An easy travel day today. We left London and drove about 30 miles north to Renfro Valley, the gateway to Mt. Vernon, KY. We are at Creekside RV Park…
This is a wide open campground with large sites, but relatively primitive – gravel everywhere…
We were “de-parkers” at the campground in London, KY; this means we checked out all the rigs as they left the campground to make sure lights worked, doors were locked, things like that… So we were the last to leave, and the last to arrive at this new campground.
Shortly after we were set we left for the town of Berea, home of Berea College. More on the college later, but we moved on to the Tater Knob Pottery Studio. We watched and learned how pots are “thrown”. These people have been making pots and earning a living at it for 40 years… She is so talented that she can make a 60 piece set of dinnerware in a day…
Today she was making these mugs…
They also make bells and lumieres. We bought one to keep a candle lit on our front porch…
(Ours is almost all blue…)
We returned to Berea and visited the historic Boone Tavern…
This entire block is owned and operated by Berea College. Berea College is distinctive among institutions of higher learning. Founded in 1855 as the first interracial and coeducational college in the South, Berea charges no tuition and admits only academically promising students, primarily from Appalachia, who have limited economic resources. Berea’s cost of educating a student for four years is nearly $100,000.
Berea College offers rigorous undergraduate academic programs leading to Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in 28 fields. All students work at least 10 hours per week in campus and service jobs in more than 130 departments.
The College has an inclusive Christian character, expressed in its motto “God has made of one blood all peoples of the Earth” (Acts 17:26).
Berea’s primary service region is the Southern Appalachian region, but students come from all states in the U.S. and in a typical year, from more than 60 other countries representing a rich diversity of colors, cultures, and faiths. About one in three students represents an ethnic minority.
Berea College continues to build upon a distinctive history of more than 150 years of learning, labor and service, and find new ways to apply their mission (the Great Commitments) to contemporary times by promoting kinship among all people, serving communities in Appalachia and beyond and living sustainably to conserve limited natural resources.
It is a beautiful, traditional-looking campus… This block with the hotel, restaurant, and events center also includes a coffee house, a crafts store, a shop with hand-made wooden dulcimers, and other related businesses…
The hotel began when the constant stream of visitors to the college and the city became too much of a burden to for Nellie Frost, the college president’s wife. In one summer alone she hosted over 300 visitors in her house! Finally she convinced the college to open a guest house in 1909; the guest house grew into the hotel we see today under the direction of of Richard Hougen, who was general manager of the hotel from 1940 to 1976.
We will be having our “Final Banquet” here on May 16…
We returned to the Villa; Happy Hours ensued; an enjoyable time was had by all…
Adventures in the Villa 