As Paul and I begin to dust off our blog's figurative cobwebs, we can't help but look back and reflect on the places that we traveled to during, and since, Part Time's initial launch. Logging back in was reminiscent of how I imagine store-owners felt coming back after their forced leave brought on by the current pandemic; returning to a place full of promise and unfinished projects, uprooted by life. One such unfinished project for me is the entry below aimed to recap the trip Paul, Katie, Tom Butler and I took for my birthday back in 2013.
I don't usually care about my birthday, but with our relatively new-found passion for travel and the fact that my birthday happened to fall on a Friday this year, it seemed like a perfect time to take a quick break from the gloomy Michigan winter.
Picking a place was easy. Paul and Katie had been talking up Louisville ever since they had stopped there back in October and it was a reasonable drive that would still afford us plenty of time to enjoy the city itself.
Knowing that it was going to be a very quick trip, we knew that we'd need a decisive game-plan in order to feel fulfilled by the trip. So the weeks leading up to it were mostly spent by Paul and I (mostly Paul) looking up things to fill our limited time in Louisville. We decided that we'd do either the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum or the Kentucky Derby Museum (which I was secretly pulling for) and we narrowed our food selection to a couple restaurants that we'd vote on later. As far as lodging, Paul and Katie had stayed at the historic Brown Hotel in downtown as I'm sure you recall from a previous post, and we agreed that in order to get the full Louisville experience, that would be the place to stay.
Usually Paul and Katie book the hotel/house and everyone pays their share in cash. However, Tom decided to take the wheel and book the hotel himself this time. We'll come back to that. But since everything was in place, we came to the most painful part: the waiting game.
Since Paul was the first one off work the day we were to leave, he and I filled the car up with gas, snacks and air (in the tires. which seemed to be a whole ordeal itself). By that time, Katie
I must've been typing this up while I was at work because I stopped mid-sentence. The details are a little fuzzier now than they would've been had I completed the original entry, but I do remember it was a very enjoyable trip. It started with a trip downtown and playing pool at a hole-in-the-wall bar and an issue with Tom's reservation, which was resolved by him "moving some money around". We didn't end up going to the Kentucky Derby Museum, but we did go to the Louisville Slugger Museum and did a tour and got to try out their batting cages. We also had some amazing food like the Hot Brown (which tastes a million times better than the name might suggest) and the venison burger and duck fat fries at Hammerheads was phenomenal. It was a great way to celebrate my birthday with great people. I've had a few birthdays since then and have gained some new crew members to travel with, 3 of which aren't old enough to share driving responsibilities yet. Paul and I will recap the last 8 years of trips (those taken together and separate) and life in general as well as discuss future traveling aspirations.
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