Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Where's the Colonel?

Apparently, the Colonel is in Corbin, Kentucky after you turn at light number seven.

The first weekend of April was a wonderful mini-vacation in Louisville, Kentucky for a friend's 30th birthday. The weekend was stupendous! We saw Churchill Downs, played with an interactive art instillation, heard Glee renditions, and debated Dante/ Carson McCullers on the street at 2am.

Louisville is a quaint little place with snazzy shops. I loved seeing where my friend was getting her PhD at the University of Louisville. Trying on hats at the Kentucky Derby gift shop was great. (I am going to try make a cuff from my "Lucky Penny" smashed penny I got at the gift shop using tips from Epbot's blog!)  The birthday girl took us to the best places to eat, and to a great show. I even through my first White Castle drive-through. When we went out for girl's night, the birthday girl had on a rockin' hot pink leather dress with fabulous gold sparkling shoes! As a whole, we were all an odd pairing of people, from Goth, Prep, Vintage, and Unique.









Well, the drive down was very long; however, with only four hours of sleep, the drive back was even longer. Around two pm, my tummy and my travel companion's tummy started to rumble. We had already decided that for some reason, greasy food just sounded wonderful.The call of grease appeared to be answered when a huge billboard said ORIGINAL KFC THIS EXIT.  Upon exiting, we say sign that said "Turn right at light number seven" plastered with the Colonel's smiling face and black tie.

We started counting. 1.2.3.4.5.6. Seventh red light we turn. Bumpy roads took us into the abandoned town of Corbin, where more side streets led to trailers and small mill homes. People looked at us from their porches with smirks. They knew what these two out-of-towners had done. They had counted. After many more wrong turns and asking a native female with a faded Looney Tones t-shirt driving a yellow hotrod for directions, we too realized our mistake. We had counted.

Apparently small rectangular green signs hang from Corbin's stop lights. The sings have numbers adorned on them. So, if you ever go in search of the original KFC, do not count. Read the signs. Within minutes of following the nice lady's directions, we were turning at sign-identified light number seven. Moments after turning, the Colonel's smiling face was seen in the sky, guiding us to our destination. After over thirty minutes of rambling, we had found our way.

(I could easily make a Biblical spin off about finding our way...
The Colonel is my chicken; I shall not want.
He maketh me to drive to light seven;
He leadeth me down the still streets;
He fillith my belly;
He leadeth me into the consumption of calories for His name sake.)

Sorry! This little parody came into my head and since the husband laughed, I felt I should share!

Anyways, back on track...In this blog, I talk about how memories and relationships are built around food. Hardly ever when you bite into something do you think to yourself, "I will remember this moment every time I eat blank." Well, biting into that KFC, I knew that whenever I ate KFC in the future, I would be tasting Victory! That's right....VICTORY, and let me tell, Victory never tasted more like chicken....delicious delicious chicken.


Please ignore the messy hair...It is lack of sleep, long car ride hair.

Overall, my Kentucky mini-vacation was a wonderful time! It was great to show how even though we scattered after graduating, we value friendship so much that we are willing to drive to random locations to spend time together.

2 comments:

Erin M. said...

AAAAAH! Your prayer of the colonel was hysterical! You should share that with the J.P.

I'm so glad you came and so glad you had a good time:) Louisville was a lot brighter with you in it:) I am going back to the hat store, but it won't be as fun. It is pretty rad how we all stay in touch and make the effort to get to each other - we will continue to make this effort as we all keep moving around the USA. I liked the bizarre variety on the street-side; it's cool how we are cool with anybody. You're special, and I'm glad you are my friend... buggaboo.
(had to lighten the mood)

hope to see you soon, and glad White Castle didn't leave you in a bad way:)

Erin M. said...

ps: the stop-light story was straight hysterical