Kentucky Derby 2017

We turned our KY Derby experience into a road trip, with stops in Nashville, Bowling Green, Bardstown and Knoxville.

Our first stop was Andrew Jackson's Hermitage outside Nashville.

We spent that night at the Gaylord Opryland Resort, the largest non-casino hotel in USA with almost 2200 rooms. Everything is under one roof, including the convention center, Cascades, Garden Conservatory and Delta Island with its river boar ride and water and light show. It took us 20 minutes to walk to our room and Zach was still using his boot.

The next day started at the Ryman Auditorium, the birthplace of Bluegrass and the Grand Ole Opry.

Then we look a walk in downtown Nashville.

Followed by the Parthenon and its statue of Athena, built for the 1887 Tennessee Centennial Exposition.

The next day was very rainy and we were in Bowling Green at the Corvette Factory and Museum. It's the only Corvette Factory in the world. Very interesting tour of the factory! All the cars are built to a custom order. The Museum had a sinkhole three years ago, which destroyed several of the cars. The sinkhole was actually part of a cave system. There is a special section in the museum that highlighted the sinkhole. They retrieved all the cars and made them part of the display. They managed to repair two of the Corvettes; the others, each one of a kind, a total loss.

From there we went to Bardstown, the Bourbon Capital of the World and the Barton 1972 Distillery. Zach bought his very first bottle of bourbon. We had a tasting after our tour, however, Cathy gave hers to Zach (She can't stand the smell of bourbon!) and became the DD! 

The weather stayed rainy and cold, so, we just drove to Louisville, only an hour away.

Friday, Kentucky Oaks day was still rainy and cold. Fortunately, we had a lounge to stay in, where we could drink, eat and bet. Regardless of the weather, everyone including us dressed in the Derby best! The buses that drove us to the Churchill Downs unloaded us about a quarter mile away, so we had a lot of puddles and rain to go through until we got to the gate! No umbrellas are allowed, so, we were wearing ponchos.

We stayed in the lounge all day, except to go out and see our friends from OK City, Jerome and Ann. The rain stopped mostly for the running of the KY Oaks, so, we watched that race. It was much better live than on a monitor.

Derby Day the weather was eventually better. We watched more of the races live. Of, course all 170,000 of us we in or on our seats and in our finest for the running of 143rd Kentucky Derby. 

Sunday was nice and sunny, so, we drove back to Bardstown to see some of the other places we missed in the rain. We first went to Bernheim Forest, a place Zach frequented as a child growing up at Ft Knox.

From there we went to lunch and My Old Kentucky Home.

We spent the night in Knoxville. The next day we went to Ijams Nature Center before heading home.