Elkhorn Campground and RV Park – Frankfort, KY to Pipestem State Park, WV to Small Country Campground, Louisa, VA, 5/30/16 - 6/5/16

Monday was moving day for us at Elkhorn Campground, from the temporary overnight spot (due to the Memorial Day weekend crowd) to our “more permanent” spot, #63. It was a pretty easy move, sort of right across the road. The site was quite narrow, with a huge elm tree at the street end of our site. Always fun to maneuver around obstacles in RV parks! 

After getting parked and set up we headed into Frankfort to do a bit of grocery shopping. The park emptied quite a bit after the Memorial Day weekend, so it was very quiet.

Tuesday was a very special day for us, starting out with breakfast. Friends Bruce and Dianne from Connecticut were in Lexington for the birth of their 5^th grandchild, their daughter’s first. How special! We were able to catch up with them at breakfast in Lexington, at Wild Eggs, a restaurant that serves just breakfast, brunch and lunch. We hadn’t seen them since 2000, when we had to go back to Connecticut from Tacoma to address some Y2K issues with some of Dick’s clients. It was almost like we had never been apart, as we laughed, talked, and shared for almost 2 hours. Those 2 hours went way too quickly. We parted with the promise to not let another 16 years go by again without seeing each other. God has blessed us with such special friends. We are thankful for their friendship.

Then, it was on to the Kentucky Horse Park, since when you’re in Kentucky you really need to do something that has to do with horses, naturally! So, we went to The Kentucky Horse Park, just a bit northwest of Lexington. What a place!

The park, which opened in 1978, is both a working horse farm and an education theme park, dedicated to man's relationship with the horse. The equestrian facility itself covers 1,224 acres, and includes the fields, obviously, but also special barns such as the Big Barn where draft horses reside, the Breed Barn, where special shows are held daily that showcase both the more common and the more rare horses from around the world. We were anxious to witness all the park had to offer, and we spent almost 5½ hours there!

There have been horses on this ground for more than 200 years. Patrick Henry, then Governor of Virginia, granted 9,000 acres of land in the Kentucky Territory to his brother-in-law, Col. William Christian, as a reward for his service in the French and Indian War. Col. Christian moved his family to Kentucky in 1785, establishing a farm near Louisville. The Col. was killed by Indians in 1786; his daughter, Elizabeth Dickerson, inherited 3,000 acres and part of this land became the Kentucky Horse Park.

The Visitor Information Center was our first stop. Our entrance fee included pretty much everything in the park. 

The park contains, among other things, the International Museum of the Horse, housing a permanent collection of horse history and memorabilia, as well as rotating historical collections that focuses on particular themes.

An 8,000 square foot museum, The Al-Marah Arabian Horse Galleries, was added to the museum in 2010. It provides quite a few interactive multimedia attractions, as well as writings, films and art exploring the Arabian breed’s place in world history. The exhibits made you feel as though you were walking through a Bedouin village; it was very well done.

Also at the museum were exhibits of the American Saddlebred horses, and the roles they played in American history and culture. 

There was an exhibit explaining draft horses and how they helped shape America.

One of the most amazing exhibits was in the Wheeler Museum section, where equestrian memorabilia, trophies and pictures were displayed. This museum focuses on show jumping horses and competition. We were amazed at the number of trophies displayed from the Calumet Farm!
 

These panels show the history of horse competitions in Kentucky. It’s beautifully done, and even has 12 foxes hidden throughout the display. I couldn’t find a one!

Also on display were a number of horse carriages and buggies.

After wandering through the museums we headed to the Breed Barn, for the Breed Barn show. On the way we passed these cute little guys. They’re used for pony rides for the kids. The miniature horses are kept in a “dry lot” during the day. These dry lots have little or no grass for weight management purposes. Miniature horses, as well as other breeds, are susceptible to excessive weight gain, so for that reason they’re kept on a carefully managed diet.

We also stopped at the Farrier on the way to the Breed Barn show.

Then on to the Breed Barn. With music and narration, we watched as an American Quarter Horse, a Haflinger (from Austria and Northern Italy), the beautiful Aktal-Teke (from Turkmenistan), the light-footed American Paso Fino (a cross between the Andalusian Stallion and the Spanish Jennet mares), an Arabian, and the standard Saddlebred entertained us for half an hour. (The Saddlebred, aptly named “Make Mine Champagne” had the most beautiful blue eyes, due to a genetic trait; his tail hung to the ground. Beautiful horse!)  The riders were in costume, highlighting the role the horses played in history.

Here's a video of Echo CW performing at the Breed Barn Show. Fascinating!

We had about 45 minutes before the Hall of Champions Show started, so we walked to the Farmhouse Café for some bottled water. It was a hot day with temps reaching into the 90° realm, so a long cold drink of water felt like heaven!
 

On the way we passed the Big Barn, so stopped in to take a look at the draft horses. They’re HUGE, weighing in at 1,800+ pounds and standing over 18 hands tall (a hand is 4”), so that’s 6’ at the withers! Big! At the park the trolley rides are pulled by draft horses.

Then, it was off to the Hall of Champions Show.
 

An elite group of champion horses reside at the park's Hall of Champions. Here, Thoroughbred legends Da Hoss, Funny Cide, and Go For Gin, as well as American Quarter Horse Be A Bono, Standardbred Trotter Mr. Muscleman, and Standardbred Pacers Staying Together, Western Dreamer, and Won The West are shown. We were fortunate to see Go For Gin, Be A Bono, Won The West, and Funny Cide up close and personal! Apparently the other horses were “resting” out in the fields.

Here are some stats on these magnificent animals.

Go For Gin: Thoroughbred, Bay Stallion, Foaled April 18, 1991 at Pillar Stud, Kentucky

Go For Gin has been a resident of the Hall of Champions since June 2011. He loves his gums rubbed after a performance, and also likes to play in water buckets, splashing the water out with his nose. Gin is known to make quite a mess just to hear the splashing noises.

Notable Wins
Remsen Stakes (G2)*
Chief's Crown Stakes
Preview Stakes
Kentucky Derby (G1)*

*G1 and G2 mean grades: A G2 winner means that he is a graded 2 stakes winner. G1 is the highest. The Triple Crown races are all G1 races which are all the highest graded classes. 

Notable Performances
2nd at Preakness Stakes
2nd at Belmont Stakes
2nd at Fountain of Youth Stakes
2nd at Wood Memorial Stakes
3rd at Forego Stakes
3rd at Churchill Downs Handicap

Be A Bono:  American Quarter Horse, Sorrel Gelding, Foaled February 22, 2001 at the Spencer Childers Ranch in Fresno, California

Be A Bono has been a resident of the Hall of Champions since November 2009. He is very attached to his stablemates, Mr. Muscleman and Won the West, and is the boss of his little herd. Muscles is his best friend. He’s known for being very sweet and sensitive.

Titles and Awards
19th richest racing American Quarter Horse
Lifetime earnings: $1.3 million
AQHA Register of Merit (2003)
Champion Quarter Running Three-Year-Old (2004)
Champion Quarter Running Three-Year-Old Gelding (2004)
World Champion Quarter Runner (2004)
AQHA Supreme Race Horse (2005)
AQHA Superior Race Horse (2005)
California High Point Aged Gelding (2006)

Notable Wins
Vessels Maturity (G1) (twice)
Golden State Futurity (G1)
Los Alamitos Winter Derby (G1)
Spencer Childers California Breeders Championship (RG1) (three times)
Go Man Go Handicap (G1)

Won The West:  Standardbred Pacer, Bay Gelding, Foaled May 4, 2004 at Fair Winds Farm in New Jersey

Won the West has been a resident of the Hall of Champions since October 2012. He’s very sweet and sensitive, and loves to be scratched. He’ll make funny faces if he’s scratched in the right spot! He loves hanging out with his buddies Be A Bono and Mr. Muscleman.

Titles/Awards
Dan Patch Award for Best Older Male Pacer (2009)
Dan Patch Award for Best Older Male Pacer (2010)
One of only eight horses to receive the Dan Patch Award for Best Older Male Pacer in consecutive years
Third richest Pacer in North America at time of retirement

Notable Wins
American National Stakes
The Tattersalls Stakes
The Scioto Jug Preview
American National Stakes
The Dan Patch Pace
American National Stakes
The Winbake Pace
The Quillen Memorial
Breeders Crown Open Pace (twice)
The Canadian Pacing Derby
The Molson Pace
The U.S. Pacing Championship
Mohawk Gold Cup Invitational

Funny Cide:  Thoroughbred, Chestnut Gelding, Foaled April 20, 2000 at McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbred Farm in New York

Funny Cide has been a resident of the Hall of Champions since December 2008. He’s got a reputation for being a bit grumpy. He loves naps, and if his handlers have to wake him up from a nap, they usually bribe him with a carrot—his favorite treat. He loves to be scratched in the right spot, and doesn’t like to be hot so will gladly be sprayed with a hose in his paddock on a hot summer day. He’s a great traveler, so he periodically makes appearances at Saratoga, Churchill Downs, and Keeneland racetracks.

Titles/Awards
New York Breeders’ Award for Champion 2-Year-Old (2002)
U.S. Champion 3-Year-Old Male (2003)
Champion New York Horse of the Year (2003, 2004)
First gelding to win the Kentucky Derby since 1929

Notable Wins
Bertram F. Bongard Stakes
Sleepy Hollow Stakes
Kentucky Derby (G1)
Preakness Stakes (G1)
Excelsior Breeders’ Cup Handicap (G3)
Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1)
Kings Point Handicap
Dominion Day Stakes (G3)
Wadsworth Memorial Handicap

It was really cool to realize the number of great competition horses who have made The Kentucky Horse Park their home since the park opened. Beginning with the arrival of Forego, one of the leading handicap horses of the ‘70s, the park has also been home to John Henry, named “Horse of the Decade” for the ‘80s and the top money-winning Thoroughbred gelding in racing history. (With the exception of a few months in 1986 John Henry lived at the park from 1985, ‘til his death in 2007.) During his life at the park other racing greats kept him company, such as 1970s champion Bold Forbes, and Cigar (voted Horse of the Decade).  In late 2008, champion Alysheba became a resident. Alysheba died at the park in 2009.

 We thought we should make note of just a few of the other memorials and horse sculptures in the park. The park is the final resting place for many noble steeds of legendary accomplishment, and even those whose achievements were to just provide friendship for those who loved them. Their grave sites are located throughout the park. There are also numerous statues and markers to honor the memories of horses that are buried elsewhere.

Besides the Thoroughbreds who called the park home, Standardbred pacing and trotting greats were also in residence, such as Staying Together, Western Dreamer, Cam Fella, Rambling Willie and Mr. Muscleman. And, 5-gaited American Saddlebred geldings, CH Gypsy Supreme, CH Imperator, and CH Sky Watch have all made the park their home, as well.

Most notably is the memorial for Man o’ War, who was unquestionable the most famous Thoroughbred that ever lived. A bronze sculpture and memorial at his grave site are near the Visitor’s Information Center. He’s buried alongside the Triple Crown winner War Admiral, who was his most famous son, and several of Man o’ War’s most notable sons and daughters. He was named Man o’ War since he was a war baby, one of 1,680 Thoroughbreds foaled in 1917. Man o’ War was sold for just $5,000 at Saratoga in 1918 to Pennsylvania horseman Sam Riddle. Riddle figured that if the big, chestnut yearling didn’t succeed as a race horse, he could perhaps be trained as a show jumper. Man o’ War was also given the nickname, “Big Red.”

The crowning event of Man o’ War’s career came in a match race against the celebrated horse Sir Barton, the first winner of the Triple Crown. On October 12, 1920, he and Man o’ War met in Windsor, Ontario. Man o’ War won by 7 lengths! In his career “Big Red” won 20 of 21 races.

Man o’ War died on November 1, 1947 at the age of 30, of an apparent heart attack.

Among other bronze sculptures there’s also a life-size sculpture of Secretariat, the 1973 Triple Crown winner, with his jockey and groom.

Another memorial was to Seattle Slew.

One of the mind-blowing things we saw were the “strides” of John Henry, Secretariat and Man o’ War, 24 ft., 25.5 ft., and 28 ft. respectively! Wow! You don’t realize how long those strides are until you see the measurement up close!

This video is of a "mechanical horse" that is just in front of the International Horse Museum. Pretty cool!

By this time we were ready to hit the trail again, for the ½ hour drive back to Frankfort and dinner at Wendy’s.  Thankfully, I didn’t have to cook that night! 

Wednesday morning, we woke to 65° and overcast. We had a heavy downpour at 10 p.m. the night previous, so the air was fresh and sweet. We spent the day relaxing. We could still feel our painful legs from the trip down into Mammoth the week previous, and we had done tons of walking in the week since. Dick did some future trip planning; I worked on the next edition of the blog and did some knitting.

Another travel day beckoned us on Thursday as we packed up and hit the road again, this time heading to Pipestem Resort State Park in West Virginia, a mere 296 miles away. Roads were OK for the most part through West Virginia, but when they’re rough, they’re rough… Traffic was rather heavy going through Charleston, WV, and we hit really heavy rainfall as we were driving south on highway 77 after a fuel stop in Beckley, which incidentally is a toll road: $2.50 per toll booth times 3 to our exit. 

We arrived at Pipestem Resort State Park in the mid-afternoon, and got set up quickly. What a beautiful park! It covers 4,050 acres through the beautiful Bluestone River Gorge. The park got its name from a common, local, shrub: pipestem also known as narrowleaf meadowsweet, historically used for making pipe stems. There are 2 lodges in the park, one has a large conference center, and the other is only accessible by an aerial tramway to the bottom of the gorge. In addition to an RV park, there are 26 fully equipped wood cabins, and an area set aside strictly for tent camping. There’s not only a par-3 golf course, there’s also a championship golf course on the property. Several restaurants are onsite at both lodges; horse stables, a nature center, hiking paths, cross country ski trails, and other recreational activities are available, including miniature golf, disc golf and foot golf (whatever that is!). The nature center, featuring displays of native plants and animals, also includes the Harris Homestead, a reconstructed 1900s period historic house museum and meat house. An amphitheater is also available for concerts, storytelling, and local theater productions. As you can see, there’s never a shortage of things to do here! A weekly schedule of events is posted so anyone in the park has an opportunity to take part in any of them.

Dick rode the motorcycle through the park and around the area, for about 30 miles on Friday morning. He found this river and waterfall, Brush Creek Falls.

 I opted to stay at our site to read and knit. The weather folks said we should expect thunderstorms throughout the day, but there were none. I was able to sit outside to soak up some rays while he rode. Nice.  That evening we drove into Athens, WV for pizza, then home again to the park in time to get to the “Wings of Wonder” presentation at the McKeever Lodge and Conference Center.

This Birds of Prey Education Program featured live birds native to West Virginia. Presented by Three Rivers Avian Center of Brooks, West Virginia, we learned about the birds’ habitats, diets, behaviors, as well as the most common causes of injury to each species and the laws protecting them. The presentation was free; donations were accepted. We were introduced to 6 birds of prey: Dori, a Peregrine Falcon; Gimli, an American Kestrel; Thomas, an Eastern Screech Owl; Hoolie, a Great Horned Owl; Nick, a Red Tailed Hawk; and Regis, a Bald Eagle. All these birds had been injured, or had human imprinting (that doesn’t go away) and could no longer live in the wild. It was all very, very interesting, and we’re so glad we went.

We learned some interesting facts, such as, the eye of an average bird takes up about 1/3 of the space inside its skull; a Peregrine Falcon has been recorded flying 125 mph in a straight flight, and can dive out of the sky at 263 mph; and of the over 800 species of birds in the U.S., 31% are listed as either endangered, threatened, or in population jeopardy.

The Three Rivers Avian Center is a private, nonprofit organization, and has been caring for wild birds in the West Virginia area for over 26 years. They provide veterinary, and rehabilitation care for over 105 species of non-game and endangered wild birds, as well as provide educational programs and research programs.

Our exciting activities didn’t stop Friday night! Saturday we took the tram down to the Mountain Creek Lodge and Bluestone River at 1,542’, from the Canyon Rim Center at 2,639’. The ride took about 10 minutes down, and cost us seniors $5 each (you paid at the bottom so you could come back up, interesting); each gondola car can seat 4 people. The tram has been in operation since 1971, a year after the park opened, and is manned by members of the Pipestem Volunteer Fire Department. Each member must pass exacting training requirements. In the years since it’s been in service there has never been a need for the crew to perform an evacuation for any reason. The tram undergoes routine maintenance twice weekly, and once monthly. The tram is shut down during situations of high winds and lightening.

At the bottom we walked along the river for a while; catch and release fishing for trout was available.

After returning to the top of the gorge we decided to hike up to the Bolar Observation Tower at the other end of the park. The hike to the tower was a bit strenuous, and the path was paved, but it was uphill. Ugh! The tower itself is at 3,000’, and the views were spectacular. 

On the way back down we were fortunate to come upon a doe and fawn. The fawn was feeding off the doe, so it couldn’t have been very old. The fawn was so tiny! This was the highlight of the trip for us!

Saturday night we were hit with wild and LOUD thunderstorms for a few hours. Sounded like cannons shooting off right outside our rig! We were glad this would pass over that night so we’d have an easier time packing up for our trip into Virginia on Sunday.

Sunday morning came with just a few drops of rain falling every now and then. We were packed up and ready to hit the road, taking Highway 20 to I-64 into Virginia and our next stop, Small Country Campground in Louisa, VA. More on that next week. Oh, a few miles after leaving Pipestem a huge golden eagle flew right next to our truck for a while. Amazing!

‘til next week, hugs!

RJ and Gail