On to Louisville

Sorry for such a long delay between postings, been busy being tourists, moving every week, and keeping up with “chores” around the “house”. That and the fact that wifi hasn’t been the best in most places where we have had time to update the blog. But now that we have a little time on our hands and decent wifi, we’ll try to get you up to speed over the next few days!

After a fun but very HOT week in Nashville, we set off for Louisville, Kentucky and the promise of cooler temps and rain. We got both our first full day at our campground just south of the city. Because of this we decided to take a day off to relax, catch our breath, and just chill.

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Our first day in Louisville was another rainy day so we decided to stay indoors and take in the Louisville Slugger museum. We caught it when it was pretty quiet so had a nice walk thru the museum and a tour of the actual production facility. Who knew there were so many ways to make/get a bat? Dan took a few swings with some famous bats – one used by Babe Ruth (really heavy) and one by Ken Griffey Jr (really light)

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The next day was beautiful – sunny, breezy, cool, and low humidity. We took advantage by driving over to Old Louisville – supposedly the largest contiguous group of Victorian Age homes in the US (and third largest overall). We walked past some beautifully maintained 100+ year old homes as well as touring one.

The Conrad-Caldwell house was a highlight of the day, taking a guided tour and getting to see the home pretty much as it was back in the early part of the last century.

Another day, we enjoyed some outdoor time by visiting the Bernheim Arboretum. Jill was able to take a short hike where we discovered some beautiful lakes as well as some artwork (well, we think that’s what it was…)

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After lunch at a wonderful old tavern (Talbot Tavern) where we enjoyed our first Hot Brown, we were off to tour My Old Kentucky Home. Unfortunately, no photography was permitted inside but in addition to the tour, our guide also treated us to a rendition of “My Old Kentucky Home” (the song).

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We saved the best for last. No trip to Louisville would be complete without visiting Churchill Downs, the home of the Kentucky Derby. Although we don’t follow horse racing and know next to nothing about it, the visit was still very enjoyable. We toured the museum (which was a bit much for us, too much detail for the casual observer) but best of all, took a private “back stage” tour that took us from the VIP suites to the jockey’s locker room and everywhere in between.

First were exterior views, some captured below:

Then on to the interior areas including the Jockey Locker Room, the actual weighing in scale used prior to the race, a room where all the “silks” worn by jockeys are stored, and a massive piece of art with caricatures of every winning owner over the last 135 races.

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As with the owner painting, there was also an even larger one for every jockey who has won the derby. Looking closely at some of the pics was very amusing. For instance, the jockey who appears to have some sort of Federation insignia (Star Trek reference for those who don’t follow). In addition, if you look closely at his hand, you’ll see he is holding up three fingers, his folded pinky and thumb. But look closer and you will see two more fingers folded down – meaning he has 7 fingers??!! This was created after the artist painted him after the first win. He won two more races but the artist just added more fingers instead of trying to fix those that were folded.

Then there was another fellow that just looked oddly out of place. Regardless of your politics, we found it funny to see this guy on a horse.

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After the first couple of days, the weather was wonderful during our entire visit but we did realize that packing so much into one week can contribute to two frazzled and worn out RVer’s. We promised ourselves that our next stop (Indianapolis) would be at a more leisurely pace, even if we were going to the Racing Capital of the World! Next stop, Indy!