"Free" Week Day 1
Yes, it could be a play on the July 4th holiday conflated with NSA 'stasi' tactics. Instead, it's the reality that our kids are both gone this week and we're doing a little bit of adventuring. This is the Wednesday report:
We wanted to hike at Tom Dorman Nature Preserve along the Kentucky River Palisades. After a solid drive along both the familiar I64 corridor and some nice country roads outside Versailles, KY, we found the Preserve to be an overgrown, tick-and-poisonivy nightmare. Obviously we don't hike lightly visited sites in high summer, b/c there is/was no way we were going to enter such a Hell. I'm sure it's nice; we'll visit in Fall or Winter. With that not working out, we drove across the river to check out the shorter trail at the Jim Beam Nature Preserve. Again, what we found frightened us in our shorts (and I in sandals). None-the-less, our mood was light. We decided on a third option, Raven Run Nature Sanctuary, which is owned by the city of Lexington. We arrived at 3.30+ to find that the facility closed at 4.30 and for good at 5.00, so we chose the short Meadow Trail. During out time we saw:
We wanted to hike at Tom Dorman Nature Preserve along the Kentucky River Palisades. After a solid drive along both the familiar I64 corridor and some nice country roads outside Versailles, KY, we found the Preserve to be an overgrown, tick-and-poisonivy nightmare. Obviously we don't hike lightly visited sites in high summer, b/c there is/was no way we were going to enter such a Hell. I'm sure it's nice; we'll visit in Fall or Winter. With that not working out, we drove across the river to check out the shorter trail at the Jim Beam Nature Preserve. Again, what we found frightened us in our shorts (and I in sandals). None-the-less, our mood was light. We decided on a third option, Raven Run Nature Sanctuary, which is owned by the city of Lexington. We arrived at 3.30+ to find that the facility closed at 4.30 and for good at 5.00, so we chose the short Meadow Trail. During out time we saw:
- a fawn nursing her mother doe
- a murder of crows
- a rafter of turkeys
- two bunnies- one braver than he should be
- Northern Cardinal
- Eastern Meadwolark
- many bird calls which I couldn't identify and some flying birds that were
- butterflies aplenty
**My camera didn't have good batteries, so we took only vistas and left only footprints.
After our brief hike we drove in to Lexington, first finding and stopping at a bookstore the good wife wanted to check out, and then driving and stopping at Transylvania (our alma mater) for a Family Picnic, which is apparently a tradition as the Lexington July 4th celebration is a philharmonic concert on the grounds in front of Old Morrison, Transy's very old admin building. We saw some old friends and then took seats for some old guys playing big band jazz and then for the main show, a very patriotic and "festive" (wife's word for the day) concert of marches, military tunes, americana and such. It was very pleasant
We concluded our evening stopping at the home of old friends for a couple hours of talk and pressing the flesh. Always good. That was Wednesday, a local, Kentucky-based day, but a great day.
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