AND THEY’RE OFF…
Well, we finally “escaped” Red Bay, AL on Friday 4/18. We traveled the Natchez Trace Parkway up to Nashville. The dogwoods and red buds were in full bloom and everything had it’s spring colors on so the trip was spectacular!
After a one night stop just north of Nashville, we traveled on to Shepherdsville, KY, just south of Louisville, where we stayed for three nights. While there, we drove over to see Churchill Downs, the home of the Kentucky Derby. What a spectacular facility this is. On Monday, we drove over to the Jim Beam distillery and toured the facility. We learned a lot about how Bourbon is made and even got to taste samples of a couple of their premium labels. It’s a little spendy, but good stuff! After leaving Jim Beam, we drove a few miles to My Old Kentucky Home State Park and saw the home where Stephen Foster composed the famous song “My Old Kentucky Home”.
Churchill Downs
One of 71 buildings at Jim Beam used for
aging
Barrels are stored 27 barrels high
Spring colors at My Old Kentucky Home
My Old Kentucky Home - Inspiration for the
Song composed by Stephen Foster
KENTUCKY HORSE PARK…
Tuesday, we moved over to Lexington, KY to stay at the campground at the Kentucky Horse Park. The rolling hills of blue grass on the drive over were amazing! The campground is laid out over several acres of grass and trees and has 260 sites. When we checked in, there were only a couple of spaces available, which surprised us given the time of year. Then we found out they are hosting the Rolex 3 Day Equestrian Event, a major national horse event, starting Thursday. We were lucky to get in at all and we ended up with a tree between us and the Directv satellite, so we were forced to watch American Idol over the air this week without being able to tivo it first, so we had to watch all the stinking commercials. Sure glad we don’t have to do that all the time! The campground is one of the most beautiful campgrounds we have ever been in.
Wednesday we spent the day at the Horse Park. This is a HUGE facility spread over 1200 acres that is all about the horse. There are numerous paddocks, huge barns, a huge indoor arena, and numerous outdoor arenas. There is every kind of horse one can imagine here. The whole park is geared towards education about the horse. We saw several demonstrations of moves used in various types of competition. One of the most interesting was a rider that rode two beautiful black Fresians tandom. He rode one and had the other one on reins in front of the one he was riding. As he ran through various moves, the horses worked in unison. It was an awesome sight! We also got to see some famous retired champion horses, including two very successful race horses, Cigar and Kona Gold. Cigar won just shy of $10 Million during his racing career and still holds the winnings record. The facility also houses two museums, the International Horse Museum and the American Saddlebred Museum. The displays are awesome It was a great day and a stop on our tour we are glad we made.
Our next stop is Indianapolis where we will go see Indianapolis Motor Speedway. More on that shortly.
Tuesday, we moved over to Lexington, KY to stay at the campground at the Kentucky Horse Park. The rolling hills of blue grass on the drive over were amazing! The campground is laid out over several acres of grass and trees and has 260 sites. When we checked in, there were only a couple of spaces available, which surprised us given the time of year. Then we found out they are hosting the Rolex 3 Day Equestrian Event, a major national horse event, starting Thursday. We were lucky to get in at all and we ended up with a tree between us and the Directv satellite, so we were forced to watch American Idol over the air this week without being able to tivo it first, so we had to watch all the stinking commercials. Sure glad we don’t have to do that all the time! The campground is one of the most beautiful campgrounds we have ever been in.
Wednesday we spent the day at the Horse Park. This is a HUGE facility spread over 1200 acres that is all about the horse. There are numerous paddocks, huge barns, a huge indoor arena, and numerous outdoor arenas. There is every kind of horse one can imagine here. The whole park is geared towards education about the horse. We saw several demonstrations of moves used in various types of competition. One of the most interesting was a rider that rode two beautiful black Fresians tandom. He rode one and had the other one on reins in front of the one he was riding. As he ran through various moves, the horses worked in unison. It was an awesome sight! We also got to see some famous retired champion horses, including two very successful race horses, Cigar and Kona Gold. Cigar won just shy of $10 Million during his racing career and still holds the winnings record. The facility also houses two museums, the International Horse Museum and the American Saddlebred Museum. The displays are awesome It was a great day and a stop on our tour we are glad we made.
Our next stop is Indianapolis where we will go see Indianapolis Motor Speedway. More on that shortly.
Roadside color
Kentucky Bluegrass for which Kentucky is famous
Some of the many acres of paddocks at
Kentucky Horse Park
Tandom Fresians
2 comments:
I'm jealous of you being able to go to that horse show!!! Sound like it was an unexpected blessing!
We forget how much we hate commercials until we go back to the states and watch commercial television. It's MUCH nicer to just watch videos!!! If you can believe it, though, Mexican commercials are worse!!!!
Love you guys!
Sounds like you guys are having a great time. It must be good to be on the road again. Mark's Mom and Dad will be leaving in May. They have had to stay home all winter and are looking forward to hitting the road again. I really enjoy reading your blog. Keep it coming!!
Love, Deb
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