A funny thing happened to me this past Friday, and I just thought I'd share a bit of my misadventure with ya'all. For the past week I had been packing gear, and anticipating attending one of my favorite events of the whole year. The annual 18th Century Market Faire, and Rev. War re-enactment at Historic Locust Grove, near Louisville, KY.

The event is hosted by Kellar's Co, Illinois Regiment, Virginia State Line, and it's truly a great event.

Due to one reason or another I have not been able to attend for the last two years, so this year I was really pumped. I had managed to schedule my work load to allow me to get home on Tues, in time to ready all my gear, horses, tack, trade goods and such. So far so good, but there's more to come...

So I got packed, hitched up the trailer, loaded my two trusty cuyuses, and it was off to the Ohio River early Wednesday morning.

Got set up in a real snug little camp on the river by Wednesday afternoon, everything had gone off without a hitch so far...

Friday morning rolls around, and I wake up at 0 dark 30, that's before the crack of dawn for you non military types, and I decide, what the heck, I'll go ahead and break camp, and head on upstream to my final destination.

Now keep in mind it was my understanding that one of my buddies in the Regm't was already gonna be there, as he had planned to set up on Thursday night. So I roll on into the site just after 0800, and I see a school bus or two, and several cars in the parking area, but lo and behold no vehicles that I recognize. No big deal, I just figure Jon has gotten a new truck, or he's just parked around the corner or something.

So I hoist my self down outta my rig, excited as a kid with a new train set on Christmas mornin'. I go bounding up over the rock wall that surrounds the house that George Rogers Clark help to build for his sister in 1790 or so and , what do I see, nothing. Well not nothing, just no tents, no Jon, nobody at all but a few 5th grade school groups walking around on the grounds.

So I thinks to myself,( actually I was grumbling out loud to myself at this point) well, maybe he (Jon) decided not to come last night after all. So I call his cell phone, voicemail, I leave a msg, telling him I'm here, see ya soon I hope, blah, blah, blah.

I figure since I'm here I might as well mosey around a bit, and see what I can see. So I head on up to the museum, hit the restroom, grab a steaming cup o' Joe, and head back outside to enjoy the early morning sunshine.

After about 30 mins. or so I decide it's time to find out just what the heck is going on. So I locate a real nice lady with a name tag on, and proceed to ask her if she knows something I don't about where the heck everybody is.

She did!! When I asked her if anyone from the Illinois Regm't had shown up yet, she says "you mean for the Market Faire", to which I replied as politely as possible, "yes, I'm part of the host group, and I can't seem to locate my buddies". That's when she tells me, "oh, that's not till next weekend". "Excuse me, did you say next weekend"? "Yes, that's right, next weekend". To which I replied "are you sh*$*ing me"?

Apparently she wasn't, and boys let me tell ya, at that point I felt like about 40 acres of crop failure.!!

Now what the heck was I gonna do, I'd come all this way, taken three days off work, horses in the trailer chompin' at the bit, man I just wanted to sit down right there in that museum lobby and sulk like a 4 year old.

Get to the point ya say, ok, hold on I'm gettin' to point.

After getting permission, I unloaded the horses so I could let em' stretch and blow a bit, then I loaded em' back up, and tried to figure my next move.

And that's when it hit me, hey ya wool headed ninny muggins, you're in Louisville, why don't you go find another museum to go gallavant around in for a bit.

So I fired ol' Bessy up, snaked all 50' of truck and trailer through the parking lot, and headed on into the heart of Louisville.

My trusty scout (Tom Tom GPS unit) guided me right on into a place that's been on my list of things to do for about 25 yrs. That's right, the Filson Historical Society Museum.

Heck, I hope they have a place to park this rig, and trailer. Luckily when I pulled up right out front, just like ol' Jed Clampett, no one was there so I just slid er' up right out front on 3rd street, took up the better part of 4 parking spaces, and walked on in.

Now in all seriousness, this place was like a pilgrimage to Mecca for me. The Filson has one of the best, if not the best, research archives on the early history of the trans-Appalachian region and Ohio valley hands down. So I spent the rest of the day, in fact they had to kick me out at closing time, engrossed in researching my fourth great grandparents that left Rockingham County Virginia in 1787 to settle in Limestone Kentucky, which eventually was renamed Maysville. Most of my family comes from Maysville, so very cool.

So the moral of the story is, not an entirely wasted trip, although somewhat disappointing in some regards, but I was able to salvage it for the most part. And I treated myself to a day at the museum.

Seriously if you ever get a chance to go, please do yourself a favor, go to the Filson. They have a copy of the entire Lyman C. Draper manuscripts, a special collections section, millions of resources for period research, and cool stuff like a part of a tree, allegedly carved with the inscription "on this tree Daniel Boon killed a bar, 1803, which I didn't get to see because it was covered up by a Civil War exhibit.

So, even though I showed up a week early, it was a great trip anyhow, and I'll be back next week for the real deal.

Sheeeewee, that was a lot windier than I intended, hope it made you laugh a little.

Better early than not at all I guess.

Fin

Great idea. I'm heading back to the homestead in a couple of weeks to camp at Ft. Harrod, and then do some deer hunting. I think I'll stop off in Louisville and check it out.

One thing I forgot to mention, it will cost you $10.00 guest fee to do research, well worth every penny IMHO, the place really is amazing.

Here's their contact info :

The Filson Historical Society
1310 South Third St.
Louisville, KY. 40208

Ph# 502.635.5083

Fax# 502.635.5086

E-mail: frontd@filsonhistorical.org

Web site: www.filsonhistorical.org.

Hours: Mon-Friday, 0900-1700
1st Sat. of each month, 0900-1600

Chris C.