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Two hundred years after it was wrested from the Native Americans,
KENTUCKY still hasn't quite made up its mind as to whether it belongs
in the North or the South. Both the rival presidents in the Civil
War, Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, were born here, and divisions
were acute between slave-owning farmers and the merchants who depended
on trade with the nearby cities of the industrial North. Officially
neutral, seventy thousand Kentuckians joined the Union army and
forty thousand the Confederates. After the war Kentucky sided with
the South in its hostility to Reconstruction, and since then it
has remained solidly Democrat.
Kentucky's rugged beauty is at its most appealing in the mountainous
east and the small historic towns of the Bluegrass Downs , with
visits enlivened by the varied attractions of bourbon whiskey, thoroughbred
horses and bluegrass music. Louisville , home of the Kentucky Derby
, is a busy manufacturing and arts center; the more reserved Lexington
, eighty miles east, is a major horse-breeding market.
Kentucky's limited public transportation can be a real headache.
There's full Greyhound service along the interstates south of Louisville
and Lexington (and both have surprisingly good city transportation),
but a lot of ground is left uncovered. Amtrak doesn't operate here
at all. Cycling is a pleasant and manageable option; if you're driving
, be sure to keep small change for the tolls on the state highways.
Lexington has its own small airport, but it's also within easy reach
of the airport for Cincinnati, Ohio, which is in Covington, Kentucky.
Louisville is served by Louisville International Airport.
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