Lexington, KY to Franklin, TN Bluegrass Country
For all snapshots of the Horses and the day’s road trip sites – click here!
Today we spent time exploring Bluegrass country. The grass really isn’t blue – but it’s called bluegrass…go figure. I do have an explanation though – in the spring, bluegrass produces a bluish-purple bud that, when seen in large fields, give a blue cast to the grass. Kentucky lies on limestone. This limestone infused grass is said to build stronger equine (horse to you and me) bones. Also, bluegrass makes for a good pasture as it can tolerate a lot of grazing. Hence, Kentucky is the bluegrass state known for its horse racing industry. Ok – that’s your lesson for today.
We pulled into Lexington Kentucky and found an interstate cluster of the typical hotels/motels. Here’s a bit of trivia for you all that Kathleen taught me…what’s the difference between a hotel and a motel? A hotel has doors that open into a hallway, while a motel has doors that open to the outside where your car is inevitably parked. Tomaaaato, Tomate-o…hotel, motel…I use it all interchangeably and I think it drives Kathleen crazy. One of many things I’m sure. We drove around to the cluster of hotels/motels and found the one that would give us the best deal – the Best Western. It was nestled between a Hampton Inn, a McDonalds, a Waffle House, and a Porn shop called Hustler….perfect.
Lexington Kentucky is known for its horses, in fact, it’s the horse capital of the world. It’s the main industry in the town. Kathleen and I decided that we needed to learn more about the horses here and what exactly made the area so good at producing race horses. We made a reservation at Horse Farm Tours for an early morning tour with Margaret, the owner, the next day. Our plan was to learn about horses in the morning, and then move south to Mammoth Cave National Park in the afternoon.
This was the morning I was to eat at my first Waffle House. I was rather excited about the prospect of finally trying a sacred waffle from the southern restaurant chain that has been taunting me along the hi-way. As we went down to the car the next morning to repack our things and head off to breakfast before Margaret showed up, Kathleen said “Did you know that you left the window down?” I immediately became defensive – “No, I didn’t leave the window down in the car.” Sure, I haven’t driven for a while but I’m not a complete idiot I thought to myself. As Kathleen got in and shut the door, the whole driver side window disappeared into the abyss between the door. It was lost…never to be seen again. Now we had a problem. No driver side window that we could roll up meant the rain that was forecasted for today would be a problem. However, the biggest problem was that we couldn’t leave the car for fear of anyone breaking in since we had no window! After all, we were carrying 3 laptops, a digital SLR camera and lenses, 2 ipods, and an iphone…it was a regular treasure chest of electronics. Oh – and did I mention that it was chilly outside? We panicked at first – trying to determine a solution. Eventually we made our way to a garage that said they would look at it and fix it while Kathleen and I went on the horse farm tour. Great – things may actually work out after all – yet this did mean that I missed my Waffle House breakfast.
Margaret was waiting for us as we were returned back to the hotel from the car service garage. She got up and said “Your late!” – we immediately liked her. Margaret was the president and owner of Horse Farm Tours, Inc….and it was clear that she was in charge and it was clear that she loved the horse industry all the way down to her horse earrings. We stepped into her pristine van that said ‘Boss’ along the door. She had a dry sense of humor with a drawl that was irresistible. Margaret was cool – and she knew everything about the horse industry. Perfect. It was a 3 hour tour full of information about the horse industry…racing horses, show horses, breeding, we saw it all. Well – we didn’t SEE the breading…but we saw the ultimate outcome, foals. The tour included a tour of downtown Lexington, a tour of the Keeneland Race Track, and a tour of various horse farms.
Our timing of this tour was despicable. Opening day for Keeneland is April 4th, and of course we were 3 days too early for that. However instead we were able to see the horses during practice – going through their morning drills with the jockeys. The horse industry means big money. The horse farms were built upon rolling hills upwards of 600 acres lined in white fences. Margaret informed us that the white fence actually cost $18,000 per mile of fence. This includes the initial construction, and frequent upkeep of paint, repairs, etc. 
Now imagine putting fencing around 600 acres – you better hope that you have a triple crown winner to afford that! Lexington loved their horses so much that their prison was even built to resemble a horse farm. It looked like a pristine farm nestled in between the rest of the horse farms…yet this one was fencing in prisoners!
Margaret continued to entertain us with jokes, trivia, and tons of horse facts. She dropped us off at Jiffy Lube 3 hours later. To top it off, she provided us with some great travel tips for our travel south including historic landmarks and restaurants. We headed south down the Bluegrass Parkway and stopped at Kurtz’s restaurant in Bardstown, KY to have a lunch my grandma would have served me; soup, sandwich, and a piece of cream pie with a 3 inch meringue on top! We wanted to stop at the Makers Mark Distillery, but decided that we had to forgo it since we were trying to get to Mammoth Caves before the park closed. Later we came to find out that we had crossed over into the central time zone and gained an hour…damn – we could have been sampling bourbon. 
With our newly acquired hour, we decided to follow the signs to Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace in Hodgenvile, another recommendation from Margaret. As we pulled up to the huge marble monument – it looked as if it belonged in DC, but it was out in the woods with a majestic set of stairs leading up to it. As we walked up to the structure, I joked that maybe there was a log cabin inside of this structure. Sure enough, we set foot inside and that’s what it was – Abe’s log cabin – encased by a marble monument! I felt honored that we were able to see the original Lincoln Logs; especially since I share a birthday with dear old Abe.
Photo: Kathleen descending into the new entrance!
We moved on south to Mammoth Cave National Park. Neither one of us had ever heard of this park, but Jim from Virginia (Inn at the Crossroads) had recommended that we stop here and see the world’s longest cave system. Who knew that Kentucky housed the longest cave system in the world? It was over 350 miles of caves deep underneath the Kentucky limestone. We stopped off here to take the 2 hour ‘New Entry’ tour. The New Entry was actually discovered in 1925…not really so new, but it was a engineering feet. It was a descent of 250 feet straight down a metal stairway through narrow wet rock formations; definitely not for the claustrophobic! The cave itself was stunning and the tour was good. The park even ran beginning caving/spelunking tours where you learned how to fit through narrow spaces that no human should be able to fit through – especially after eating southern food. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to do that tour, but I put it on my list for a return trip.
We continued into Tennessee and through Nashville into the town of Franklin where we decided to stay for the night. Franklin was the start of our Civil War/Plantation journey, so it was a good place to stay for the night. We found a cute little B&B, the Marshal House, off the beaten path to stay at. Glenn and Ursala welcomed us into their country home and provided us information about the area. After an amazing dinner of BBQ at a local joint in Franklin we settled in for some rest after our eventful day! Horses, presidents, and caves while enjoying some southern cooking – a good trip through Kentucky!
To find more information about the Margaret’s Kentucky Horse Farm Tours – click here! www.horsefarmtours.com
