Along the Old Frankfort Pike

Complaints have been logged by some of my five faithful readers that the posts of recent days have been too melancholic - not enough backroads adventuring or other things. In yesterday's entry, I simply glossed over the cruising I did between the meeting in Frankfort and the ballgame in Lexington.

What is there to say - only 26 miles separate the Democratic Headquarters building from Commonwealth Stadium, on UK's South Campus. It is pretty much a straight shot - I-64 to Newtown Pike then into and through Lexington. But, knowing that I-75 in Lexington is torn up and Newtown Pike is being reworked, and also knowing that many Louisville folks prefer the Versailles Road route, I opted to go up the middle, to use some football lingo, travelling along the Leestown Pike, which is US 421. Another even prettier ride, especially in the fall, is to travel the Old Frankfort Pike, which runs parallel to Leestown about 3 miles to the southwest. Saturday I was on both roads for part of my afternoon travel between the two towns, stopping over at one in between.

The tiny town of Midway hosted its annual Downtown Fall Festival over the last weekend. Midway is located, logically enough, midway between Lexington and Frankfort on US 62 at what was originally the Lexington and Ohio Railroad tracks. Curiously, it is also midway between Versailles and Georgetown. Over on its southeast side is Kentucky's only women's college, Midway College. Nearby is the remnant of Woodburn Stud, one of Kentucky's original horse farms; the present remnant, known as Airdrie Stud, is owned by Kentucky's former governor, Brereton Jones and his wife Libbie, on the south side of the Old Frankfort Pike. Mrs. Jones is said to be descended from Robert Aitcheson Alexander, Jr., who built the farm up to nearly 3000 acres, laying across both sides of the Old Frankfort Pike, extending northward to Leestown Pike and southward nearly to Versailles Road. Old Frankfort Pike is one of the prettiest stretches of highway anywhere in Kentucky. If you read the Page One Kentucky blog hosted by Jacob Payne, it is featured in one of the pictures which rotate through at the top of the page.

So making the 26 mile journey from Frankfort to Lexington can be time-consuming - and beautiful, if you know which road to travel.