My Old Kentucky Home

Well... I'm b-a-c-k!
Thanks to all of you who wished me safe travels and such.
I haven't even begun to get caught up with my blog reading, let alone anything else.

How does being away from home for only five days seems like it was two weeks?

We crammed a lot in, I guess that's why...but it is always good to get back home again.

~

On our way to Ohio for my family reunion (that will be another post),

we stopped in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky for a day and night, where lived before we came here.

As a rule when traveling to Ohio, we go by way of Virginia and West Virginia...
...a much more direct route for us, but we decided to take a little side trip this time.

They say (whoever they are) that you can never go home again...

...and although there is some truth to that, it's not always the case.

When we leave a place that we had called home for so many years,

often we want to be able to come back and see that everything has remained the same.

It had probably been fifteen years or so since we had been back for a visit,
and we saw so many changes as soon as we took the exit off the interstate...

we hardly recognized the place at first!

As we got into town, things started looking very familiar...

...in fact, some of the building and landmarks hadn't changed a bit!
~
Sadly, the house where we used to live was empty and run down.

Someone didn't show this place the love that they should have.

Among other things, the semi in-ground pool in the back yard was gone,
the hole filled in and many lovely trees had been cut down.

Sad.

This "Tot Finder" sticker in the front window has been there since probably 1988 or so.
It was given to my Adam when he was in elementary school during a fire safety assembly.
I remember the day he brought it home and promptly stuck it in his window.



Can you believe it has been there all these years?
I guess that alone speaks volumes about the condition of the house.
 ~

We lived in Mt. Sterling from 1981 until 1992 and Adam, our youngest was born there.

It was also there that Jim and I began our walk with the Lord...

...and found out what being a part of the family of God was all about.

What a blessing it was to take up where we left off with a few of our old friends!

A while back we had reconnected on Facebook and have kept in touch ever since,

and had then arranged to get together when we got into town.

So here's how it played out...

I called Nancy and told her we had just gotten into town.

She told tell me that she and hubby (Snookie) were heading to Kroger for a few groceries.

We had just been to Kroger and was actually pulling out of the parking lot!

Needless to say, we turned that buggy around in a heartbeat,

and had a sweet reunion in the parking lot of the grocery store!
 After having lunch together, we went back to their home for a "short" visit.

While there, Cathy, another mutual friend called to ask Nancy if we had gotten in yet.
 She lived only a couple miles down the road and wanted to come by and say "hello".
Her hubby was unable to join us and on her arrival, she stated she could only stay a few minutes.

Long story short, we spent the rest of the day catching up,
 laughing so hard we nearly wet our pants,

and finally having a time of sweet prayer together before we left for the evening.



Our photos were a little blurry...

...but our memories of good times were sharp and clear.
 Our group selfie was a little messed up too...
...kind of hard get us all in without a selfie stick...lol!
Cathy chose to be shy...plus she had the longest arms :)

The next morning we met again for breakfast and then we were off to Ohio.
About 30 miles north we stopped at the Kentucky Horse Park near Lexington.

So the entire eleven years we lived here, we'd never visited this beautiful place.
Don't ask me why because I just couldn't tell you the answer...
...and the term good fences has a whole new meaning to me now.

I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

A horse crossing...literally :)

Many beautiful old stone fences...

...and lastly, as we were walking along, we met Oreo and his sweet family.

He immediately brought me this stick to throw for him...

...and I did...

...and the games were on!
I also learned that he was very talented in his herding abilities.
His owners told us that at large family gatherings when folks start spreading out,
he promptly starts herding them all back together in a group...lol!
Oreo is one smart puppy!
~
And so it was back on the road again.
Ohio was almost in sight :)

To be continued....

Linking up with:

Roses of Inspiration

 Good Fences

Grace at Home