On Wednesday, July 6th, we continued our travels through West Virginia and into Kentucky, a very pretty drive through the Appalachian mountains. Most of our travels were west on I-64 until we were near Lexington, Ky. where we then took I-75 south to Renfro Valley. We were surprised that the campground was so sparsely inhabited. We had stopped for lunch at a Cracker Barrel restaurant so we just chilled out once we got situated in our campsite. We did walk to the Renfro Valley Entertainment area thinking we might find an ice cream store opened in the evening but was unsuccessful. A music store was opened so went into that store and talked with the clerk about the area.
Thursday morning we stopped at the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
Many well known country musicians have roots in Kentucky and now are in the Hall of Fame. We, then, drove up to the town of Berea a little north of Renfro Valley. We had seen signs for Boone’s Tavern along the highway on Wednesday. Our thoughts were that this was probably some historical small building which it wasn’t. It is an old hotel and restaurant still in operation. A beautiful white building with wide porches adorned with flowers.
We decided to eat lunch in the restaurant.
The food was real good. Tom and I both had a dish called Hot Brown- turkey on sour dough bread with a cheddar cheese sauce over the top-that Tom remembered hearing Diane Sawyer, a native Kentuckian, on TV talking about at one time. It was delicious. We were told at the restaurant that a craft festival was being held nearby but after driving out to the location we were told the festival would not be until Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We drove around a little more finally finding a Wal-Mart where we stopped to pick up a few groceries before returning to the campground. In the evening we walked over to the entertainment center for a show in the “old Barn”. The show, “Front Porch Pickin’”, was an hour long with 6 local musicians taking turns singing or doing an instrumental solo much like a jam session. Very entertaining.
Today, Friday, we awoke to rain and the rain showers continued throughout the day. We did return to Berea to the Berea Craft Festival that was held at Historic Indian Fort Theater- not sure of the history of the area but the theater was a amphitheater and the festival was staged through a wooded area.
There were well over 100 artists from 20 states selling their wares of pictures, jewelry, pottery, clothing and other unique items. Some artists were demonstrating their craft as dying yarns with plant dyes, working with pottery and black smithy.
We had a lunch of pulled pork sandwiches and stopped to listen to musicians that were performing throughout the festival grounds.
A nice day even with the occasion showers of rain. Before leaving the Berea area we stopped in the “old town” section where there are shops selling area crafts of local artisans. One lady made Santa Claus’ by making the head and face from polymer clay which is attached to a body form and then attired in Santa clothing- very detailed and interesting. After returning to the campground and catching our breath, we went to the Historic Lodge Restaurant across the street from the Entertainment Center and all of us ate the catfish special- catfish, hushpuppies, fries, Cole slaw and biscuits. The catfish was especially good and plentiful. After dinner we went to the Entertainment Center to see another show called Tribute to Legends. Some of the performers from Thursday nights show along with others performed singing familiar songs of well known artists- another enjoyable evening of entertainment.
