Very tired after a long but fun weekend. Teamed up with 6 other first year GSB women to rent an RV and drive down to Louisville KY for the horse race to end all horse races...the Kentucky Derby. Our RV was one of 14 RVs full of GSBers that made the trip. Not sure who found the lot we stayed in but we were literally right across the street from the main entrance to Churchill Downs. We had a couple of LEAD Facilitators in our group who had class til 5 pm on Friday, plus we had a couple of issues picking up the RV, so we didn't leave town until 7:30ish and rolled into Louisville about 2 am local time. (Yours truly did all the driving, I am officially the RV master.) By that point, everybody had moved from the drinking stage to the passing out stage, so we had like one beer then hit the sack.
We were roused from our beauty sleep around 8 am the next morning by a fellow first year, so started on some bloody marys shortly thereafter. We made our way into CD and to the infield around noon. I can report that the infield is as crazy as people say, and I can't imagine what it is like in the rain & mud. We were near turn 3 and the only race I saw (other than glimpses on the jumbo screen) was the Derby and even that I really only saw horse heads and jockey heads bobbing above for the 2 seconds it took for them to pass our area. Didn't even know the name of the horse that won, just that it was #8. But it was so much fun just to be there in the crowd and the weather was gorgeous. After the race, we went back to our RV, grilled up some burgers, played some Catch Phrase, and continued drinking beer. We also had to defend our RV from drunk guys trying to steal our liquor and drop a deuce in our toilet! We enjoyed the music provided by our neighbors until around midnight when we were all ready to pass out. Little did we know it would continue playing until 5 am, and that after a short two hours of peace, we would wake up to loud banging on our door and a request to move our RV away from the "dump" area. That's what we get for being the last to arrive!
RVing is so much fun. I grew up doing it with my family, so I was pretty excited about giving it a try on my own. Totally going to do the Derby again next year, and I can't wait for another RV trip I've got planned with some fellow Wazzu alums Labor Day weekend for WSU's season opener at Auburn.
