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