Louisville, Kentucky Home of the Kentucky Derby!

Another DRY DAY!!!!!



The Derby


Gay, Sue R. & Nancy Mc

April 24, I had forgotten to mention after dropping Danielle off at the airport in Nashville, we went back to the motorcoach and as it rained & rained some more, a tornado watch marched across Tennessee towards Nashville with a few touch downs, but luckily turned northward about 5 miles from Nashville & 4 miles from where we were staying. Phew another close one!


I realize that we are getting to the end as I start to compose this in Salina, Kansas, thinking back on our week in Louisville, I was glad to have experienced it and happy to say I have been there!

April 25, We arrive at our campground in Lexington Indiana, just across the Ohio River from Louisville. The Host of the "tour" greets us and says he will be down later to give us our itinerary. We squeeze in our slot that we have been assigned with our motorcoach, finally meeting up with our other traveling companions, Joe & Sue from Discovery Bay; Sue was flying in that afternoon. As the day worn on, lots of other trailers and coaches arrived for the "Derby Tour". Our Host dropped off paperwork and an itinerary that would choke a horse! OMG, everyday we leave the campground at 7 A.M. with Daisy our bus driver and we get back around 6:30 P.M. Some days we come back to camp for 2 hours before we go out to see a musical or go to dinner & be back by 9:30 or 10:30 P.M.!

The "Hosts" started our "marathon week" with a Welcome dinner for us with Hot Browns and yummy Mint Julep punch. There was live entertainment for us and I have to tell you the California contingent did most of the dancing and entertaining! We danced from 6 to 8 P.M. and got a chance to meet our other Tourmates and Hosts.

Anyway, highlights were Louisville Slugger factory tour, Heaven's Hill Bourbon tasting (ick, bourbon tastes awful), Kentucky Horse Park, lunch on a riverboat going up the Ohio river, a city tour of Louisville, a dinner on the shores of the Ohio river looking at Louisville, a tour of Bardstown, a musical "Hairspray", a trip to Lexington and seeing a working training center for race horses, breakfast in Millionaire's row and of course the Derby. I am sure I am forgetting something but we were whipped by Derby Day.

Day 2 it rained with lighting and thunder, day 3 it rained, day 4 it stormed with lighting and thunder, day 5 it was sunny ! ! ! and day 6 Derby Day......it rained.

The Derby is HUGE for Loo-ah-vul (Louisville); pronounce it like you are Elvis and swallow all the vowels.

They start partying HARD 2 weeks before the Derby, holding mock horse races, balloon races and steamboat races, anything they can race, they race. The town gets pretty whipped up and the fans on race day are crazy. The betting is fast and furious, you could stand in line 20 deep to get your bet in or get paid out and they have A LOT of wagering windows. There are Mint Juleps, Lillies, Champagne and beer, pulled pork, bourbon sausage (ate one and yum!) & strawberries on a stick. There are 3 tiers of Millionaire's Row; huge indoor rooms that hold lots of people with lavish buffets; a Jockey Club, Turf Club all for the wealthy, notables and "members". The Twin Spires Club and another couple of buildings all interconnected forming Churchill Downs.

I spoke of Daisy our bus driver, she has driven for Miller busing company for 30+ years and she drove down the streets of Loo-ah-vul snaking her way around narrow streets that were made for horse carriages in the 1800's. She was given a brand new
H3-45 Prevost 6 weeks ago; she takes her bus home every night since she is a long standing employee; and parks it at her home. She took us every day from Day 2 to Day 6 to all these venues, arriving at 6:30 A.M. with a smile on her face and recipes from the South & dropped us off with the same wonder smile at the end of a very long day. I can't say the group was as chipper as she was at day's end.

Once again the weather sucked, the 42 people in the group were nice, the 2 sets of Hosts were great and I am glad to have signed up for the tour as we wouldn't have gotten to see a tenth of what we saw and did in those 5 days.

So Brian and I bet on some "ponies" and we didn't win squat. "Super Saver" came in first and that is the winner for the 136th Kentucky Derby!

Chatting with our Tourmates and having taken a consenses, all parties agreed, everyone was whipped, exhausted, wiped out. We had so many activities over the 6 days everyone was dragging; except our Hosts, Jim and Gisela. They were leaving Monday and driving back to Virgina to see a new Grandbaby. Drive back in June to the West Coast to host a tour, after that they were hosting the Calgary Stampede in July and September they are flying to Africa to host another tour for 30 some odd days. Sheeez, where do these people get their stamina???????

Sunday, May 2nd we packed up and said good bye to our Hosts, our new friends and old friends and headed home westward bound. We were excited to get back home and start exercising rather than sitting for hours. Although we know we will be traveling 300-500 miles a day to our next location, just to get up the next morning, pull in slides and make sure all things are secured and do it all over again to get home. Ah the joys of driving across the Mid-West!