What is the Kentucky experience?

What defines a people in a place? Is it their language, their borders, terrain, or customs? Is it their stories, history, and heritage? These are some of the deep thoughts that I wrestle with as I roam about America. I've crisscrossed it a few times already and I guess I will crisscross it a few more times before I am settled somewhere as I am preparing to pull stakes and strike the tent for a new adventure at the beginning of next month. It will be to a familiar place, but as I turn to leave Kentucky, I have to ask myself these questions and ponder deeply what it means to be from somewhere - anywhere. So as I prepare to depart Kentucky, I ask myself, "What is the Kentucky experience?" or can it be defined? What makes this place different or special? So as my way of saying goodbye to Kentucky, I will share some of my experiences and see if they make sense of this place I have called home for nearly a year.

Kentucky is known for a number of things: bluegrass music, fried chicken, baseball bats, horses and racing them, bourbon whiskey, a history of pioneers, and scenic vistas among other things. When I lived in Iowa, I sought out what Iowans did or thought important to them to get in on their experience, for I never knew how much time I had before I had to leave. Kentucky was no different, so my family and I went and sought out things that made Kentucky what it was.

Corbin, KY. Origin of Finger Lickin' Goodness

Perhaps one of the most enduring marketing fast food restaurants, Kentucky Fried Chicken, directly associated place with product. Started by the iconic Harland Sanders, his recipe of herbs and spices became a franchise phenomenon and as a result put new interest in fried chicken as a fast food as well as promoted the state from which it originated. We visited his original restaurant in Corbin, KY. There, a modern KFC restaurant and a museum of the original restaurant to the franchise and motel coexist. In recent years I have taken an interest in eating healthy and fried chicken is not a priority to me, but I felt that it would only be appropriate to have some while I was there, to "Live a little!"

Churchill Down Racetrack is home of the Kentucky Derby

Another way the Kentucky remains in the public eye is with the Kentucky Derby, held every May.

The race takes place in Louisville, Kentucky's largest city, at Churchill Downs racetrack. This is probably one of the most famous horse races in the world and one of the oldest in America, since 1875. Three year old thoroughbreds race one and quarter miles in what some have described as "The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports". The Kentucky Derby is the first race of the Triple Crown distinction, followed by Preakness Stakes, then the Belmont Stakes. If the same horse wins all three of these races, that horse then wins the Triple Crown. The race has a number of traditions that make it an iconic event, such as drinking mint juleps (a bourbon cocktail), eating burgoo (a stew), dressing up (usually ladies wear lavish hats), and as the horses are led out, the state song," My Old Kentucky Home" by Stephen Foster is played. Very early on in our time in Kentucky, we visited Churchill Downs and toured the museum and racetrack. A few people have cautioned us about the race since it is in a rough neighborhood of Louisville and suggested the more relaxed and sophisticated races at Keeneland as a better alternative. However, we did not attend any races during our stay.

Bourbon is a booming business in Kentucky as 95% of all bourbon is made here. Bourbon is a form of whiskey, but not all whiskey is bourbon as there are strict rules regarding what can and cannot be called bourbon. Distilleries have caught onto the tourism aspect to their craft as their sales boom domestically and internationally and many have made welcome centers to teach thirsty visitors about the process of making their drink and their history. Kentucky Tourism board partnered with a number of popular distilleries to form the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, a program that results in a free gift after visiting all the participating distilleries. This drink influences nearly every kind of culinary offering in the state from barbecue to condiments to the bourbon ball desserts. We took the time to visit all of the participating distilleries to get our free t-shirts. While I would not describe myself as an avid fan of bourbon, I certainly have learned to appreciate it. Pro-tip: If you throw it back like a cowboy in a saloon, you are doing it wrong.

Me and my Lil' Slugger

Since the days of my youth, I have enjoyed baseball. It hearkens to an older time that valued skill and patience. Anyone who has handled a bat know about Louisville Slugger bats; they are one of the top names in a short list of manufacturers. We visited this iconic business with its Guinness World Record breaking baseball bat leaning outside the front door and learned about baseball, how bats are made, and how they have changed over the years. I even managed to whack a few balls in their batting cages using Derek Jeter's bat. Across the hall was a traveling exhibit of Ripley's Believe It Or Not. Louisville itself is an interesting town that straddles traditional and contemporary, homey and trendy, and is a great place to go visit.

The history of Kentucky is long. Pioneers had been coming through the Cumberland Gap since before the American Revolution. The pioneer life is marked across this land in various forts and village settlements. Daniel Boone and others made their careers on coming though the Gap and discovering, exploring, and settling this land and the people in turn honor them. The sons and daughters of those settlers reached further and further west as they filled in the land. It is this rural influence and setting that would later birth a new form of musical expression that took its name from the nickname of this state, Bluegrass. Westward settling came in earnest after the Revolution. The Lincolns settled here just south of Elizabethtown, and gave birth to a son, Abraham, who would become the 16th President. His birthplace in Hodgenville is where I had the good fortune to work, learn, and practice my trade of Historical Interpretation as a first year seasonal Park Guide with the National Park Service. It was an honor to be here for the Centennial year of the Park Service and be a part on this very special occasion. In spite of frustrations and struggles, it had its great moments as well. I will miss the folks there tremendously as I transition to a new position in a familiar setting - Fort Scott, Kansas!

Known locally as "Ranger Ryan"at

Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic

Park in Hodgenville, KY

In retrospect, a place is defined by its people, but also defined by the heritage those people have through their collective experience. It is a mix of things that are difficult to pull apart from each other. It's not necessarily the individual ingredients of the stew that make it delicious, but the parts working in concert. All the things I have mentioned in this post make up Kentucky and my Kentucky experience, and no one part singularly defined it. It is rather the groups of these experiences, the places, the people, and the time spent that makes Kentucky different and a wonderful place to call "My Old Kentucky Home".