Adventures

On June 19, 2025, Lexington, KY civic leaders unveiled a larger-than-life statue of Lewis and Harriet Hayden – subjects of Joel’s 1999 biography of the husband and wife who escaped from enslavement in Lexington in 1844 and became anti-slavery heroes.

A story that enshrines the enduring love and respect Dorothy Nuzzi Strangis had for her mother, Catarina Capobianco, who married for love twice, and for her father, Francesco Nuzzi, who made a promise to an unknown woman thousands of miles away – and kept it. 

It’s not every day that you are able to visit the site where six men were devoured by a monster. Nor swim beneath the cliff where the monster lived. Or at least where someone we call Homer placed the story 2,700 years ago.

I believe even an atheist would be inspired by the vision of light and space, works of nature, and works of human artists.

With no refrigeration in Puigcerda, a mile-and-a-half walk to the French town of Bourg-Madame was needed. The adventure was highlighted by an overzealous Spanish border guard, holding a sub-machine gun, who berated us in Catalan for walking on the wrong side of the road.