Ponding Water

Wednesday, September 23, 2026

I’ll start with the end of the day, because it just happened and it’s fresh. The last two hours of our journey was three hours long. It involved lots of rain, flood warnings, then flood advisories, cars and semis with their flashers on going slowly (but not white pickup trucks. They went very fast), hills going up and down so much, road construction, too many highways ending in 41 and 40, blinky lights that said tune your radio to 680 if blinky (radio? Do we have a radio? OMG), and ponding water light-up signs. I can figure out what ponding water might be, but what?! What the hell, Tennessee. Get your head in the game.

My jaw is very tired from clenching my teeth. Keith got off as soon as we got an opportunity and we regrouped at a gas station.

The day started out much better!! We went to the Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs. How interesting! We got to walk out to the track and learned a bit about expensive seats, the riff raff in the middle of the track, that no horse in position 17 has ever won the Derby, the famous twin spires are solely decorative (and were added later to give the place some oompf), there is one bugler who does all the calls to the starting gate, and they run hundreds of races per year here.

The track itself is so much not just dirt. It is mostly sand, silt from the Ohio river, and clay. It seemed nicely soft for horsey feet. It looks like peat to me, but I know nothing.

I liked these signs.

Beautiful clothes are part of the deal for the derby, because historically beautiful clothes were part of the deal for everything. As our culture became more casual, derby was as good a reason as anything to dress up, so people still do.

Keith was ready to run. But he did not run. To be clear. There was no running.

Secretariat was a heck of a horse. I feel like I remember when he won the triple crown in 1974 – not specifically remembering the races, but just that it happened and it was exciting.

We had a traditional Hot Brown (originally created at the now disappeared Brown Hotel) and Burgoo soup. The hot brown tasted just like when we made them at home (which surprised Keith) (huh). The Burgoo soup tasted like peas, which is not a bad thing, but not really a good thing, either. Keith liked it a lot – he really likes soup and he really likes peas, so it checks out.

How would you be able to choose?

When I find out that I took a picture like this, I laugh so hard. SO HARD.

I was trying to take this

After one museum, we went to another. Daniel mentioned in text last night that he had done the Churchill/Slugger two-step a few years ago. I thought that was a perfect phrase. Off we went to the Louisville Slugger museum and factory.

Sometimes I’m just doin’ stuff. (I’m almost touching)

We started by sitting on the giant glove bench, looking up at the baseball-y ceiling. Keith couldn’t figure the ceiling out until he saw the picture. Ooooh!

The factory tour was great. I love seeing anything being made. We saw a movie about choosing and felling trees, then cutting them into 40inch lengths and honing them from tree to bat.

They were running the lathes that cut the professional bats in a matter of seconds. (30? Fewer? I can’t remember.) I just loved watching it work.

Who is this guy? I have no idea. But he’s on the poster over his head. I found that to be thrilling.

There were a lot of choices of used bats to hold on to. Keith chose Rod Carew (big deal Twins guy) and I chose Babe Ruth. He had the heaviest bat they have – 40 ounces.

Babe and I were looking out for a while together.

This is Babe’s bat he hit 21 homeruns on his run of 60 homeruns in a season. He put a notch on it for every homerun. When it splintered, he sent it back to Louisville with a note that said, “This one has been working out fine. Please make me another just like it.”

There were lots of really good mannequins of players around, surrounded by their information. I stood right in front of Roberto Clemente and told him not to bat me in the head. It felt dangerous standing there. A little later I was on the other side of the room and a baseball got pitched 90 miles an hour and slammed into an inflatable catcher. The BANG sound and the remembering of Roberto possibly knocking my head off made me react so much I almost fell on the floor. Hilarious.

I thought I lost my phone. It was okay. It was in my hand.

On opening day of this museum and factory 30 years ago, Robin Yount was here. He signed the poster 🙂

The big bat outside the place is not made of wood. I just assumed. I actually wondered how big the tree had been. I did not get around to wondering how big the lathe was before I learned it was made of steel.

We walked down the street to the Kentucky Science Center and stood by a parabolic mirror (mirrors?) My camera did not see what I saw because I was not holding it up to my face. I would have taken pictures all day if I kid hadn’t shown up to play with it. Darned kids.

We set off for Corbin, Kentucky, next – home of the Harlan Sanders museum and his original restaurant. It was a great place. They had so much from the original restaurant – called Sander’s Cafe – and then lots of stuff from the last 70some years of KFC. The Colonel started here with gas stations, then expanded to food service, then added lodging. He was ALL about customer service. In order to show the traveling families that his motels were much nicer than one might expect (motel after all, not hotel) that he put a sample room right in the middle of his restaurant.

It’s a BUCKET hat!!!!