Leaving our Air BnB in Frankfort
Horse hats at the home of the original bourbon ball candy
We are scaling down our travels this year, and only doing less than a 2 week trip. I decided after last summer that I didn't enjoy being gone for so long.
Cleaning off Zoysia's headstone at Jen's house.
Ice cream cake with Presley for her birthday!
The girls got to hang out with my mom and Aunt Jennie for a week in Indiana for the first time. They seemed to have a great time, and it was fun to see the pictures and hear about their adventures with my family. They got to help grandma do some work in her flower bed, celebrated their second cousin Presley's 7th birthday, went to a pickle factory tour, visited Shipshewana (I've never even been there!), and got to visit the Franke Park zoo! Overall it was a good trip for them, and hopefully for my mom and sister.
Amish country
With Jen and Emily
Bish and I left my mom's place near Ft. Wayne on Friday 6/14 with the girls. We were headed to the Lexington, KY area to hit the Bourbon Trail and meet up with my high school buddy Troy and his wife Joy. We got to hit Skyline Chili just across the river from Cincinatti on the way south!
Sayiing hi to the mares and their foals.
Really cool painting in the Spendthrift office of presidents playing poker!
I was lucky enough to make a great connection from an old Farmhouse friend (Kim Totten) for an tour at a thoroughbred horse farm outside of Lexington. Kim's old friend and roommate, Aimee, is the broodmare manager at Spendthrift Farms. I know very little about horses, other than what little bit I may have picked up from my sister, or from my uncle Russel years ago while growing up. Bish and the girls know even less than I do!
$150k/pop - Into Mischief
Breeding room - mares walks up to wall, and you can figure out the rest!
We rolled into Spendthrift around 1 pm, and met up with Autry their marketing manager. She gave us a quick tour of the office/house, and then we headed over to the stable and breeding barn area. She gave us the nickel tour, and explained to us various aspects of how their operation works, and info on thier specific farm. They are the largest thoroughbred breeder in North America (26 stallions), and the price to breed with them ranges from $1k up to $150k per "cover" (the polite way to say "Horse hookup!"). Some people were there looking at stallions to breed their mares with next year, so we got to see the $150k stud, Into Mischief, as well as two others that went down to $30k/pop. Autry showed us around the breeding barn, and gave us a breif rundown of how things work.
Drape that goes over mare's upper shoulders for stud to bite into.
Padded hoof covers so mare won't hurt stud if she kicks.
Autry had another tour to do at 2 pm, so we then met up with Aimee. Aimee took us into the breeding barn, and explained a bit more about the breeding process to us. They typically do breedings at 7 am, 2 pm, and 7 pm daily during breeding season (~2/15 - 6/30) , and multiple ones can occur in two different breeding rooms. There were big padded walls where a guy in a padded vest and helmet gets behind and twists a small rope loop around the mares upper lip to control her. They put padded hoof covers on the mares back feet, as well as a leather drape over her shoulders for the stud to bite on during the action. There is a warm up area where Billy the "teaser" stud was getting the "mares in the mood." Then some (poor guy) has to clean up the prime area of the mare with soap and water before she goes into the breeding room. We watched 3 breedings occur from the observation room. The stud comes in, and he's partially ready if you know what I mean. Once the mare is against the padded wall, they bring the stud in behind her and he eventually "drops" and will mount the mare. There are about 5-6 guys helping with the whole process. Two help to insure the stud stays on top of the mare. One guy holds the mares tail out of the way. One guy (with long plastic gloves on) helps to "line things up" on entry, as well as collects a cup full of seamen once he's done! Danica was pretty embarrassed to watch it all happen, but it was actually quite a fascinating thing to watch occur!
Black mold on buildings at Buffalo Trace
Rick house where bourbon ages
We met up with Troy and Joy a bit later at the Air BnB we were staying in south of Frankfort, and went to The Stave for dinner. It was fun to hang out with them as we don't get to see them very often. The next morning we went for a tour of Buffalo Trace Distillery (Blanton's, Pappy Van Winkle, as well as about 15 other bourbons). All of the buildings have a blackish mold on them due to the distilling process. It was cool to learn about the distilling process, the aging process, etc. We then got to taste a few different bourbons and white mash. We went to Wallace Station, a little hole in the wall deli in the middle of nowhere, for lunch. We got the Hot Brown, Hot Brown burger, and the Pimento Cheese and Ham sandwich to share. All were excellent! DDD had been to this place! Before Troy & Joy headed home, we stopped by Woodford Reserve for another bourbon tasting.
Buffalo Trace Slackettes
The adults after bourbon tasting
We stayed in Lexington on Saturday night at the same Embassy Suites my sister stays in when she comes down for a horse show annually. The Something Good mixed drink on the bar was excellent during happy hour! We went to Red State BBQ (Jen's recommendation) for dinner, and got to write our names on the ceiling!
Posing with the Wildcat at UK
Darby signing her name on the ceiling at Red State BBQ.
We got up Sunday morning and walked around the University of Kentucky campus, and eventually headed towards Louisville. On our way, we stopped by Wild turkey for another bourbon tasting. Then stopped to get some food and gas before hopping back on the road. Of course, I had to pick a gas station that was part gas station, part bank, and part White Castle, and got some sliders for my lunch! Bish and the girls opted for KFC. I believe we discovered the epicenter of fast food employee stupidity in this brief stop. I ordered a fruit smoothie with my sliders, and none of the 5-6 workers behind the counter were smart enough to make the thing while my sliders were being made. So one of them actually knew how to make it, and she started the process... but then got sidetracked on flipping more burgers. Eventually I just decided to ask for a refund on my smoothie. So one of the genius's takes my receipt and stands in front of the cash register for about 2 minutes, obviously not sure how to provide a refund. The genius that had begin making my smoothie came over to help, anbd just said "give him $3 back since the smoothie was $2.99." When I asked about the tax that I had paid in addition to the $2.99, their heads started to spin, so I just said "you guys have had a hard enough day so far, I don't want to make it any harder for you" and left. At KFC, Bish just wanted a biscuit is all (it is KFC, and their biscuits are always good). So she ordered "just one biscuit." We get up to the window to pay, and after paying, they tell us "we are out of biscuits and it will be another 10 minutes." WTF? how does KFC run out of biscuits? They are served with EVERY meal! So we ask for a refund on the biscuits. The worker was very confused as the girls got meals that included biscuits and she wasn't sure how to refund their biscuits. We eventually just got oru money bakc on Bish's biscuit and got the hell out of dumbass Kentucky fast food worker hell!
Future Wildcat players
Dunking it!
We went to the Louisville Slugger Museum Sunday afternoon after arriving into Louisville. It was cool to learn about the bat making process, and the differnt types of wood used, and the specifics of how MLB players pick out their bats.
Horsing around in Louisville
Driving me batty!
Sorry to say, that KFC may have been owned by a big Purdue supporter. Was it near I65?
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