Arrival in Kentucky

Hi all. On Saturday we made our tearful goodbyes to the Langridges when they dropped us off at the airport in Montreal. We flew to Lexington, Kentucky via Chicago airport. The O'Hare airport is huge and absolutely packed with people. We found it hard to find a seat to sit down on in our 2 hour stopover there.

We were met by Glennis and Paul Weston (Glennis is Bron's elder sister) at Bluegrass Airport in Lexington and they drove us an hour south of Lexington to a town called Berea, population around 14,000. Berea has a large college and is also known for its arts and crafts. Glennis and Paul's daughter Michelle runs a glass studio there and Glennis and Paul help out in the studio and shop.

Glennis and Paul's house is not set up to accommodate visitors so they arranged for us to sleep in some guest rooms in what used to be an old hotel just across the street. It is run by a Canadian lady from Ottawa, Canada of all places, and her husband and they do weaving and run a shop underneath the guest rooms. The guest rooms are full of their weaving products and its just beautiful. The bed spreads are worth over US$1,000 so Bron and I are being very careful not to slop our drippers.

On Sunday after breakfasting with Glennis and Paul, they took us for a drive around the countryside near Berea. We went for a train ride on a line being run by the Bluegrass Train Restoration group which was quite fun. The photo below shows Glennis and Paul with Bron in the old carriage plus a photo of the old locomotive that pulled the train.

The countryside is absolutely beautiful with some fabulous farms and horse ranches. Kentucky is the home of thoroughbred racehorses. The following photos give some idea of the countryside.



Paul took us on all the back roads which included a ferry trip across the Kentucky river.

This is Daniel Boone country and its very beautiful with its rolling hills, trees, incredible mansions and farms, quaint barns used for storing hay and drying tobacco, fields of corn and tobacco.

The day was incredibly hot and humid and as we were heading back to Berea the sky turned black, the thunder and lightning crashed and flashed around us and the rain pelted down. We saw some spectacular sky to ground lightning strikes.

So we had a great day catching up with Glennis and Paul and seeing some of the beautiful Kentucky countryside.