Kentucky Horse Park

On the 4th we left Grandma's RV Park and headed for the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington Kentucky. En route we first drove to Costco in Louisville for supplies. Naturally there was road construction and Lucille, our GPS, got confused but once again thanks to simple asking someone we found it.

From there we drove to Lexington where the Derby will be held today, the 5th, we drove in relatively sparse traffic on the freeway. It was hot and very humid. After unhitching we all drove out to see the Old Friend's Thoroughbred Farm. This is as close as I will ever come to seeing a "Horsepital." It seems after the death of Ferdnand, the great horse of yore who was raced, bred and when he got old sent to a slaughter house; some folks decided this was enough. So these people take care of former race horses after they become too old to be profitable.

It is a beautiful place and we spent some time walking around the grounds and meeting some of the retired horses. They currently have around 120 horses that are too old to race or to be used at stud. There are mares and geldings here too but unfortunately, studs being studs, have to be pastured alone because they are so aggressive.

From here we drove to Frankfort, KY to eat at a place called the "Meeting House." It was a cute restaurant and very casual in attitude where we had the chance to eat a Kentucky Brown sandwich. Well we tried it and never need to do that again. Honestly it was as bad as Lima beans. Yuck!

After driving back it was so humid we sat and read and visited with our neighbors until bedtime but were awakened to heavy rain, lightning, thunder and our Fantastic Fans motoring up and down in the downpour. In fact it's raining right now having been announced by thunder and lightning.

The grounds of the "Horsepital" looks like Kentucky should look.

If 'ya gotta go this is nice.

This was a really big winner.

These horses may be old but can still bite.

Final resting place.

Got any more carrots?

Later today is RACE DAY!

See Ya! Barry and Shirley

Fun day our anniversary

Thursday May 3, 2012 saw us back on our touring schedule. We rode with Gary and DeAlva who we have known for 4 years and enjoy. Gary was born in Midland, TX so we have a lot in common.

First stop was a trip to visit the birthplace of Abe Lincoln. This was a treat because a person born in poverty could still become president. He was born in a log cabin and lived in Kentucky until his parents moved to Illinois.

Next we visited "My Old Kentucky Home" which honors Stephen Foster who wrote many songs including the Kentucky State song, "My Old Kentucky Home." It's played almost continuously and would drive a person batty if you had to work here. We toured a home where he was a guest, by the way Andrew Jackson slept here too.

Next we had lunch at a really nice place with table cloths and the whole works where we had a nice lunch and discovered a beer aged in whisky barrels. This was a great find and we drove to a local store and bought some for later.

Lastly we visited the Bourbon Heritage Center where we got a tour of the Heaven Hill Distillery and got a "taste" of some of their products. We only seem to be visiting one distillery a day, which is probably good or else we could become hazards on the highways.

After returning home Shirley and I drove around looking for a suitable place to have an anniversary dinner. Remember we are on the outskirts of Louisville, but it is still country. After nixing Burger King, McDonalds, Mexican and Chinese places we finally found a Cattlemans and had our dinner there.

This memorial was built in 1909 to celebrate the fact Lincoln was born here.

Ya' gotta admit they are cute.

What can be said, he died at age 37.

No pictures allowed inside, but the guides were dressed in period costumes.

No this is not a prison, but a warehouse full of booze.

Aged 8 years and up, each barrel holds 53 gallons.

Now we are getting someplace.

Yeah, they are cute!

This photo was taken in-front of a cabin like the one Abe was born in. We six people were on the Civil War Caravan together and this photo was sent to one of our fellow caravanners who went home and had open heat surgery. We are giving him the "thumbs up."

Today we head for Lexington, weather is iffy with rain and thunderstorms in the forecast. It is hot and humid!

See Ya! Barry and Shirley

"THE" Downs

Today we left for our tour and I must say it's getting hotter and certainly more humid. Our Fantastic Vents in our trailer are to close when it rains, well they sometimes think it's raining. We first had a tour of Churchill Downs after seeing what could be a great movie. The movie is "in the round" meaning it is all around you so therefore it's disjointed. If they would listen to me I could make it great.

Ready for a day at the races.

Probably one of the most famous places in the world.

Getting ready for our big day.

One of the rare times the place is empty.

Old but very pretty.

This is very serious stuff.

We WON!

Anyway the tour was fun, and very interesting, but hot. I think we were all surprised at just how big the whole place is. Plus, it's a very big deal here. After a hurried lunch we went to our boxes for an afternoon of racing.

We had a great day and of course we won big. We needed an armored car to take all of our winnings out of there.

Be evening, I had had so much excitement that I was a bit off my feed and Shirley and I came home, turned up the AC and slept through our GAM. We did wake up however in time for our tasting of Mint Juleps provided by the Buffalo Trace Distillery. These were our first Juleps and I do understand why and how they came about. They really cooled us down.

This followed by some bluegrass music performed by our own band. Then it was off to bed for real.

See Ya! Barry and Shirley

Day 4 of Springtime in Kentucky

Tuesday, May 1st. started early. Shirley and her friend Kathy went for their morning walk/run.

It was foggy this morning but 70 degrees at 7 am.

The Ohio from the balcony of the Farnsley-Moreman House.

Today we toured an old house, the Farnsley-Moreman House. This was another of those antebellum homes/plantations that did not raise cotton. Their slaves were busy harvesting hemp for bags, rope etc. It was interesting because of the archeologist involved. He told how their "digs" give them evidence to be used to find out how they lived in the 1830's. The difference in this one was it was on the banks of the Ohio River. New to us.

From here we drove to downtown Lexington and took a river cruise on a Riverboat where we had lunch which was actually good. Next we walked to the Louisville Slugger Museum and factory and had a great time. Like the Corvette facility there were no cameras allowed, but the museum was just plain fun.

In the factory, bats are no longer made by hand but robots make them. To turn a bat via lathe by hand took over 30 minutes and they could not be duplicated to the tolerances now possible. About 8,000 bats are made each day. Major league bats cost the teams around $80 each and each batter has around 120 bats per season.

This picture is of the Lost River. During the Civil War four Confederate solders drowned here everyone thought this was a bottomless hole because the bodies were never found but it was not. The stream flowed into the cave. 

This picture is not upside down, the yellow is the roof of the cave. We are in a boat.

See we had to bend over to not bump our heads as the boat floats by.

Ol' Jess was here too.

We are enjoying full days, but will be glad when Sunday comes because we get a free day and need to take care of things, like sleeping in.

This has to be the worlds largest bat.

Derek Jeter is our favorite baseball player and this is one of his bats.

See, it even fits a girl.

"See Shirley, hold your bat like this."

"OK, who's tallest?"

Can't miss with this mitt.

See Ya! Barry and Shirley

Bluegrass Music RV Park

New caravan and already lots happening. We start the days off around 9am and seem to finish around 8pm tired and just fall into bed. I think they want no complaints of not enough to do. Anyway we arrived two days early to do laundry etc. So when everyone arrived on April we were here to help them park etc. Well, some of them we already knew and have not seen for a few years so it was old home week 'til 4pm when things kicked off.

Social hour was at 4 then we had dinner in the rec. room then a GAM (get acquainted meeting). So actually old home week lasted for 3 hours, at least, and then we had live entertainment from a local bluegrass group.

Around 10pm we crawled into bed and prepared for our first day of touring which started at 9am the next morning. First we toured the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY. This was interesting and exciting especially for the men who feel a Corvette is still all that's needed to be a chick magnet.

Next we toured the Lost River Cave. This has quite a history especially for those of us just off the Civil War caravan. Besides the American indians first, both the Union and Confederate armies used the cave during the war. After the war the cave was used as a restaurant, a mill pond, and by the 1950's a dump. Jesse James even hid there after a robbery.

We ended our touring day with a visit to a farm and ice cream company. This for us was the best, we had ice cream, what more does an Airstreamer want, and a farm tour.

Exhausted after a full day we returned to GAN #2.

Today we left for Grandma's Campground in Shepherdsville, KY. Not that easy however. We toured the Corvette assembly plant in Franklin, KY on our way to Shepherdsville before we left town. This was an extremely interesting tour but no pictures were allowed. I heartily recommend anyone even remotely interested in Corvettes visit this place. Something like 8 Corvettes an hour are assembled here.

Just us here.

After some of the group arrived. Now you see why we like camping with the Corps.

Visit here, eat someplace else.

Remember when?

There are red ones, blue ones, yellow ones.....

Probably as close as I will ever come to driving one.

Driving down I-65 you can't miss it.

Barn art.

Great tour.






 

See 'ya later, Barry and Shirley

Back on the caravan trail.

You have not heard from us for awhile because we have not written. We are in Kentucky and have been since we left Nashville around April 20th. From Nashville we drove to Nolan Lake near Bee Springs, KY. This was a corps campground and it was just opening for the season. It seems all of this country is mountainous. Their mountains are about 1000 feet high, but steep. So when we camp here we do a lot of walking, it seems all up hill. Nevertheless, it is all beautiful and GREEN.

Almost every day at some time it rains. Thunder and lightening is a constant also. But we are having a great time just being us. The campground's name is Moutardier. I will leave it up to you to pronounce it. Our arrival was Friday the 20th and we arrived early enough to get a nice site. By noon the place was pretty full as we expected. The good news is they were all nice families and lots of visiting went on. We pretty much kept to ourselves but were asked a lot of questions about California. Probably so they could hear us talk.

By Sunday noon, most of the people had left so we had the whole thing pretty much to ourselves. We visited local towns named things like: Elizabeth Town, Bee Spring, Leichfield, Rhoda and Sweeden. One such town, Glendale was such a treat. The town is old and funky. A restaurant named the Whistle Stop has folks coming from miles around just to eat there. We had pork layered in a cornbread-like pancake. Very good and home made bean soup. Followed by Derby Pie. The Derby pie is like pecan pie but better and richer. It's chocolate covered with pecans and walnuts and oh, so good.

Another day we drove to Brownsville to see Mammoth Cave, the worlds longest cave, something like 692 miles long and they are still exploring it. Learned a lot here, and logged another cave tour.

Between rain showers and thunderstorms we hiked and enjoyed the campground. Lots of Red Headed Woodpeckers. Seems they are only found here. Also, last year in KY we were lucky enough to see a Piliated woodpecker. So we get to log another bird too.

Best of all we met a nice couple, he plays guitar and plays in a band. They have been coming here for about 50 years and we had nice visits with then. They too had had an accident. She was pulling their boat, he was pulling their trailer she slowed down and he didn't. So we shared our accidents too.

Great Window.

Driving in, how could you miss this?

Oops, too much cornbread.

Cute little town.

One of the many stores made from old homes.

Shopping at it's finest.

Sundown from our campsite.

Last night, our last night there, we had a nice little thunderstorm complete with some dreaded hail. No damage was found so we survived another storm.

We did not include any cave pictures, how do you photograph a big hole in the ground? Also, there is only one camp site photo, but it shows the beauty of the place.

Today we left with threatening skies but no storm hit 'til we arrived in Franklin, KY and met our next caravan leaders. We are early, the caravan starts on the 28th, so we can get our mail, do laundry etc. When we arrived it was very hot. Now the storm has passed and it is cool, but very humid.

See Ya! Barry and Shirley