Kentucky Horse Park

On Monday we packed up and moved to the campground at the Kentucky Horse Park just north of Lexington, KY. It's a convenient spot with plenty of room, but not exactly cheap at $18 a night to boondock. Because we're old, we got a 10% discount but we are just parked in a field with no amenities (like a trash can.) Tom spoke to somebody about that and they said they would pick up our trash if we set it out, but they couldn't provide a trash can. We got a kick out of that logic.

On Tuesday we checked out the activities at the very elegant Kentucky Horse Park. Remember horses are king here.


First we attended the Hall of Champions Show where they showed off some of the resident celebrities. If you were a racing fan in the mid 90s, you might remember this stallion named Cigar.


He amassed some pretty impressive stats, earning just short of $10 million. (You might have to click on this to read it.)

Strangely enough, when he was retired and put out to stud, it was discovered that he is sterile. I bet that was a huge financial blow to his owners.

I don't know what I did to deserve it, but this guy stuck out his tongue just when I took his picture. Maybe he was tired of posing. (And before you say it, this is NOT Cigar, so it's not because I just told the world that he's sterile.)


We saw two different shows in this arena. As is traditional, they began with displaying the colors. It's quite a sight to see our flag flying proudly from atop a beautiful horse. This one is an American Paint.


This gorgeous horse and rider demonstrated the art of dressage. I'm ashamed to say I don't remember what breed this one was. I should have taken notes.


I also don't know what breed this jumper was, but, really, he could have just walked over that jump!


I think this is an American Saddlebred horse. As you can see, even with this skidding stop, the reins are loose. The rider gives all commands with leg pressure.


This gymnast is working with a stationary horse while she recovers from a lumbar injury. I can't imagine doing these moves on a moving horse.


Even I know this is a Clydesdale. I guess you never ride a Clydesdale since this is the only one that was led in. Thunder here and his teammate Lightning usually pull the tour wagon, but they're having a break while the roads are being repaired.


This was my very favorite - a Morgan. Although Morgans are not huge horses, they are known for their power, stamina, and versatility. I thought he was beautiful.


I had to have my picture taken with him.

I really enjoyed our day at the horse park even though I'm not a big fan of horses. They also had an impressive museum. My only disappointment was the lack of mares with foals. The museum volunteer explained they are not a breeding farm, but then why do they have them on the brochure? (I didn't ask him - he's a volunteer, after all.)

Oh, and I must go back to our go kart adventure and retract my statement that nobody got a picture of Ron. Donna snapped this of him just as he took off. Obviously he didn't mess around with getting the feel of the car, but just floored it right from the start.

Miscellaneous Louisville Area

We were so busy during our week outside of Louisville that I'm just going to throw the rest of these pictures up in one post. I'll try to keep the commentary to a minimum.

One morning we loaded up our bicycles and headed over to Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest. This 14,000 acre preserve was donated by German immigrant Isaac Wolfe Bernheim who came to this country with $4 in his pocket. It's run by a non-profit private corporation and is free on weekdays.

Don't we look athletic with the kayaks and bikes?


The preserve was beautiful - green, cool, and peaceful.


Just look at this gorgeous water lily!


It was a workout for me since it wasn't flat terrain.


These miniature horses are pastured right across from the RV park where we stayed. You can't really tell from the picture, but the mother is only about three feet tall. The baby is just a few weeks old. The owners of the RV park feed them chocolate candy - is that really good for them?


We also toured a few of the local distilleries where they make good Kentucky bourbon whiskey. How many of those samples did you have, Bertie?


One evening, we went to Elizabethtown and took a walking tour with historic citizens and visitors who related their role in the town's story. It was excellently done.


They were all wonderful, but my favorite was General Custer. Disrespectful though it may be, I couldn't help but laugh when I heard Jim B whisper, "I hate to tell him but he's going to die."


We had all prepaid for a boat trip up the Ohio River from downtown Louisville, so on Sunday off we went. The drive in didn't start out too promising, but I was confident the rain would stop. After all, weather.com said it would.


This has to be the best group picture ever! Look how happy everybody is despite the threatening skies. Check out Patty's boots - she's prepared for a flood.


The boat was the historic Belle of Louisville - an authentic steam driven paddle wheeler from 1914. It has even raced the famous Delta Queen (although it lost.)


It had a very loud calliope on board.


Although the sky remained cloudy, at least the rain stopped before we boarded and our trip was very pleasant. Here we are coming back into town.


Our week was topped off by an All-American Cookout with hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad and apple pie. Here Marvin demonstrates his flame-broiled technique while Ernie supervises Ed in the background.

Bertie had so much packed into this week, that Ron and I had to take some time off. We missed the Louisville Slugger museum and Churchill Downs. I'm sure Judy will have them on her blog, but she's not as timely as I am.

At the Races

After reading all the handouts on the area, I found something I thought the group would like to do as much as I wanted to . . .

Alright, it's not exactly a race but they advertise the longest go-kart track in the world at 1 1/2 miles long. Having lived a sheltered life, I had never driven a go-kart and always wanted to. Since I also wanted to put pictures of it on the blog, I didn't know how I was going to do both. No problem since we ended up with more photographers than drivers.

When I first brought it up, we had 10 people who were interested, but when push came to shove, we were down to four. However we four had a blast. The track had different sizes and levels of go-karts and we all went for the 'Thunderbolt', the biggest and badest. You even need a valid drivers license to drive it, but surprisingly, nobody asked to see our licenses.

Ron was first on the track and I guess the photographers weren't ready yet with their cameras.

I was next out. You can see I'm just a blur. :-D


Next was Wanda. You can see me in the background - still just a blur of motion.


Last out was Ernie who passed me about 1/3 of the way around the track. I understand he never did catch Ron though.


Then about 3/4 of the way around, this group of kids caught up and passed me. This first one went by very politely, but one of the others cut in too fast and tapped my front bumper. I think they purposely do that to each other and didn't realize he was hitting somebody old enough to be his grandmother. LOL


Here I'm on one of the last turns. You see I'm still smiling and waving.


And here's Ron when he finished his run.


Here are the four drivers posing for our victory photo. What fun! Although Wanda and I must have set the record for the slowest time around the track, we had just as much fun as our speed demon guys.

I'd like to thank my contributing photographers - Donna, Valerie, and Max - for their excellent action shots.

Land of Lincoln?

Happy Independence Day! In honor of the occasion, I thought I'd talk about Abraham Lincoln - I know, not a founding father, but a man who believed in freedom, equality, and the United States of America.

We're staying about 16 miles south of Louisville, KY in a real RV park with full hookups! As soon as we arrived, the heat broke and we haven't needed the air conditioning since. Figures. Anyway we've been so busy here that I've gotten behind in the blog. I'll try to catch up in the next couple of days.

The other day, we toured with a Lincoln theme. Although Illinois claims the title of 'Land of Lincoln', Abe was actually born in Kentucky. The fact that surprised me is that his family wasn't poor. Sure he was born in a log cabin, but that's because they lived on the frontier. They were middle class or even upper middle class for the area according to the tax records. Imagine that!

First we visited his boyhood home - a modest log cabin on 30 acres of gorgeous fertile bottomland alongside Knob Creek. The family lived there for five years until Abe was seven years old. The family rented the farm from George Lindsey and left in 1816 because of a lawsuit over a prior claim to the land. They moved to Indiana where they spent the next 14 years.

This cabin is not actually the one the Lincolns occupied, but is said to be similar.


Next we visited the Lincoln Museum in Hodgenville which contains 12 scenes of importance in Lincoln's life with life-sized wax figures. They are very well done. Here he is writing the Emancipation Proclamation.


We had some excitement when Ernie and Wanda locked their keys in the car, but AAA was there within 15 minutes.


Then we saw where Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809. Wow! He was born in a mansion!

Actually the log cabin (which looked just like the other one and also was not the actual cabin) was inside this mausoleum type structure. There was a good movie at the visitors center and our tour guide was very knowledgeable, but I thought the pink granite building was just ridiculous. Thomas Lincoln purchased this property just before Abe was born. It was 348 acres with a spring right on the property, but the red clay was not very fertile. Unfortunately, this land was also involved in a land title dispute and the Lincolns moved to Knob Creek in 1811.

While we were at the museum, Ron found a list of statements, known as Lincoln's 10 "Cannots". We thought they were timely and bought a copy.

Lincoln's 10 "Cannots"

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.

You cannot further brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.

You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative.

You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.

You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.

You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.

You cannot establish security on borrowed money.

You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they will not do for themselves.

After we brought it home we read the fine print which said. . .
For nearly a century, Abraham Lincoln has been erroneously credited as author of the 'Cannots'. Although they do express many of his sentiments, they were never written or spoken as such by him. The 'Cannots' were in fact written, copyrighted and printed in 1916 by Reverend William J.H. Boetcker.

No matter - they're still good advice.

Fort Knox

Everybody knows that Fort Knox is where the gold is stored, but I never knew it was also a military base and a town.

First we did a drive by of the vault (they won't let you in)


Which was on. . .


Then we went to the Patton Museum in the town of Fort Knox - more tanks and armored vehicles than you can imagine.


Oh look, it's John C. on his cross country trip!


Even more tanks.


I was fascinated by this piece of the Berlin Wall. This is the East Berlin side. . .


And this is the West.


They also had lots of Patton memorabilia like his staff car.

This is actually the car he was riding in when he was involved in an accident which ultimately took his life.

There was a lot of information on his life and quotes from letters he wrote. I thought this was funny.


This big guy was a prototype that was never built because the war ended.


Uh-oh.

For those interested in visiting this extensive collection of armored vehicles, you better hurry. We were told it was all being moved to Fort Benning, GA. However the Patton exhibit will remain in Fort Knox.

Cave Exploration

While at Bowling Green, we visited two very different caves - Mammoth and Lost River. Both were not quite what I expected.

Mammoth Cave was designated a National Park in 1926. Unlike most caves I've toured, Mammoth doesn't have many of the typical interesting formations. Rather its claim to fame is 365 miles of explored passageways, more than twice as long as any known cave. And geologists think there could be as many as 600 miles still undiscovered.

The crowds were unbelievable to me. I guess I'm not used to being a summer tourist. Our tour group consisted of about 100 people. We were bussed to the 'New Entrance' which had been discovered by throwing dynamite into a sink hole!


After descending 280 steps down some vertical shafts, we made our way through what looked to me like underground slot canyons. I was glad Peggy had on bright clothing - it was hard to see down there.

Although the tour was only 3/4 mile long, it seemed longer underground. Since we were near the back of the group, it involved a lot of catching up. Mike commented, "This isn't a tour, it's a workout!" The group only stopped twice for ranger talks, but I don't know how you can do much more with a group of that size.

After traipsing what seemed like miles, there was one area at the end of the tour that had some pretty formations. Here's some nice flowstone . . .


And some stalactites and stalagmites. That's more like it.

They do have several different tours at Mammoth and maybe I would have liked another one better. This one just didn't do much for me.

Another day the group visited Lost River Cave which is a National Historic Landmark. I thought, "Cool, a boat ride through a cave - that's unusual." Well, once again I was disappointed.

We had some willing strangers take our picture while we waited for our guide. My photographer did a great job.


We all piled into the boat and posed for the obligatory souvenir picture. Shockingly, I actually bought it - paid good money. But it is kind of cute, don't you think?


The tour guide did a really good job and told us lots of history about the cave. I thought the most interesting fact was that there was a nightclub at the cave entrance from 1933 until the early 1960's. Now they rent that area out for weddings and such.

The most exciting part was when we had to duck under the low ceiling.

The cave opened up and, although the tour guide was informed and interesting, I think we were all surprised when we came to the turnaround point after only going about 200 yards. Once again, I had expected more.

After the boat tour, we walked the Blue Hole Trail. The blue holes are actually places where the roof of the cave collapsed. Hopefully a long time ago. The holes were more green than blue because heavy rain the night before stirred up the sediment.


And Wanda tried her hand at panning for gemstones - nothing yet.

The best part of the day was when we had ice cream at the local creamery. Yum!

Bowling Green, KY

Today we joined up with the WIN caravan in Bowling Green, KY. I just love that name - Bowling Green. It conjures up a lovely pastoral scene with people sitting around in lawn chairs, drinking mint juleps, and lawn bowling. . .

Anyway, we pulled out of the campground at Land Between the Lakes at 7:20am - certainly a record for us. However we had incentive since Ernie and Wanda (our hosts for this stop) had scheduled a tour of the Corvette assembly plant for this morning at 11:30, followed by the Corvette museum. What fun!

Unfortunately the factory does not allow cameras so you have to imagine hundreds of Corvettes making their way down the assembly line. We asked how many were currently on the line and were told they put out 88 a day and each one takes 5 days, so you can do the math. It was an impressive sight! We also learned there are currently four models with the cheapest going for $46,000. I thought she said $26,000 and was all set to buy one. Surprisingly, none of the WINs asked if you can tow it 'four down.'

Next we had a special tour of the museum where they did allow pictures. Ron found a nice blue one he liked. Of course it was one of the most expensive ones at over $100,000. If you look closely, you can see Max, Peggy, Marvin, and Judy in the background.


The first Vettes were made in 1953 and the museum had one from that year. You could get it in any color you wanted as long as it was white. :-) I thought it was interesting that they had automatic transmissions.


Here's the info on it.


I liked this slightly newer one with the signature side panels.


Bowling Green had one of those town art projects to raise money so obviously they decorated Corvettes. I think it was only a year or two ago, so we'll have to be on the lookout for them around town.


Wanda demonstrated her prowess by lifting one end of a Corvette frame while Austin looked on in amazement.


Kids, don't try this at home, but they purposely ran this car into a wall at 35 mph. Corvettes are designed to crumple and fall apart like a race car, protecting the passenger compartment.


Interesting fact, each year has a slightly different insignia on the hood. We were told that Corvette enthusiasts wear a pin with their car's insignia to identify other owners with the same year car.


The museum personnel were kind enough to allow me to take this $54,000 baby out for a spin.

(You know I'm kidding, right?)