Kentucky, Part One: Old Friends

Oh internet, you vile seductress.

I almost completely kept my self-vow to quit you whilst in Kentucky the past few days, but my hosts had internet and there were a few things I simply had to do whilst I was there. 

It was a grand time, nonetheless, and although the spark that lit the fire of the trip was the idea to spend a few afternoon hours hanging out with one of my very favorite living authors, the majority of our time was spent reconnecting with some dear old friends. 

Our first destination was Aunt A's house. 

Aunt A reads this blog, but I swear I'm not just being polite when I say that we had a delightful time cruising the streets of Wilmore, making smores over a backyard bonfire, and conducting an impromptu sing-a-long to the accompaniment of my unevenly-played ukulele. Here's a picture of me amusing myself after taking the enviable lead in the "waking-up-early" competition (sixteen brownie points to the first person to comment with the name of the painting, and who painted it)...

The next day, after a loverly little coffee shop breakfast and a loverly drive out to a loverly bridge look-out (Aunt A is British, so it's important to use the word "loverly" a lot), my woman-friend and I were on the move again. 

Despite our near-pathological shared inability to read maps and follow a road, within an hour we were at the home of my friend-from-a-way-back, whom I will refer to here as JJ. 

JJ lives with his lady-love and his father on a largely-wooded, 60-acre farm in a place called "Bald Knob." His father has a small cabin and a Shi-Tzu, and JJ and his lady-love live in a converted barn with two dogs that could probably swallow the Shi-Tzu fairly easily, but for some reason don't. 

JJ is a chef who at one time or another has literally cooked for kings, so each meal was an experience and a half. We spent the next few days going for walks in the woods and up the road, reading on the porch, and drifting from one mind-blowing culinary experience to the next. 

JJ's father is a former University professor, and his lady-love a former PhD candidate in philosophy. My own woman-friend is a wicked-smaht, full-scholarship student at one of the most prestigious universities in the country, so conversation was as lively and challenging as you're likely to find in that neck of the woods.

Then we toodled off for our time with Wendell Berry (barely getting lost at all along the way). 

I'm looking forward to telling you all about that experience, tomorrow. For today, though, I'll save myself a few thousand words and leave you with a some pictures to give you a sense of what those days with JJ were like.