Wednesday, April 3, 2013

There's something about Mary -- April 2nd -- Day 21

Tuesday morning we awoke in Lexington to a frosty 22 degrees, but by the time we were ready to leave the hotel the sun was shining brightly and it had warmed up to the high 30s! We wanted to see some of the horse country, and had read in the AAA guide about the availability of various 3 hour bus tours and the Kentucky Horse Park, all of which seemed more horsing around than we were up to, so we headed to the Lexington Visitor Center to seek out alternatives. Turns out there were two: (1) some of the horse farms will provide tours if you make arrangements in advance; and (2) a map with directions for a driving tour of the horse farm areas. It was of course too late to take advantage of the former so we opted for the latter, and spent a pleasant hour and a half driving through beautiful rolling hills which a welcome relief from the flatness of practically every other place we've visited except around Fallingwater.  Each farm presented large green fields surrounded by beautiful white or black fences (apparently there is a dispute among horse farmers about which color is easier for horses to see) sporting imposing houses and even more imposing barns, both set too far off the road to get much of a picture (how inconsiderate!). Problem was there weren't very many horses, either because it was still pretty chilly and they're smart enough to stay in the warm barns or (more likely) they've already been transferred to a track as the racing season will be starting soon. Among the highlights of the tour were Three Chimneys Farm, a stud farm whereSeattle Slew spent several happy years after winning the Triple Crown, and the house that author Margaret Mitchell (reputedly) used as the model for Tara in Gone with the Wind. We stopped for lunch at Wallace Station, a funky place recommended by the woman at the visitor center, but also (we learned later) by both Yelp and Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives (YouTube clip available here.) We returned to Lexington to visit the Mary Todd Lincoln House which is located right in downtown. Perhaps you knew but we didn't that she was the daughter of a prominent and relatively wealthy businessman and had 10 years of formal schooling, including a couple in a local boarding school where only French was spoken, which of course made her an unlikely match for Abraham Lincoln, the son of poor farmers with only one year of formal education, as did her diminutive 5'2" stature, compared with his 6'4".   We also learned more about her post-White House days, including her sole surviving son's successful effort to have her involuntarily treated for mental illness, largely because of hallucinations that, according to our knowledgable tour guide, were most likely a result of the combination of medications she had been prescribed to treat migraines and depression caused by the premature deaths of so many of her family members.  Once she was off the medications the hallucinations disappeared and she was released, and subsequently initiated her own legal proceedings to have herself determined mentally competent.  Quite a woman.  We left Lexington late in the afternoon heading for Knoxville, Tennessee, but stopped along the way in Berea, Kentucky for the Kentucky Artisan Center which is to Kentucky what Tamarack (see entry for Day 7) is to West Virginia. We had dinner at the historic Boone Tavern, a 100 year old restaurant and inn that dates from a time where "tavern" didn't mean "drinking establishment" -- in fact the entire county is dry.  The inn, which was beautifully restored in 2009 as part of its centennial celebration, is located adjacent to the campus of Berea College and most of its employees are are students from the college. Berea, if you aren't familiar with it, is the original work-study college. Founded in 1855 as a Christian non-denominational college to serve "mountain youth" with limited financial means, the college has no tuition, and its students work 10-15 hours at campus jobs to earn money for books, housing and food. By the time we left the sun was setting and we were regretting that we had confirmed our reservation in Knoxville, because it would have been fun to spend a night at the Inn and the timing meant that our initial foray into the Great Smokey Mountains in Tennessee took place at night, thus we missed the (reportedly) spectacular scenery. 

No comments:

Post a Comment