July 18, 2017

The Kentucky Derby, Louisville KY – A Bucket List Trip

The Kentucky Derby is a horse race that is held annually in Louisville, KY on the first Saturday in May. The race is a Grade I stakes races for three-year-old Thoroughbreds at a distance of one and a quarter miles at ChurchHill Downs.

The race is known in the US as “The Most Exciting Two Minutes In Sports” or “The Fastest Two Minutes in Sports” for its approximate duration, and is also called “The Run for the Roses” for the blanket of roses draped over the winner. It is the first leg of the American Triple Crown and is followed by the Preakness Stakes then the Belmont Stakes Unlike the Preakness and Belmont Stakes, which took hiatuses in 1891–1893 and 1911–1912, respectively, the Kentucky Derby has been run every consecutive year since 1875 (even when coinciding with profound historical events like The Great Depression and World Wars I & II). A horse must win all three races to win the Triple Crown.

The attendance at the Kentucky Derby ranks first in North America and usually surpasses the attendance of all other stakes races including the Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes, and the Breeders’ Cup. The average # of attendees at the Kentucky Derby is approximately 150,000 people.

History:

There are few American sporting events with the history and popularity of the Kentucky Derby. It’s rich traditions – sipping a mint julep, donning a beautiful hat, and joining fellow race fans in singing “My Old Kentucky Home” – transcend the Kentucky Derby from just a sporting event, making it a celebration of southern culture and a true icon of Americana. The Kentucky Derby is the longest running sporting event in the United States, dating back to 1875.

The Kentucky Derby’s long history began in 1872, when Meriwether Lewis Clark, the grandson of William Clark – of the famed pair Lewis and Clark – traveled to Europe. While there, Clark attended the Epsom Derby in England, a well-known horse race run since 1780, and also fraternized with the French Jockey Club, a group that developed another popular horse race, the Grand Prix de Paris Longchamps. Clark was inspired by his travels and experiences, and, upon his return, was determined to create a spectacle horse racing event in the States. With the help of his uncle’s John & Henry Churchill, who gifted Clark the necessary land to develop a racetrack, and by formally organizing a group of local race fans to be named the Louisville Jockey Club, Clark and his new club raised funds to build a permanent racetrack in Louisville, Kentucky. On May 17th, 1875, the racetrack opened its gates and the Louisville Jockey Club sponsored the very first Kentucky Derby. A total of fifteen three-year-old Thoroughbred horses raced one and a half miles in front of a cheering crowd of approximately 10,000 spectators. Aristides was the first winner of the Kentucky Derby.

How the Derby Bucket List planning began…

Approximately 5 years ago (2012) while celebrating my Mother in Laws 76th Birthday in Indiana, my husbands cousins traveled in from California for the Indy 500. It was then that (his name is Bob) shared that he wanted to go the Kentucky Derby as a bucket list, and asked if we would be interested in joining. The answer was absolutely yes, so the planning began! We didn’t know then that it would take us 5 years to get it together, but in April 2017, we did it and it was spectacular!

We all agreed we would camp in an RV park (that’s camping to us) and the California Cousins (3 brothers, Rusty, “Bob” and Dickie, ranging in age from ~ 55-70 years of age) would drive their RV across country from California to Kentucky, and their wives would fly into Kentucky a few days before the Derby!

Let the games begin! The Journey to get us all to Louisville, KY:

The California Cousins depart California: Tuesday, April 25th, 2017:

On Tuesday, April 25th the California Cousins left California in a Fleetwood Fiesta LX RV headed to Louisville, Kentucky. They spent 7 days on the road and visited numerous great cities along the way, and met some pretty incredible people. They made stops across the US from the west coast to the east coast. One particular stop turned out to be the most special and memorable of their excursion and that was in Hot Springs, Arkansas. They met a neat gentleman that overheard them talking about making their way to Louisville, KY for the Derby, and from there they made fast friends! They learned quickly that this man grew up near the Derby, and it was very much a part of his upbringing. So for this nice man reminiscing about his childhood days at the Derby made this relationship memorable; and for the California Cousins sharing their brotherly experiences along the way to the Derby, made this an extra special acquaintance along the way! The California Cousins are not shy by the way!

However that memory and relationship didn’t end there and here’s what made it so memorable! This one gentlemen went over and above the call of duty to reconnect with the California cousins in Kentucky just a few days after their initial introduction. Upon arrival to the RV park in Louisville, as the California Cousins were unpacking, along came the man they met in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He had traveled 90 miles from his hometown in KY, and paid $8.00 to get inside the RV park just to see if he could track down the California Cousins. They were shocked and impressed that he found them! They spent an hour or so cutting up and getting to know one another further! Before he left he said “I have you all a little souvenir” and went on to say, “since I knew your wives were flying in this week, I brought you six collector Derby glasses and a bottle of Woodford Reserve.” Wow! The California Cousins were shocked and amazed! There are still great people in the world and the effort this man went through to reconnect with some acquaintances he met in Hot Springs, Arkansas was just remarkable and a memory of a lifetime! Those cousins will be telling that story for many many years to come! 🙂

Wednesday, May 3rd (the rest of the crew arrives in Louisville, KY):

My in-laws drove in from Union City, Indiana Wednesday morning and arrived around noon to the RV that we rented. We had our RV delivered and set up for us. 🙂 We were not risking driving and parking the RV so we talked the nice man that owned it into letting us pay him a little more to set it up for us (and came and picked it up after the Derby was over).

Greg and I drove from Charlotte, NC on Wednesday as well and arrived early afternoon to begin the festivities! As we pulled up, there sat Barb and Bob (my inlaws) and the California Cousins. We began unloading the car, exchanging hugs and quickly were off to a great weekend of festivities for the Derby!

Then after much anticipation, The California Cousins wives (Tammy, Martha and Barbara) flew in around 6:30 PM and made their way via Uber to our camp site! I was so excited to meet them! I had only met the brothers at the Indy 500 five years earlier (noted above) so the anticipation of meeting the wives was very high!

What’s a campsite at the Derby without Mint Juleps! As soon as everyone settled in, Barb (my wonderful Mother in Law) surprised us with Maid Rites (a famous sandwich from small town Greenville, Ohio (and all the fixings for Mint Juleps!) We chatted, drank Juleps (and some other tasty beverages), ate Maid Rites and were off to a very fun weekend of family, fellowship, laughs, a little bit of rain, and big hats!

Thursday, May 4th (day of exploration):

The morning of May 4th, everyone (except me and my in-laws) went to an excursion to a Horse Farm and a tour of the Buffalo Trace Distillery. Fun was had by all, they learned a lot about breeding Champion horses, a bit about how to make Bourbon, and everyone enjoyed the top notch tour guides most of all!

I had to chaperone my in-laws for the day (that’s what we call it when I make sure they stay out of trouble) and we went shopping, drove all over Louisville, KY (some spots we visited twice due to being lost), ate a great breakfast and lunch and reconvened with the crowd downtown later that day!

We started the evening at a restaurant/bar called Proof on Main and what a place! It was packed so we crammed ourselves into a little couch area and had tasty beverages! This was our first night out with us all together! We talked, some reminisced, we laughed, met some of the decked out locals (a few that actually needed to have more clothes on) and had a great time!

We discovered that this restaurant was also an art museum and had lots of really cool stuff to look at! We took selfies in the huge selfie studio, and looked at all the funny art! It was so nice to be with the California crew!

Later that evening we took a couple of Ubers (keep in mind there were 10 of us) to a restaurant about 15 minutes away that had lots of great craft beers and great food!

Friday, May 5th (adventures in downtown Kentucky day):

Friday morning everyone took their time moving and grooving so Greg, Barb, Bob, Rusty (the youngest California Cousin) and I opted for breakfast at a 5 star local restaurant called Wild Eggs! We weren’t the only ones that had the idea to visit Wild Eggs as it took us over an hour to get seated but it was sure worth it!

From there we ventured out to find a bar to meet some of our friends from North Carolina that also just happened to be at the Derby. We found a quiet neat pub called “Oh Shea’s Public House” for a quick stop with Paul, Johnanna, Pat and Barbara (NC crew) and while we planned to wet our whistle for a short stop, we ended up staying at Oh Shea’s for 3 hours (and opening and closing 3 tabs while there). The vibes were great, suds were flowing, and friendships old and new were in full swing so we went with it!

While a few of us we enjoyed fellowship with the North Carolina crew, a few people went to the Mohammad Ali museum (while Mohammad Ali is one of the best athletes of all time, the museum was not recommended from a few that took the tour).

We all reconvened late afternoon at “Oh Shea’s Public House” and prepared for a bar crawl to check out downtown Kentucky!

After leaving Oh Shea’s we were walking down a sidewalk and a local lady told us about the passport book that we could get stamped at various bars on a Bourbon crawl and win a t-shirt! Yes a t-shirt! 🙂 So here we went! You would have thought we were going to win a new car on the Price is Right the way we went feverishly from place to place (following all the rules) to get our stamp and eventually our t-shirt! While we didn’t win the t-shirt we had a great time! Lots of laughs and silly pictures!

Back at the camp, Barb and Bob (they left Oh Shea’s after the first tab was closed) took a little snooze in the back of the camper (they were unsupervised :)) and began preparation for dinner including Pork Chops, Salad, Potatoes and some other tasty options! We had a great dinner (we all piled in California Cousins Fleetwood Fiesta for dinner and had a great meal and fellowship)!

The evening did not stop there!…

As everyone was winding down, I ventured outside to see if there might be something going on in another camp area that we could all get into! Needless to say I was not ready to go to bed as it was the first evening that it was not pouring rain! So I walked outside under the night sky and listened! I started walking toward what sounded like the party of the century and ventured in (usually I am scared of the dark but in this case I felt welcome!). I walked up to a bunch of dancing, partying people that were laughing and having a big time! I asked a gentlemen that appeared to be the host if I could bring a few friends over and very quickly he said “well sure!” I rushed back over to our campsite and opened the door to the Fleetwood Fiesta where clean up was almost complete and said “come on everybody, we’ve been invited to a party across the way!” and here we went!

It was a blast! It was Fireball Friday (who knew!) and while we really didn’t know what that meant we fit right in! We danced, did the train (you know how everyone follows each other around dancing – ha ha!) and I am pretty sure the 10 of us joining that party, made the party! Eventually we looked around and noticed we were the only ones left at the party so made our way back to our campsite and hit the sack!

Now that was a fun day!

Saturday, May 6th, 2017 – Derby Day! The sun came out!

It’s Derby morning and the sun came out! Shortly after coffee, Mike (my brother in law) and Greston (my nephew) arrived for a family fun day!

The first Derby race was at 10 AM on Saturday morning, and while we were all planning to be at the track early, we made our way there by bus around noon! and wow, as we were riding up to the front entrance of Churchill Downs I was so giddy and ready to experience The Derby!

It was a fabulous day! The place is buzzing with beautiful people in fancy outfits and big hats!

The betting was in full swing, the energy was buzzing, the horses were bucking and running theirs hearts out for the finish! It was an awesome day and an experience and thrill everyone needs to explore!

After the Derby we visited the Paddock and the infield and that is definitely worth seeing! If you have a standard ticket in the stands you can visit the infield and then return to the stands but not vice versa (I knew the latter part but didn’t realize that you could get to the infield if you had seats in the stands).

Sunday, May 7th, 2017

It’s time for the journey home!

Greg and Kephanie loaded down the Lexus and headed back for Charlotte – 7 hours!

Barb and Bob headed back to Union City, Indiana – about 3 hours!

The California crew fired up the Fleetwood and also traveled to Union City, In for some additional family fellowship with Barb and Bob and to also see Barb’s brother (their 1st cousin) – they had a great time and it made for a great end to an awesome Derby week!

and before departing we planned our next family bucket list activity! Macy’s Day parade, Thanksgiving 2018! Stay tuned!

In Closing….

If your bucket list does not include a trip to the Kentucky Derby, you might want to consider adding it!

Few tidbits of advice for the Derby including tips if you plan to go the RV route:

If you are planning to go to the Derby and have the option to get your seats under cover, I highly recommend it. Tt makes a world of difference in your experience if it rains (which it did while we were there and we were the first row in the dry!)
Make sure your RV site has public restrooms as this was very convenient for all of us sharing a camper that gave a whole new meaning to tiny home!
You might also want to check with your RV site to see what the public shower situation is and if it’s warm and provides more than a trickle (ours had warm water but only a trickle, well trickle might be an overstatement). While we had electricity and water hook up for the RV, the shower in the RV was very small, I mean very small. It’s part of it but just a little of advice for your Derby bucket list.
Regarding point #2 and # 3 above – hint: get a hotel room in advance.
You want to get your Derby bets in long before the Derby race because as the Derby race gets closer the lines get really long.
The Mint Julep is not all it’s cracked up to be but it’s part of the tradition. I would not personally spend $15.00 on the Mint Julep unless you really want the souvenir glass.
After the Derby! Don’t think you are going to conveniently jump on a bus,

taxi, uber, etc as the lines are 2-3 hours long everywhere, so we walked! Thankfully our RV was only about 2 miles away.

At the Derby…
- A beer is $12.00.
- A Mint Julep is $15.00 but of course you get a souvenir glass.
- A descent ticket is $700.00 per person and this was the price for an under cover seat.
- Your hat could cost anywhere between $5.00 – $500.00 (If you forget your hat, you can buy a Derby hat about anywhere including the Kroger grocery store once you arrive in Louisville, KY.).
- 2 small tacos are $15.00 (fyi eat before you arrive at the Derby) and not that great.
- You can buy infield tickets for somewhere between $60.00 – $80.00 which is an experience in itself.
- While it will be the most expensive 2 minutes likely of your life….the experience is priceless!

Thank you to the California Crew (Bob and Martha, Dickie and Barbara, Rusty and Tammy) and my In-Laws (Barb, Bob, Bear, Lisa, Greston and Ashley) for an amazing experience and the love and camaraderie we got to experience together! While there were no big winners, fun was had by all and we look forward to the next adventure soon! Love you guys!