I am not sure how religious you are. However, this is a trigger warning: if you believe that the world is only 6000 years old then don’t read Part 2 of this post. I don’t want you bringing the wrath of God down upon me.
Ok, with that out of the way, and a good nights rest (due to having my own bed), and a belly full of food from the buffet (we took it up to our humungous room to eat), we ventured forth.
Replan Replan Replan
Our original plan today was to see the World’s largest bat and then go on a romantic canal cruise in Venice… I mean Indianapolis (we all can dream).
However, at the last minute (i.e. while going to bed) we asked the kids if they wanted to see “The Largest Bat” or or the Worlds Largest (and probably only) Ark. We were really putting in the effort to teach spontaneity with the hope that maybe our children won’t grow up to be as crazy as we are. I know… unlikely, but we can try.
They chose the Ark, which from the description did seem pretty cool. Since this changed our route to Indianapolis, we also added a horse museum and reptile park despite that both showed closed .
Giddy Up
We ended up at the reptile park long before they opened, due to some speedy driving, so we all yelled Giddy Up and headed for the horst park. The park is officially closed every Monday and Tuesday, however since Horse Princess Tween and Horse Princess the Youngster are all about horses we hoped to see some Elephants.. I mean horses.
When we arrived at the Kentucky Horse Park there seemed to be a bunch of activity for a place that was closed. However, it was very confusing as the signage clearly was written for horses and not humans. Mom the doubtful really didn’t want to stop and ask what was going on and was determined to end this fiasco, but Dad the Awesome made her ask the lone person directing traffic why there were people picking up what looked like goodie bags:
“What is going on today? Is there anything to see here?”
“Oh, the National Pony finals are going on”
At that moment, I could not see what was going on in the backseat, but the excitement level had gone from bemoaning their poor luck to a cacophony of “can we go, can we go, can we go, can we go?”. I am pretty sure if we opened the doors the kids would have been running across the fields to never be found again (or at least until the pony show ended).
Unfortunately, as quick as the excitement rose, a dagger was sent through their little hearts.
“Great, can we see it today”
“No, everyone is just arriving. You can go see some of the food vendors, but the show is later this week”
At this point, Mom was really really ready to leave, but Dad the Even more Awesome made her push onward in the general direction that the parking attendant had pointed in the hope that our little horse lovers would get their dream fulfilled.
“Where do you want me to go?” she said annoyed.
“Just keep driving up over there”
As we rounded the corner Tweenager exclaimed “I see a horse!” At this point we didn’t expect much so were just hoping to see something. I was just excited to be able to tell my wife, who was being overly negative, that I was right. However, the horse turned out to be two people walking. At least it had four legs!
At this point, the weather was a bit rainy, our mood was dampened, we were ready to give up. A miracle happened! Mom the observant said, “I actually do see a horse”. Indeed, in the distance it appeared as if there was a horse in the stadium. We quickly parked and I took out the zoom lens to confirm. There was a horse… and another…. and another. As we piled out of the car, there was a rush of excitement. Even the weather had improved.
As we rounded the corner, Movie Star exclaimed, “It looks like the Olympics!”. Indeed, there were horses everywhere. The show had not started, but everyone was practicing! We did not go all the way to the stadium, but snuck into an area that was being setup for a fancy party. It gave us a great vantage point to observe all the activity. If the girls didn’t get their fill of horses here, I don’t know where it would happen:
Of course, there was some jealousy and a few exclamations of “we should move here!” This was especially strong when we saw two girls that were similar in age riding their “ponies”. At least we got a photo or two with some smiles:
The rest of the day is in Part 2…..