Natural Bridge to Carrollton, KY (cont.)

Thursday dawned bright and early... or relatively so, anyhow. Handler 2 insisted that, although hiking in the Red River Gorge was originally his idea, he wasn't too keen on it anymore. So, instead of breaking out the backpacks at the butt crack of dawn, we instead headed upstairs to breakfast. There we encountered some very poor pancakes and a pair of aggressive squirrels defending their rights to the birdfeeders.


After being somewhat fed, we headed up to the top of the rock formation that gave our lodging its name: the Natural Bridge.



Yes, we took a chairlift. I told you Handler 2 wasn't feeling well.


The bridge was pretty neat, who knew you could find stuff like this at a state park.

Handler 2 . . .

. . . does not like.

After that, we hopped back into the Sexy Scion and headed north to Lexington and the Kentucky Horse Park! There we saw the famous statue of Man o' War.

This statue of Bask++ in the atrium of the International Museum of the Horse. . .

Ummm....yeah....there's a lot of statues at the Kentucky Horse Park.

And look!! Real horsies, too!

This is Cigar, a famous racehorse that Handler 1 saw in his very last race. He retired to stud and a lifetime of luxury and breeding mares. Until it was found he was sterile and so they sent him to live out his life in a tourist attraction, where he's paraded around several times a day to the polite clapping of appreciative fans.

The Kentucky Horse Park ended up being one horse too many, and we found ourselves in need of a stiff drink. Luckily, not to far down the road was the historic Woodford Reserve bourbon distillery.

We got to take a very informative tour of the site, and actually got to watch the bourbon being made, stilled and bottled.

Handler 2 decided to forego the free shot that came with the tour, and so Handler 1 was forced to take one for the team. Luckily, afterwards, Handler 2 was feeling well enough to drive. We meandered our way down the Old Frankfort Pike back towards Lexington. This is a very scenic drive that took us past a lot of very famous horse farms.

We finally found our hotel in Carrollton and gave a call to the Handlers' old friend Sarah. She was amenable to meeting for drinks, so we all sat around a sports bar catching up and watching some silly (meaning not UofM) hockey team getting their behinds handed to them. Handler 2 took a turn for the worse and it was up to Handler 1 to get them back to the hotel.

I'll be turning the (figurative) reins over to my beloved Mary tomorrow, who attended the Kentucky Oaks in my stead.