Kentucky Day 2- My first full day in Kentucky

Today turned out to be a 3-parter.  It began in Louisville spending time with my niece and her husband.  What delightful hosts.  They’ve only been in Kentucky about a month themselves but they love it and, as far as I was concerned, it was a treasure getting to spend time with “locals”.

Even though we are only a few days into fall, the change in seasons seemed quite apparent to me when I stepped out to my car this morning to retrieve my camera.  Quite amusing actually that the first thought that went through my mind was of Yosemite; just that little crispness in the air and the leaves on the ground, despite the fact that it was probably in the low 70s.   I’m such a desert rat- born and raised in sunny California.

I have long believed that an excellent way to get to know an area is through hunting for yard sales or looking for housing.  I have recently added geo-caching to that list.  Erika and I spent the entire morning cruising about with my GPS searching for local caches.  We remained guardedly optimistic despite striking out at our first two attempts.  For whatever reason we got lucky on number here.  It was a little film canister secreted at the base of a light standard.

With renewed enthusiasm we pressed on to number four on our list.  We wandered about the area, still perplexed at exactly how to interpret the changes in the coordinate readings as we moved about.  All at once it came to our attention that we were being approached by a man who was walking across the parking lot from a nearby establishment.

“What are you doing? he asked. I quickly filtered through a series of possible responses, then said, “Do you geo-cache?”

He said he did not but opened the passenger side of an adjacent pickup and said, “I have one right here.”  He produced something that resembled an extra large green test tube with a plug in one end to secure its contents.  It turns out he was the manager of that store and had found the item some 3 or 4 months earlier while trimming the brush by the side of the building leaving it completely exposed.  “I figured it was important to somebody so I held onto it,” he said.  “I’ve been waiting to see if someone came looking.”

How great is that?  A tribute to humanity and the good people of the commonwealth of Kentucky.  So he entrusted it to Erika and I to re-locate it somewhere new.  And so goes Erika’s introduction to geo-caching…Thanks Roger.

We were so engrossed with our adventure that the time we would have had to enjoy lunch together had slipped away.  I gathered my things, including the salad we’d picked up at a deli on the way back to her apartment, and hit the road again, this time en route to Lexington to pick up my World Equestrian Games uniform.

Part two of my day took me horse lovers’ heaven.  The closer I got to Lexington, the more evident it was that I was truly in the Horse Capital of America; so many spacious grassy pastures with the long stretches of black four panel fences.  Even before you see the horses, you know you’ve arrived.

It was fairly easy to locate the uniform distribution center.  The well-organized team of volunteers in charge directed me from one station to the next as I was fitted and presented with my goods and apparel.  They suggested that if I had the chance, I drop by the Thoroughbred Park at the intersection of East Main Street and Eastern Avenue, downtown.  I’m so glad they did.

I still had my salad so I parked along the street and sat on a bench in the park to eat.  As I did I thought to myself, here I sit all by myself in Lexington, Kentucky, feeling like I’m the luckiest person in the world.

The last part of my day took me to the National Cadet Training Center in Millersburg, about 30 minutes NE of Lexington.  I was “processed in” and “set up camp” but more about tht tomorrow.  It’s after 11pm and I need to turn in- I have another big day in store tomorrow.