October 11, 2010

Our trip today with Curt and Judy Roper was to visit Opal’s Restaurant in downtown McKee, Kentucky. Curt had seen an article in the Blue Grass Energy’s Kentucky Living magazine about the restaurant’s pie master so we decided to check out the pie selection. We also wanted to see if the mountains are displaying their annual beautiful colors.

On the way we pulled to the side of the road to view “Tater Knob” located just outside of Berea in the Daniel Boone National Forest.

This is another look at Tater Knob.

At Opal's Restaurant the food was great and the service was excellent. As reported in the Kentucky Living magazine, Joyce Roberts has been the master pie maker since 1988. Her specialties are chocolate, coconut cream, butterscotch and lemon cream pies. She also makes fresh strawberry pie in season.

We had the opportunity to meet the owner, Kathy Carpenter. She bought the restaurant from her Mother, Opal in 1997. Opal opened the restaurant in 1984. Kathy’s daughter Megan was our server. We learned that Opal now has a restaurant in Richmond. We will have to try this one also.

Left to right: Kathy Carpenter, Megan Carpenter, Char and Ray.

On the way back to Berea, we stopped at Historic Indian Fort Theater located in the middle of the Berea College Forest. This is the location of the Annual Berea Craft Festival in July that this year showcased over 100 artisans from 20 States.

We enjoyed a peaceful walk down a paved path to the outdoor theater.

This is the Historic Indian Fort Theater.

As you can see, we did see some great fall leaf colors.