Happiness and Contentment

Jill's Journal: Life is good. Correction: Life is great. We’ve been officially camping at our first sanctioned campground for not even 36 hours yet and tonight the girls caught their very first fireflies. How cool is that? These are the kind of memories we’re here to make. The excitement in their voices was absolutely infectious. Here they are with friends Leah and Alaina (all five girls were in various stages of holding fireflies in their hands!), whose wonderful parents drove up to the campground and brought us a farewell dinner tonight. We ate together, played together, swam together, and caught fireflies together. The girls absolutely loved watching those firefly rear-ends light up right in their hands!

As an aside, I’ve seen fireflies for the last 13 years here in Kentucky, but I had no idea you could catch the things at all, much less in your bare hands. Leah and Alaina’s Mom, Heather, thought it was hilarious I had no clue. I’m from the California desert, for Pete’s sake! No such thing as fireflies there. :)

We are quickly getting initiated into campground life. It’s friendly and welcoming, it’s a small-town feel, and it’s lovely. It took us a while to completely pack up and leave Nicholasville yesterday, but that will of course get quicker as we get more practice under our belts. My amazing husband handles that huge truck and accompanying 42’ fifth wheel so adeptly that I’m in awe.

We had a situation as we left Rob’s Mom’s property…the best way I can explain it is that the road leaving her driveway has been repaved/raised and the power line, telephone line, and cable line are hanging too low. The raised road and low lines meant we didn’t have enough clearance to get the rig out. Repeated phone calls to the owners of the lines resulted in no action. So Rob fashioned up two 16-foot “lifts” to raise the lines long enough for him to drive out. It completely freaked me out, but it was an amazing fix. We laughed later at the thought that flashed through my mind at the time, “Please don’t get electrocuted. I can’t drive the fifth wheel yet!!”

It felt so wonderful to pull into our designated spot at the Kentucky Horse Park Campground in North Lexington and get completely hooked up. The girls immediately spotted the playground and made themselves at home. We all enjoyed dinner outside in the fresh air and a swim before bedtime. Perfection.

Today was even better. Rob headed back down to Nicholasville to completely wrap up all the projects at his mother’s and is so relieved to now be D-O-N-E with everything he’d taken on down there. The girls and I took advantage of our proximity to the Horse Park and took one of the campground’s golf carts over there for the day. It was all horses, all day, everything from miniature mares with their foals (oh my gosh, what is cuter than a 10-week old baby horse the size of a large puppy?!) to massive English Shires. We paid a special visit to multiple champion Cigar, the top dog at the Hall of Champions, where I admit I got a little teary-eyed saying goodbye to him. He enjoyed my scratches on his nose and looked at me with that sharp, eagle eye like I was a fool for getting a little emotional. But if it wasn’t for his perfect 10-for-10 campaign in 1995 that got me so hooked on horse racing, I don’t know if we would have ever been in Kentucky in the first place. It’s been such an amazing ride and it’s all because of him. When I realized that he’s 20 now and this could be the very last time I ever see him, I felt a license to tear up a little bit.

The girls loved the horse-drawn trolley ride and visiting the great Man o’ War’s grave. But it was a moment in the International Museum of the Horse that took the cake. Madelyn, my least-horse crazy of the bunch, exclaimed, “Mommy, I LOVE this place. Can we come back here again and again? There are horses everywhere!”

After we capped the day with the great visit from great friends, the girls were in bed, and Rob returned for the last time from Nicholasville, he and I both agreed that we’re on the right path with this adventure that officially started yesterday. It’s been a long road getting to this point – selling our belongings and the massive preparation that goes into such a drastic life change. Most of it’s been smooth with just a little rockiness thrown in for good measure, but we never wavered from the goal and now we’re just so thrilled to be this far. We can’t wait to see where the road takes us and what adventures await. And most of all, we can’t wait to share it as a family. In the end, that’s the most important thing of all.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

Jill's Journal: Sometimes you’ve just got to have a sense of humor. We haven’t gotten very far in our journey and are still stuck in Nicholasville, Kentucky. Our brand-spanking-new fifth wheel has now had nearly every major system replaced. One thing after another has broken, malfunctioned, or has simply had an attitude. We’ve flooded the plumbing and the girls’ rooms and bathroom not once, but twice today (compliments of the new, but non-working washing machine), we’ve cooked all the electronics due to a wiring error, we’ve had a leak in the roof, etc., etc., etc. Those are the big things. The little things include a broken shelf in the refrigerator and a screen door that’s already ripped. Cosmetically, somehow the girls have already managed to color on the floor and stain the couch with a marker. We figure all we need to do is blow a tire and the challenges will be complete!

Yes, we’ve been frustrated and yes, we’re itching to get on the road, but at least we’re still laughing...or have reached the punchy laughing point after a few tears and possibly a few curse words. Our new circuit board for the washing machine is supposed to arrive by the end of the week. Our insurance has promised to reimburse us for the few thousand dollars in repairs. Lord willing and the creek don’t rise (again!), we’ll finally be on our way this weekend!

Farewell Tour of Lexington

Jill's Journal: Much to our amazement, we remain near Lexington! We’re “camping” on 25 acres near Nicholasville, Kentucky, so it still feels like an adventure and a million miles from the home that we knew. Apparently we underestimated the amount of projects on Rob’s plate before we officially leave town, so we’re also taking advantage of the time to really get into the swing of things on the fifth wheel. We’re actually on Rob’s Mom’s acreage and now believe we’ll be here through early next week.

While Rob’s been working, the girls and I have been playing. We’re jokingly calling it our farewell tour of Lexington. We’ve had final playdate after final playdate with so many wonderful friends, including everything from a picnic with a jazz band at the lovely Ecton Park to the always-fun Explorium (Children’s Museum) to the insanity that is Chuck E Cheese to even just digging in the dirt and letting the kids be kids.

All these goodbyes have made me feel very nostalgic about Lexington. Today I took the girls to the Lexington History Museum in the ancient old courthouse downtown, where we got to experience some of the amazing heritage of this fantastic city, once called “The Athens of the West.” And really, what other museum can boast of its very own jockey silks right inside the front door?

I’ve always loved the contrasts that make up Kentucky. We’re smack-dab in the middle of the Bible Belt, yet a huge percentage of people here (ourselves included) make their living on the vices of gambling (horse racing) and drinking (bourbon). Both the Union and the Confederate presidents, Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, were born in Kentucky. And today we stood in the old square that in 1850 housed the largest slave trade of the antebellum South, literally just a few short blocks from the childhood home of Mary Todd Lincoln. One has to wonder if the bustling slavery business just steps outside her door influenced her husband, Abraham, a frequent guest in the home, in preparing the Emancipation Proclamation, one of the country’s best-known symbols of freedom.

But I digress. I love this city, founded in 1775, and all that it represents. Whether our travels eventually lead us back to Lexington permanently or to somewhere else, Lexington will always hold a very, very special place in my heart. Somehow in the Bluegrass, the grass is greener, the sky is bluer, and the world is happier. We came here 13 years ago and it hasn’t been enough.

This is Mecca to the horse racing world; it more than lives up to the billing of “Horse Capital of the World.” Lexington to Thoroughbred racing is what Paris is to fashion, what Hollywood is to movies, what Washington is to politics. It all happens right here. People think of racing as the Sport of Kings, but outsiders don’t know about the hundreds of thousands of regular people who work in the sport simply for the love of the horse. And that is the great equalizer: whether someone in this game is a billionaire or below the poverty level or somewhere in between, we’re all here because we love the horse. It’s as simple as that.

Yesterday I stole a few quiet moments and walked among the historic annals at the Keeneland Library, a cathedral to any student of pedigree. Seeing some of the horseshoes, the trophies, and the paintings of racing’s greats still gives me goosebumps after all this time. I’m not an overly emotional person, but reflecting on the heritage of the Thoroughbred right here in Lexington and what little bit Rob and I got to be a part of brought tears to my eyes. If you listen closely, the manicured rolling green hills surrounding Lexington still echo with the hoofbeats of historic champions the world over and the promise of more to come.

For all these reasons and more, I am head over heels in love with Lexington. But I also know there’s a whole world out there just waiting to be experienced. Life is short. We can always settle down again but we won’t always have such an amazing opportunity to travel.

But Lexington will ever be,
The Loveliest and the Best;
A Paradise thou’rt still to me,
Sweet Athens of the West.
--Pennsylvanian Josiah Espy, upon an 1806 visit to Lexington