Churchill Downs

Today we all started our day with breakfast at this Denny’s..

Kind of a nostalgic looking place..

Then we headed to Churchill Downs..

And the home of the Kentucky Derby Museum…

We paid our admission and took a look through the museum…the guys found themselves goofing off…

And competing on a horse track…

We watched clips of great past races….

And saw these pretty silks from the jockeys…

After a short movie we headed to see the track  and finish line….

Behind us is the Winners Circle they use only for the Kentucky Derby….

The tote board….

The day after the Derby they paint this statue with the winning jockey colors…

This is Phantom on Tour a Former thoroughbred that resides here at Churchill Downs. He is the great grandson of the great Secretariat.

What a fabulous tour. We really enjoyed it all…..  But now time for a refreshment, so we headed to a Winery… for a little taste!

Back home this is the lineup….Left to Right  the Donley’s the McHenry’s and the Sullivan’s…

Then a little discussion on where to have dinner…

Tomorrow we head to Tennessee…so stay tuned!

Busy But Fun Day

We arrived at Grandma’s RV Park in in Shepherdsville, Kentucky  early Sunday afternoon, just in time to set up and watch some football.  We had a relaxing afternoon after travelling 129 miles.

This is a neat little, clean park and we are parked next to Mac and Netters and next to them is Chuck and Kathy.  Kathy had prepared dinner for us, so around 6p we headed over to their home. Yummy, is the way to describe the roast and veggies. What a treat!

Monday we headed to the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory

We started out with a movie and then had a tour of the factory. No pictures allowed in the factory.  It was amazing to watch them put out so many bats so fast. What a process.. At one station they were working on bats for Evan Langoria of the Tampa Bay Rays for the World Series.

After the tour Kevin and the guys took turns getting up at bat. Kevin chose David Ortiz bat…

Posing with statue of Ted Williams…

 

There were bats everywhere…even on the ceiling..

 

After a quick lunch we headed to see…

 

General Patton..

 

Then down the road to….

This is as close as we could get..wonder why?

On our drive home we took a drive past…

I didn’t much care for the smell this place puts out..yuck!

We ended our day at the Zappo Shoe Outlet.  I ended up with two pairs of shoes. Have no idea where I will put them, but couldn’t resist the sale.  A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do, right???!

Tucked Away in Batesville, In

We are having beautiful fall weather and really enjoying our week here in this small Indiana  town.  It is an old but well kept town with a neat little downtown area. 

This is a view out our back window at the campground…

 

Tuesday, our chore was to get all the papers for the selling of our house in Fl signed, copied, faxed, and over nighted to the attorney in Florida that is handling the sale.  On Wednesday at 1pm the signing took place and we are finally house free!!  We have taken a great loss, due to the economy but at least now, we don’t have the upkeep or the concern. We held on to it thinking things were booming in Fl.   Who knew!

Thursday we decided to take a nice drive around a few of the other towns in the area. We were in search of some fall foliage but I think we are just a few weeks too early.

We came upon the Ohio River……

 

We made a stop at a Walmart in  Aurora, a quaint little town, to pick up a few things and then on to Rising Sun, the home of the Grand Victoria Casino…

 

 

Kevin headed to the blackjack tables and I to the machines. He came out a winner, but I lost.   We set our gps to take us back home. Unfortunately with all the hills and turns in the road, it kept us going in circles for awhile. We ended up passing another casino, The Hollywood.

By this time we were hungry, and hadn’t eaten all day, so we both decided to stop and see if they have a buffet. We lucked out and got a buy one, get one free.  It was good. Then we of course had to try our luck.  I was very lucky on the .5 machines. I ended up plus $130 for the day..Nice, even though I was up $250 at one time… Kevin came away +$120 for the day.  It was a long but really nice day…..

Friday.. Another beautiful day. We had a free lunch coupon for Hollywood Casino, so we were foolish enough to think this would be “free”.. We headed back, had lunch and deposited some of our winnings from Thursday. At least it was their money, not ours…lol.

Saturday, this is our last day here and a little cooler. Kevin is outside putting things away. I am doing laundry and will head to pick up a few grocery’s in a bit.  My plans for cleaning this week, have all but disappeared.. Oh well, plenty of time for that!

We will finally be leaving Indiana, after spending over two months in the state.  We are ready for some mountains instead of farmlands. I must say we are very impressed with what we have seen in this state and really have enjoyed our time here.   Alot of old towns, but everyone seems to take care of their property.
This is a side of fulltime living that I am enjoying. It’s fun to see small town living.

Stay tuned to our next adventure, as we head to Kentucky tomorrow for  3 nights…..

Grandson Time and On to New Places

Our daughter decided she was going to take a short trip to Disney with her youngest son to celebrate his 3rd birthday. She wanted some one on one time with him..but then she asked if I would like to go.  Of course I did!  Kevin and I flew to Houston a little over a week ago and Kim, Brady and I flew to Orlando Sunday night for our 4 night stay at Disney’s All Star Sports.  Kevin stayed behind in Houston to babysit the older two boys while our son in law worked.  What a great time!!  Brady was wonderful and although he has been to Disney before, this time he loved it all.

We celebrated his birthday at his house before we left for Orlando.

He got to celebrate again at the Rainforest Cafe..

The bus driver also made his day special..

He saw some of his favorites….

 

Before long our stay was over and we headed on back to Houston. Kevin and I fly standby and couldn’t get a flight back to Cleveland, where we parked our truck, until Saturday.  Once back to our home, we relaxed Sunday, watching football.

Monday morning we took our time packing up. Mac and Netters were parked next door and we chatted with them for a bit, making future plans.   We drove about 230 miles to Batesville In to Indian Lakes a TT park. We have plans to stay here until Sunday. We will then have 3 nights before heading to Tn to Lisa’s gathering. We hope to make a stop in Ky, to maybe take in a few sights…..

All Good Things Come to an End

Thursday

Kevin and I were up early and out the door at 6:45 this morning. We had tram duty from 7-11am. We actually got to drive the 6 person golf cart. It was a chilly, damp day, so we were quite busy picking people up and escorting them to the various seminars and hospitality room.  When we finished our shift, we did a little shopping. I ordered the mattress topper which will be delivered to us next week. We also bought rugs for the outside steps.  The rest of the day we relaxed a bit before heading to the Comm Hall for the closing ceremony.  After the ceremony, there was a hot dog dinner and great music to entertain us.  A group of us then headed to play hand & foot.  This was the end of our first Escapade and sure hope it won’t be our last.  We plan on attending next year in Gillette, Wyoming..

Some of our friends…..

Dee, Cindy, Ken

Karen and Donnie

Rich and Mary

Bob and Bard

Lynette and Greg

Donna and Keith

Mark and Dortha

Jim and Ellie

Jim and Dee

Rich, Roger and Barb

 

Kathy and Chuck in front

Keith Donna, Molly and Bob

Friday

We hitched up and pulled out of the fairgrounds shortly before 9am.  We had an appointment a few miles away to have JT stabilizers installed.  We dropped off the 5er and decided to head to breakfast. When we arrived at the Lux Cafe, we saw familiar faces entering the door behind us. It was 8 of our group of friends. How neat, we got to dine with these great people one more time…

When we got back to Lippert, we had to wait for quite awhile for the RV to be ready. Once that was complete we headed to the Elkhart Campground where we will park for a week.

One more happy hour was taking place over at the fairgrounds, at Keith and Donna’s, so that is the direction we took. After chatting to the gang, we said our farewells. 

It is always hard to leave friends behind, but we all know we shall meet again somewhere down the road!