Road Trip ’08 - Day 2

Lexington, KY to Syracuse, NY
669 miles, 1o hours, 27 minutes
Total miles so far: 1175
States driven through: Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania
Dead deer seen on side of road: 14
Smokies: 18

This morning we woke up early and went to Keeneland, a racetrack/horse farm in Lex (recommended to us by the Todds). It’s nestled in Kentucky’s green rolling hills and it’s more like the sprawling equine-mecca I imagined Churchill Downs to be.

It is so large! I don’t know how many square miles this place is, but it’s easily bigger than my home town and easily has 10x the people, even at 7 a.m. on a Sunday.

We ate breakfast at the Track Kitchen and ladies and gentlemen, THIS is what God had in mind when He invented breakfast.

It’s a hole-in-the-wall kind of place, but it’s a large one. I assume it was originally meant to be a commissary for the trainers and staff at Keeneland before they decided to open it to the public. We each grabbed a tray and the kitchen ladies loaded up our plates with whatever our hungry little tummies desired. I had scrambled eggs, bacon, a biscuit, gravy and breakfast potatoes, but they also had sausage, pancakes, waffles, grits, homemade muffins and bagels, etc. It was very good and very, very hearty.

We wound through the barns and paddocks and worked our way to the Grandstand, braking occasionally for crossing thoroughbreds.

The Grandstand was closed, but we could still walk up to the fence and check out the horses training on the track. They were really impressive. I can’t imagine how exhilarating it must feel to be riding one of those huge animals as it rounds the turn.

We crossed into Ohio, but didn’t realize it because the jerks didn’t put up a Welcome to Ohio sign.

Cincinnati is very hilly.

Ohio was largely uneventful. It helped that I snored through large portions of it while Leslie drove.

She also drove across a small corner of Pennsylvania and on into New York.
The Empire State looks remarkably like Oklahoma, although their turnpikes are significantly more expensive.

We cruised through Syracuse and checked out campus. It is very stately and academic-looking. There were a lot of students walking around and it’s in a very nice neighborhood.

For dinner, we went to Dinosaur BBQ, just a few blocks from our hotel. I had a chili-burger and it was excellent. Leslie had the ribs and declared them the best she’s ever had.