And We are On the Backstretch!

We are on the backstretch of "waiting" to leave! We have just 5 days until we leave for Jacksonville and 6 days before we leave on the "Big Boat!" I think we have been out almost every day to pick up something we need. I just need to find time to start ironing and packing. Today was the Kentucky Derby (hence the blog title). I have always dreamed of going to the Derby and mark my words....."I will go!" (one day) It will be so much fun to wear my sun dress and big hat. Such a southern tradition. I don't know about the Mint Juleps though......sounds like they would taste bad. Last fall on our way to Chicago to help our friends Adam and Ashley move, we stopped and spent the night in Louisville making it a point to go to Church Hill Downs. We took the Barn and Backside Tour so we got to go back and see the stables and many horses. World Famous trainers have stables there. A lot of you would feel bad to know that these horses have better lives than most of us! Heck for the horses to travel most of the time they are flown on very EXPENSIVE plane rides to get somewhere most of us would have to drive to. If any of you watched the Derby you might have noticed that they kept commenting on the fact that "Mine That Bird" the winner was driven in a horse trailer for 19 hours from New Mexico! They were shocked by this. Hello isn't that what horse trailers are for. No one has ever thought twice about putting my tail in a car and made me ride for two days! In fact the winning owner of the horse made the comment also that now that the horse won they would stop talking about the fact that they drove from New Mexico! We have really gotten into horse racing. We watched the series "Jockeys" a few months ago. That is what we watched every Friday night. So we really wanted Mike Smith to win the derby. Joe Talamo was not able to ride as his horse was scratched the morning of the derby due to ankle problems. Garrett Gomez was also a rider we know about. I laid on the couch with a headache watching the derby. It was a HUGE upset! I believe the biggest upset since 1913!!!!! Now we have to watch the next two races for the Triple Crown (which very few horses have ever won). Another fact on him is that he ONLY cost $9,500, that is super cheap for a winning race horse of this kind. We have a wedding to go to tonight. Our friends Shelly and Garrett are the happy couple. Cas and I have known Shelly for a long time and her hubby to be is also a good friend/co-worker of Cas's. Best Wishes to both of them!