Going back to Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky for the second time was a pleasure for Lindsay, but an entirely different experience than her first time attending the 2004 Kentucky Derby.
Since Lindsay was a little girl, she’s been around horses. She took her first ride at four years old and a couple years later started showing them as a hunter jumper. She went to her first horse race with her dad when she was five, and got freaked out then that she was almost as tall then as some of the jockeys. True story. She once met William Shoemaker in the walking ring – he was 4-foot-11. It was her honor to have met such a legend.
She kept telling Lanee, “We HAVE to come back for Derby, trust me!” Regardless, we enjoyed our day. Lindsay taught Lanee how to bet. We had the customary Mint Julep. And even got to hear none other than the original guitar player for the The Drifters (and someone told us Sam Cooke’s son) Phil Kelley, perform some bluesy magic during brunch in the Turf Club.
We left the track with a whopping $15.60 in winnings combined! And were given a special gift from our friends at Churchill Downs — autographed goggles from one of the day’s winning jockeys Shawn Bridgmohan from Jamaica.
The adventure did not stop there in Louisville, Kentucky. We always say if we don’t have a helmet and a harness on, something’s awry. Since we had never zip lined underground before, we knew we had to do Louisville’s Mega Cavern zip line.
With over 17 miles of underground passageways beneath the City of Louisville, the size and scale of this cavern is ‘mega’ to say the least. It was originally a limestone quarry with miners blasting out rock for over 42 years during the middle of the 20th century (as depicted in photo below).
Now the cavern is home to five underground zip lines (including a “zip line to hell”) and serves as storage for a Wall Street back-up super computer and Disney’s original films like The Wizard of Oz. Although not the scariest zip line we’ve faced, it was the most unique by far. It’s a great excursion for corporate bonding, a bachelorette/bachelor party, an interesting date idea or even a family outing.
For more on Louisville, head to With Love from Louisville, Kentucky for our photo tribute and watch our Bourbon Trail video.
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