Kentuckalicious

So here I am in Kentucky for Bonner's 20th "Bonnerversary" and Summer Leadership Institute. It's, I think 5 of our adventure, and day 3 of the actual conference and, seemingly, it's going really well. We're at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky at which is a pretty small town but contains a lot of...hmm...character. I'm trying to figure out the best way to portray some of the aspect of this place but doing so correctly in a way that would give you, the reader, and accurate experience of what is happening here is tough. Maybe through a mix of stories and pictures I can do so. Let's start with the ride here:
We left Princeton on Monday morning and drove to West Virginia where we decided to stay the night before finishing up the ride to Berea. Now, that may seem straight forward enough but at some point we stopped off to stretch, or eat, or dance, or something, and our GPS decided it was time for some back road action. And by back road action I mean legitimate mountain driving with no cell phones or civilization. We new it was bad when we saw a hand painted "He's not my President" sign staked in the ground next to the road. I'm 96% sure that the idea of  'internet' in this area was best served by carrier pigeons.

So, after about an hour or so of being totally lost we ended up somehow on an on ramp for the highway that seemed to mythically appear out of thin...country side.
Fast forward to Kentucky where we got to Berea to begin setting this conference up around 4ish. So, we're carrying supplies and whatnot across the streets to and fro where they needed to go and we get a call from..someone..in Berea saying that we were jay-walking too much. We're in this town like 20 minutes and already on their blacklist. At this point we decided it would be a good idea to use the crosswalks as none of us wanted to meet what is invariably the one "sheriff" of this town (Bad movies start like that!). As the lights changed from don't walk to walk I heard something that is still making me laugh/taking me aback and it sounded like this: "Ya cun nowa cross KENTukI Avenew". Hard to read? Yeah, the cross walks here have a THICK southern accent and compel you to cross the road when the lights change. It's a little creepy.

I'm happy this conference is going so well. We've been meeting at 8am and working until about 12am every day so it's definitely been some work. It's weird to have come into this job a week before the conference and like, literally, hit the ground running. It feels like we planned this conference in two weeks when obviously it's been months of planning. Anyway, here are some photos from Kentucky and SLI

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 Pretty much without a doubt the most manly shirt ever. New band uniform? I think so.

This would be us, being lost in the mountains:

Really Kentucky? Jean diapers? Wouldn't that be kinda chaffy? 

This was one of the opening morning ceremonies. Wayne Meisel, the President of Bonner, is retiring so there's been a lot of closing ceremony type things for him and his 20 years of dedication.

I saw a broken down car at a gas station and was going to get out an ask the guy if he needed any help when I saw this:

Yup, that'd be a Ford Ranger with the "R" taken off to spell out "anger". Needless to say, I stayed in the van as this man gave me a cold hard stare while we made what felt like an 83 point turn.

This is Alfredo Escobar's mural painting for the Bonner Foundation for the 20th Anniversary...he let anyone work on it.