# Tell me about Lexington, Kentucky **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 14, 2021, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-lexington-kentucky/946496 "2021-07-14T19:49:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2021, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-lexington-kentucky/946496/1 "2021-07-14T19:49:46Z")
Anyone live there? Anyone lived there? What’s it like? How’s the weather? Is the hiking in the area as good as I think is? How about kayaking/canoeing? Do rock/metal/punk bands come thru town, or does all the Bluegrass keep them at bay? Is traffic on one side of town worse than the other? Is it like Austin, TX where the city seems to exist despite the rest of the state? Are people who don’t worship equines ostracized? Is the local government ineffective? Are the police crazy? I’ve read [the Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexington,_Kentucky), but I’m looking for first-hand accounts and impressions. What’s the Straight Dope, in your opinion, about living in or near Lexington, Kentucky? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2021, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-lexington-kentucky/946496/2 "2021-07-14T23:41:24Z")
We lived in Lexington in the early '90s and moved back into the area a couple of years ago, so we commute to Lexington for various needs. There’s been a lot of housing and new business development in the intervening years, and traffic has gotten more impressive, for example on Nicholasville Rd. where traffic crawls in the middle of the day. Hiking opportunities include trails at Raven Run Nature Sanctuary, which is a nice place. We used to visit/hike in the Daniel Boone National Forest. [https://www.lexingtonky.gov/raven-run-nature-sanctuary](https://www.lexingtonky.gov/raven-run-nature-sanctuary) There are warm to hot humid summers, usually fairly mild winters with not a lot of snow (I’m thinking maybe 15 inches on average), though occasionally it gets nasty. Last February there was a week and a half where it barely got above freezing and there were three mostly ice storms of variable intensity with accompanying power outages, which fortunately didn’t affect us for more than a couple of hours. The wintertime low temperature was 9 degrees F, so our crepe myrtles didn’t suffer any significant damage. Both spring and fall include a considerable amount of pleasant weather. The Louisville and Lexington papers are left-leaning and feature regular denunciations of Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul. No one will care if you’re not fond of horses and horse racing. It would be a bad idea, however, to have a bumper sticker that reads “To Hell With Big Blue”. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-lexington-kentucky/946496/3 "2021-07-15T00:12:18Z")
Thanks, **Jack**. I read that there weren’t many freeways which contributes to traffic congestion. If it isn’t Atlanta-or LA-style then I doubt it would be a problem for me. The area seems to have a very educated population, which sounds great. And I would never display such a bumper sticker; I have lifelong ties to IBM. 😃 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-lexington-kentucky/946496/4 "2021-07-15T01:05:37Z")
My mother lives nearby in Wilmore, and she is happy with the weather so far. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-lexington-kentucky/946496/5 "2021-07-15T01:27:33Z")
Holy cow; it’s been so long since I relocated I almost left out one of my most important questions: is there good pizza abailable in the area? And how about Thai, Mexican, Greek, Indian food? Any chance there’s an Indian grocer? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-lexington-kentucky/946496/6 "2021-07-15T01:35:12Z")
Aye; the climate seems fine. More humid than I had hoped to live in again in my lifetime but hey. Colder than I like, too. Ah well; compromises, amirite? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-lexington-kentucky/946496/7 "2021-07-15T04:51:00Z")
I checked and found about half a dozen Indian and/or Asian grocers; very cool. And it looks like there’s a fair selection of pizza joints. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-lexington-kentucky/946496/8 "2021-07-15T13:53:00Z")
Anywhere you have a large collection of college students, there’s bound to be an abundant selection of pizza. There are lots of Mexican restaurants, but so far I haven’t found anything wildly fantastic. ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-lexington-kentucky/946496/9 "2021-07-15T20:15:36Z")
[The Green Lantern](https://www.facebook.com/The-Green-Lantern-Bar-183595498351037/). ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-lexington-kentucky/946496/10 "2021-07-15T20:43:49Z")
The water there doesn’t have a high mineral content, does it? Do people use water softeners? ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-lexington-kentucky/946496/11 "2021-07-15T20:53:11Z")
My sister lived in Lexington for a while, seemed like a nice enough place when I visited. Tends to be a bit more liberal than most of Kentucky. Not too hard to find either fairly urban, suburban, or rural areas relatively nearby. As far as hiking is concerned, it’s about an hour from Red River Gorge, my favorite place for camping. I actually drive about 4 hours to get there. Plenty of trails, everything from short easy day hikes to multi-day wilderness backpacking trips. Not as dark as you may find out west, but the darkest skies in the area. They are also far more lenient on campfires than out in the west. Outside of severe drought, there’s not much chance of starting a forest fire. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-lexington-kentucky/946496/12 "2021-07-15T21:31:21Z")
Excellent; thanks **k9befriender**. I am a campfire-less backpacker, tho. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve ever made one since I started 30 years or so ago. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-lexington-kentucky/946496/13 "2021-07-16T01:46:44Z")
We haven’t had hard water problems, unlike when we lived in central Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-lexington-kentucky/946496/14 "2021-07-16T04:11:29Z")
Cool. The water here is Las Vegas is very high in mineral content and while I do like hard water for my showers, I would gladly trade it for being able to nonchalantly drink tap water again. And not have this crust all over everything that was wet once. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-lexington-kentucky/946496/15 "2021-07-16T06:06:15Z")
They’re a little bit full of themselves, and look down their noses at everyone who is not from Kentucky. Aside from that, it’s not a bad place to live, although now it’s growing too fast. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-lexington-kentucky/946496/16 "2021-07-16T09:12:15Z")
I’ve dealt with that: I have family in Colorado. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-lexington-kentucky/946496/17 "2021-07-17T20:10:22Z")
I went to college in Lexington back in the early 1990s, so it’s possible things might have improved quite a bit since then, but I frankly was not that impressed by the quality of musical acts wandering through town. I mean, the cupboard wasn’t bare, obviously. I had some good times attending shows at The Wrocklage. But it sure seemed like the bands that I was really excited about preferred to make Bogart’s in Cincinnati their closest stop. I’d probably rank Louisville higher on this front as well. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-lexington-kentucky/946496/18 "2021-07-17T21:52:24Z")
Ah; that’s cool. Going to live shows isn’t something I do often anymore (I’m older than the guy you see standing back at the bar who looks too old to be there) but the option is always nice. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-lexington-kentucky/946496/19 "2021-07-17T23:51:43Z")
It’s not quite Lexington, but on October 13th, the Reverend Horton Heat will be appearing with Toadies and Nashville Pussy in Covington, KY. Should be entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-lexington-kentucky/946496/20 "2021-07-18T01:59:00Z")
Thanks to one of my cousins who wanted to see The Toadies for her 14th birthday, I have seen every band on that bill at least once. 😃 It _does_ sound like a good show. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-lexington-kentucky/946496.md?page=2)