The end of our time in Kentucky

The end of my Kentucky trip not only involved running a half, but also fitting in as many activities as possible.  I think I have finally found someone who finds as many activities in an area as I do!  And this area was Slade, KY.

After a good lunch at Daniel Boone Cafe, Friday's first activity was to take a clear kayak tour in an underground quarry, the Gorge Underground.  Not a cave, as we were told several times, but an abandoned limestone mine that became full of water.  It now is used for tours and is full of trout that they introduced to the area.  It was a lot of fun!

We had time before we needed to go to packet pickup, so we went for a 2 mile hike at Natural Bridge.  At the top the views were great!

The view of natural bridge from another moutain.

We got our packets and were assured that we would finish when I had questions about how hard it would be.  The race director/organizers were super nice and had things running smoothly, even if they didn't have the medals due to a delay in shipping.  Small races are not always as exciting as big ones, but being allowed to leave your bag at the start without any questions or fear of someone taking it is an advantage that you can only get at a small race.  

The shirts were nice!

Pizza is my usual pre race dinner, and we found some really good pizza at Miguel's.  Then we found our cute little lodge and got a good night's sleep.  

We stayed at the Black Bear Lodge.  It was clean, but rustic.  The lock on the bathroom door was a piece of wood!

Saturday was our race day which I already wrote about.  After we got back to the house, we cleaned up and rested and went to the Kentucky Wool Festival.  It had a lot of crafts and food, and some booths with wool items.  Mostly wool yarn.  We also saw some sheep and other animals.  It was crowded and fun.  I found a booth with knitted pumpkins and one with goat's milk soap.  It is always good to find soap!

Falmouth is the town we stayed in and the home of the wool festival.

We ended our trip by finishing the puzzle.  I don't do a lot of puzzles at home, but I really enjoyed working on this one.

It was definitely a fun filled trip, but with time for relaxing.  So glad I got to have several days exploring Kentucky.  It was a great week!  

Lots of horses in Kentucky

 

There are lots of horses and horse farms in Kentucky!  So on Thursday, we took a tour of thoroughbred horses and horse farms.  It was a lot of fun and interesting.  The first farm we toured was a retirement farm for horses.  We were able to give peppermints to the horses and see one get his teeth brushed.  I also learned that there are horse dentists so to speak.  Who knew!  And horses can live about 30 years.      

 

Horses like to stick their tongues out!

The horse cemetery

And the pet cemetery

One of the horse tombstones

The next farm we visited had a lot of mares and their foals.  Most of the horse babies are born between January and March.  I really want to visit again in March or April and see the foals after they have first been born. 

More tongues sticking out!

The barns are very nice

Before we went to visit the last farm on the tour, we stopped at a really good bakery called Midway School Bakery.  It was housed in an old school.  

Their gingerbread cookies were SO good!

The last farm was Margaux Farms and it was the prettiest.  We weren't allowed in the barns to not spread germs among the horses, but the outside was beautiful.  This farm has two practice tracks and we saw a jockey riding a horse.  

 

After our horse tour, we then toured Mary Todd Lincoln's house.  I had read Jennifer Chiaverini's historical fiction books about her and was impressed with how much information I knew from reading those books.  The house itself was presented very well and was an enjoyable tour.  

We then went for lunch at Stella's Kentucky Deli and got a really good hot brown!

We walked around Lexington and enjoyed the town, even though we didn't find any cute stores to look in.  I'm sure they must have some, but we didn't find them.  

We ended our day as tourists at the UK Arboretum.  It would be a nice place to run, but this time of year, there was not much blooming.  After we got back to the house, we had another night of hanging out and working on the puzzle.

Our trip to Kentucky

 

My race in Kentucky coincided with a hunting trip for Dave.  He has been hunting there before, but this time we went together with another couple.  Dave and the other guy would hunt, but the wife and I were going to be tourists all week!  

On the way to the Airbnb in Falmouth, however, we took a detour to Mammoth Cave.  Tuesday we were able to get on the tour first thing in the morning and explore about 2 miles of the cave.  It was interesting!  The Kentucky hot brown at the Mammoth Cave Lodge, not as interesting.  It was ok, but not the best.  But in Cave City Monday night, we had a really good dinner at a Mexican restaurant named El Mazatlan.  It was such a small town we were able to walk there from our hotel.

At one point, the cave was used to "clean dirt" and collect saltpeter to use in gun powder.  And before that, the Native Americans collected gypsum from the walls.

It was tight walking through fat man's misery

Tuesday afternoon we made it to Falmouth and the house we would be staying in.  Dave and James went hunting right away and Jennifer and I walked around the property, saw the animals and turned around when dogs started barking at us.  

Our house for the week

The animals living on the property

Later that night we finished a puzzle and made plans to hike the next day.  Falmouth is in the middle of nowhere, so on Wednesday, we drove 2 hours to the Red River Gorge Geological Area and hiked the Auxier Ridge Trail to Courthouse Rock.  It was about 4 miles.  I did have a thought as we were hiking that I was glad to not be running it  And I wondered if the race on Saturday would be similar to this trail.  Little did I truly know what I was getting into!

  

There was lots of rock in this geological area!

That night we hung out at the house and started another puzzle that we bought while we were out.  This one would not be finished in one night!  And on a side note, if you are feeling nostalgic about Long John Silver's, it will not be as good as you remembered it to be!