Open Hands Community Food Pantry

Kentucky – Thursday, December 13

When I was researching food pantries in the Lexington area last night, I read about one called Open Hands Community Food Pantry, and I liked the name. It was located in Lawrenceburg, which is a bit southwest of Lexington. So I called them to make sure they were open, and to see if there were any items in particular that they might need. They told me they could really use cooking oil, sugar and peanut butter – a combination of items I haven’t shopped for before!

I headed out in that direction, but soon was easily distracted by a sign for Midway’s Historic District. I always like walking through historic districts, and thought a short walk would be good so Tula could get out a bit before I stopped to shop. Our short walk turned into nearly 3 miles – the small historic district was cute, with lots of unique looking shops, and lots of people doing Christmas shopping. We wandered into neighborhoods, and got far enough out of town that I was getting into horse country again – sadly, the sidewalk ran out right as the “scenic drive” was starting. I walked past a restaurant with a big sign advertising their soup-of-the-day – Bourbon Maple Carrot with Spiced Walnut Creme Fraiche and Cinnamon Nutmeg Croutons – I have no idea how people dream up this stuff – it sounded like a dessert to me! I was tempted to try a bowl, but didn’t want to take the time to sit in a restaurant for a while.

Then I drove to Lawrenceburg and found a grocery store and loaded up the cart with vegetable oil, peanut butter and sugar. Once again I was glad for the GPS to find the food pantry! I met Debbie and Katie there, and as we were carrying the bags in, they wondered how I found them, and I told them what I was doing, and they were wonderfully supportive and excited about the journey. They wanted to meet Tula, and we took some pictures. They have a nice organized space in their food pantry, and the recipients can make some choices of what to get within the different food groupings – depending on family size. They said anyone needing baby food can come in as often as they need to, even if it’s once a day. It was fun talking to them, and they told me about a community park with a paved walking path, so that’s where Tula and I headed. We did a couple laps of the 1.1 trail in a pretty park.

Then I headed for Versailles, which was another town with some historic neighborhoods. The drive there was beautiful – winding hilly roads through horse farm country – views I never get tired of! The town of Versailles was really pretty – I’m enjoying seeing all the different kinds of Christmas decorations and lights. Walking through town led me to one of the historic neighborhoods with grand old homes, and that led to another park with a maze of paved trails, and I got another 3+ miles of walking in. It was pretty to see the big houses both in late-afternoon daylight, and then just after dark on my way back when all the Christmas lights were on.

Then it was time to head back to Lexington, and another visit to the Kentucky Horse Park for a little more Christmas shopping – one of the vendors had run out of something I wanted, and promised to have more tonight. The only way to get to the craft/art area was to go through the light show again, but since I had my stub from last night, and explained I was picking something up from one of the vendors, they let me in for free. So I was able to enjoy the light show again, and saw a few things I had missed the night before (it’s hard to see everything with displays on both sides of the road). I got the gift I wanted, then decided to briefly go through the history of human and horse display again. And somehow last night I totally missed the Arabian Horse exhibit, and they had desert tents set up, and great displays of the history of the breed. There was even a Black Stallion area, with all those Walter Farley books I loved to read as a kid.

By this time it had gotten late, and very cold. Daytime temps have been unusually warm for this time of year, and it’s been sunny, but there’s frost at night, and I was glad my motel was close by.