The Kentucky
Scottish Weekend
May 11th and 12th 1997
General Butler State Park
Carrollton Ky.
Sunday, May 11, 1997
Well, here we are in beautiful downtown Carrollton KY, or
actually at a Holiday Inn on the outskirts thereof.
We are
enjoying the 17th annual Scottish Highland Festival at General
Butler State park. It was a quiet ride down, directly to the
park, arriving around 9:30AM, The festival hadn't even started
yet, and it was cold. It had rained the night before, and the
grass was soaked, We found what little high ground there was to
park the car. For the first part of the morning we wandered the
booths perusing the Scottish heritage and music, to a soft
cacophony of Celtic style music. We stopped by to review the
junior highland dance competition then moved on to what was to
become one of the better parts of the trip.
Alex
Beaton , a Scottish immigrant with a golden baritone
voice and delightful way of picking a guitar. We settled in for
the next hour to listen, after which Laura took up a conversation
with him which led to an autographed copy of some of his songs on
tape. The man was delightfully entertaining and personable in
conversation covering a wide range of topics as we waited idly
for the next event. By now the cold and sleep was overtaking as
Laura had worked the night before, so we abandoned the fun
temporarily for a stop at the motel and a room with a nap in
mind. Cresta, who said her name was taken from a character in
"Soldier Blue", checked us in, and although no rooms
were ready, she worked her slow KY magic and produced a place for
us. 10 minutes later we were sleeping like babes.
Back up at 2, we returned to the park, which was now warm and
sunny, and finding a nice knoll, parked ourselves on the grass to
watch the piper's competition.
We unfortunately had just missed Hamilton County's own Sheriff
Simon Leis' pipe and drum band. Very sharp dressers, and
apparently talented, as we would later attend the closing
ceremonies where they received a 3rd place overall standing in
their class.
