My Old Kentucky Home (State Park) and other tranquil stops

We are camped in Bardstown, at our first Kentucky state park. We have a nice spot at the appropriately named "My Old Kentucky Home State Park." For those that are already humming the tune of that song, either you are a Kentucky Derby fan, or you are from Kentucky, or you are showing your age. For those that don't even recognize that as a title of a song, let's review. The park is called "My Old Kentucky Home" state park because it was in this house in Bardstown that Stephen Foster often visited his relatives.

A statue of Stephen Foster is near the house, and it was here that he wrote the words, "Oh the sun shines bright on my old Kentucky home" and "Well, the corn top's ripe and the meadow's in the bloom while the birds make music all the day." We're purposefully leaving out some of the controversial words in the first version of the song. That section has now been re-written to make it a more appropriate state song. We listened to a recording of the song, and we've been singing it ever since.

Our campground is a mile's drive away from that house. But instead of driving to it, we walked the cart paths across the very nice state park golf course that was closed for the day. That was a nice tranquil stop.

The next day we headed northwest out of town to do some hiking at Bernheim Arboretum. We had beautiful blue skies, and got some nicely tranquil pictures.

But our reason to visit is to see the giants that live in the forest here. Built in 2019, the giants have become permanent fixtures here at Bernheim.

It's actually a family of giants, and the first on our hike was Little Nis, who was playing beside the pond and saw his own reflection.

This family is made of recycled wood. We now recognize the kind of wood used. Those are old wooden barrel staves, used in making bourbon. Since Bardstown is the bourbon capitol of the world, the artist had a ready supply of recycled lumber here.

The giant foot prints in the forest help visitors to find the rest of the family. We found Mama Loumari resting in the shade. We later read that her abdomen is rounded because she is  expecting a new baby, and it's going to be a boy.

We were especially excited to see these giants, because we had found one back in 2020 in Breckenridge, Colorado. The same Danish artist had built an even larger giant that was purchased by the city of Breckenridge, and has become a popular tourist attraction in the forest just outside of that Colorado town. We read that the Breckenridge giant is the father of this family, and his name is Isak. So it was fun to find some more of the family members in Kentucky.

As we continued our hike, we found that Bernheim is also home to some scaly creatures. We first saw this snake slithering near our path. After seeing that he had a pointy tale and round eyes, we knew he wasn't venomous. So we weren't afraid to get closer for a better picture.

Not far away, we saw a sizable turtle with her head out and barely moving. Denisa took a picture, as the turtle tucked her head inside her shell. It wasn't until later that Mark looked at the picture and realized that we interrupted the turtle laying eggs. Behind her are several newly-laid eggs that we didn't even notice while we were hiking.

That trail finally lead us to the little sister in the family--Little Elina.

The giants all have a family resemblance, with that far-away gaze in their eyes.

Little Elina has long hair, and visitors love to leave this little girl ornaments to adorn her locks.

Those big hands are holding a boulder.

We traded out picture-taking duties with another couple, so we have a picture of the three of us together. 

Bernheim Gardens is home to over 16,000 acres, with trails that loop throughout. We studied the map and realized that Kentucky uses some words differently than we do. We know the definitions of words like hollow (empty inside), lick (pass the tongue over), knob (handle on a door), and run (move quickly). But looking at the Bernheim map we see a road that goes through Sugar Creek Hollow (small valley), that passes by Elm Lick (natural salt spring) and across Houck Knob (cone-shaped hill), and by Rock Run (we're not even sure what that means in Kentucky!) This state has a language all its own, and we are just trying to talk like the locals! 

It was warm today, so we decided that one hike was enough. But we also had to drive up to the Canopy Tree Walk.

A short walk on the boardwalk that rises 70 feet over the canopy of trees gives very tranquil views of the Kentucky woods that surround us.

We're making a big loop around Bardstown today. It's a 26-mile drive to our next destination that is south of town. This unusual stop is at the Abbey of Gethsemeni.

We zipped our lips as we walked closer to the church entrance. The monks that live here have taken a vow of silence, and today we did too. This made this another very tranquil stop.

They are dedicated to a life of studying and worshiping God, and their day starts early here in the church. They meet every morning at 3:15 a.m. for Vigils. They'll be back at 5:45 a.m. for Lauds, and then again at 7:30 a.m. for Terce. That means they have been to church three times before we usually wake up each morning. There are more services at 12:15, 2:15, 5:30, and 7:30 in the afternoon.

Monks have been living here at the abbey for 150 years. Because trappist monks are expected to labor to support themselves, they have jobs (in between church services) in the afternoon. The two things they make here at this abbey are fruitcakes (in sizes from a 10-ounce cake all the way up to a five-pound cake that sells for $79.95) and fudge. Because they are near the bourbon capitol of the world, both the fruitcake and fudge have bourbon in them.

After a day of humming "My Old Kentucky Home," we are feeling very tranquil after our tranquil stops here among the knobs and licks and hollows and runs of Kentucky.