396. To Points East - and then back.

I took a Sunday drive yesterday, which I guess made it a Saturday drive . My friend Preston was supposed to make the trip with me but couldn't. The Battle of Perryville Reenactment was on our agenda, but that changed since I had the freedom to drive where I wanted and not where I had promised.

So, here are the numbers:

Out of Louisville on 65 to 61 to 62 to 52 to 457 to 84 to 68 to 34 to 150 to 52 (again) to 27. That was the trip there.

The return trip had fewer numbers. 27 to 4 to 60 to 9002 to 127B to 62 to 127 to 512 to 395 to 64 into Louisville. Actually, the trip should have been a little different. From 27 I had intended to go east on 169 to the Valley View Ferry, then to 1156, Clay Lane, and Cassius Clay's White Hall, then to 75 and then west, but I missed the turn in Nicholasville, which means at some point I'll have to go back and do it all over again.

Along the way, I passed some places of note. One of those was the Parksville Knob. In an early entry on the blog, I indicated that the Parksville Knob was the next closest hill in elevation to Jeptha's Knob in Shelby County. This isn't exactly correct but it is close. Jeptha rises to 1184 feet above sea level. Parksville rises to 1364 feet. The nearby Mitchellsburg Peak, which I also passed, rises to 1302 feet. By comparison, Jefferson County's highest point , South Park Hill, is listed at 902 feet. I do not remember if I have been through these parts before, but I went through yesterday. Getting to that point, I had passed the new Marion County Court House in Lebanon as well as the old Saint Mary's College, outside of Lebanon, which now serves as one of Kentucky's correctional facilities. Lebanon is also home to a National Cemetery.

Once past these Boyle County summits, I ventured into Danville and Constitution Square where Kentucky's official statehood roots were established in the 1780s and 1790s. I followed KY 52 from there and ended up in downtown Lancaster, the county seat of Garrard County, and former (and possibly future) home to my UK Sigma Pi fraternity big brother Mark Metcalf, a former Garrard County Attorney who several years ago fell four votes short in a Republican Primary for Congress to a little known Fayette County state representative named Ernest Fletcher. While that is a different story, I can only imagine how the want of five votes may have changed the recent history of the Commonwealth. But, I digress.

While in Lancaster, I stopped in Napier's Clothing Store on the square. Well-known Republican State Representative Lonnie Napier, who is also a Realtor, auctioneer, and farmer, is the store's proprietor and he and I had a very nice discussion about the state of the State's political scene. While neither of us gave away any secrets, I went away feeling a little better about next month's political prospects here in Kentucky. Representative Napier is an easy going and likable fellow, a well-known legislative orator, something of a southern gentleman, but not someone who votes in any fashion as I would have him do. But, he does vote as the good people of Garrard and Madison counties would like as he has held his office since 1984. It was Representative Napier who told me my old friend Mark Metcalf, now residing in Florida and addressed as Judge Metcalf, may be returning to Garrard County.

Lancaster was as far away as I travelled from the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606. From there I went northwest on 27 through Bryantsville and into Jessamine County, where I visited the Camp Nelson National Cemetery. This National Cemetery hold the remains of some 1600 soldiers from Camp Nelson, including over 600 African-Americans who fought on the Union side in the Civil War. Many of the dead from various Civil War battles in Kentucky have been re-interred here, including a number from the Battle of Perryville. Veterans and spouses of many veterans since that time are also interred therein. Visiting National Cemeteries can be a sobering experience, reminding those of us who never served of the sacrifices made on our behalf by those who did. On Friday, I was at another National Cemetery, this one in New Albany, Indiana, for the burial of the father, a Marine Corps veteran, of a dear friend.

Leaving the Camp Nelson cemetery, I missed the turn on KY 169 and found myself trying to get into Lexington when everyone from the UK-South Carolina game was trying to get out. In 1984, I lived for a few months on East Reynolds Road, just east of its intersection with Nicholasville Road, the road I found myself on yesterday. I spent 21 minutes travelling the 1/2 mile from East Reynolds to the westbound ramp to Lexington's New Circle Road, numbered as KY 4. From there I went out of town on Versailles Road, passing Calumet, Keeneland (which is open for a meet through October 25), the Castle, and the road over to the Pisgah Cemetery where Albert Benjamin "Happy" Chandler is buried. I detoured southwest along the Martha Layne Collins Bluegrass Parkway to Lawrenceburg, following north into and out of the city. Rather than take the "four-lane" up to I-64, I followed the old road into Alton. Alton was once known as Rough and Ready, named for the only Whig president who resided in the Commonwealth, Zachary Taylor, whose homestead on Brownsboro Road in Louisville is the site of yet another National Cemetery.

I left the Alton Road and ventured onto the Alton Station Road, eventually making my way out of Anderson County and over to the Shelby County community of Waddy, an old railroad town about two miles south of the well-known "Waddy-Peytona" exit off I-64. And from that intersection, I returned home. It was a nice trip. I wish Preston had made the trip with me.