Vacation Blog Contest Winner!

It's time to announce the winner of my Vacation Blog Contest! But first, my thanks to all of you who stopped in and followed me on my travels. I'm, for the most, recovered, although I feel way behind on everything now. But it was so worth it! I hope you enjoyed traveling with me as much as I enjoyed having you along! It was fun to share my adventures.

Now for the winner!

Congratulations to Estella! Estella had posted nine times giving her nine chances to win. And it paid off. My son picked one of your numbers from the hat. Woo-Hoo!

Estella, please e-mail me privately at sherryjames@hamilton.net with your name and address and I'll get your T-shirt out to you.

Again, my thanks to all of you who visited, and posted comments. Keep on stopping by my blog, you never know what I'll be doing next!

Match the Silks with the Horse! Earn extra Chance!

Here's a little trivia for you. Match the following silks with the correct horse and I'll put your name in for an extra chance for the Sherry James T-Shirt! And even if you don't get all the answers right, I'll still put your name in an extra time just for trying.

All three of these horses not only won the Kentucky Derby, but went on to win the coveted Triple Crown, a feat that hasn't been accomplished for 31 years. They also helped to make the 1970's a Decade of Champions in the horseracing world. So, test your horseracing I.Q., and you could come out a winner! I'll announce the winner of my Vacation Blog Contest on Monday! Good Luck, and thanks for taking the time to follow my vacation and to post!

A. Secretariat B. Affirmed C. Seattle Slew


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Vacation Blog Contest Day 7--Churchill Downs Cont.

Friday found us back at Churchill Downs to finish the tour of the museum that we didn’t get to the day before. There is so much to see and read there that it takes a while to get through it all. If you are a horse lover a visit to the Kentucky Derby museum is a must. You’ll be in heaven! I was. The museum is two levels of exhibits, many of which are interactive where you can watch the actual Kentucky Derby from about every year, test your Kentucky Derby/horseracing knowledge, and see what it’s like to ride a race as a jockey. There are genuine racing silks worn by the jockeys of such greats as Affirmed, Seattle Slew, and Secretariat! I again watched the film “The Greatest Race”, this time from the second floor where you can look down into the theatre. It’s shaped in an oval like a race track! Again, the film moved me to tears. It is an awesome piece of work. I wish they’d put it on DVD so I could watch again and again.

We then enjoyed an awesome lunch at the Kentucky Derby Café, and visited at length with the handler of the resident museum Thoroughbred, Prefect Drift. I shopped the Museum store where I could have made a huge dent in their inventory! But I refrained from going nuts. I purchased only one T-shirt, much to the appreciation of my credit card! We then simply hung around enjoying the atmosphere while we waited for the races to start at 6:00 PM.

And wow! What a crush. Since this was a historic night for Churchill, racing under the lights for the first time in the track’s history, they were going all out. The red carpet was rolled out and they were interviewing people, gave away a chance to win a $1,000 wager, and had live music all over the place. There were a ton of people there and it gave me a good taste of what attending the Kentucky Derby would be like. All I have to say is buy your drinks early, and keep your fingers crossed you never need to go to the restroom! The betting lines even got so long that after about three races I gave up betting and just sat and watched all of the excitement. The races themselves were very exciting. It was cool to watch them run on the turf as well as the dirt. I've seen live racing on the dirt practically all my life, but this was the first time I've seen them run live on the turf. It was fun to watch the track maintenance guys work the turf track after a race fixing all the divots left by those thundering hooves. What a job!

And that was my dream vacation! It was awesome and wonderful! I know I’d love to go back to Nashville and Churchill Downs again. I loved Graceland, wouldn’t mind going there again, too. What about you? What would be your dream vacation?

More Churchill Downs Pix

So Awesome!

Vacation Blog Contest Day 6--Churchill Downs

It’s Thursday--day six of our trip. We woke to major thunderstorms. And I mean major! It rained so hard here at the hotel that we couldn’t even see the parking lot from our seventh floor window for a short time. Needless to say that delayed us leaving the hotel and making our way to Churchill Downs. Once we did get to the racetrack we quickly discovered they were without power due to the severe storms. I couldn’t believe it. I’ve been waiting most of my life for this chance! I mean, I’ve been dying to come to Kentucky and see Churchill Downs since . . . well, I’m not going to give you an exact year for risk of dating myself. ;-) But I’ll give you a hint. If you know anything about horseracing you’ll know what year Affirmed won not only the Kentucky Derby, but also the Triple Crown. If you know what year that was, you’ll know how long I’ve been waiting for this chance. You know the old saying, Good Things Come to Those Who Wait? Well, that was certainly true in this case. And for me, it was worth the wait---power outage and all! I was in absolute Heaven!

While waiting for the power to be restored, we meandered around outside the Kentucky Derby museum for a little bit. We then took a trackside tour and got to see Calvin Borel, two-time Kentucky Derby winning jockey, mount up for the first race. We then took a tour of the backside. Awesome! Our guide for the backside portion of the tour was Terri, a spunky, fun gal who made the tour worth every penny. We not only got to stand within a few feet of the starting gate and see the horses break from the gate, but we got to see 2009 Kentucky Derby Winner, Mine That Bird, munching on his morning allotment of hay in his stall! Talk about a thrill. Bird’s bodyguard was on duty keeping watch with a smile on his face as Terri took pictures for all of us on the tour.

After a great lunch, we were on our way back to the museum when I saw Chip Woolley, Mine That Bird’s trainer, sitting on a bench just relaxing with a beer. I shoved aside my shyness, went up and said hello, got his autograph and a picture. He was super nice, very humble, and truly amazed at all that has transpired for him during the last few months. A true cowboy!

We then continued on with our tour of the Derby Museum. There they have a 360 degree film that you can watch of the Derby and its history, how it all starts with the birth of a foal, and the insurmountable odds of not only making it to the Derby, but winning it. It was fantastic and put me on the verge of tears. The afternoon went way too fast and due to the late start we didn’t get through everything. There are tons of exhibits to view and enjoy. Good news, we’re going back tomorrow to finish what we started! And Friday is a historic day for Churchill. It will be the first time in the track’s history that they are going to race at night and under the lights. I can’t wait to be a part of it. I’m afraid my credit card is going to be groaning by the time I get done in the museum gift shop!

Have you ever watched the Kentucky Derby on TV or live at the track? A racing fan or not, you can’t deny it’s the most exciting two minutes in sports history! Let me hear from you and get your name in the hat for that amazing Sherry James T-shirt!!!

More Ryman Pix to Enjoy

Vacation Blog Contest Day 5--More Nashville

Well, we made it to Louisville, KY! We got here late afternoon on Wednesday. My apologies for not posting this sooner. I was feeling pretty wiped out and then we had to go through yet another thunderstorm here so that has delayed my getting online. Seems like everywhere we go the storms go with us. Wednesday afternoon, while traveling on I-65, we got caught in a downpour and a little bit of hail. Needless to say, we got off at the nearest exit.

But before all that we had a great time touring the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. If you’re a Country Music fan you’ll know that the Ryman is called the Mother Church of Country Music and was home to the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 – 1974. The Ryman is truly an amazing place steeped in history. The acoustics are out of this world, but just knowing who all has performed on that stage is truly mind blowing. The list of names is endless---Roy Acuff, Minnie Pearl, Patsy Cline, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams Sr., Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Steve Wariner, Chet Atkins, Sheryl Crow, James Brown, Keith Urban and on, and on. Even Rudolf Valentino and Mae West performed on that historic stage.

Because they were getting ready for a performance we weren’t able to walk on stage, so I did the next best thing. I placed my hand on those well-worn boards and snapped a picture! Ain’t I silly?!

They had some really cool exhibits and it was fun to see Minnie Pearl’s hat with her trademark $1.98 price tag dangling off the brim. I also saw a pair of Johnny Cash’s tall black boots. Johnny was one big man!

Have you been to the Ryman? Do you have a favorite Country star?