Kentucky Derby Festival

     The weather has been rainy and cool so my husband gave me some time off to do a few fun things this week. On Sunday we watched the NASCAR Talledega race. It was one of the best races we've seen in a while. They set the record for the most lead changes and the most different cars leading. Plus Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson got into it and neither won. An enjoyable afternoon.

     We also attended a Derby Festival event, the Bedraces. This was the first time we attended this event and it was a lot of fun. There were over 80 beds entered. First they partied in the parking lot and then they paraded the beds around the arena. They were all decorated to fit the theme (which had something to do with spring break).

Then they took the beds back outside and trimmed them into racing form. Two beds went head to head in each heat to get the fastest time. One person sat or laid on the bed and steered. Four others pushed. They had to avoid hitting the cones that marked the lanes and had to avoid each other when they crossed lanes in the middle of the race. Best time of the night was 25 seconds. 

Here's some pictures from the 2010 Thunder Over Louisville. The first one is from the west barge which is on the other side of the bridge in front of the wharf.

This one is from the east barge which was right in front of our location near the marina in Louisville's Waterfront Park.

The next pictures are fireworks set off from the bridge. The last one is the waterfall effect which is a crowd favorite.

This firework filled the whole sky and hung there for a long time (in fireworks time anyway). You can get a feel for how big it was by how much shoreline it covered.

This is from the grand finale - Gargantua.

     I am getting very lax in posting to the blog. I promise to do better from now on. There lots to talk about. First I'll finish up with the NCAA tournament. The UK Men's team lost in the Elite 8 so they did not make it to the Final Four. To rub salt in the wound, one of our arch-enimies, Duke, won it all. Ugh! Most of the starting players are all going to the NBA draft (three of them are freshmen) so we'll have to start over next year. C'est le guerre! The UK Women's team lost in the Elite 8 as well but they were playing a higher seeded team. They have most of their players returning next year so it should be fun to watch them again.

    Last week was spring break for my niece and nephew who live in Louisville, too. We took them on a day trip to the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill. It is the best preserved Shaker community. It still has many of the original buildings. Volunteers are there to demonstrate the life the Shakers led here.

One woman showed how they danced when they worshipped. This was the origin of calling them the "shakers" (they called themselves the Society of Believers). People would come from all around to watch the Sunday worships. The Shakers used this as an opportunity to recruit new members (they practiced celebacy so the only way they could grow was by recruiting). The Pleasant Hill community was primarily agricultural so the main goods they sold were seeds. They made furniture and textiles mostly for their own use. The kids seemed to enjoy it very much.

    We have been doing a lot of landscape work this past week. One of the nagging projects we've had on our to-do list is to replace a decorative fence at the end of our sidewalk. Most of the wood rotted out years ago but we never had the time and energy to fix it. Last week we set the new corner post so on Sunday we got out and put all the horizontal slats in place.

That was a job because the existing posts weren't square and we wanted to retain the original illusion that the boards went through the posts. I think it works. My husband painted it this week and put new copper tops on the posts (those were not on the original fence). Meanwhile, I trimmed the bushes, cleaned up the landscaping and pulled all the weeds. I plan to set out some annuals in a few weeks (its still a tad chilly at night). Our front yard looks better now than it has in years.

     This week was the home opener for our AAA professional baseball team, the Louisville Bats. It was a beautiful evening. It had been in the 80's during the day but the humidity was low. They had a fireworks display after the game. Unfortunately we lost. As you can see, they had a good size crowd for the game. Now that we are retired, we plan to attend some afternoon games this year. It'll be interesting to see what kind of turn out they get for those games.

     Speaking of fireworks, today is our annual gigantic air show and fireworks display, Thunder over Louisville. It's the start of the Derby Festival ending with the Kentucky Derby horse race on May 1. The weather today is sunny and a tad cool with the high at 65. It will probably be in the 50's by the time the fireworks start. But its sunny so it should be a good day to sit on the riverfront and enjoy the festivities. I'll be posting some fireworks pictures next time.