Lexington, Kentucky

Leaving Asheville, N.C., we had an easy drive west on I40 then north on I75 straight to Lexington. It was a beautiful day, light traffic, and an easy ride -- just what we like! We stayed at the Kentucky Horse Park campground, which I chose for its proximity to the attractions we wished to attend: the Kentucky Horse Park, Keeneland Race Track, and Woodford Distillery. Towards the end of our stay, we were also meeting up with our former co-workers from Bar Harbor, Mark and Debi Warner. They've been roaming the quilt show circuit this spring and summer, and decided to meet us here as they were in the area -- one of the best parts about our gypsy lifestyle :-).

The campground was pretty nice, but the site we had initially selected turned out to be extremely
unlevel, with the back of the site much higher than the front. We spent close to an hour trying to get level, without much success, the front jacks being so far extended out that we just weren't comfortable leaving that way. I ended up going back to the office to see if there were any other sites available, and out of the three possibilities they had for us, we did find one that was much better suited for a big rig like ours. Once we moved, setting up was a piece of cake and we were settled for a week here.

We spent a whole day here at the Kentucky Horse Park, 

We spent all morning here, at the International Museum of the Horse, a affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.

It went through the entire history of the horse, with many exhibits.

the history of horse racing was detailed throughout many exhibits as well.

Different breeds had their own halls and exhibits, such as the Arabians.

Outside, there was a riding exhibit of different breeds of horses, with their riders dressed in the traditional garb of the countries they were representing.

Outside, there were memorials to famous horses such as Man O'War...

and Secretariat.

The next day, we took a tour of a few local horse farms, such as KatieRich Farms. It's baby season, and this beautiful little foal is only 3 days old.

These are all thoroughbreds, and their living facilities are unbelievable. These horses are worth big bucks, and treated accordingly.

I just love horses!

When we work at Amazon in Campbellsville each fall, we are in the heart of what is called the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Several people we have worked with have done this adventure, but we never had; it was difficult, working the night shift, to get out and about during the day to pursue activities; at least, for us it is. So we decided that while we were in Lexington, it was time to investigate and find out what the distillery tours are like. Woodford Reserve is pretty close to the campground, in the town of Versailles, so we headed up there one morning. I found the tour quite interesting.

From fermentation...

to distilling...

to aging...

and bottling.

Tasting was last on the tour, and they gave us two different types to taste, along with a bourbon ball chocolate candy. Rest assured, I will not be turning into a bourbon connoisseur; yes, the second taste was much smoother than the first taste, but I'm pretty sure it was because the first taste burned away my taste buds! 

We had the good fortune to be in town during one of the two months when live horse racing is occurring at Keeneland. While in Rome, and all that....so we bought tickets for seats in the Grandstand, and headed over for the races :-).

If you don't own a fancy hat, not to worry; you can get fixed up right there at the race track!

Of course, what would races be without a glass of champagne?

We headed to our seats, taking time to look at all the details, as well as stopping at the "Betologist" booth, where neophytes like us can become educated in the basics of betting :-).  We had a quick lesson, and went all out with big bets....$6.00 on a straight wager, across the board...select one horse to either win, place or show. We did this for the first three races of the day.

Before each race, the horses run in the race are brought out into a central area for all to see. They are certainly beautiful creatures.

Before each race, the track is smoothed out.

The scoreboard is across the track from the Grandstand.

All the horses racing in that particular race are brought out and paraded in front of the grandstand, on their way to the starting gate.

The horses are entering the starting gate....

and once fully loaded, the starting signal sounds and off they go!

It's quite exciting for about two minutes :-). Then it all starts over again, with about 30 minutes in between races. We stayed for three races, I think there were six races that day altogether, and we had a great time. We even won on the last race....we bet $6.00 and got $6.20 back....LOL. We are definitely not getting rich that way :-).

We had a good time with Mark and Debi as well. We had a cookout at the campground the first night they were there, and we gabbed for a real long time, catching up with what we've all been doing since 2013. Time sure does fly! The next day we drove into Lexington together, and took a tour of the Mary Todd Lincoln House. It was very interesting, and I really enjoyed learning more about this misunderstood woman in history. I highly recommend it if you are in the area. We had hoped to also visit the Henry Clay Estate, but it wasn't open that day. We all decided to check out a local BBQ restaurant, Red State BBQ. It's one of those places that you wouldn't give a second glance at driving by, but has some really good food. We had actually stopped there on the Horse Farm tour, just for ice cream, and we wanted to go back for dinner. Since we never have to twist Mark's arm to go out for BBQ, we all headed over there. Everyone said the food was great, and I can personally attest to the fact that my brisket sandwich with beer cheese was totally awesome. The big downer was that the day before we had tried their peach bourbon bread pudding, which was delicious, but they didn't have any that night :-(. I guess that just gives us a reason to head back there some day!

While in Lexington for a few days, we also tackled an issue that has been giving us fits; our internet

. One thing I require is good internet. Up until last summer, we had been working off of a Verizon Jetpack which worked pretty good most of the time. Last year, though, Al decided to change to the Verizon aircard U620L. During the summer, we had been hit by a lightning strike that had fried the WifiRanger router that we had, so we replaced it with the Go2 WiFiRanger router. We were never able to get it working correctly, and it was extremely aggravating. We had gone so far as to send the aircard and the router together back to WifiRanger. The first time they had it for over a month before deeming it working properly (which it didn't when we got it back). We sent it all back to them again when we got back to the house for the winter, and again, they patched it, or whatever, and sent it back to us. We tried it out when we went to the Keys in March. It wouldn't work at all when we were in Naples overnight, but then hooked up and worked fine while we were in Marathon. But as we headed out this spring on Expedition West, it was all over the place, and we finally threw in the towel. Al talked to the folks at the 3G Store, and we are now set up with the Pepwave Surf Soho, and it's working brilliantly. I can only take so much aggravation :-).

We are currently in Cody,WY., and will be heading to the ranch tomorrow. I still have a little bit to catch up on with our travels west, so hopefully, I will have that updated quickly, as I'm sure our summer adventures will come upon us quite quickly!