New Plan (as of October 17)

Referring back to my previous post, "maybe not" won.

I am taking lots of pictures and making lots of notes, but getting nothing posted. I'm going with living in the present when traveling trumps writing about it in the present unless writing about it in the present enhances living in the present provided the act of writing about the present does not diminish the living of it in which case...

I'll get them done (eventually) after I return home. Hark, is that the voice of pre-planned procrastination I here.  It could be, but only time will tell.

March 27, 2020 update: Yup, it was.

Clearly I am way behind on my "daily" posts.  Poor internet service has been a culprit, but much of the time I would rather watch the Ohio-Cumberland-Tennessee-Mississippi River roll by.  Unlike our ocean cruises, there is always something to see.

We are now docked in Memphis for three days, a story that will reveal itself in subsequent posts.  Pam & I have a number of things we want to do while here, but I may be able to get at least a bit caught up on my posts...or maybe not.

Louisville, KY (October 7)

We awoke to rain.  Sunrise came noticeably later than we were used to because of being at the opposite end of the Eastern Time Zone. The rain gradually turned to mostly mist.

After breakfast, we went for a short walk.  A block from the hotel was Fourth Street Live!, which billed itself as Louisville's premiere dining, entertainment and retail destination.  The description might be a bit of a stretch and Monday morning was a sub-optimal time to assess it, but it had the makings for a vibrant nightlife. 

We returned to the hotel, collected our things and headed off to the Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs. We spent a while in the museum while waiting for our 90-minute Behind the Scenes Tour.

I had to get out of the way quickly after taking this picture.
Truth: it was a video. To see the video, click on the picture.

The last time I was here, my horse won.

As we were walking by the case, a curator was just returning with the freshly polished Kentucky Derby Trophy, so I was able to get a picture of it with the usual intervening glass.

Our tour took us through much of the public area and some of the off limits parts of Churchill Downs, including the jockeys area.  We enjoyed it and, when watching future Kentucky Derbys, will no doubt be heard to repeatedly say, "Oh, we were there." and "Remember that." (I can almost hear you making a mental note to never to invite us to your Kentucky Derby party.)

Although parimutuel wagering takes place here even when the track is closed, that only happens Wednesday through Sunday, so the place was almost devoid of people making it slightly ire.

The jumbotron in the upper right-hand corner of the picture
above is 171' wide by 90' tall and 80' off the ground.

Only the winner of the Kentucky Derby stands inside the horseshoe.

The paddock where the 20 horses that run in the derby are on display.

Triple Crown winners are in gold.

Caricatures mural of all the Kentucky Derby winning trainers.

Caricatures mural of all the Kentucky Derby winning jockeys.

The jockeys' area, which was a bit more run down that I would have expected.  The pool table had so many gouges in the felt that it appeared to be unplayable. 

It is not unusual for a jockey to ride in multiple races on a single day. For the Kentucky Derby, a jockey and his saddle must weight (at least) 126 pounds. Lead is added to the saddle blanket if necessary.  

After having a bite of lunch and touring the museum a bit more, we whistled up an Uber and headed for the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory. 

The museum was interesting. We saw bats being made by hand, got to swing bats of various weights (which range from 4 to 7 pounds) and stand behind a catcher (mannequin) as a fast ball is pitched at 90 miles an hour. I got to hang out with Ted Williams.

Hillerich & Bradsby is the name of the company that makes Louisville Slugger bats.

The tour of the factory was disappointing only in that it was a big group so that it was hard to hear and see everything and photography was not allowed.

Walking back to our hotel from the museum, we diverted down to the river, working along it passed a copy of the old riverboats. In the distance we could see America tied up, but that was further than we wanted to walk. Besides, we would be spending a lot of time aboard her. 

For dinner, we walked to the Brown Hotel for a Hot Brown. The English Grill was a treat to sit in.  Although it had been suggested that we split the sandwich, we hesitated until our waiter recommended doing so.  Along with a delicious Caesars salad made at our table, it was more that enough, but we had dessert anyway.  Mine was called a Chocolate Striptease - a chocolate cake with a chocolate 'tulip' on top into which they pour some alcohol and then light it.  The flame melts the tulip, drizzling hot chocolate over the cake.  It was pretty darn good.

We had a pleasant walk back to our hotel for a well-feed night's sleep.

Boston to Louisville (Sunday, OCT 06)

Today, it was on to Louisville, via Detroit.  

As we flew west from Boston, AMERICA was, according to my Marine Traffic app, steaming east up the Ohio River.

AMERICA circled in lower left

Aboard our Boston-to-Detroit flight, during taxiing and takeoff, I played with my Samsung Note 10+ hyperlapse video capability. (click here). As we climbed to 34,000', I got some Bocelli going on my iPod through my Bose QC35 headphones and dove into a book (Old Man River) on my Kindle Paperwhite. I love it when geekism intersects functionality; well, the hyperlapse video might be just geekism.

We arrived on time at Gate 75. Of course, our connecting flight left from Gate 2. Thankfully we had ample time to transit the entire length of the main terminal.

Onward to Louisville on a significantly smaller jet.  Flight time 52 minutes at 22,000'.

Upon landing, astute observation determined it was raining. 

Happiness is a cab driver who knew a major accident had occurred on the expressway into the city and brought us in on secondary roads from which we could occasionally glimpse the resulting backup.

We checked into the Hyatt Regency Louisville.  It was not one of Hyatt's newer properties, although it has had (at least one) face lift.  

In the interest of staying dry, we had dinner in the hotel's restaurant Sway. Only the bar area was open.  The ambiance left a bit to be desired.  The food was good, beginning with the crayfish hushpuppy appetizer. 

After dinner, we stepped outside.  Yup, still raining.

Marion to Boston (Saturday, OCT 05)

Leaving Marion a bit after 1 PM, we slogged through surprisingly heavy traffic as we wrapped around Boston on route to Hamilton, MA.  There we saw my goddaughter Annie, her mother Louise and her sister - bride-to-be Emily.  The event was Emily's engagement party. It was a most happy occasion. 

From Hamilton, we headed to downtown Boston where we checked into The Godfrey Hotel. 

We had dinner at Ruka, which billed itself as "Peruvian-Japanese-Chinese food in a sexy dining room that mixes cultural motifs to dramatic effect." A bit loud for our taste, but the food was great.

Pam wanted to take home this chandelier

As people continuously streamed into the restaurant, we perused a menu on which choices appeared in very small print. Serving size being modest, our waitress Linh recommended we each order two choices and share them. We followed her suggestion, ate everything and did not feel overfed. 

For dessert we demonstrated admirable restraint, limiting ourselves to one item each, again sharing.

The Cachangas were lightly fried doughnut bits and vanilla ice cream. The Big Fish was described by our waitress as a "Japanese banana split". It came with a pancake-tasting fish to be nibbled on while enjoying a concoction that included, but was not limited to, raspberry sherbet, bananas, chocolate, fried peanuts and whipped cream. 

My choice of hotel and restaurant were based on their proximity to the Opera House.  We walked the one block there to see... 

It was a fun show visually and musically.