Running and Meat

There is great hoopla surrounding football at WKU. Tents are set up, tailgating is encouraged. A huge marching band performs and canyons and fireworks are set off. Though the Hilltoppers team has not been so successful, hoards attend games in the 22,000 seat stadium.While Josh and I watched the WKU football team play last weekend (Loss, 13-35), I decided to visit the other side of the spectrum on Saturday morning and walked over to Kereiakes Park, where a WKU cross country meet was being held. It was a still morning with high humidity and remnants of fog. And it was quiet. As I hit the outer edge of a cemetery I encountered the women turning the bend in the first of three laps around the park. At the front of the pack was Janet Jesang, a Ugandan WKU junior who, by race end had achieved over a 30 second gap to win first. And equally impressive was Patrick Cheptoek, a Ugandan WKU senior who cleared the finish well in front of the second-place racer.
There were maybe fifty people in attendance, most of them seemed to be related to, or close friends of the racers. There were large stretches where the course was void of spectators, and it was up to the runner to work up the stamina to push harder. Their faces were set in determination with the simple goal to push their speed until they crossed the finish line... without the fanfare.

Photos taken with phone, so the quality is not the best...

And then the meat. We were invited over for dinner at a Western Kentucky professor couple's home 15 minutes outside of town. They raised a cow called "Freezer Bound" and at 3 years (which is old for beef cows) he left his life on their little tract of land and is now stored in their big freezer. They wanted to have some friends over to share chili made with Freezer Bound's hind meat. We also visited their hens and roosters and saw the contraption they use to move the chickens around to fresh plots of grass each day. The chickens go crazy when they hit a new patch of grass and tackle over each other for clover. I was highly amused, as you can tell from the video.

This is such a common site! Tobacco drying in the neighbor's barn

To end, and make this a real clutter of topics, I thought I'd post a photo of the stained deck for all those who have been eagerly awaiting the outcome (before shot here).