorial rivals any human memorial
we’ve seen! A fun afternoon of immersion in horse lore…
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Man o' War statue and gravesite. His son War Admiral, Triple Crown winner, is also buried near here. |
Back home, after dinner Joanne and I take another walk by
the lake and this time I succeed in seeing a few new birds for our list,
including a great blue heron and a pair of yellow-crowned night herons! We add
even more when we visit a charming nature and history park, McConnell Springs, near their house on
Saturday morning—this place has a nice bird feeding area and we get to check off quite a
few birds that we haven’t seen previously on this trip. I doubt that we’ll make
our goal of 100 species, but at least we may crack 90!
During the afternoon, I work on my book project and then we
all go out to Red Lobster–I finally get my belated birthday dinner. It’s yummy
too!
It’s been a very pleasant visit with Franklin and Joanne.
Tomorrow, I'll go to church (early service) with Joanne and then we head for home…
Bird species count: Vermilion flycatcher, turkey vulture,
Bell’s vireo, *golden-fronted woodpecker, Say’s phoebe, northern cardinal,
greater roadrunner, house finch, common raven, *northern rough-winged swallow, *summer
tanager, *prothonotary warbler, *yellow-breasted
chat, *yellow-rumped warbler, northern mockingbird, mourning dove, cliff
swallow, Mexican jay, black-headed grosbeak, black-chinned hummingbird, Wilson’s warbler, *Scott’s
oriole, chipping sparrow, house sparrow, lesser goldfinch, black-crested
titmouse, acorn woodpecker, scrub jay, *western kingbird, white-winged dove,
*canyon towhee, *Grace’s warbler, *zone-tailed hawk, *curve-billed thrasher,
Bullock’s oriole, Gambel’s quail, great horned owl, black-throated sparrow,
*cactus wren, ladder-backed woodpecker, white-crowned sparrow, brownheaded
cowbird, Brewer’s blackbird, *pyrrhuloxia, hooded oriole, verdin, American crow,
Anna’s hummingbird, dark-eyed junco, white-throated swift, Steller’s jay,
mallard, common egret, brown pelican, western bluebird, loggerhead shrike,
Audubon’s warbler, robin, Canada goose, black-billed magpie, red-winged
blackbird, redtailed hawk, American dipper, *yellow warbler, tree swallow,
osprey, mountain bluebird, peregrine falcon, green-tailed towhee, rufous-sided
towhee, common grackle, eastern kingbird, dickcissel, rock pigeon, killdeer, barn
swallow, red-bellied woodpecker, green heron, great blue heron, song sparrow,
yellow-crowned night heron, mute swan, starling, tufted titmouse, indigo bunting,
fox sparrow, downy woodpecker, cedar waxwing, hairy woodpecker
State count: 19 [Virginia, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona,
California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana,
Kentucky]
Odometer count:
Surber, VA: 107,435
Accommodations avg cost: 84 nts, avg $14.97/night
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