Lousiville, KY July 22-26

We left the Great Smoky Mountains and headed to Louisville to go to "The Rally" a huge RV Rally.  Yes, I have a video to prove I punched the ticket and drove the RV!  I have to be honest, we had a real traffic slow down moving at about 5 miles an hour and Mark needed a break so I took over for about 10 minutes.  But, I was driving!!!

Not much from the Rally is very blog worthy but we did get some good information at the seminars and enjoyed the entertainment.

Although this is not the best photo we saw Tanya Tucker.  The next night's entertainment was the winner of America's Got Talent, the "chicken catcher" Kevin Skinner!

The rally ended on the 26th and for my Birthday we went to one of the most famous sites in Louisville, Kentucky - none other than Churchill Downs.




 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

When you enter the Derby Museum one of the first things you see is this big screen video of the horses coming out of the gate and racing right towards you.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The sound and vibrations of the hooves combined with the motion of the horses is very impactful!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

They really celebrate the winners of the Kentucky Derby:
 

Bronze statues of the first winning horse and the most winning jockey, Pat Day who only stood 4'11"!   The statue of Pat Day is actually a little over 5 feet!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Here we are with the celebrated winner's circle in the background.  The blanket of roses placed on the winning horse is currently made by none other than Kroger's floral.  It contains 564 freedom roses, each in a vial with a bouquet on the top made up of one rose for each horse running in that year's derby.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The current winner's silks are painted on this jockey statue every year.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


It wouldn't be a Kentucky Derby without the hats. This is the hat and jacket of the owner of the current winner, Winstar Farms. You can see her jacket matches her jockey's silks in the statue above. They also have hats and outfits from previous winners. We hear that we will see the winner's outfit and hat from Secretariat in the new movie coming out.

Speaking of Secretariat, they have a plaque for each winner and the winners of the triple crown have their plaques in gold.

There is a long portrait collage of every winning jockey and if the jockey wins more than once they just change the painting of the jockey to show the current silks!  There is also a painting like this one of the trainers.

We took an additional tour that took us to Millionaire's row, the jockey's locker room (very basic) and lots more. We got to see some sights like this amazing glass blown replica of Derby Day.

We also had an opportunity to see a horse that ran in the Derby.  This is Winston.  As we were eating lunch at the Derby Cafe we noticed our tour guide run out to chat with Winston so we got this great photo.

It was a wonderful day!  We said goodbye to the famous twin spires and headed out.  Our next stop is Ohio and the Western and Southern ATP tennis tournament!