A Summer in Kentucky (pt. 4): Oops, I missed a lot
I didn’t realize it’s been so long since I wrote here… oops, my bad. At this point, the more noteworthy things happen on the weekends, however. So there are three weekends to catch up on…
6/24–6/26: Trip to Lexington
My trip to Lexington was more of a trip I just jumped on, planned by someone else. I ended up having a friend who had a friend who had a friend (a stretch, I know) who lived a little outside Lexington, so she became our host and guide once we arrived. Lexington was a pretty nice city, and our tour guide (haha), took us through the big points in Lexington: we walked through Triangle Park (pretty nice park), drove by the castle, and visited a farmers market.
We also got to visit her grandparents’ place, and we got to stay on a farm, with a nice view of the night sky!
7/2: Trip to Louisville (pronounced “ool-u-vull”)
Henry and I tried to make the most of a day trip — it included two Bourbon Trail distillery tours and a trip to Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky derby. To say the least, this trip to Louisville was a good learning experience: about Bourbon, Churchill Downs, and wagering at a horse race.
We visited Evan Williams first, then Bulleit. I personally enjoyed my time at Bulleit more, even though Evan Williams is more popular. I learned a lot about bourbon and the process of making it (it was pretty cool to learn about, especially as a ChemE haha). Fun fact: the trees around a bourbon distillery will turn black.
After that, we went to Churchill Downs. We took a van tour of the backside of the track (I would definitely recommend). I learned a lot here too. I didn’t realize there were so many horses that stayed there too. I believe they have capacity to for 1400, but currently it’s at 1100 horses. I’d like to go to the Kentucky Derby one day: it certainly looks like quite the experience from the video we watched at the museum.
We stayed for the evening as the last horse race of the season was taking place that night. Henry and I walked in and saw all the wagering stations — they had electronic ones as well as the manned stations. I wanted to make the most of the experience, by going to a manned station, but I had to learn the lingo first. Fortunately, they had a little guide to read as well as a poster at the station. First, say the amount to wager. Second, the type of wager (Win, Place, or Show are the most common). Third, the horse you will wager. At other tracks, I think you have to also tell the track name and race number, which was unnecessary for our event. Long story short, I tried to place bets on horses that were not expected to finish in the top 3 (showing), but placing money for them to… and came up short every time.
The fourth of July weekend was rather uneventful for me — it was rainy once I got back from Louisville, so I just stayed inside. First time in while with no fireworks. Sad face.
7/9: NASCAR’s Quaker State 400
I basically went to this race because it was 5 miles from where I am staying, and it was something people here follow. I was told when we bought the tickets that it would be a huge redneck party and there would be a lot of crashes because they redid the track (some technical jargon). I had no idea what either of those meant, so I went in with no expectations. I brought my tiny little grill and food to cook for tailgating.
NASCAR is crazy, though. It’s incredible how many people come to watch the sport. It’s like a football game and a fair at the same time. There’s the tailgating that I’ve seen, but there are also a lot of booths selling and advertising products.
The race itself wasn’t too much more than I expected: extremely loud and a good number of crashes. At the end of the day, I’m glad I went — it was quite an experience.
If you ever go to a NASCAR race, here are a few tid-bits that you might not think about:
- Bring ear protection (i.e. always remember our PPE). It gets mucho loud.
- Bring a light jacket/long-sleeve shirt. It can get chilly when the sun goes down and cars are driving by super fast.
