Draws for the 30-75 Indoors are here.

Matches started in the 30-75 Indoors at the Lexington Tennis Club today. Susan had a bye in singles and we had a bye in doubles, so just watched a bit (match of the day in the 65s was between doubles partners Kim Dean and Sherri Bronson, won 76 64 by Dean in a well played match). There were a number of closely contested matches in the 75s as well…Judy McAllister over Carolann Castell 4,5 and Ann Bradley 5,6 over Lois Harris. The draws are small but fierce. The 45s is a round robin, the 55s a draw of 7. Tomorrow we play at 1pm doubles.

After practicing Susan and I went touring…Susan driving, Apple CarPlay directing and I took a lot of photos.

We started by driving towards the town of Versailles (not pronounced the French way, but as “ver-SAYLES”. Only tourists pronounce it in the French way. Interestingly, Google Maps pronounced it correctly!

Before reaching Versailles we passed the “Kentucky Castle” and stopped to take a look. This is not an ancient building…it’s building, meant as a private mansion, was begun in 1968; a divorce paused completion; a death in 2003 caused a change of hands; a fire in 2004 caused it to burn down but it was rebuilt by 2008 and is now a luxury hotel and event venue. We walked inside…it’s quite beautiful, with a lovely staircase, expansive grounds, lots of turrets, a reception room full of mirrors and a grand fireplace. Not what we expected to see in Kentucky.

Next stop was Versailles, the county seat of Woodford County. It has a quaint Main Street lined with shops and government buildings and a library. There are also several museums including a railroad museum, but we just wandered down the Main Street, and then were off to our next stop, Midway.

The route to Midway sent us up and down (it was a bit like a rollercoaster)two lane roads lined with either double fences or old stone fences, past lots of horse farms (I could see the horses and foals in the fields munching on the lovely green grass) with large homes well off the road. The road had a canopy of trees covering it…really gorgeous.

Midway was founded by a railroad and was named such because it was midway between Lexington and Frankfort. A railway line bisects the old downtown, which though smaller than Versailles had a similar feel, being lined with facades of old buildings. However, most of the buildings contained restaurants, which is one of the things Midway is now known for along with its horse farms (it was home to the Woodburn stables which later owned the famous horse “Lexington”). The town was also known for distilling bourbon from 1865-1959.

After leaving Midway we drove by the Frankfort Pike Overlook and learned a bit more about the history of the area.

The book “Horse” is about the famous horse Lexington in large part and is quite good.

And that’s a wrap on Friday in Kentucky.