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We’re back in the U.S.A. after a grueling 17 hour flight from Johannesburg, South Africa to Atlanta, Georgia. We have now completed 46 days of our “Around the World in 86 Days” adventure and are now starting the driving portion of our trip. First stop-the Talladega NASCAR race in Alabama. We were scheduled for both the Saturday and Sunday races but because of severe weather warnings on Saturday both races ended up running on Sunday. Luckily for the thousands of people in RVs and tents no tornadoes touched down in the area that day. Sunday was quite a day with perfect weather as we arrived at the track at 7 a.m. for the pit tour experience. It was so much fun to walk the track before the crowds, see the pit crews set up for the day and just take it all in. We had our own hospitality suite with comp food and drinks and a surprise appearance by our favorite NASCAR driver #24 Jeff Gordon. The race started with the introduction of the drivers, the Pledge of Allegiance, the National Anthem and then “Drivers start your engines”. You can not imagine the sound when the stock cars came flying
by at 190 mph. At this course they allowed drafting where cars could actually push another car to go faster-a heart stopping sight to see. It was an exciting race, with123,500 fans in attendance and 500 miles of racing with 88 turnovers of the leading driver. After several accidents and caution flags, Kevin Harvick was this year’s winner.
Then we were off to a totally different, but no less exciting week in Louisville, Kentucky for all the events leading up to the Kentucky Derby. We were excited to reconnect with friends we had met on the Regent 07 World Cruise. They graciously invited us to a charity function at their lovely home and all involved enjoyed the evening of mint juleps in the garden and dinner in the gallery. Their daughter was the head of the Kentucky Derby Festival this year and we attended the Kentucky Derby celebrity luncheon on millionaire’s row at Churchill Downs as her guest. We also had tickets for both the Kentucky Oaks and the Kentucky Derby but because the weather forecasters had predicted the worst weather for Derby Day since 1918, everyone dressed in their finest on Friday for the Oaks. It was a
gorgeous day and you have never seen so many hats. Our friend probably said it best in her society column of the Louisville Courier Journal “Mercy! All you hear this month is hats and horses. Sometimes the focus seems to be more on your hat than your horse.” We split our time between the hospitality lounge and our seats and Chuck ultimately won $92. As we stood on our seats for the start of the Oaks, it was really thrilling as the horses shot out of the starting gate right in front of us. As predicted, we woke up to thunder storms on Derby Day. Because we had dressed up for the 3 previous days, we were secretly okay with dressing more casually due to the weather. 155,000 fans came to experience the “Run for the Roses” and you could feel the emotion of the crowd when the sun came out and the marching band played “Your Old Kentucky Home” before announcing the start of the ‘most exciting 2 minutes in sports”. It was a thrilling race with the jockey Calvin Borel winning for the 3rd time in 4 years on the favorite-Super Saver. Although our horse did not come
in we felt we had experienced one of those special moments and checked off one more accomplishment in “1000 Places to See Before you Die”. Thank you so much Brad, Carla Sue and Leslie for your incredible southern hospitality and for making our Louisville visit so memorable!
Other notable happenings during the week included many wonderful Louisville restaurants, an impromptu meeting with Smokey Robinson downtown before experiencing wild 4th Street, a photo with the 1984 winner of the Kentucky Derby jockey Lafitt Pinkay, a chance to see the famous red rose garland which is placed on the winning horse and a fun tour of a local horse farm and a bourbon distillery.
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Marcie & Tom
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You two are amazing!
You two never cease to amaze us with your travels and endless energy! What a wonderful entry...