Seven Springs Farms proprietor Joe Nichols didn’t know all the reasons why the British were coming to his new up-and-running straw mat facility in Cadiz Thursday morning.
Two hours of conversation and one agri-tour later, however, everything was clear.
Through Rotary International and the Rotary Friendship Exchange, 10 Rotarians from across the pond — southwest England, to be more precise — have been making their way across the Commonwealth, moving from the hustling hills of Louisville and Bowling Green, all the way to the river counties and the marshy banks of the Mississippi River.
Their guides for Thursday and into the weekend: Cadiz Rotary Club Member Rick Clements of Trigg County, and Clinton Rotary Club President Karl Buss of Hickman County.
While here, this group will take in Land Between the Lakes, Columbus-Belmont State Park, the Kentucky-Tennessee state line, the craziness of Quilt Week in McCracken County…and anything else they can possibly imagine as west Kentucky becomes home away from home.
A real estate agent in Somerset’s Taunton, Phil Greenway called Kentucky a “real US state.”
A fifth-generation funeral director in Somerset’s Yeovil, Clive Wakely has been to Florida and Atlanta several times throughout his life, but had to agree with Greenway on the joys of west Kentucky.
Greenway also noted that Kentucky, in general, reminds him of England — with a far smaller population.
Wakely, meanwhile, said it was easy to even discern the differences between Kentucky’s “Golden Triangle,” and further west and south of Paducah.
By Sunday, the group will have made its way to Henderson. And this fall, Rotarians in District 6710 will have an opportunity to make the return trip to England to continue the cultural exchange.
STRAW MAT PRODUCTION:
