Can Pigs Really Fly in Cincinnati?

Alright, the headline is little preposterous, but it alludes to the funky sculpture gracing a public park entrance near the Ohio River in Cincinnati. When you live in New York, you develop this mindset that you’re in the coolest place and no place else even comes close. But we’ve seen some pretty exceptional things in the Midwest this past week: flying pigs in Cincinnati, the six-story Louisville Slugger bat in Louisville, the multitude of architectural gems in Columbus IN (by architectural luminaries such as I. M. Pei, Eero Saarinen, Robert Trent Jones, Richard Meier and others – no Frank Lloyd Wright, though), and the glamorous racing history of Churchill Downs in KY. All are worth seeing, and they’re not in NY!

We RACED through Indianapolis (pun intended…), seeing the renowned art museum there (as well as the Eli Lilly family estate sharing the museum grounds, a rival to ANY Long Island Gold Coast estate), but no auto racing stops, since we'd seen them some years ago. We had a lovely visit with cousins in Indianapolis and continued on to Columbus IN for architecture, Cincinnati OH for the flying pigs (a spoof on Cincinnati’s being nicknamed “Porkopolis” for its role in pork processing) and Nashville IN, a charming small-town destination near Bloomington and the University of Indiana. We then headed south to Louisville (pronounced Lou-ah-ville) for some bourbon and horse racing. Churchill Downs (where the Kentucky Derby is held each year) was open for live racing, and we even got to lose some money there wagering! Handicapping horsies was never a strength for either of us. A sampling opportunity at the Jim Beam distillery helped ease the pain of our losses, but also reminded us that we’ll probably never be true bourbon fans.

After a day-long marathon through three states, we’re now in Missouri (pronounced Miz-ure-ah), about fifty miles west of St. Louis (a city we saw WAY too much of when Patty worked for TWA…). We made a day-trip to Hannibal MO, where Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn spent their childhoods (at least in the imagination of Mark Twain…) and enroute, toured Mexico MO, a small, charming Midwest town where a dear friend spent her childhood years.

We haven’t seen any flying pigs since Cincinnati, but we did see some flying horses in Louisville. The weather has warmed up CONSIDERABLY in the past week, and we both wore short sleeves today for the first time since August. We’re hoping for more of this kind of weather and that the cold is behind us for a while.
Cheers! Bob