April in Kentucky and D.C.

In anticipation of our trip to the Kentucky horse races, I made a new dress/hat combo for Easter that I expected to wear again in Kentucky.

The shear fabric of this dress really challenged my sewing skills.

We loaded the Subaru with clothes, food, maps, my hat and dress, and Rusty's golf clubs.  We spent the first night on the east side of St. Louis, and the second day we traveled to the Mammoth Cave area in Kentucky.  Mammoth Cave is the largest cave in the world with over 400 miles of passageways.  The second and third largest caves in the world added together do not come close to reaching the magnitude of this cave.

We took a 2-hour tour that began with 240 steps down.  

In many places we had to turn sideways or duck our heads in order to move through the narrow spaces.

 stalactites and stalagmites

These creepy cave crickets liked to run across the ceiling.

After Mammoth Cave, we drove north to Bloomfield, Kentucky, a small town of fewer than 900 people. Rusty lived here during kindergarten and first and second grade. At that time it was the best of all possible worlds!

Main Street--largely unchanged since the mid-fifties.

The drug store (with the blue awning) is still run by the same family that Rusty knew.  They told us that Gladys Parish was still alive and would enjoy a visit from Rusty.

Rusty and his siblings each spent a week at a time during summers at the farm of Bill and Gladys Parish.  This is Gladys, still hale and hearty, living and driving on her own at age 95.  She remembered many stories of Rusty's youth, including the time he caught a snake while staying at the farm.

Bloomfield Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Rusty's father was the pastor here.  The family lived in the parsonage next door.

Bloomfield ElementarySchool

Rusty returns to Bloomfield Elementary School to turn in an overdue assignment.

It turns out the school is closed and abandoned and all records of Rusty's shortcomings have been expunged.  Whew!

Our next stop was Lexington where we stayed with my cousin, Linda Gorman, a professor at UK.  Rusty took me to various spots in town and the surrounding area which he remembers fondly.

"The" Lexington Public Library--Rusty's personal library as a child.

Looking upward through the domed ceiling of the library.

The youth portion of the library--Rusty's personal wing.

Still spacious, the marble steps leading up to Rusty's wing were awesome in the eyes of an eight-year-old.

Adjacent to the library is an area known as Gratz Park.  It is surrounded by some of the oldest houses in Lexington, most dating to the early 19th century or earlier.

This historic fountain in Gratz Park dates back many, many years.  While a student at Transylvania University, Rusty's Uncle Jeff tested the waters here one night,  an act frowned on by the local police.  It's become a bit of a shrine for the White family.

A shrine of a different sort, Morrison Hall on the campus of nearby Transylvania University, was the spot where Rusty's dad proposed to his mom.  As one might guess, she said "yes."

Cousin Linda took us to Keeneland Race Track.  The most beautiful track in the U.S., Keeneland has been used as the film sight for many horse racing movies, including "Seabiscuit" and "Secretariat".  

Linda Gorman, Di's favorite cousin, our Lexington host.

Di and Rusty, ready to play the ponies.    (I wore my coat over my new dress because it was very windy and cold.)

 

Di pulls some loose change out of her "church-lady" purse.

Thanks, Linda, for a fun time!  We enjoyed spending our big winnings ($19.80) at the Cassanova Restaurant.  Excellent, authentic Italian food.

The next day we traveled to the Red River Gorge in eastern Kentucky.  Much of the gorge is under protected status. 

The only access into the gorge prior to the 1930's was a narrow gauge railway.  We entered the gorge through a one-lane tunnel, the former trackbed.

There was at least one point on the narrow, winding road where we could look down below us and see the car that was approaching us from only 100 feet below.  This is an area known for its geological formations and rocky, white-water river.  It was one of Rusty's favorite solo camping spots when he lived in Kentucky.

This is the top side of one of the many natural bridges in the area.

On Sunday we attended New Union Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) where Rusty's dad was pastor for a number of years while he was a professor at the Lexington Theological Seminary.  Serving this small church was a sideline occupation to his appointment as professor - not unlike the gigging that Rusty did while employed as a music professor.

There were several people attending the service whom Rusty remembered from his days there, including the 94-year-old organist.

Martha Jane Stone has been playing for 75 years (she gets Monday through Saturday off).

The original building (circa 1839) was replicated in 1962; the old brick and pews were used in the new structure.  The new building has an indoor bathroom, but parking is still on the grass.  As was the case in the late fifties, the minister on this Sunday encouraged the members of the congregation to bring the full force of their intellect and critical thinking to the service.  She remembered Rusty's dad from the old days.

Nearby Pisgah Presbyterian Church was a site for frequent picnics and other gatherings that joined the congregations of both Pisgah and New Union.  Pisgah is the older building and has a famous cemetery with stones dating to the Revolutionary War.

Notice that some of the children were born or died in Indian captivity.

A typical stone fence from the "horse country" local of Pisgah and New Union.  It is likely this fence was originally built by slave labor.

En route from Lexington to D.C. we stopped at Bath County High School (now the middle school) where Rusty taught in 1970-71. 

Rusty was surprised to find the band room (formerly a two-bus garage, located behind the main building) still standing.  His year teaching here was his initial introduction to the elite ivory tower landscape of academia.

Do you think this building was air-conditioned?

It was an added treat to spend a few minutes with Rusty's nephew, JC, while we were staying with Rusty's brother Ronny and his wife Margie in the D.C. area.

A retired JAG Colonel, Ronny still works as a civilian advising young army lawyers from around the globe.  Here he is advising Rusty on one of the finer points of military jurisprudence.  

Thank you, Ronny and Margie, for a wonderful visit!!

We had two very long days of driving to get home from D.C.  Our overnight was in Richmond, Indiana, and we were very pleasantly surprised.  (The last time we stayed here was New Year's Eve 2009 when we were both violently ill.) 

We dined at the Olde Richmond Inn, located in an elegant Victorian home in the downtown area.  The food was excellent and the wait staff superb.

We learned that Richmond was settled in 1806 by North Carolina Quakers.  It also was on the Historic National Road, America's first interstate highway established by an act of Congress in 1806.  Pre-Civil War runaway slaves hid at the Levi Coffin House in this town.  One of the many slaves who hid in the Coffin home was "Eliza," whose story is told in Uncle Tom's Cabin.  Back in 1916, the Gennett Record Company of Richmond, Indiana began making records in a primitive little studio.  It became "the" recording studio for jazz artists.  Jazz recordings were made here by Hoagy Carmichael, Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey, and Jelly Roll Morton. 

The town also has a remarkable collection of early 19th to early 20th century architecture and homes.

  It is amazing how many exciting things one can find if one takes the time to get away from the interstate and the food chains.  We are so glad we stopped in this historic town!