St. Louis

We started our day in the St. Louis area at a park that had several statues and pieces of art. I went for the giant eyeball, but we found other interesting pieces too.

Ulysses S. Grant’s White Haven home was our next stop. He attended West Point and a classmate invited him to his home at White Haven. He enjoyed their company and became a weekly visitor. After their daughter returned from boarding school he became a daily visitor. He ended up marrying her, his classmate’s sister, Julia Dent.

Faith was thrilled to be able to sit on furniture and touch things inside the house since often we are not able to in other homes.

Grant loved his wife and family and resigned from the military after being apart from them for two years. He returned to the White Haven area to farm. Being a hard worker and from the north, he worked alongside the slaves trying to make the farm profitable. This angered his wife’s family as they didn’t feel it was proper.

This was the slave's entry door- not fancy like the front door to the house.

Grant tried to make money as a farmer, then as a horse breeder. The family ended up moving to Ohio where Grant's family lived to make a living there. The Civil War broke out and Grant went back to serving his country. He rose rapidly through the ranks and years after the war became the 18th president. They didn’t return to this home to live, but had fond memories of their time there.

The home was called White Haven, but it was painted green. I was sidetracked and didn't get a picture of the whole house. Here we are going into the winter kitchen and it shows some of the green. The kitchen helped warm the home, but it must've been freezing for the slaves as it was cool when we were there in the spring.

Our next stop was at a home where Scott Joplin once lived. We watched a video on his life and toured the house, but the most fun was getting to press the pedals for an old player piano. It was great listening to Maple Leaf Rag and The Entertainer.

"Look Ma, no hands!"

Our visit to St. Louis wouldn’t be complete without a trip to the arch. The arch’s official name is Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. This arch represents the gateway to the west, a starting point for Lewis and Clark’s adventure to the Pacific Ocean.

In addition to seeing the arch when you’re in St. Louis, you gotta have some barbeque! We ate at one place and it did nothing for me, but then we tried Stumpy’s. I figured with a name like Stumpy’s it had to be good. It was wonderful. It was so good that we ended up getting some the next day for lunch as we left and headed north.

Moving on

On our way from Kentucky to Missouri we stopped in Indiana at Lincoln’s boyhood home. Faith didn’t earn a Jr. Ranger badge when we were in Indiana last summer so this was a perfect time to make up for that. When Lincoln was seven, his family left Kentucky and moved to Indiana. He spent fourteen years in Indiana before moving to Illinois.

His mother died from milk sickness; the cow ate a poisonous weed and she drank milk from the cow. Lincoln attended just two years of school, but he loved to read. His father remarried and his step mom brought three books with her. Two books that made an impression on him were the biographies of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, with whom he could relate.

How do you measure up to Lincoln?

Lincoln was a hard worker and a good story-teller. One day, two business men asked him for a ride in the small boat he’d made to get to the steam boat in the middle of the river. He couldn’t believe that he earned a dollar in such a short amount of time. He did that a few more times and a ferry company took him to court. They claimed he was ferrying people across the river, but he argued he was only ferrying them half way. Lincoln won. This may have been the beginning of his desire to work in the legal system.

Just down the road from Lincoln’s place was Santa Claus, Indiana, so we had to go there. There were roads with names like Christmas Blvd, shopping centers named Kringle Place, Holiday foods, and several ornament stores.

We spent the night in Paducah, KY so we could visit Metropolis, IL, home of Superman, just a few miles away. It was great fun to pose with the giant statue, see “kryptonite” and walk into a phone booth (in case you needed to change).

Bats, Bluegrass and the Colonel

Our last day in Kentucky we saw the largest bat in the world

and then two blocks down we saw the largest bat in the world.

The Louisville Slugger museum and factory was another fun place to learn and interact. We toured the factory and watched bats being created in a lathe in just seconds. We couldn’t take photos in the factory since they have 29 competitors and didn’t know if any of us were spies. They make 40,000 bats during each MLB season! Five thousand pounds of sawdust are created each day. A turkey farmer buys the sawdust collected each month. We each received mini bats after the tour. 1.8 million bats leave this place each year, including the mini bats.

We mingled through the history of baseball and watched a video narrated by James Earl Jones. Jacob and I hit some balls in the batting cages.

We went to the visitor center downtown because I’d learned there was a wax Col. Sanders holding a bucket of chicken so I had to get a photo!

I was pleased to see they had a timeline of his life so we learned some things about him. He was 65 and earning just over $100 on social security when he started working on KFC. He franchised it a few years later and then sold it not long after that for $2 million.

We drove through the bluegrass area. I was amazed at how many rolling hills there were. We saw lots of horses too. I was thrilled to be here in the spring, knowing that the blue grass is blue because something is blooming making it look blue, but I didn’t see any grass that I thought was blue. It was a lovely drive though.

I was sad to leave Kentucky, just like I’ve been sad to leave other places, but it’s hard to be sad when you know there are other wonderful things to see.

The Derby

In honor of the Kentucky Derby, I have a few things that I forgot to add to my last blog post about Churchill Downs.

The person that founded the racetrack was Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr, the grandson of the famous explorer William Clark. He spent two years in Europe learning about horse racing at the request of thoroughbred breeders and businessmen who wanted a facility in the Louisville area. He raised money for construction and leased 80 acres from his uncles, Henry and John Churchill.

Churchill Downs is huge. It’s twice the size of a professional football stadium holding over 160,000. The amount of money bet the day of the derby just at Churchill Downs is twenty four million with half of that spent just for the one race. This is pretty incredible because this is all cash- no credit! I can’t even imagine.

The horses go from 0 to 40mph in just three strides. Most of the horses that race are three-year old colts (males), but fillies (females) have raced and won. The Kentucky Oaks race is the day prior to the derby and is for the fillies. The blanket of flowers they use for the Oaks winners are lilies- lilies for the fillies. Derby winners receive a blanket of roses (run for the roses).

The jockeys and their saddles are weighed prior to the race. They must weigh 126lbs. If they need to add weight they put lead in their boots or in pockets on the saddle or change to a heavier saddle.

In the paddock area just prior to the race the horses are checked to make sure it’s the correct one racing. The horses have a tattoo inside their lip and the numbers are matched.

The track record was set in 1973 by Secretariat. He ran each quarter mile faster than the one before. When he died the autopsy found that his heart was 22lbs- normal size for a horse is 7-12! After that buyers began asking for ultrasounds trying to find a horse with a big heart, but they haven’t found one yet and the record still stands.

Another thing I learned had to do with burying the horses. They usually just bury the head, heart and hooves. The head represents the will to win, the heart represents courage and the hooves represent speed. Only three distinguished horses have been buried whole- Man O War, Seattle Slew and Secretariat. All three were Triple Crown winners and achieved incredible feats.

Opening Night at Churchill Downs

There were thousands of people at the opening night of racing at Churchill Downs. Our tour guide from the day before had given us a tip- where to stand for the 1 1/16th races because the starting gate would be right in front of us.

It was quite fun! The horses started right in front of us and then came around again right before they finished.

I was surprised both times they started in front of us because it was so quick. As soon as they get the last horse in, they're off!

We met some nice people after they commented on the Fascinators Faith and I were wearing. I made them out of leftovers from my Princess Half marathon tulle skirt and flowers I had purchased but not used. Rick and I partook in Mint Juleps

The mild evening took a turn for the worse with thunder, lightning and hail. We were told to seek shelter and we did.

The track was a mess afterward, but the races went on.

We let the kids bet with $10 each. Becca doubled her (our) money, but the rest of us were not so successful. It was a good lesson- none of the kids bet all of their ten dollars after seeing that it’s not a guaranteed return race after race.

Mammoth Cave

April 28th was Jr Ranger day so we headed to Mammoth Cave for a quick trip before an evening of horse racing at Churchill Downs.

This cave system is the largest in the world measuring 392 miles. It was nice and cool down there- 54 degrees, a good 25 degrees cooler than above ground.

Over the years the cave has been used as a hospital for TB patients, hoping that the cool weather and constant humidity would improve their health. It didn’t and the hospital was closed 10 months later. A mushroom farm gave it a go, but was shut down due to poor management, not enough water and high shipping costs. Christmas carolers like the acoustics so it’s been used for that as well.

Various bat species live in the caves and we saw a few of the little brown bats. They are the size of your thumb and look like a “hairy chicken nugget”. Great description! We learned about White Nose syndrome. It's killing bats across the country. It irritates their skin so they can't sleep during hibernation and they die from not being able to find food. They had us walk across mats that were soaked with a mixture of Lysol and water after exiting the cave so we wouldn't track the fungus other places if their cave has it, but they haven't detected it yet. Bats save farmers in Kentucky alone 1.2 million dollars in insecticides.

Kentucky Derby museum

We had so much fun at the Kentucky Derby museum that we spent six hours there! There were many interactive exhibits- we were able to “bet”, call the race, ride the horses and more.

We watched an exciting video, toured Churchill Downs and had lunch. I enjoyed a Hot Brown- English muffin with turkey, tomato, bacon and mornay sauce.

The waitress came by after lunch and asked me "Can you hold dessert?" I'd never heard that before. I declined and then found out the rest of the table had different opinions. We shared a nut torte- it was similar to a pecan pie, but with peanuts and some melted chocolate at the bottom.

We saw a retired thoroughbred out back, shopped in the gift shop and the kids went back to their favorite exhibits. We were excited to return the following night- opening night of horse racing.