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How come if anyone asks where to live in KY a certain someone always says Louisville?? Almost like the whole rest of the state doesnt exist.
Hum...good question, all I can think of is, someone must be paying him/her to say that. Personally, they coundn't pay me enough to live there, Louisville that is.
How come if anyone asks where to live in KY a certain someone always says Louisville?? Almost like the whole rest of the state doesnt exist.
Having lived in only major metro areas (8 to be exact and I have traveled to now over 80% of the top 50 cities), I found much of the rest of KY outside the Louisville/Lexington/Covington triangle to provide me with a bit of culture shock. For anyone unfamiliar with the area, that is why I recommend sticking close to Louisville, Lexington, or NKY. I feel Louisville and NKY are far superior to Lexington since they are over 3 times as large in metro and simply offer many more amenities. Lexington also has atrocious traffic for a small city and is too much focused on UofK...non UofK fans in my experience can feel as outsiders.
It is certainly a personal preference. Obviously I find the rest of KY beautiful, I could just never live outside a major or mid major city. As far as rural areas, I find Eastern KY and parts of the Kentucky Lakes region to be among the most beautiful natural areas I have encountered in the lower 48.
Also, given the OP's desire for Trader Joe's/Whole Foods, the only options are the golden triangle of Lexington, Louisville, or NKY/Cincy. Unfortunately, much of KY is still stuck in the fast food fad of the 80s and 90s.
I don't think Lexington or Bowling Green or some other parts would be too much of a cultural shock, New Hampshire is a sort of rural state too, if I am remembering correctly. Just as you prefer a more Urban/Large Metro area, many people prefer smaller towns and cities, or even a rural atmosphere. For them being near Lexington or Cincinnati or Owensboro, might well be preferable.
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Lexington also has atrocious traffic for a small city and is too much focused on UofK...non UofK fans in my experience can feel as outsiders.
Although the traffic at rush hour can be bad in Lexington, especially in certain areas...one of the jobs I had when I lived in Louisville was at Bashford Manor Mall, and I only lived about 20 minutes away, but it took over an hour to get home due to traffic jams - I worked 9- 5, I have never encountered traffic that bad in Lexington ever. Ever. Not even close. I go into work now at 5 pm, and it takes me less than ten minutes. Even less time to get home, later in the night. And come on, not every one here is a UK fan, My husband is a big U of L fan, and wears the sports apparel all the time, and he isn't shunned or anything. I know other people who don't even like Basketball, and don't have any favorite team. I work with several people like this, they seem to be doing okay really.
In addition, I'm not sure living somewhere '"three times the size of Lexington" is a recommendation! I lived in Cincinnati for three years and was relieved and delighted to return to Lexington. It took me half an hour to drive to work in downtown Cincy, and an hour or more to get home. That got very old, very fast, as did the need to drive at least half an hour to get from my pleasant suburb to any of those vaunted cultural attractions, most of which were also located downtown (as is typical of most cities).
Both Louisville and Cincinnati are nice enough cities - but Lexington is far more pastoral, traditional, and easy-going, yet is within two hours of all those cultural attractions in its larger sister cities. Also, didn't the OP mention wanting room for horses?? She's much more likely to find that in the Bluegrass than in Cincinnati or Louisville.
I can be in downtown Lexington in ten minutes outside of rush hour, perhaps twenty minutes during rush hour. My lengthiest typical (i.e. excluding blizzard conditions) homeward commute was around half an hour when I worked downtown.
UK sports? They're okay. Not my main focus, but hey, whatever floats your boat is fine with me. There are lots of other things to do in and around Lexington in addition to UK basketball.
I'd also suggest the surrounding towns of Lex, especially if you have and are into horses! Lex has just about everything on your wish list, and you can easily be within 20 minutes of it all and still enjoy the smaller town life!! We're in Paris and love it!!
It can be fatal to visitors if some Eastern Kentucky hillbilly comes into the big city wearing his coveralls, barefoot, and with hog manure between his toes!
Don't scare off the visitors, Hog!! All of Kentucky has some cultural shock for outsiders---and sometimes a little cultural enlightenment, too!
It can be fatal to visitors if some Eastern Kentucky hillbilly comes into the big city wearing his coveralls, barefoot, and with hog manure between his toes!
Don't scare off the visitors, Hog!! All of Kentucky has some cultural shock for outsiders---and sometimes a little cultural enlightenment, too!
Dear God, I miss it.
Well...I'm sure that first sentence was directed at me, me being an Eastern Kentucky Proud Hillbilly and a certified Redneck, I bet you didn't know there was a difference...and I'm both. And, I have you know, I have been wearing Brogans for dang near three years now (talk about up town). As for the Hog crap, I think all the city slickers has a lot of that too, it just ain't between their toes, if you know what I mean. The big city is safe as far as I'm concerned, I can tolerate lexington about two hours a year and I wouldn't go to louisville under any circumstances.
Everybody is welcome in Eastern Kentucky but, we just don't need no cultural enlightenment. Them city slickers could learn a lot from us if they would just shut up and listen.
There is a difference between coveralls and overalls, bet you didn't know that either.
Do I miss the big city? Yah...like a wart on my nose...I know it's gone but glad of it.
Well...I'm sure that first sentence was directed at me, me being an Eastern Kentucky Proud Hillbilly and a certified Redneck, I bet you didn't know there was a difference...and I'm both. And, I have you know, I have been wearing Brogans for dang near three years now (talk about up town). As for the Hog crap, I think all the city slickers has a lot of that too, it just ain't between their toes, if you know what I mean. The big city is safe as far as I'm concerned, I can tolerate lexington about two hours a year and I wouldn't go to louisville under any circumstances.
Everybody is welcome in Eastern Kentucky but, we just don't need no cultural enlightenment. Them city slickers could learn a lot from us if they would just shut up and listen.
There is a difference between coveralls and overalls, bet you didn't know that either.
Do I miss the big city? Yah...like a wart on my nose...I know it's gone but glad of it.
Well, Hog I might of been indicating you, but you've already fessed up to some ignorance of local Eastern Kentucky culture. What about all them pocketknives people collect? I learned real quickly to be careful when I traveled over there in the mid-seventies with a Jefferson County license plate! And I always carried a couple of unique pocketknives to enable conversation when needed.
Once I had to travel over to Pikeville on a business trip and there was a coal mine strike in progress. The insurance agent I was going to visit said, "I tell you how to be okay with them Jeffplates. You just wear your suit coat while you drive, keep a big Bible lying in clear view on the passenger seat of your vehicle, roll you window down, and anytime you get stopped by miners standing in the road, just say, 'God bless you in your struggle, brothers!' You'll be fine, cause they'll figure your a travelin' preacher and not an outside agitator."
Worked like a charm!! And on one occasion I was pretty nervous going around a curve where I had to slow to a crawl. I'm originally from Alabama, but I learned how to get a good East Ky twang in my voice!
And as hard as it is to get to know some of you East Kentucky coots, you can be really great friends when someone does get to know you!
Well, Hog I might of been indicating you, but you've already fessed up to some ignorance of local Eastern Kentucky culture. What about all them pocketknives people collect? I learned real quickly to be careful when I traveled over there in the mid-seventies with a Jefferson County license plate! And I always carried a couple of unique pocketknives to enable conversation when needed.
Once I had to travel over to Pikeville on a business trip and there was a coal mine strike in progress. The insurance agent I was going to visit said, "I tell you how to be okay with them Jeffplates. You just wear your suit coat while you drive, keep a big Bible lying in clear view on the passenger seat of your vehicle, roll you window down, and anytime you get stopped by miners standing in the road, just say, 'God bless you in your struggle, brothers!' You'll be fine, cause they'll figure your a travelin' preacher and not an outside agitator."
Worked like a charm!! And on one occasion I was pretty nervous going around a curve where I had to slow to a crawl. I'm originally from Alabama, but I learned how to get a good East Ky twang in my voice!
And as hard as it is to get to know some of you East Kentucky coots, you can be really great friends when someone does get to know you!
God bless you, brother!
Ignorance ye think...well, I figure just the obsite. I guess it's all in whose eyes ye lookin through.
You think they collected pocket knives? No, No, No, they traded pocket knives. Couldn't afford to collectum, they traded for a little boot so they could run down to the store and buy some pickled bolonie and crackers for dinner. That's right dinner...they had soup beans fried taters and cornbread for supper. Why ye think they were strikin?
You think that Eastern Kentucky twang worked? They had you figured out before you stoped...you just ain't got it, they just felt sorry fer ye.
We're everybody's friend but, what ye see is what ye get. We ain't posers.
You ever get that coverall, overall thing figured out?
God Bless you Brother, you ain't half bad fer a city slicker.
Ignorance ye think...well, I figure just the obsite. I guess it's all in whose eyes ye lookin through.
You think they collected pocket knives? No, No, No, they traded pocket knives. Couldn't afford to collectum, they traded for a little boot so they could run down to the store and buy some pickled bolonie and crackers for dinner. That's right dinner...they had soup beans fried taters and cornbread for supper. Why ye think they were strikin?
You think that Eastern Kentucky twang worked? They had you figured out before you stoped...you just ain't got it, they just felt sorry fer ye.
We're everybody's friend but, what ye see is what ye get. We ain't posers.
You ever get that coverall, overall thing figured out?
God Bless you Brother, you ain't half bad fer a city slicker.
They maybe traded them, and then again I saw a bit of mumbley peg with hillbillies bettin' thar knives on the results. I jest smiled and pretended like I knew what the hell they were doin', and blamed arthritis in my fingers from letting me jine in.
And NOBODY in Eastern Kentucky eats beans---they eat those MOUNTAIN STRAWBERRIES that yanks call pintos. Unless its become streamly modern in them hills n' hollows in the past 20 years.
I confess to having been somewhat apprehensive at night in Pikeville when I could hear occasional gunshots from up in the hills during the coal strikes. My agent told me the strikers were just makin sure nobody was sleepin down in the mine camp. I actually had a woman call me at my Louisville office because I'd cancelled her son's auto insurance and she wanted me to tell the truth--those "union miners" wanted her son's insurance cancelled cause he was a strikebreaker. I had a bit of trouble explaining it was his speeding tickets that had resulted in the cancellation.
And you will appreciate this little vignette--I had one agent take me over to his house, go over to his neighbor, and bring me back a couple of mason jars with a more or less clear liquid floating around inside. He said, "Now I'm givin' yu thiz from my neighbor to take home and enjoy. But when you're drivin' home, you make sure you drive real slow and obey all the traffic signs, cause this is UNTAXED liquor. If yu get stopped by the po-leese with thiz in yur car yu are goin' to jail. Don't think yu won't. And yu can count on a helluva fine along with a night or two in the clinker."
I drove carefully!
I took it home, passed one jar off to a co-worker and opened the other when my father came to visit us. He took one sip, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he said, "I think this is one fine paint thinner." and handed the jar back to me That was when I knew that even if I were accepted in the mountains, I didn't have the constitution to drink that liquid fire.
And to my college days at Campbellsville--when we played basketball at Pikeville College it was always a wonder that there wasn't a murder when it was over. One Pikeville student told me, "Ya'll probably gonna win the game, but we're gonna win the fight afterwards!" Needless to say we made a quick exit BEFORE the game was over.
So now that we've scared half the people reading this thread, maybe the OP won't be anxious to see the beauties of the hills, the hollows, the two foot wide streams of water that become raging rivers when it rains hard, or the side of a mountain sliding down across the road after a few days of steady rain! (actually had the side of hill come down across the road behind me as I was driving from Williamson to Belfry), or gettin stuck behind a coal truck on a two-laner which forces one to slow down and just enjoy the drive.
Ya gotta have a heart for the hills to live in Eastern Kentucky.
You take care, Hog! We're pretty busy with only a year from retirement, but the wife's family is all in Berea/Richmond area (originally from Somerset), so maybe we'll get back there sometime in the future. If so, I'll send you a post and maybe I can drive into yur area and we can try some mumbly-peg!
Last edited by Wardendresden; 01-31-2013 at 11:41 PM..
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Fatal to some!
. And, I have you know, I have been wearing Brogans for dang near three years now (talk about up town)
. As for the Hog crap, I think all the city slickers has a lot of that too, it just ain't between their toes, if you know what I mean
. The big city is safe as far as I'm concerned, I can tolerate lexington about two hours a year and I wouldn't go to louisville under any circumstances
. 
...you just ain't got it, they just felt sorry fer ye.
