Kentucky Derby – part two

So now, the rest of the day. This place was craaaazy.

We did wander into the infamous Turn 3, where college kids and debauchery are a rule, but there are no pics of that I’d care to post here. We did see a blow-up doll hanging from a tent though.

We returned to our spot to watch the race… the replay is below:

Some points:

• Around 0:40 is where they get to our turn.
• Around 0:47 is probably where we were sitting.
• Around 1:25 you can see the chaos of turn 3.
• Pay close attention starting at 1:36. At the BACK of the pack. That’s where Mine that Bird turns on the rockets and basically just blurs past the rest of the field. AMAZING.

Two things to leave you with:

1) Morons – running across the top of the Port-o-Johns. Well, trying to. And failing miserably. The bruises they must have now. hahahaha.

2) Random sightings – hats, an awesome shirt and one jerk who nearly ruined the whole thing for us.

Immature Jerk-O-Rama

And as we were leaving – we waited until the last race. Most people leave right after the “big” one…

In the end, we really had an amazing time. Really. And we would all like to go back. It’s truly an amazing experience, and as my co-worker said, it’s one of those things you MUST do at least once in your lifetime if you can. I thank CPG for the chance to be there.

And just how many Mint Juleps did we drink? Well besides the glasses we purchased… this is what we came home with:

Kentucky Derby 2009 – part one

This past weekend, I went to the Kentucky Derby with Calipanthergrl and three of her friends. I drove down with CPG & one of the girls. I’m breaking this up into two posts. Check back tomorrow for another one with more pictures!

Our trip to the Kentucky Derby really began with a trip to a place called the Liquor Barn. Remember those pictures I posted from the liquor store in Florida? Yeah, this place was even better.

I think we spent 2 hours there… we’re easily distracted, obviously.

But we finally made it out of there. With a cart full of purchases:

We made it to the hotel and needed TWO carts to get our stuff to the room. For three people.

The other two Derby-goers arrived later that night and we woke the next morning and were at Churchill Downs and setting up our spot by 8am.

Our selected location was awesome. Turn two. Right by the fence.

Starting gate for the first race. See how close we are?

The start of the Mint Juleps!

After the second race, two of us headed to the Paddock area to see the horses & jockeys up close.

When we got back to the infield, it looked a bit different….

Check back tomorrow to see pictures of the rowdy turn 3 area, pictures from the “big” race, some craziness that we saw and some other fun & interesting things.

By the way, if you sent me a text or Tweet and I didn’t reply, it’s because the cell service down there, especially for AT&T customers, gets really jammed up. That tends to happen when you have 150,000 people in the same area.