Monday, May 16, 2011
Dr. Galen describes our trip:
The purpose is to understand the rich culture of the area and to explode some of the myths as well. Social Work has a focus on Person-in-Environment, and we will look particularly at how coal extraction has influenced the lives and life chances for people of the area. We will also visit three continuing programs that were begun by women during the Progressive Era. Hindman Settlement School and Pine Mountain Settlement School were part of the Settlement House movement. The Frontier Nursing Service was the first nurse/midwifery program in the United States. We will tour Appalshop--a center for media and documentary works on the area, and cross the border to Big Stone Gap, VA for a music/folk festival. We will spend two days in Benham/Lynch, Kentucky--two coal company towns in the shadow of Black Mountain. We will see the devastation of mountain top removal for coal extraction that has been wrought on the Virginia side and meet with local advocates who are trying to save the mountain on the Kentucky side.
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We arrived safely in Lexington, getting to WallaceStation for fried chicken night, and following Old Frankfort Pike past some beautiful horse farms and then....MONSOON!, Tornado warnings, etc.... "The sun shines bright"...let's keep saying that as our mantra.
ReplyDeleteTomorrow, we visit the coal corporation, and get to pet yearlings at a horse farm..."The sun shines bright.."
Wow, what a great trip! We drove 14 hours, and made it safely to our destination in Lexingtion, Kentucky!
ReplyDeleteI was the last one to arrive, but the first one to drive out of the parking lot at UW-Eau Claire, School of Social Work parking lot! We left promptly at 5:30 a.m. We drove through Madison, then Illinois, Indiana, then Kentucky!
In Kentucky, that is when I noticed the flat landscapes turned into cliff/rolling hills. Very beautiful greenery, and trees in bloom. We went over huge bridges, well-built in Louisville, Kentucky. We then exited the freeway, and wistfully drove on winding, twisty roads. They were flocked with black fences, and stone brick fences from the 1800s. Definitely the richer socio economic class own these beautiful mansions with beautiful thoroughbreds running the hillsides. Dr. Galen stated the cost of these running fences are about $18,000.00/mile. One horse farm would have many, many miles of fencing. It provides full time jobs for people for trimming around the fences, and mowing.... We then ate dinner at Wallace Station in Versailles, Kentucky. It is an historic local eatery, with good food. I had fried chicken, that had a flavor of spicy barbecue. It was superb, with homemade biscuits and bread! After eating, we jumped in the vechiles, the rain came down in buckets, had a warning sign rang throughout, and weathered the severe thunderstorm.
After we outran the severe thunderstorm, we arrived at our hotel. We then relaxed in the poolside spa, relaxing our minds!
Our hotel rooms are furnished with walnut furniture, flat screen TV's, and free wi-fi!
What a blessed day, to be exploring this journey in this part of the U.S.!
It forcasts to rain tomorrow, but as Scarlet O'Hara would say, "We will think about that tomorrow!"
Sarah Niles
We arrived home at 4:30 p.m., weary, but totally immersed. What a lovely group of future social workers...
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