Catherine and I left Evansville, IN and headed for Louisville, KY. Both of us were pretty excited about Louisville and seeing Churchill Downs. Surprisingly, I love horse racing. I'm not sure why, but I think it's fabulous. Someday, I'm going to make it to the Kentucky Derby.
Anyway, we drove into Louisville and Lee (the GPS) got us a little lost. But we ended up driving through the University of Louisville campus, which turned out to be beautiful! They have cardinals painted everywhere. This one was on a bridge just as we were leaving campus. We drove down a little further and to our left was Churchill Downs! There were a bunch of people pulling into their parking lot and we couldn't figure out why. Instead of parking in the Churchill Downs parking lot like normal people, we drove around for 10 minutes trying to find parking on the street. Catherine, it turns out, refuses to pay for parking unless she absolutely has too. I think this comes from living in Washington D.C. for 9 months and having to pay a ridiculous amount to park for an hour. We were lucky and found a spot just across the road from Churchill Downs. I still can't believe our luck!
It was incredibly hot and humid out (welcome back to the South!) so we went straight to the museum where there was air conditioning. For those of you who don't already know, I am a huge nerd. I love museums and would happily spend my entire day walking around one. For those of you who don't like museums, even you would have liked this one. There were interactive games (Catherine and I got to ride a horse in the actual derby...she won), movies, pictures and we even got to see how the dampness of the sand can affect how a horse runs in a race.
After scoping out the gift shop, we jumped onto one of the tours of Churchill Downs. Little did we know that the reason there were so many people at the track was because there was a race going on! We got to see the horses being led in and see them race! Had we actually bet on our horse, we would have won $5 because our horse finished 2nd!
We headed back to our fantastic parking space and went looking for some food. We hit the downtown and ended up eating at a cute little cafe outside. We tried to order some tea, but found out that, despite Kentucky being in the South, they do not brew their own tea!
After lunch we headed toward Lexington. We spent about an hour in Lexington seeing the historic downtown and checking out a horse training center before leaving. We had actually planned on staying the night somewhere between Lexington and North Carolina, but decided that we could make it home. We drove through the Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina mountains and I'm have to say that they all look a little different. Maybe that's why our state borders are so strange sometimes. They draw the lines where the geography changes.
Catherine and I have noticed that the road signs are not as good in other states as they are in North Carolina. If there hadn't been a "Welcome to North Carolina" sign, we would have known we were home strictly by the number of signs we saw before we went through a tunnel. In most states, you're lucky if you get a sign telling you that you'll be driving through a tunnel. In North Carolina, you get at least 5 signs. One letting you know that there is a tunnel ahead, one telling you that you need to put your lights on, one asking you to take your sunglasses off, one telling you to slow down and the last letting you know that the road may be narrower in the tunnel. We knew we were home.
We made it back into Charlotte at about 11:30 p.m. and Catherine dropped me off. I can't tell you how nice it was to sleep in my own bed!
I had a fantastic time and loved every minute of the trip! I met some fantastic people and saw beautiful scenery. It really made me appreciate how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful state, but also how diverse the landscape in the United States is. Even now, looking back, it's hard to believe how much I saw in a little over a week, but I'm positive that I just barely scratched the surface. I guess that means I need to plan another trip!
