A Day Out with Papa...

Time for another drive with Papa. What could we find this trip? And where would we go? Hmmmm....

Papa gave me the atlas he has of just Kentucky. We took it with us to the nursing home Wednesday, April 13th and I plotted a possible route as we listened to the DVD with the residents. This route would take us through the back roads to Versailles. For some reason Papa thought he wanted to go to Versailles (He thought he had never been there. We have been through there many, many times. He just can't remember anymore.) So, we would first go to Versailles and then around the outside of the Lexington area staying close to the Kentucky River. At some point we would have to cross the Kentucky River. There is a road crossing at I-64 at Frankfort and at the High Bridge south of Versailles. Then you must get back to I-75 to have a road across the river. I found two places where it looked like the road went to the river and one could then maybe take a ferry across. I picked one of them and then the road down through Richmond to Beattyville and, if time allowed, follow Hwy. 11 to Mt. Pleasant and then take Hwy 460 back to Georgetown. I had to attended a dinner that night with Claude so I told Papa we would plot that long a drive and then find a stopping place if it got close to when I needed to get home. Papa looked as I explained the route and pronounced it good. A lot of it was road we have not driven together in an area we usually don't drive.

Friday morning, April 15th, we left Papa's apartment at 10:30am and I returned him at 4:45pm. It was a beautiful day and he just loved being out and driving. 

When we got to the first place I thought was a crossing, it turned out the road went right down to a dirt area where you could put your boat into the Kentucky River. Sure enough the road picked up on the other side of the Kentucky River but there was no ferry and my little chariot will not float across the river. We turned around and found our road to the next potential crossing closer to Richmond. 

This turned out to actually have a ferry over the river. No fee was charged to use the ferry. It could hold three carefully placed cars at one time. You were not allowed out of your vehicle.

Papa loved it even with the limited views of the river. I posted these pictures on Facebook and immediately my sister, Junie, posted this, "How did he do on the boat? He could see the shore but does he realize yet that he's probably no longer capable of swimming to it?" You see, our father has absolutely NO desire to take a cruise or be in a boat from which he can't see the shore. But he really did just fine.

We drove on past the Bluegrass Army Depot and into the 'knob' country of Kentucky. The roads just wind and wind and wind, up and down and around these hills. It is gorgeous. Lots of red bud trees and dogwoods in bloom this time of year. Papa was in heaven. He kept saying how much he wants to do this drive again when all the leaves are on the trees. 

It was a good day. We had a new adventure with crossing the river on a ferry. We both do enjoy the drive. Nice to share that time with Papa.