Got up this morning, looked outside and saw rain. Damnrats! Had to get the bike into Louisville and talk the BMW shop into doing an oil change and filter without an appointment. Put on my wet gear - a chore - and headed out. About 1/2 hour later I arrived at Louisville BMW and they got me right in. Let's hear it for the good folk at BMW of Louisville! Got to take care of the machinery. You take care of it, it will take of you. You don't, it won't.
Pat's brother, John, came home early and took me to Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby. Quite the facility. I'd never been to a track before. We caught a few afternoon races. I watched John look at his race sheet, and review odds and what some people had to say about the horses, and then observed him place a few bets. So, the next race, I picked two favorites to take first and second, either order. This is known as an exacta box. I picked an exacta box because I didn't know what the other bets were called. Now, I intended to place two minimum bets, $2.00 on each horse. So I go to the window and say, "$4.00, exacta box, 7 and 8" because horses 7 and 8 were favorites. Well, that meant I bet $4.00 on each horse, so I forked over another four bucks. John bet a trifecta, picking the first three horses and their finishing order. Very tough. His minimal bet paid $2200 if he won. So we go out and watch the horses, beautiful, big animals, race. Number 8 comes in dead last, and not even close to second to last. I'd never seen a horse use a cane before. John's first horse comes in first, his second horse comes in second, his third horse is just edged at the wire by a horse that everyone had picked to finish last. I mean, it had 69 to 1 odds, for gawd's sake. After watching one more race - I didn't bet - we came back to the house and I called Pat. Told her we'd gone to Churchill Downs and I'd lost $100 betting on a horse that John said was a sure thing. She bought it. I guess it wasn't hard to believe that of either her brother or husband. When I confessed I'd lost only $8.00, she said, "EIGHT DOLLARS! YOU HAVE TO GIVE UP A SUBWAY SANDWICH TO MAKE UP FOR THAT, BUDDY!"
Later that night, John grilled steaks and salmon. The steaks were almost two inches thick. I really like it here. Got to have dinner with two of John and Jeannie's daughters, too. It was a lot of fun. Later, we watched a movie in the home theater.
John and Jeannie's house.
I haven't come up with a name for it yet.
One bit of prior road weirdness. Know how on the interstates you will see very tall signs on substantial steel poles showing the location of establishments off the road? Well, saw two of those earlier, one off the north bound lanes and one off the south. These were for giant pornography stores. A little farther on, was a road sign for the Bourbon Tour Trail exit. My new hypothesis is that societies become more libertine the farther you get from Utah.
I travel far to the east.
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