Lexington: The Kentucky Horse Park

We arrived in Lexington by 1:30 pm, in time to visit the Kentucky Horse Park. This 1200 acre facility is owned by the State of Kentucky, and it's a great place to see over 100 different breeds of horses up close and personal. A quick tour of the overall facility is given in a large wagon pulled by Belgian Draft Horses.


One of the many breeds living at the park are Miniature Horses. You can meet them at the daily Parade of Breeds. When the horses aren't 'working' as tiny ambassadors, they graze in beautiful pastures throughout the Park.

One of the events that happens each day is the Hall of Champions show, where you can see seven of the biggest money winning horses alive today. The newest resident of the Hall is Funny Cide, who won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness in 2003.

The KY Horse Park is a warm, beautiful place to stop for a couple of hours on a nice day. It is surrounded by miles of pastures, fences and distinctive Kentucky dry stone walls.

After leaving the Park, we drove through downtown Lexington. The Historic District has some beautiful Victorian houses, but we didn't see anything that called out to us to stop. So we decided to push on, and are spending the evening in Bardstown KY, about 45 miles closer to tomorrow's destination: Oxford, Mississippi.

Memphis Tennessee - Model Evaluation

Our planned second stop, Memphis, also does not pass our current decision model. Unlike Lexington, it passes the climate test, but it fails on availability of work opportunities (as does Lexington) and quality of life.

Lack of work opportunities is driven by the being relatively small and by a lack of technology companies. Quality of life issues are led by a complete lack of 'walkable' neighborhoods and a crime rate three times the national average. The complete tree looks like this:

• ●Memphis is a good choice for our next home.
• ●AND [1 of 5] : Memphis has a good climate.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Memphis has moderate winters.
• ●OR [1 of 2] : The number of days each year at or below freezing should be 10 or less.
• ●False
• ●OR [2 of 2] : The average winter temperature should be at least 10 degrees warmer than Hudson OH.
• ●True
• Memphis Climate Comparison.jpg (Pictures)
• ●AND [2 of 2] : Memphis has a good balance of sunshine and summer heat.
• ○OR [1 of 2] : Memphis has moderate summers in exchange for lots of sunshine.
• ●OR [2 of 2] : Memphis has lots of sunshine but hot summers.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 5] : Memphis has an affordable cost of living.
• ●AND [1 of 4] : Memphis has health insurance available for less than $1500 a month.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 4] : Memphis has lower taxes than Hudson, OH.
• ●True
• ●AND [3 of 4] : Memphis has a lower cost of living index than Hudson, OH.
• ●True
• Memphis COL Comparison.jpg (Pictures)
• ●AND [4 of 4] : Memphis has good housing for less than $800,000.
• ●True
• ●AND [3 of 5] : Memphis has good work opportunities.
• ●OR [1 of 2] : Memphis has good fulltime work opportunities.
• ●False
• ●OR [2 of 2] : Memphis has good freelance work opportunities.
• ●False
• ●AND [4 of 5] : Memphis provides a good quality of life.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Memphis can provide a healthy lifestyle.
• ●OR [1 of 2] : Memphis has neighborhoods that provide a walkable urban lifestyle.
• ●False
• ○AND [1 of 2] : Memphis has at least one neighborhood with a walkscore greater than 90.
• ○AND [2 of 2] : The neighborhood with a walkscore greater than 90 has a crime rate no greater than 125% of the national average.
• ●OR [2 of 2] : Memphis has areas with affordable nature 'compounds'.
• ●True
• 1020-Reid-Hooke.pdf (Documents)
• 17430 hwy 196.pdf (Documents)
• ●AND [2 of 2] : Memphis can provide an inspirational lifestyle.
• ●False
• ●OR [1 of 3] : Memphis has a high quality university.
• ●False
• ●OR [2 of 3] : Memphis has cultural diversity.
• ●False
• ●OR [3 of 3] : Memphis has beautiful scenery and views.
• ●False
• ●AND [5 of 5] : Memphis has good accessibility.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Memphis is within 2 hours of a major airport.
• ●True
• Memphis_International_Airport.pdf (Documents)
• ●AND [2 of 2] : Memphis is within 30 minutes of high quality hospitals.
• ●True
• Memphis Hospitals.jpg (Pictures)

Once again, you can't see the supporting documentation in this html blog post. Hopefully, we can have this available in the Silverlight version we are currently developing.

Based on the disappointing evaluation of Memphis, we are considering rerouting to Oxford, Mississippi, which at least has a major university (which Memphis does not).

We have also discovered that our stop in Lexington coincides with the Kentucky Derby, which explains why we are having a hard time finding a decent hotel room! This, too, is making us reconsider our timing and planned route.

Lexington Kentucky - Model Evaluation

Our first stop on the walkabout will be Lexington. Our current plans have us staying only one night, and based on the results of my Decision Apprentice evaluation model, that is the right amount of time. Lexington fails to meet our criteria, and we only plan on spending several days in locations with high potential as a future home (or a family member to visit).

Based on my Internet research, Lexington fails to meet two of our five high level requirements: the climate is not mild enough (the winters are too cold) and there are not enough job opportunities for us. The full tree looks like this:

Lexington KY

• ●Lexington KY is a good choice for our next home.
• ●AND [1 of 5] : Lexington KY has a good climate.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Lexington KY has moderate winters.
• ●OR [1 of 2] : The number of days each year at or below freezing should be 10 or less.
• ●False
• ●OR [2 of 2] : The average winter temperature should be at least 10 degrees warmer than Hudson OH.
• ●False
• ●AND [2 of 2] : Lexington KY has a good balance of sunshine and summer heat.
• ●OR [1 of 2] : Lexington KY has moderate summers but not a lot of sunshine.
• ●True
• ●OR [2 of 2] : Lexington KY has lots of sunshine but hot summers.
• ●False
• ●AND [2 of 5] : Lexington KY has an affordable cost of living.
• ●AND [1 of 4] : Lexington KY has health insurance available for less than $1500 a month.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 4] : Lexington KY has lower taxes than Hudson OH.
• ●True
• ●AND [3 of 4] : Lexington KY has a lower cost of living index than Hudson OH.
• ●True
• ●AND [4 of 4] : Lexington KY has good housing for less than $800,000.
• ●True
• 1671-Red-House-.pdf (Documents)
• 181-Water-Works.pdf (Documents)
• 252-North-Broad.pdf (Documents)
• 302-High-Street.pdf (Documents)
• 635-Jones-Lane-.pdf (Documents)
• ●AND [3 of 5] : Lexington KY has good work opportunities.
• ●OR [1 of 2] : Lexington KY has good fulltime work opportunities.
• ●False
• ●OR [2 of 2] : Lexington KY has good freelance work opportunities.
• ●False
• ●AND [4 of 5] : Lexington KY provides a good quality of life.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Lexington KY can provide a healthy lifestyle.
• ●OR [1 of 2] : Lexington KY has neighborhoods that provide a walkable urban lifestyle.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Lexington KY has at least one neighborhood with a walkscore greater than 90.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : The neighborhood with a walkscore greater than 90 has a crime rate no greater than 125% of the national average.
• ●True
• ●OR [2 of 2] : Lexington KY has areas with affordable nature 'compounds'.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : Lexington KY can provide an inspirational lifestyle.
• ●OR [1 of 3] : Lexington KY has a high quality university.
• ●True
• uk_Map.jpg (Pictures)
• university of kentucky.jpg (Pictures)
• ●OR [2 of 3] : Lexington KY has cultural diversity.
• ●False
• ●OR [3 of 3] : Lexington KY has beautiful scenery and views.
• ●False
• ●AND [5 of 5] : Lexington KY has good accessibility.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Lexington KY is within 2 hours of a major airport.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : Lexington KY is within 30 minutes of high quality hospitals.
• ●True
• hospitals.jpg (Pictures)

Unfortunately, in this blog post you are unable to view either the notes or the attachments that explain the red/false and green/true assessments I've made on each point. In the actual application, all of this is saved and readily available as documentation for each item in the model.

Lexington has a lot going for it - it is affordable, it has a good university (University of Kentucky), and it has some great walkable neighborhoods with nice housing. Unfortunately, it is a little too cold and a little too small to find work. If we find, as we travel, that no location passes our 'test' and revisions/compromises are necessary, Lexington may merit a second look.

Of couse, a lot also depends on how we feel about a place once we actually see it; as wonderful as the Internet is, there is no substitute for real life exploration. That is why a walkabout is necessary! We will visit, take pictures, and we will be more efficient at this because of the research we've done in advance. I now know the walkable neighborhoods we would like to explore, and given we plan on spending only one night, efficiency is essential.

Our Town Evaluation Model

During our trip, we will be applying a tool we are developing called 'Decision Apprentice'. Currently, this tool is available as software that can be installed and used on any Windows PC. We are developing a Silverlight version that will be available as a web service, but this will not be released until Silverlight 3 is available, probably this fall.

In the meantime, I will assess each town we visit using the version of the tool installed on my laptop. I will post the results of each assessment on the web, with links here.

First, a little information on the decision model we've built. I will cut and paste the basic template here, though it is much more difficult to see what is going on in this html version -- it is easier to understand the different levels of the tree when you can expand and collapse each section as you go. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out yet how to get this functionality into my blog entry...

There are five high level branches of the decision: climate, cost of living, work opportunities, quality of life and accessibility. Here is the total model, and I will explain the five branches further after the tree:

• ○This town is a good choice for our next home.




• ○AND [1 of 5] : This town has a good climate.




• ○AND [1 of 2] : This town has moderate winters.




• ○OR [1 of 2] : The number of days each year at or below freezing should be 10 or less.


• ○OR [2 of 2] : The average winter temperature should be at least 10 degrees warmer than Hudson OH.


• ○AND [2 of 2] : This town has a good balance of sunshine and summer heat.




• ○OR [1 of 2] : This town has moderate summers in exchange for lots of sunshine.


• ○OR [2 of 2] : This town has lots of sunshine but hot summers.


• ○AND [2 of 5] : This town has an affordable cost of living.




• ○AND [1 of 4] : This town has health insurance available for less than $1500 a month.


• ○AND [2 of 4] : This town has lower taxes than my current home town.


• ○AND [3 of 4] : This town has a lower cost of living index than my current home town.


• ○AND [4 of 4] : This town has good housing for less than my maximum house budget.


• ○AND [3 of 5] : This town has good work opportunities.




• ○OR [1 of 2] : This town has good fulltime work opportunities.


• ○OR [2 of 2] : This town has good freelance work opportunities.


• ○AND [4 of 5] : This town provides a good quality of life.




• ○AND [1 of 2] : This town can provide a healthy lifestyle.




• ○OR [1 of 2] : This town has neighborhoods that provide a walkable urban lifestyle.




• ○AND [1 of 2] : This town has at least one neighborhood with a walkscore greater than 90.


• ○AND [2 of 2] : The neighborhood with a walkscore greater than 90 has a crime rate no greater than 125% of the national average.


• ○OR [2 of 2] : This town has areas with affordable nature 'compounds'.


• ○AND [2 of 2] : This town can provide an inspirational lifestyle.




• ○OR [1 of 3] : This town has a high quality university.


• ○OR [2 of 3] : This town has cultural diversity.


• ○OR [3 of 3] : This town has beautiful scenery and views.


• ○AND [5 of 5] : This town has good accessibility.




• ○AND [1 of 2] : This town is within 2 hours of a major airport.


• ○AND [2 of 2] : This town is within 30 minutes of high quality hospitals.

When this tree is filled out for an actual town, certain parts of the text will be replaced with specifics (such as 'Memphis'), and the green and red icons will indicate if the branch is true or false. The actual application looks like this:

I collect information on the internet, and copy notes, pdfs and pictures into the appropriate item in the tree. I set the values of the lowest level items to true or false, based on what I learn, but the application 'reasons up' the tree, setting higher level items to true or false based on rules of logic.

In my model, all five high level decisions must be true for the top item - this town is a good choice for our new home - to be true. Our own preferences are built into each of the five branches, to establish what is a 'good' climate, quality of life, etc. It was quick and easy to build this tree, and now I can apply the model consistently to each place we visit. I have bookmarked a number of sites that have the information I need to evaluate each item in the tree.

So far I have evaluated Lexington and Memphis, our first two stops, and sad to say - neither one of them pass the test. I will post these two applications of the model in my next blog entries, and talk about why each fails. Will any place we visit pass? Or is the decision model too tough? Will we need to compromise, and if so, on which items? That is part of what our walkabout is meant to show us.

Preparation: Planning the Route

This video shows the route we plan on taking; Steve is using the Microsoft Silverlight control to map our path:

We've picked this path to include towns that we believe have the characteristics we are looking of in our next home. In my next post I'll describe what some of those characteristics are. We fill in between these key stops with towns that are at an easy day's drive and which we think may have some potential as well. We add in a family visit and some scenic destinations like Yosemite, and we have a walkabout.

We have estimated the bare minimum amount of time required to cover this path with two day stops in the target destinations, and the total time required is 21 days. Since we have approximately 4 weeks for the trip, that leaves 7 days of 'slack' time. The real flexibility in our walkabout is to allocate these seven days to any place that really connects with us. By knowing our slack time we can manage our schedule without planning everything out - once we've used up our seven extra days, we have to pretty much head home as directly as possible.

We're committed to making reservations no more than one day in advance, except for places with limited hotel availability such as National Parks. We'll give our friends and family an estimated time when we'll arrive and keep them updated as we progress. We really want to maintain our flexibility as much as possible, keeping to the spirit of a 'walkabout'.

Preparation: Great Technology Companions for a Walkabout

Another relatively long lead time item in our preparations was making sure we had the right technology tools for our trip. Of course we will take our laptops, and of course we will need access to the Internet -- we considered getting some kind of laptop connect card, but we're opting to stay at hotels with free Internet and to make-do with free WiFi at places like Panera during the day. The question is, what other tools will help us stay connected?

Our most important purchase was a GPS system with a great database of restaurants, hotels, gas stations, etc. We wanted to make this purchase well before the trip, so we could test it on several mini-trips before hitting the road for the actual walkabout. Learning the new features and testing the quality of the database is easier when you do it in places you are familiar with; we tested ours on short trips to familiar cities: Pittsburgh, Flint MI, Columbus. Every experience so far has made us increasingly pleased with our choice.

After some research, we purchased a Garmin Nuvi 750, a recently discontinued model that is being sold at great prices in a variety of locations. We picked ours up for $198 at Sam's Club, but I've seen it as low as $175 at Amazon -- this for a model that sold for as much as $500 when it was new. It's still a great purchase; it has the larger 4.3 inch touch screen and nice features such as 'where am I', which shows nearby hospitals, police departments and other emergency resources with a single button touch. The points of interest database is huge and current, and it's already saved us time and effort in places we thought we knew pretty well. It will be invaluable on the road.

Another purchase I've made that I'm thrilled with is the new Kindle 2 from Amazon. I can't say enough about this 'new toy'; it is really transforming my approach to reading. Its value on the trip will be this: I can fit my library in my purse; I can get my New York Times and other publications delivered to me through my free wireless connection anywhere I can get cell reception. No more stopping the newspaper delivery while on vacation; your newspaper follows you wherever you go! And the cost is less than the actual paper delivery - how can you beat that?

Preparation: Taking Advantage of Membership

We aren't leaving for another week or so, but we've been preparing for our trip for awhile now. This preparation isn't very time-consuming, but some items have longer lead times than others so we got started early.

One of those longer lead time items is reviewing travel-related memberships to see how to best use them on your trip. Some potentially useful memberships are obvious, such as AAA, and some are not so obvious, like your credit card rewards program.

Chances are you have at least one credit card that gives you points for each dollar you spend. I have a card that has a lot of flexibility on how those points are redeemed - for merchandise, air miles or gift cards. I decided to cash in the points that had been accumulating for gift cards good at different restaurant chains.

Picking out the best cards can be a little intimidating, especially if there are a lot of choices. A little bit of number crunching showed that the best values in my program were the higher denomination cards, so I decided to get $100 gift cards. These are debit cards that deduct the value of each meal until the card is depleted, so I knew I would have no problem using up $100 -- as long as the chain had good coverage in the areas where we would be traveling. So I stuck with large national chains, such as Applebee's and Chili's, but even for these I went to their website to confirm they were in several cities along our route. I was able to lineup $300 of 'free' food in this way. I made my choices online, and the cards were Fedexed to me free of charge within 5 days of placing my order.

Another important type of membership is frequent traveler programs with different hotel chains. These memberships are free and you can sign up online. I belong to several, but my favorite is the Marriott Rewards program. I like Marriott because they have several chains at different price points: Marriott, Residence Inn, Courtyard, Fairfield Inn... We'll be focusing on Fairfield Inns on this trip; they are relatively inexpensive, have free Internet access and continental breakfasts. By consolidating our travel with one reward program, we should be able to get some free nights by the second half of the trip.

You can manage your account online, and the rewards account has a nice trip planner feature that allows you to research towns along your planned route and save hotels that look promising. When you are ready to commit to a stay in a location, you can make the reservation online, including reservations that use reward points.

Another membership tip: if you don't already belong to AAA, sign up now. You can make back your membership fee in a single night's stay, and almost all hotels have special AAA rates. You can also use their trip planning services, but frankly, there are so many free options online now that TripTiks don't justify the membership - the discounts do.

My next post: technology tools you should get before you leave, if you don't already own them...

Find a City, Find Myself a City to Live In...

As Talking Heads fans, these lyrics keep running through our heads. We know we don't want to stay where we are, but we still haven't found the perfect place to move to. So we are taking advantage of our mobility -- provided by flexible careers (software developer / website designer) and a son in college -- and setting off on a walkabout around the United States. This will be the first trip we've ever taken that hasn't been planned to the hilt, with all the stops scripted and all the hotels selected. Spontaneity, flexibility that's what we're going for.

But our extreme technological bent, and our need for economic common sense, prevent us from wandering aimlessly. We know there are tremendous resources available, many free on the web, that will help us be more effective and efficient in our search. So we are creating this blog to not only share our travels with our friends and family, but to share our insights and lessons learned with fellow travelers. We have adopted a new motto: Wander Aimfully(can't say we've coined the term; there are currently 30 hits when you type it into Google).

So we'll start posting now, two weeks before we leave, about our preparations. Then we'll blog along the way, sharing what we're experiencing, what about our preparations worked and didn't work, and what new ideas we've dreamed up, inspired by necessity and many miles on the open road.

We also plan on using the trip to develop new software tools to make travel easier; we'll share our thoughts on those as well. There's no substitute for real life experience when it comes to designing truly useful software!