Kentucky Derby 2016

May 6, 2016

Kentucky! Here we come! My sister had made a list of 27 things to do while she was 27 and the Kentucky Derby was one of those items. I had booked tickets a few months prior (you can get presale prices that way). I had also booked accommodations pretty far in advance. We ended up camping about an hour east of Louisville in Carrollton. There were some campgrounds closer, but they were booked up by the time I got around to booking. The campground we stayed at was a Kentucky State Park called General Butler. We had site 3, which was close to the entrance. There was a pretty large drop off just off the edge of paved asphalt loop, but at least the site was level. The park also had quite a few cabins and a hotel.

Kentucky State Capitol - Frankfort 

After setting up the camper, we headed to the Kentucky State Capitol area, Frankfort. Our first stop was the Buffalo Trace Distillery. Free tours are offered on the hour, or during busy times (which Derby weekend is), every 30 minutes. The tour was about 1.5 hours long by the time the sampling was done. The site is a Historical Site – the buildings are from the late 1800’s. During the tour we got to see 3 buildings, the barrel storage building was neat as was the labeling building.

Buffalo Trace Distillery

Leaving the distillery, we headed downtown. There were many buildings with historical markings along our way to the capitol. The capitol was pretty. One big positive was that it was easy to find free parking.

In the evening, I helped my sister Pam finish her hat for the derby. Highly recommend using safety pins to secure flowers to your hat and remember the hats are the most important part of Derby Day besides the horses!



May 7, 2016

Derby Day at last! We parked about 5 blocks from the track in a Boy Scout sponsored parking lot ($20). The walk to the track was about 20 minutes. We arrived at about 10AM, it was not overly busy and we made it through the lines pretty fast. We could have brought so much more stuff in with us, they were very lenient on what people were bringing in.

Derby Outfits

Places to sit were plentiful when we arrived, but by mid-afternoon it was getting very crowded. We had brought a blanket, which was a very good call since people respected your space that way. We had also brought chairs and some food and drinks. The people watching was great and the bathroom lines were not as long as expected.

Derby day was very nice weather wise – other than the heavy rain that rolled in. The rain only lasted about 5 minutes and the blanket did a decent job of keeping us dry. Some people had the right idea and brought in a trap instead of blanket. The sun reappeared and dried us out in no time.
Lot of bets were placed. My mom did the best out of us all, losing less than $5. My bets seemed to always finish one place lower than I bet on.

We were not lucky on your picks for Derby winner, except for my dad, who put down $2 on Nyquist to win. My sister had her money on Exaggerator and I had my money on Gun Runner.

May 8, 2016

It was a rainy day in the month of May… We had to pack the camper up in the rain. Traffic was majorly backed up all the way to Cincinnati, but after that the rain tapered off and it was an uneventful drive.