Road Trip: South - Capitals Tour
Day 10: Friday, May 26, 2017 - Frankfort, KY
Weather: 76, isolated thunderstorms
Steps: 12,862 (Steve); 13,729 (Linda)
Drove: 246 miles
This is our sixth capital visit. Almost done, just one to go.
Today's breakfast was a light continental.
Pack the car and off to the capitol. While in transit, we read about a Frank Lloyd Wright house in the immediate area. It turned
out to be just three blocks over from where we parked. We stopped by but it was just OK. And a close-up of the glasswork.
The outside of the captiol.
We stepped inside the capital for a visit. After we got our stamp,
Here are the book pages:
We had a self-guided tour. The rotunda was set up for a Governor's speech for
Memorial Day the previous evening, but we still took pictures.
The capitol dome and other architecture.
Of course we stopped by the Supreme Court, house chamber, and senate chamber.
There was a room that had an "infinity chandelier" in it.
And the law library had a second floor walkway that had a glassfloor (that isn't a reflection, that's from above).
We finished up at the capitol and headed over to the Kentucky Historical Society building which had some displays.
Based on the directory, there wasn't much that we were interested in seeing there so we visited the gift shop instead (I
know, right?). There pretty much wasn't anything they sold that said Frankfort. Plenty of Kentucky though.
On our quest to find a post office, we asked the cashier where it was. He told us but also mentioned it wasn't in
walking distance. But we decided to walk around the town anyway (just to walk, not to go to the P.O.). We
headed toward the river. And passed the old state capitol.
We also came across this large but interesting mural. It's 300 feet long, required 150 gallons of paint,
was designed by local artist Jennifer Zingg, and was painted by adults and children of the community.
And eventually made our way to the riverside park. It was more of a walkway than a park,
but it was still nice and overlooked the Kentucky River.
The main part of town was quaint.
After we got to the end of this street, we turned left toward where our car was parked. As we walked along, we
noticed an uncanny amount of stores that were out of business. It is sad to see that anywhere, but for a capiol,
it is especially unfortunate. After walking a little further we saw an awesome looking bank.
We arrived back at the car and headed toward the post office. We found it - and it happen to be across the street from a distillery. We wrote, stamped and sent off some postcards.
Another stop we made was at the Cove Spring Park. This seemed to be another nice place to visit based on the pictures we saw. However, when we arrived, the bathroom facilities were closed. Not that we needed to use them at that time, but I am sure we would have had to by the time we were leaving an hour or more later, so we decided to not take chance and move on.
What do you know, time for lunch. We originally planned a Mexican lunch, but decided to stick to the barbeque theme.
Because, barbeque. Before we left in the morning, some last minute Googling found us a location very close to the
hotel. The location was called Staxx BBQ. When we
arrived, there was a rather long line. The customer in front of us asked one of the waiters what was going on.
He said it was the establishment's 6th anniversary. And they had specials all week. This day's special was a buy
one sandwich get one free. Yay for us. We both had the pulled pork (again, add your own sauce), Linda with a
side of slaw and I with a large side of beans and a piece of anniversary cake for dessert.
So it was time to head to Charleston, WV. Our first detour was through a town called Morehead. No particular reason. We went into an IGA Supermarket to walk around a little. Then we went into a pharmacy - it was sort of like a Walgreens. But it was different. In addition to the drugs, there were housewares. And shoes. And Easter candy - for only 10% off (didn't they realize Easter was two months ago?).
After an hour or so we were underway again. We took anothher little detour, this time through a town called
Ashland. It was right near the Ohio state line, and about seven miles from the interestion of Kentucky, Ohio
and West Virginia. We drove through the town and sought out Central Park. The park is a large park in the
middle of the town. Lush, green and with a pond (with fish and fountains), baseball field, horseshoe pits, tennis
courts, basketball courts, swings and equipment for playing on. And trails for walking.
Though there were quite a few people in the park, we found a very quiet spot. This is a full 360-view.
I thought it would have been neat to have a video while riding on a swing, but there were
deep puddles underneath from recent rains and I didn't deem it worthy of the risk.
After spending an hour or so in the park, we headed to Tudor's
Biscuit World - spontaneously - for dinner. Since we missed out on two other opportunities due to restaurants that closed
at 2:00 for some reason, we finally got a biscuit meal. OK, I finally got a biscuit meal. Linda had the fried
fish meal and I had the chicken, with barbeque sauce, on a biscuit. And I ate about a third of her meal.
I would much have preferred to eat at the Kentucky Fried Chicken almost next door to Turor's. Why? Because
it was a buffet KFC. It's been decades since I had all you can eat KFC - and what better place to eat KFC than
actually in Kentucky. But the facility was being remodelled. And we had just eaten at Tudor's anyway.
Further on down the road we caught sight of a truck going underneath a railroad bridge and closer to the river.
We wanted to see what was there and eventually found another road that went under the railroad as well.
When we did, we came across this mural.
And we eventually got closer to the river - the Ohio River - too. And on the other side of the river is... Ohio.
About an hour outside of Charleston, WV, we saw this sign. No, we weren't lost...
And I know we weren't on Long Island in New York...
And some sights.
And we weren't in the northeast either.
Less than an hour or so later and we were in Charleston, WV. The city has an event called Live on the Levee. Each Friday night from late spring - May 26 (the first night of the event and the night we were there) - through late summer - September 1, there is live music. We did not know this at the time. Some roads were closed and made getting to our destination a challenge. Before we arrived at Days Inn, we hit the supermarket. For some wine (a lot of states, just not in Delaware, sell wine in the supermarket). We tried to get local wine, as we had in the past, but there really wasn't anything good. So we stuck with the Rex Goliath that we got a couple times before.
Drink, rest and sleep.
FUN FACT: Kentucky is known as the Bluegrass State. But bluegrass is not really blue - its green - but in the spring bluegrass produces bluish purple buds that when seen in large fields give a blue cast to the grass.