Merry Christmas from Barbara & Klep

With the Christmas cards flooding in and December slowly disappearing from my calendar, I am reminded that, once again, it is time for Klep and I to send forth our annual Christmas wishes to all of you scattered around the globe who mean so very much to us! 2012 has less than seven days left in it and it has been a year full of all life has to offer, both sad and happy. This will be forever the year that we bade my mother good-by in September.


It will also be the year we felt the love and comfort of loved ones and our Heavenly Father as we all went through this time of loss.



It will be the year that our oldest grand daughter Ava Grace became a first grader and little sister Leila Kate started preschool. It will be the year I spent more time than I wanted to in the hospital and Klep spent more time than he wanted to playing nurse!

2012 was also a year when we enjoyed our sojourns to Tennessee in April and October and the other months here in Jennings; the year we road tripped Kentucky; the year we discovered more fried pies than we needed to; watched some good sunrises on the beach; and shared a lot of good old fashioned lazy days at home.

                                2012 will be the year we got together more with our cousins and bid our dear cousin Annie B. good-bye.



Thanksgiving 2012 will always be the first one without Grandma, but will go down as a joyful celebration of those of us who remember her. The day can be summed up in Leila’s little song she sang as she made play dough cookies, “Happy, happy! Happy, happy!”

Christmas Season 2012 will be the one which was scheduled around my second surgery of the year. We had open house where we celebrated the season with carols and food and about sixty-five friends. Our church cantata on the 9th was beautiful as we joined voices with a neighboring church to sing our musical, “Silent Night, Holy Night”

We had hoped to squeeze in a trip to South Carolina to share Christmas with our Karolina Kleppers, but the bug laid us both low and we have delayed that until early in the new year. Now, we look forward to a quiet day at home spent with Rob and Traci.
John, Pam, Daniel, and Matthew have visited this Christmas Eve along with our friends Phillip and Judy.

And we look forward to closing out 2012 with a cruise to the eastern Caribbean along with Rob and Traci.




May your Christmas be bright and joyful! May you be surrounded by love and feel the hope and peace that Our Savior promised us. And, may the New Year, 2013, bring us all closer together.

                                     Love,

                                     Barbara & Klep

Traffic, Barbecue, Home: Ending of a Good Trip

We awoke near Calhoun, Georgia this morning near interstate 75.  We were headed toward Atlanta not long after nine listening to a book on CD.  Atlanta traffic was Atlanta traffic, but it was moving well.  Fortunately traffic south of the city was lighter than usual.

We lunched at JL Barbecue just off 475 in Macon and deemed it adequate but not spectacular.  We have eaten there several times before and we are afraid that the quality has gone down.  Neither the ribs or the sliced pork really had that cooked over wood taste that we look for.  I asked Klep if it had really gotten worse or if we had gotten more discriminating and he decided it was a little of both!

We finished the book long before arriving in Valdosta, changing over to Sirius Radio's Classic radio station.  We love the simplistic way the old time radio stories got the story told in thirty minutes with time out for commercials.

Our next adventure was Publix.  It was either stop or go shopping tomorrow.  We opted for doing it on the way home.  We stocked up on good nutritious veggies, fish, chicken, and lean meat.  There will be no more fried pies for awhile.  Both of us are dreading the scales in the morning!

We pulled into the driveway at 4:02 p.m.  Our place is living up to its name.  The rains have come quite regularly which is great for the flowers, but the mosquitoes are in full bloom, too!

We now declare Road Trip 2012 done!

Falls,Train,Museum: Tennessee Line at 2:58pm
After a breakfast of our leftover fried apple pies, we took a quick second look at Cumberland Falls, marveling at how much the river had risen in a week and a half with the rains.  We had picked up a sandwich to have for lunch and headed to our next destination, the Big South Fork Scenic Railway in an old coal mining town, Stearns, Kentucky.

The Kentucky and Tennessee Railway was built between 1902 and 1904 to haul timber and coal, to carry passengers, and to take workers and supplies to the camps along its line.

Now the train is run by the McCreary County Heritage Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization which was created to preserve, protect and interpret the history of one of the few remaining company towns in Kentucky.

We rode about 8 miles into Boone National Forest, dropping six hundred feet in elevation before we arrived at Blue Heron Mine area where we stopped to enjoy the exhibits and the old coal mining artifacts.  We arrived in a driving rain and sat for awhile on the train, enjoying our club sandwich.

On the way to the noon stop, we passed an old mining camp at Barthell, saw Canadian geese on the mill pond, passed through an old tunnel, and road by sheer drops and steep cliffs, black from the seams of coal running through them.  We saw some sumac leaves starting to change color, ferns growing in fissures of rocks, and blooming daisies by the tracks.

After our return trip (clipping on at an average of eleven miles an hour), we walked over to the McCreary County Museum which is housed in the Old Stearns Office Building which was built in 1907.  Stearns was the coal company which basically built and owned the town and the railroad.

The building housed artifacts from the old coal mine, old tools, and old household items from the early part of the twentieth century.  It also had a particularly nice moonshine still on display.

We walked past the business part of town, housed in a large block of wooden buildings and saw the damage from a recent fire which shut the restaurant and several more of the businesses  down.  Workers are already starting with the repairs.


We found our car in the parking lot, set the GPS for home and headed south, crossing the state line into Tennessee at 2:58 p.m . We visited and/or transited 30 counties and drove over 1400 miles in the state. We feel that we have a much better understanding and appreciation of Kentucky than we did two weeks ago.

Now, it is time to start considering what state to choose for next year's trip!

Sky Lift, Fried Apple Pies, Berea, and the Colonel:  A Full Day in Kentucky
The light fog was back when we awoke, but by the time we were on our way to the state park, the skies were blue with the promise of another beautiful day.  After our short visit to the ubiquitous gift shop, we watched the sky lift  operator check over the equipment which would take us to the top of the bluff where we would stand on Kentucky's Natural Bridge.  We were the first to get on the sky lift and it slowly took us up over the rocks, grass, streams, and trees until we got to a sheer face of rock and we lifted up to the exit platform.  The view was wonderful as we looked at the scenes below.  We took the short walk to the bridge that we walked across before deciding that we didn't really want to walk down the path to be underneath the bridge although we would have liked to get a picture of it.



 


About this time, three neatly dressed freshly scrubbed (although a little sweaty around the edges!)  young people came up from the bridge.  They had walked up from the very bottom.  We all fell into conversation and found that they were visiting from Illinois.  Mary Huffman volunteered to take Klep's camera back down and get photos of the bridge for us.  John and Stephen, her two brothers, stayed and talked to us while they waited for their parents to ride up on the skylift.  After Mary got back up, we all walked back to the skylift and we waved good-by to them and got back on the lift as their parents were getting off.

Our next destination was a little country store in St. Helen's in search of fried pies.  Last night we had shared our search for them with the cashier (lovely Kentucky Appalachian accent!) at the lodge restaurant and she had told us about this little place that makes really good pies.  She had told us go go to Beattyville (home of the Woolly Worm Festival) and turn left toward Jackson.  We found Sue's Pantry, a little wooden store with a gas pump out front and all sorts of groceries on the shelves, much like one run by my Uncle Drew and Aunt Ola.  Over in one corner was the stove and a counter to order food.  There was one table where a man was eating.  We were saddened to find that the cook had not made pies today because cooked apples were on the lunch menu.  We shared our story, and Jane, the cook, agreed to make us some pies!  I enjoyed watching her mix us the dough and cook the pies while I talked to the locals coming in for late breakfast, early lunch, and pop.  That's what this part of the country calls soft drinks.  The pop of choice in St. Helens is Ale 8 1 which was invented in the 1920's by a Kentucky man and is produced only in Kentucky.  The name is said like "A late one," which indicated that it was a new drink.  A large pot of chicken and dumplings were bubbling on the stove to go with the cooked apples.

Jane finished the pies after she gave me a bite of the one she used as a test and it was good.  In fact is was more than good.  She introduced me to all the other women working in the little store/cafe, boxed up my pies, and I paid and we were back on the road getting cinnamon sugar all over ourselves while we rode.  This was an experience I will never forget.

We drove on through the Kentucky country side, passing more old barns with quilt squares, pie plate hibiscus of all colors, up and down hills and sweeping curves passing places with names like "Stone Coal Cemetery," "Big Hill," and "Rock Castle," beautiful vegetable gardens, finally climbing to an altitude of over 1300 feet before arriving in Berea, the home of Berea College which was founded in 1855 by abolitionist John G. Fee and Cassius M. Clay as an interracial and coeducational school, both unheard of concepts in the 1800's.  The college runs Boone Tavern, a historic Inn and restaurant where we had planned to have a late lunch.  We arrived too late to eat there, however and chose a little cafe down the street where we had some ciabatta sandwiches.  We also visited the Kentucky Artisan Center where Klep was fascinated with some of the art objects and I did a little shopping.

Our last tourist stop for the day was in Corbin, Kentucky to visit the original Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant and museum.  It was a trip just to read the old prices for a bucket of fried chicken.  I had not realized that the original cafe was next to Sander's motor lodge and gas station!

As we left Corbin, we spotted a drive-in - the Brown Cow.  Klep pulled in, and before we could get out of the car, the carhop was there to get our orders!  We did not know that there were any such places left on this earth!  Klep got his milkshake; I got my "blizzie" and we headed off to the lodge for the evening happy people!

The Bridges of Fleming County, Yoder's Country Store, and The Red River Gorge:  A Day of Contrasts in Kentucky
I awoke before seven, dressed, and went for my morning walk around the grounds of the lodge, enjoying the views of the treeline along the Licking River shrouded in heavy fog.  By the time Klep was up and enjoying his coffee on the deck, the fog had lifted, leaving us a cool blue morning filled with the sound of birdsong.

On our way to the first covered bridge of the day, we stopped at an Amish store, Yoder's Country Market, just knowing they would have fried pies.  They were all sold out, so we got a couple of sandwiches made with bread baked there, slices of country ham with Swiss cheese and fresh Kentucky tomatoes to have for our picnic. 

The first bridge was Goddard Bridge southeast of Flemingsburg which is a favorite of photographers because from the east, the bridge frames a little church, Goddard United Methodist.  Large pegs are used in this bridge to secure the trusses.  This 60 foot bridge can be driven though to cross Sand Lick Creek.  The date of construction is not known but it was built using an 1820 patent design.  The trusses are a lattice design and this is the only
one like this remaining in Kentucky.

We backtracked to find the road to our next two bridges.  Grange City Covered Bridge is several miles south of Hillsboro.  Eighty-six feet long, the design of this one is "multiple king post truss", a design where the bracing is done with a series of upright timbers all inclined toward the center post.

We drove though rolling hills carpeted with green soy beans to find our last covered bridge of the day, Ringo's Mill Bridge which had the same design as the Grange City.  It was 89 feet long and was named after a grist mill that was located on the creek. Although it is closed to traffic, we could walk through it.  This is where we ate our lunch sitting on a shady bench under a big hickory tree with the sound of cicadas.

Our terrain changed drastically between morning and mid afternoon when we arrived at the Red River Gorge Loop Road that runs through the Red River Gorge, a canyon system on the Red River of east-central Kentucky.  Most of the gorge is inside the Daniel Boone National Forest and it is a National Natural Landmark which gives it protection from development or major change.  It features sandstone cliffs, rock shelters, waterfalls, and natural bridges.  More than 100 natural stone arches are found in the Gorge, worn by nature and time.  Kentucky's Natural Bridge, a state park, is one of the largest in the gorge.

We entered the loop on Kentucky 77 and the views were spectacular even before we got to Nada Tunnel.  The tunnel, built between 1910 and 1912 by loggers, is 900 feet long, 12 feet wide, and 13 feet high.  Needless to say, it is one way.  The driver just has to be sure no one else is in the tunnel when he enters.

We paralleled the Red River for miles through sheer cliffs and massive trees before we came to the Gladie Historical Site where we found a log cabin from the early 1800's and exhibits in the Visitors'  Center.  U.S. Forest Ranger Wetherington (originally from Dublin, Georgia) was extremely helpful, pointing out a road that would take us to a short hike where we could see an arch up close.  He also showed us a short movie that gave some of the history and geological information of the Gorge.  I was amazed at the cross section of a chestnut tree (now all gone from this region due to a disease that came from the Orient by way of New York) that was 187 years old when it died.

After the center, we wound our way to a smaller road that went up to 1100 feet where we walked to the Princess Arch which spans approximately 40 feet.  Our walk took us through a narrow trail with rhododendrons and mountain laurel.  It would be beautiful in the late spring!  We were serenaded with the sound of thunder walking into the site and some of the raindrops got through the tree cover as we walked back.

The loop road continued about three more miles before we left the National Forest.  We found our motel, Lil Abner, checked in, and went in search of food which we found at the Natural Bridge State Resort Park.  The pizza place looked full, Rosie's was closed, and the state park was the other choice!  Fortunately, the state runs a good restaurant!

We have done our planning for tomorrow and feel that we can call it a day!

 Back to the Ohio:  The Search for Covered Bridges in Kentucky

We awoke to a light rain, had a leisurely breakfast and drove through more beautiful horse farms on our way north and east. 


By early afternoon we were approaching the Ohio River once again, but as we looked across the river, we saw Ohio and not Indiana or Illinois.

We had quite a winding path before we found our first one, Cabin Creek Covered Bridge which is 114 feet long.  It is in poor condition, so all we could do was look at it:  no walking or driving through it.  Hopefully the
bridge,built in 1867, will be the next one to be repaired.

We returned to Maysville and followed the river westward to the turn for the next one, the Dover Covered Bridge.  This bridge, built in 1835, renovated in 1966, and is still open to traffic.  It is 62 feet long and is the oldest covered  bridge in Kentucky.

On our way to the next bridge, we left our road and drove down to the river in Augusta, Kentucky to see the old section of town and to see the ferry crossing to Ohio.  Augusta was a picturesque town that reminded us of many of the little coastal towns in Maine.

Leaving the river behind,we took another circuitous route, to find Walcott Covered Bridge which is also known as the white bridge because it is painted white.  This bridge was rebuilt in 1880 to replace one built in 1824.   No vehicles could cross this bridge, but we could walk across it.

As we drove the winding byways in search of the bridges, we passed numerous fields of tobacco and pastures filled with fat cows.  The barns were no longer the wonders of the horse country; they were much more like the barns used for regular farming that have been there for a hundred years.

On our way to Blue Licks Battleground State Resort Park (the site of the last battle in the American Revolution) where we planned to stay in the lodge for the night, Klep spotted the sign for the Johnson Creek Covered Bridge.  We were pleased to find that the 110 foot bridge built in 1874 was in good condition and was open for traffic.




We circled back and headed to the state park.  We were delighted with the facilities.  Although the lodge lacks some of the atmosphere we found at the Dupont Lodge, another state facility, the convenience of a spacious ground floor room with its own deck out back overlooking a wooded area more than makes up for the lack of architectural charm! 

Woodford Reserve, Thoroughbred Heritage Horse Farm Tour, and Hot Brown at Ramsey's Diner:  A Busy Saturday in Kentucky  After a good breakfast the the Woodford Inn, we headed to the historic buildings housing Woodford Reserve, one of the oldest distilleries in Kentucky to see how the world famous Kentucky bourbon in produced.  We passed by some beautiful horse country on the way.  After a thorough and informative tour, we felt that we pretty much understood the process from combining the grain, fermenting it, kegging it and putting it in barrels.  We especially
enjoyed seeing the old buildings built out of limestone and the barrel storage where it ages in the oak barrels which are made by Woodford for the eight year aging.  The chocolate bourbon pecan candies were right tasty!

We headed into Lexington to meet our tour that we booked with Thoroughbred Heritage Horse Farm Tours where we met out tour director Dan. By the time we added a group from Texas and a family from Iowa, we had eleven people in the van.  Dan did a good job of informing us and keeping us entertained as we spent three hours touring through horse country stopping at at a stud farm where we got to see horses up close who had raced and won.

There are 450 horse farms in the fifty mile radius of Lexington.  Many are small farms, but there are also some that are worth millions of dollars and are quite large.  Horses are grown so successfully in this region because of the water which is itself rich in minerals, but also because it made the grass richer which produces animals with stronger bones.  The region has been known as the Bluegrass region from the earliest settlement because of the tall grass which covered it, blooming blue at maturity.  The region is rich in history from the time that several native American tribes shared it.  The name Kentucky comes from an Iroquois name for the region:  Ken Ta tah which meant land of tomorrows.  Lexington was named in honor of the place where the first shots of the American Revolution were fired.  The area became a commonwealth in 1792.  Many of the settlers were people who had fought in the war and were given land grants.
  
We passed by the Darby Dan Farm where the farm scenes for the movie Secretariat were filmed at a stallion and broodmare operation.  We passed one farm, Stonestreet, which had 15 miles of white fencing.  The man who owns that farm made his money in construction and has spent a right smart bunch of it on his horses and the farm!

Interestingly, of the thoroughbreds born, only 50% of them ever make it to the racetrack and of those, only 5 % ever make it to the winner's circle.

We passed one farm, Skipaway which is for sale for only fifteen million dollars.

Windstar was one of our major stops where we got a good view of some beautiful stallions which raced and are now used for breeding purposes.  One of the horses, Tiznow gets a $75,000 stud fee.  He won the Breeders Cup two years in a row and now weighs 1450 pounds.  That is a lot of horse!  Distorted Humor, another of the stallions, has three triple crown babies and 110 stakes winners.  He gets a $100,000 stud fee.

All thoroughbred horses have a January 1 birth date during the year they are born.  Since the gestation period for a horse is eleven months, the busiest breeding season is in February and March.  Colts who are born early in the year will be larger for auction and stronger for racing in the races which are for a certain age like the Triple Crown for three year-olds.

Each of the stallions have their own stalls and their own one acre paddocks.  They can not be together because they would fight and they are too valuable to risk.
After leaving the stud farms, we drove by old Pisgah Presbyterian Church and it's cemetery where former Governor Happy Chandler is buried and where the cemetery scenes for Elizabethtown were filmed.

We passed by an architectural monstrosity known as "The Castle" which looks like a German castle.  Two young lovers went to Germany while they were dating and the young woman fell in love with the castles and insisted that her fiance build her one when they came home.  Unfortunately she dumped him before the wedding.  It is now a bed and breakfast.

We stopped at the Keeneland Race Track where the race scenes for the Belmont in the movie Secretariat were filmed.  There are no races there right now, but there were people there watching simultaneous races at other tracks and betting.  The races are in April and October at Keeneland but there are horses trained there all year long.  They work out each morning.  Tickets for the patio area of the races are only five dollars and the stands, ten.

Our last stop on the tour was "Old Friends" a rescue farm for thoroughbreds who no longer have any use in the racing/breeding world.  Here we had a chance to feed horses carrots and peppermints.  One of the horses who played Seabiscuit is there now.

After saying good by to those we had shared the tour with, we made our was to Ramsey's Diner near the University of Kentucky campus to have our first "Hot Brown" open face sandwich which contains roast beef, turkey, ham, cheese sauce, tomatoes, cheddar cheese, and crispy bacon.  It was, of course, delicious.  Unfortunately we were too full after eating it to enjoy some of their pie!

Our day has been full.  We look forward to continuing our road trip after a good, restful night's sleep!

Versailles, Kentucky, Caves and Corvettes:Day 6 in Kentucky
The close of the day found us on the front porch of The Woodford Inn in white rocking chairs, chatting with people who were coming to Addie's Restaurant for the Friday special.  Conversation flowed freely with people who all knew each other including us in their conversations.  Everyone shared ideas about things we should do before we leave Sunday.  It was great to talk to people who live here and who know the area.  Finally, most of the group went in to eat, but one couple who had already eaten, Jack and Sherry, shared tidbits about the area and about their old house, built in the mid 19th century.  Sherry also shared anecdotes about the filming of the movie Elizabethtown which was actually shot here in Versailles.  They invited us to see their house which was on the cover of Better Homes and Gardens during the spring of 2003.
We walked the few blocks from our historic inn (built as a girl's school in 1876) to their home, a lovely wooden structure with a white picket fence around it and an arbor over the gate.  When I saw it, I immediately remembered the cover!  The house was charming and well lived in.  We could appreciate Sherry's ability as an interior designer and see her passion for her work in all the special things she had done to make their home unique and functional.

Jack brought us back to the inn where Klep and I indulged ourselves with dessert as we mulled over the day that started in the rain at the National Corvette Museum where we enjoyed the collection of cars starting with the prototype for the 1953 Vette and going to the 2012 models in the lobby waiting for their owners to pick them up.  In fact, we got to talk to one of the couples who were there to pick up their new car.  I chose a ruby red one, but it was already taken.  They did have a deep blue that I could have gotten (had I had sixty thousand dollars in my purse), but it wasn't my color!

After we left Bowling Green, we drove to Mammoth Cave National Park to do the cave thing.  Winding through the park, we passed wild turkeys and deer out in the light rain.  We were not able to book the tour we wanted, but we decided we would be happy with the self-guided tour.  The walk down the sloping walkway and steps in the fairly steady rain was a little daunting.  It was great to get into the cave and descend on stairs covered.  We enjoyed our walk in and out, seeing the waterfalls and enjoying the cool, quiet air.  The ranger told us that we were fortunate that it was raining because if it hadn't been, there would have been no waterfalls cascading down.

When we emerged from the cave and cleaned our shoes so that we would not infect any bats, we felt as though we had walked into an oven.  We were totally surprised to find that the temperature was in the low seventies!

We drove into Cave City where we found the restaurant that one of the rangers had suggested to us, Sahara Steak House, a local place we shared with three plain clothes officers of the law.  By this time, it was mid afternoon, long after the lunch crowd.  Klep ordered onion rings as his side to go with his small steak and they were some of the crispest I have ever tasted.  I traded him some of my steamed broccoli!

Our rainy day, Friday the thirteenth, proved to be anything but dreary.  Once again, we realize how many people there are in this country of ours who are just plain good folks!