"My Old Kentucky Home!" a Kentucky Travel Page by BeatChick

I'm not from Kentucky, I was actually born in Oakland, California. However, I lived in Kentucky (eastern Ky and Lexington) from the age of 10 through 28 when I moved to Cincinnati. I've developed an accent, so Ohioans automatically assume I am a native Kentuckian.

Except that when I *lived* in eastern Kentucky, people thought I was from Ohio because my accent wasn't quite hick or southern enough. Hmmm. So my joke is that since my accent is neither quite Kentuckyian nor quite Ohioan then I must be from the Ohio River! Y'know, because it borders both states. Oh well, that joke doesn't always go well live, either. :)

Anywho, along the way, I lived on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation from the age of 7 until I was almost 10. My parents separated and thus we moved to eastern Kentucky to my mother's hometown of Martin.

The photos on this page and the accompanying travelogue are of the Mountain Parkway, a beautifully scenic drive between Winchester and Salyersville. I drive this road practically every time I go "down home". I also drove it quite a bit when I lived in Lexington in my early 20s.

Do you want to know how far south into eastern Kentucky I'm from? Well, from I-75, you go to Lexington, then turn left onto I-64 (which meanders past Mt. Sterling, Morehead - where I went to college, Grayson - where Mr. Connolly lived for a bit, Ashland - which *thinks* it's a big city and has an attimatude to match, to Huntington, WV and further east). When you hit Winchester, veer right onto the Mountain Parkway. Go ALL the way to the end (Salyersville, home to some of the weirdest folk in eastern Kentucky; seriously Magoffin Co. is the local brunt of jokes about inbreeding and rabbity-lookin' youngins), proceed 20 minutes past that to Prestonsburg (hey, we're in Floyd Co. now, folks, birthplace of Dwight Yoakum, country singer extraordinaire who acted in Panic Room. Didn't recognize him until the rolling credits? Neither did I!), then another 10 minutes to where my mom lives. It's almost to the conjunction of West Virginia, Virginia & Tennessee.

In fact, we're fairly close to Matewan, WV where my half-Welsh, half-French Jenkins grandfather was born and raised. Yep, they were of the coal-mining variety so I'm sure my family was all part of that business in the early 20th century that's featured in the movie Matewan. There's a town called Jenkins just on this side of the state border; I'm sure it's named after his family. Oh, btw, I'm related to the great Welsh thespian Richard Burton (née Jenkins). Supposedly, he was first cousin to either my grandfather or my great-grandfather so that makes us first cousins twice (or thrice) removed!

It's almost an exhausting trip to go home for the holidays. And they wonder why I prefer to stay in Ohio! ;)

Yep, I'm pretty sure that's a hay barn; if you can see past the Queen Anne's Lace (those purty white flowers in the foreground), I'm pretty sure you can see the mound o' hay!

Stopping along the way to take photos of tobacco & hay barns & local flowers sure makes the trip worthwhile.

Queen Anne's Lace is indigenous to this region and grows wild all over the place. I'm told that people in England pay big bucks for these flowers and for Mimosa tree blossoms, another that grows all over the hills; my grandmother had several in her yard.