Let's talk about Lexington

It is an interesting town there in Kentucky. I had been to Louisville and came to find for myself and from others that Lexington is very different. The city consists of a large number of wealthy people or at least people that think they are very wealthy (I didn’t stop and ask them for their stock portfolios). I’m sure that it was old horse farm money. You know, horse trading is the second oldest profession behind prostitution.

My biggest dip into the culture was eating something called a Hot Brown. I had seen them on menus and heard a little about them in reviews, but wasn’t sure what it was. I read some information and decided that a place called Ramsey’s. The restaurant was VERY crowded when I arrived at 6:30ish on a Wednesday night. I finally got someone's attention that appeared to be seating people (it was very hard to tell where the line to be seated was), I sat at the almost full bar. It seemed that locals were having a great time at the end of the bar. Many signs pointed that I was going to have a great meal. I asked the bartender what a hot brown was and she described it to me. Another patron told me I had to try one.

When my food arrived I was beyond shocked. I should also say that I am not a super healthy eater, but this was ridiculous! I couldn't see anything but cheese and two bacon strips on the very top of this supposed sandwich. For those who don't know what I was eating, I will describe. It is an open faced sandwich starting at the bottom with wheat bread, ham, turkey, cream gravy, a tomato slice, COMPLETELY covered in shredded cheese, and two bacon strips on top. It tasted pretty good mostly because the cheese tasted very fresh and flavorful. But I hope and pray that this artery clogging, heart disease inducing meal is not eaten on a regular basis by Kentuckians. I ate halfway through it, moslty enjoying it, when I couldn't take the fat content anymore. I could feel my thighs getting fatter.

I’ve now made two trips to LEX and in the second trip I saw a little more of the gritty side of Lexington including a trashy racetrack called the Red Mile. It was within walking distance of my hotel so I ventured there one night to watch horse trotting races. This is where they pull the guy in the cart behind them. It was not near as exciting as the quarter horse races that I am familiar with, but the people were definitely unique. I had a woman who was wondering around aimlessly almost the whole time come up to me with her fly unzipped and ask for a cigarette. I must look like an easy mark because earlier that day while eating at an outdoor restaurant a woman asked me if she could draw my picture. Interesting…

The other interesting part of Lexington I was blessed to find was the drag world. I had seen a store during my first visit that looked interesting and wanted to go back. I did and was browsing when I realized that it was a store for drag queens. I don’t know how I put it together, but my first clue was that all of the clothes seemed rather oversized. I asked the gentleman behind the counter if there were any shows going on in town and he told me there was one that night. I was really tempted to go, but since I don’t drink and he said there was a two drink minimum, I opted out.

I went to the Kentucky. It is a very old movie theater downtown. It was very fun to watch “Gentleman Prefer Blondes” on the big screen. It is one of my favorite movies of all time and I think became a few people there’s favorite too by the end of the show. It was great to listen to other people laugh and enjoy it the way I do. There was an old-style organ there and a man played some of the movies hits in a melody before the show. We also had a sing-a-long, but I didn’t know any of the words to “My Old Home Kentucky”. A local D. J. gave us some movie trivia that I found interesting some of it is on IMDB, so you should go check it out. It is obvious that they work really hard to keep up the theater and give you a real experience for the show.

I still didn’t go to the big horse museum because it is so expensive, $21 a person, but I may someday…

SFNM

Oh Santa Fe. You could be a great city, I’m sure. As it is, you are pretty lame. My trip to Santa Fe was okay, but it was despite many of the draw backs in Santa Fe, not because it is a great city. It is one of the oldest cities in the entire United States. It was settled before the Jamestown colony of the east. So, there is a ton of history in this town, but it is displayed and demonstrated poorly.

It is clear that Santa Fe’s main goal is to sell tourist anything they can at any price that they can. Everything in that city is monstrously over-priced. If it doesn’t cost $200 dollars, then it is a $5 piece of crap I wouldn’t pay a penny for. And it is all the same. There are hundreds (no exaggeration) of shops in Santa Fe and you can see everything that is available for sale in the first five: pueblo art, jewelry, contemporary Santa Fe art, and souvenirs. That is about it. Since I am not into that style of decoration or art, I get bored and can barely see the difference between one thing and the other.

The food is very similar. It is all New Mexican food. Some of the restaurants do different things with different dishes, but 97% of the restaurants primarily serve New Mexican food. I have a very weak stomach and in my old age I get sick at the slightest bit of a hot pepper, so the fact that 97% of the food is covered in or filled with green or red chile wears me out. We did find some pretty good restaurants while we were there, but it was a bit of a struggle because of my tummy.

The hotels are a different story. Although they are hellish expensive, they are very very nice and each one is very unique. Remember though, almost every building in Santa Fe is Pueblo style pink stucco even the majority McDonalds or Applebees are in this style. Of the three hotels I have now stayed in, in Santa Fe, all of the people were incredibly friendly and these last two had many things that I loved.

The first hotel, The Inn of the Governors had a little nook right outside the door that was like your own private patio complete with ivy covered walls and beautiful flowers to behold. It was very serene and pretty. Across the street there was a restaurant or bar that had live music and it was at just the right volume to enjoy but not be annoying.

The second hotel, La Posada, was just lovely. It is an old house that has been converted and they have added several other non-conjoined buildings to make it like a little resort. Others had their own little building/suite and we stayed in a room in the main house, which was fine because it was an adorable suite. It was the Julia Staab Suite. She was the bride the house was originally built for. Her portrait was hanging in the bedroom. The whole suite was this beautiful Victorian style and felt very luxurious.

The culture there is a mix of non-showering hippies who play music for money and high end tourist. Some of the tourists clearly are long term guests and some are just visitors. It seems like they all try desperately to immerse themselves in the Santa Fe culture and sport leather, fur, and turquoise jewelry from head to toe. If those were white native s dressed like that then Santa Fe is lamer than I thought. Didn’t that whole, move to Santa Fe, learn the way of the Pueblo, and paint New Mexican landscapes trend go out in the 70’s? I thought so, but there are many really holding on to that. I can’t believe that many people can afford it. I did hear that Santa Fe is a big celebrity haven, but surely they all can’t be the ones who are buying the $1200 native American statues and $400 fur hats. I don’t see them in people’s homes and heads outside of New Mexico, so I’m very confused.

Driving up to Taos: Taos is just Santa Fe junior. All the negative things I said about Santa Fe just shrink the size and amount and it is the same. The consignment shop there was even full of over-priced junk. The restaurant where we had lunch, Michael’s Kitchen was not very nice at all. The service was lousy the atmosphere was terrible, and the food was not good. Hopefully we just made a bad choice and Taos has some good restaurants.

The highlight of the visit was the Rio Grande Gorge. It was huge and deep and very pretty. The drive there and back was beautiful, especially the drive back. The mountains and area was much more forresty and smelled very nice. The sun was setting on the way back, so I took some really amazing pictures.
Santa Fe would be my last pick of some place I would like to go to on my own for a vacation, it is really not my scene at all.