Keeneland Racetrack - Lexington, KY by 2 Joe's JoeH, on Flickr
[SIZE=14pt]This adventure takes us to Lexington, KY, the home of Keeneland Racetrack and the Bluegrass Stakes. Please don't start leafing thru your Amtrak System Timetable to figure out what trains stop in Lexington, or Louisville, or Frankfort. In fact, the only Amtrak station you will find in Kentucky is Fulton, the home of the only station with taillights (as in trailer taillights). I can't take credit for that “research” joke...KYRR came up with that one and he is a KY resident so he can get away with it. Fulton is a 4 1/2 hour drive from Lexington and you will likely have to go to Lexington to rent a car to get there...I suggest a goat cart. So, I found a better way. I left Grand Rapids, Mi on the Pere Marquette and connected to the Illini in Chicago. The Illini took me to DuQuoin, IL where my “chauffer”, JoeG was waiting. The next morning we drove from his house in southern Illinois thru Paducah to Lexington via the Western Kentucky and Bluegrass Parkways. As we get near the Lexington area the terrain begins to look like “horse country”. The countryside is gently rolling hills dotted with horse farms that have stables resembling stately country manors or very nice hotels. These farms are defined by beautiful pastures contained with literally miles of white board fences. At this time of the year the pastures contain majestic thoroughbred mares with a foal by their sides munching on ankle deep bluegrass. We have a friend who considers Loch Ness the most serene place on earth...these pasturelands are a competitor for that award, at least from our side of the fence. On the other side of the fence, inside these farms, the daily business is as fiercely competitive as the races we will see at Keeneland. Protecting and controlling the bloodlines and nurturing these beautiful animals is a tedious and difficult job but I assure you the people in this industry would want to do nothing else. [/SIZE]
Keeneland Association Farms by 2 Joe's JoeH, on Flickr
[SIZE=14pt]After this day of driving our hunger low level light is blinking...time for a pizza. We strike out for the Mellow Mushroom pizza joint. This place is adjacent to the University of Kentucky campus and based on the decor, I can just see a group of undergrads dreaming of seeing mellow mushrooms thru a haze of “smoke”. However they did it, they came up with a great pizza product. We did not order tomato sauce based pies...I had an olive oil based mushroom pizza called the Holy Shitake, JoeG went with a pesto based pie called the Magical Mystery Tour. Both choices, and most of the menu, were vegetarian pies although you could add sausage if you like.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14pt]BTW, they have an extensive collection of craft beers, especially featuring local brews. I can vouch for the Country Boy Cougar Bait blond ale.[/SIZE]
Holy Shitake Pie @ Mellow Mushroom - Lexington, KY by 2 Joe's JoeH, on Flickr
[SIZE=14pt]The next morning we head for Keeneland Racecourse early in the morning. We have never been here and we want to be able to take our time to get our bearings and just enjoy this facility. There are 65 major thoroughbred tracks in the U.S. and Horseplayers Assn. of N. America rates Keeneland as #1. The facility is also on the National Register of Historic Places. This property and the surrounding horse farms make this area[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14pt]a great place to visit regardless of your interest in the races. We got grandstand seats near the finish line and enjoyed an afternoon of racing to include lunch and our quest for the best corned beef sandwich. Hot dogs seemed to be the ubiquitous concession at this place but we finally found a place called the Carving Board that had what we were looking for. The sandwich was served on the traditional rye bread and appeared a little sloppy. Good quality stone ground mustard was available. It was a very tasty sandwich but is in a dead heat for “place” honors with Oaklawn Park at this point. We didn't try any other food at the track because we are very excited about dinner later this evening.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14pt]We are meeting Mr. and Mrs. FSS for dinner at a Latin restaurant called Coba Cocina. The FSS's are Lexington folks (don't ask how one of the gurus of AU can live this far from an Amtrak station!?!) and we are following Mrs. FSS's suggestions on restaurants on this trip...every one of her suggestions is outstanding and tonight is no exception. She selected this place because she loves the fish tacos and that is exactly what she ordered...and enjoyed every bite. This restaurant is in a very impressive building with a centerpiece that is a 30 foot tall cylindrical aquarium filled with jellyfish. Our table was in the shadow of the aquarium and I am very thankful that it didn't spring a leak during our dinner!! Jellyfish stings don't go well with any food I can think of! Mr. FSS really went out on a limb at this Latin restaurant...he ordered a cheeseburger...we thought he was nuts. But, like everything else Mr. FSS does in his life this was a great decision and a great looking burger...he cleaned his plate.[/SIZE]
The Cheeseburger @ Coba Cocina - Lexington, KY by 2 Joe's JoeH, on Flickr
[SIZE=14pt]The 2 Joes, on the other hand, got into the Latin mood. We ordered four tapas appetizers and got a variety of the flavors of this cocina. Our choices were: Shrimp Ceviche; shrimp with jicama, mango, pico,& avocado (my favorite), Lettuce wraps; chicken, black beans, corn & avocado mixed in a bowl so you could take a spoonful and wrap it in a lettuce leaf like a taco (my favorite), Sweet Corn Tamale Cakes, corn, pico, avocado & crema in a sweet masa triangular tamale cake (my favorite), and Shrimp Diablo, shrimp tossed in sweet and siriacha chili sauces (guess what, I liked this one, too!) The food was great but, definitely, secondary to the enjoyment of spending the evening with friends, laughing and talking about trains and life experiences (between us we have about 260 years of those experiences!!) BTW, there is a common rumor among AUers that when 3 or more of us are together we can declare it an unofficial mini-Gathering. This was the first of three for this adventure!![/SIZE]
Tapas @ Coba Cocina - Lexington, KY by 2 Joe's JoeH, on Flickr
[SIZE=14pt]The next morning we head back for the big day at Keeneland...the Bluegrass Stakes. This facility holds about 25,000 people comfortably...there were 47,000 here for the Bluegrass!! Times Square on New Year’s Eve has nothing on this place. There was a wonderful electricity and sense of excitement the entire day. Keeneland is known for beautiful horses and fast women, or is it, fast horses and beautiful women?? Either way, the legend survives!! The wardrobe for a lady going to Keeneland is the obligatory big, colorful hat. What we weren't aware of was the rest of the wardrobe includes a tight, short dress. It was very difficult to concentrate on our handicapping because we were enjoying looking at the HATS!! We grabbed a table with a huge window that looked out on the paddock and the hordes of people coming and going to the grandstands. In the other direction was the track and banks of closed circuit TV’s carrying the races and the odds for all of the big races across the country on this last day to qualify for the Kentucky Derby. This experience will not be forgotten soon![/SIZE]
[SIZE=14pt]The crowds made it difficult to grab more than a hot dog (a very good hot dog) at the track, so on the way back to the hotel we stopped by another of Mrs. FSS's suggested restaurants, The Pub Lexington. This joint has all of the great fare you would expect at a good English Pub- bangers & mash, fish and chips, and shepherd's pie. We both apparently got some subliminal cues from Mr. FSS's cheeseburger from the night before because we both ordered a burger. It really hit the spot! This tavern had a somewhat local brew--Kentucky Bourbon Ale; very different and very good.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14pt]Sunday morning it was time to leave Lexington but not before trying one last suggestion from Mrs. FSS; Ramsey's Diner. We got in there for a great omelet just ahead of the Sunday morning crowd. The mimosas that other patrons were having all around us looked very refreshing as we dined on a nice patio on a beautiful morning but JoeG had a long drive that does not mix with alcohol. So we hit the road and headed west. We took the Indiana route back to Illinois which gave us the added bonus of enjoying another several miles of beautiful bluegrass horse farms. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=14pt]We stopped for lunch in Newburgh, Indiana at the Edgewater Grill, appropriately named as it sits right on the banks of the Ohio River. Pianocat joined us for lunch and we enjoyed meeting her and learning about her passion for teaching the piano and her relatively new passion for riding the trains. She is a very accomplished pianist and she is very quickly learning the “lingo” to ride the rails. We advised her of the unofficial rule and declared this mini-Gathering #2 for this adventure. The weather was too windy to loiter on the restaurant patio and the weather was coming from the direction we were going so it was time to say our good-bys and get to Illinois before dark.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14pt]We spent the night at JoeG's house and on Monday he took me on his bargain points run—DuQuoin to Carbondale and two hours later we are back in DuQuoin. $2.25 per segment! That figures out to less than a dollar per hundred points during double points. With our select level bonus we snagged 600 points for $4.50!! We had a great lunch in Carbondale during the turn to boot.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14pt]Tuesday was homeward bound day for me but JoeG rode along for the first 2 hours...can't let me get too far ahead on TQPs!! We boarded the Saluki and met up with three more AUers doing points runs--KYRR from near Paducah, KY, Budge from Jackson, Mo. and MopacfanIL from Chester, IL. This turns out to be our largest unofficial mini-Gathering. We had a lot to talk about and the two hours flew by. Those four guys got off of the train at Mattoon to have a great late morning breakfast at the Downtown Diner before catching the #391 back to Carbondale. I continued to Chicago and made the connection to the Pere Marquette back to Grand Rapids. It doesn’t seem like we were on the train nearly as long as our other adventures but I still managed to log over 1000 rail miles and 1800 points!! Visiting Keeneland and the beautiful horse farm area and the bonus of three unofficial mini-Gatherings make this a pleasant, memorable trip. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=14pt]As we hinted, the Kentucky Derby will be the first weekend in May...guess where we will be? Louisville? Wrong...no Amtrak, remember. But we will be watching from another racing venue in search of the best corned beef sandwich.[/SIZE]
