Welcome To Kentucky

At 8AM on a Saturday morning, March 13, 1999 I checked out of a Motel 6 in Columbus and headed down highway 70 toward Cincinnati. Just after 10 I crossed the bridge from Ohio to Kentucky. I headed south with my destination, Bowling Green, closer than ever.

About 3 hours later I was driving down I-65. A mixture of snow and rain was giving my windshield wipers a work out and I was passing a sign that read "Exit 38." Although it's the exit to the town where I live now at the time it only meant that I had about 16 more miles before I came to the exit I was looking for.

Exit 22 was my destination. I had called Paula and told her I was close to arriving. She said she'd meet me at my new apartment. My future wife had rented a place for me to stay. I had written directions to my new abode. It was in a complex about 3 miles off the exit down Louisville Road, near the local high school.

I arrived earlier then Paula had anticipated but she met me there anyway. My new home was apartment 39. To tell you the truth I don't remember "the moment" of our reunion. But I hadn't seen the woman I was deeply in love with in nearly 6 months so I'm sure it was a moment of significant affection. Well as significant as you can get with her 10 year old son looking on. I don't remember my initial meeting of 10 year old James either but I'm sure he had no idea the impact of my arrival would have on his future.

We went to a local convenience store that had a fast food chicken place inside it and ate lunch together for the first time. Then we went back to my apartment and unloaded my van. As I said Paula had rented the apartment prior to my getting there. She had a bed and some basic furniture. Over the next 3 years I would "redesign" the apartment with all the amenities of home. The apartment came with a stove and a refrigerator. During those early days I pretty much just the bare necessities I needed to help me start my new life. But I had my computer so I was happy.

That's the recount of my arrival in Kentucky 10 years ago today. One of the initial lessons I learned about the area I would now call home was this. As I stated when I drove into town it was snowing. It was one of those late winter/ early spring snows that sticks to the ground but not all that much to the roads. The snow blanketed the ground when I arrived. By mid afternoon the next day, Sunday, all of it was gone. The next day the area schools were closed because of the weather. There wasn't one flake of snow on the ground that Monday morning and the SCHOOLS WERE CLOSED!. I knew then that this place was going to be different.

Over the next month I looked for a job. It took me a lot longer to find one than I thought it would. I had a bad experience with Schwann's home delivery food company and with an employment counselor at the Kentucky Jobs office but by the end of April I had a full time job at a place called "Pete's Fabrications".

Over all the specific memories of my early days here in Kentucky aren't fresh in my mind any longer. So much has happened and changed over the last 10 years. Luckily in 2000 I recounted the details of my move in an autobiographical "book" I wrote called "My Life In The 90's." I can go back and relive them any time I want.

I'm a very chronological person. I love to mark the passage of time and recognize events and memories from my past. I always have been that way. I just couldn't let the 10 year anniversary of the most significant change in my life, so far, pass by without acknowledging it. Now I look forward to the next 10 years.