Well it has been over a week since I did our last Blog!   Sorry folks, but Tony and I decided to have a few days rest after the Equine Affaire show in Columbus, not that we have been taking it easy, oh no! We have been very busy building camp fires and experimenting with my latest catering gadget....but more of this later.

On the 11th April we set off to drive the short two hundred-odd miles that would take us from Columbus, via Cincinnati (this looked like a really nice city) and on into Kentucky. The scenery changed dramatically almost immediately we left Cincinnati behind, moving from flat agricultural land to rolling hills that reminded us both of Somerset and Dorset. The green and expanse of the grassland was intense, with perfectly mowed paddocks all neatly contained within glistening white post and rail fencing.

As we neared our destination, the Kentucky Horse Park, just outside Lexington, Kentucky, we were amazed by the size of the estates. Huge houses, some sporting neo- classical columns and chateaux-like entrance gates, which bounded literally hundreds if not thousands of acres of velvet grassland stocked with fine looking thoroughbred horses. The size of some of these estates is breathtaking and a real eye-opener for those of us who hail from a small island! We have taken the opportunity over the past few day to drive around the area and have a look at some of the amazing properties, many of which are set up long winding drives easily over half a mile long.

We have been setting up our stand for the last two to three days and tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday) we are planning to open for a few hours as there is a dressage competition going on just below the Trade Show marquee. We are in booth 204 and would love to see anyone who is reading this blog, in fact if you come on the stand and mention the Blog we will give you a free gift!

Our booth is in a black hole!

We are in the ‘overflow' marquee, next door to the big Trade Show building, which has been added this year to provide booths for new vendors to Rolex, such as ourselves. It is located in a sand school so we are hoping it doesn't get too dusty or muddy, the weather is due to change at the end of the week and there may be rain!

Anybody would think I'd done this before!

Anyway enough of this, what about the camp site I hear you say? Well the campground here is lovely, to see it visit http://www.kyhorsepark.com/index.php. We can drive into the Horse Park from our campsite and I will be using my handy Scoot to get from the RV to the booth each day. For anyone wanting to visit the Horse Park with its fantastic museum and tours I couldn't recommend a better place to stay. As usual everyone is very friendly and helpful, the park is quiet, well away from the road, and has lovely sites with fire rings, picnic tables, and trees. The only sound to disturb your peace are the Canada geese and the very distant lonesome hoot of the freight trains.

Base camp at Rolex

Back to the fire rings, which brought out the Cub Scout in Tony, he has gone all ‘Baden Powell' on me, and has started collecting kindling and firewood so that each evening we can sit by our fire ring whilst I use my latest culinary discovery.

The very first day we picked up our RV we went into a camping shop and I spotted a Rome Pie Iron. Now I know all you hardy pioneering Americans will say "Oh those things, that's nothing new", well I can tell you it was new to me and I would reckon it would be new to a lot of other Brits.

The Rome Pie Iron (Rome is the make ( http://www.romeindustries.com/ ) is basically a cast-iron toasted sandwich maker, but its actually a whole lot more than that. It is made up of two pieces of cast-iron which link together at the top, and each side has a long handle which allows you to put the whole thing into or onto a grate over a campfire or fire ring. I will get Tony to take a photo of it as my explanation is not very good. Anyway I bought a recipe book at the same time and a few nights ago we made our first Pie Iron with some of my left over home-made chilli. I buttered a tortilla on one side, filled it with the home-made chilli, added some grated cheddar cheese and a few sprigs of fresh coriander (cilantro to the Americans), buttered another tortilla and put it on top of the first one to make a chilli sandwich, closed down the lids, which automatically seals the edges of the sandwich, then placed it on the metal grill above the fire. We cooked it for 6 minutes each side and then checked it out. It was absolutely delicious, pockets of crispy toasty tortillas filled with hot chilli and melted cheese.

Of course this was just the beginning, since then we have made cheese and ham toasties and a sweet toastie using whole-wheat bread, containing fresh blueberries and honey served with organic vanilla ice cream. We have got to bring one of these pie irons home with us, no doubt we will find that they are already available in the UK, but we are definitely hooked.

So back to the Rolex 3 Day Event ( http://www.rk3de.com/ ). We haven't walked the course but did spot a couple of lovely wood carvings used for the fences. Tony took photos of course and they are here with this blog. Let's hope the show is a good one and we meet up with many both new and existing customers. More to come.

Would your horse jump this??

Sunset over the Kentucky Horse Park

Hilary and Tony