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This is downtown Lexington (well, part of it), Kentucky's second-largest city with some 300,000 Lexingtonians calling it home. And I really need to mention this: Kentucky's largest city is Louisville. Now how would you pronounce that name? Me personally, I would pronounce it 'Louis' (rhymes with 'gooey') and 'Ville' (rhymes with 'bill'). Louisville. But apparently I'd be wrong. The locals pronounce it more like 'Lollville', as in 'Loll' (rhymes with 'doll') and 'Ville' as before. "Lollville" - what the hell?! Furthermore, the nearby city of Versailles (which takes its name from that near Paris) is pronounced 'Ver-sails' hahaha! What is wrong with these people?!		Lexington is home to the University of Kentucky (UK) where Kristina went to college. This is where she lived for the last two years of that time if anyone cares. This was actually the point of this whole trip in the first place. Kristina was part of the UK Swim and Dive Team which have a three-yearly reunion here for shits and giggles.
I really wanted to see two things while I was here. Given Kentucky is the home of KFC, that was the first thing hahaha!		The second was what Lexington is renowned for - horse country! Lexington is known as the "Horse Capital of the World", and is surrounded by hundreds of stunning horse farms.

Today was the last day we had the Jetta, and spent much of it cruising the gorgeous little farm roads outside of the city.

Not as many horses as I was expecting however.
Oh there's some.		I love trespassing.
The other thing Kentucky is renowned for is its bourbon! This is the Woodford Reserve Distillery in Versailles (or 'Versails' if you prefer). This is one of several in the state producing bourbon whiskey. Oh, fun fact of the day: all bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskey is bourbon.

For a whiskey to be called "Bourbon", it needs to be produced in the USA (much like Scotch whisky must be produced in Scotland) and meet a number of criteria defined by federal law. That criteria includes the percentage use of various grain (mostly corn), proof levels (alcohol percentage) at various stages of the distillation process, the type of wood used to make the barrels in which the whiskey matures, the minimum length of maturation, and so on.

Man that cat is wasted!		Bourbon whiskey, maturing (unlike me).

As part of our tour we were taken to the bottling plant. These people appeared to really love their job, especially the dude in the green hat there - look how enthusiastic he is.				This could be me one day like I said, out on my porch, just rocking back and forth, looking out at my Porsche.

As we continued our drive we randomly passed another few distilleries that had clearly been abandoned for some time. Must be a tough business.
The next day we all put on our Sunday best (on a Friday) and headed to the races! Left-to-right: Beth, Jenny (who we were staying with), some good-looking guy, and some chick.		This is a big thing in America by the way - the 'tailgate', basically getting trashed in the car park prior to attending some sort of event like a concert, sports match, or whatever. Groovy.

When we were good and boozed up we went in. This is Keeneland, a Thoroughbred racing track opened in 1936 (and apparently little has changed since that time). Races are only held here in April and October (good timing) - the rest of the time it just sits here and looks pretty I guess.

My mother grew up around horses and is a huge horse racing fan. She dragged my brother and I countless times to the races back home, and we bloody hated it hahaha! I don't mind it so much these days. It's one way to lose all your money.		What an attractive couple.

October is National Breast Awareness Month, umm Breast Cancer I mean, and the next morning was the annual 5km charity run/race in downtown Lexington. I ran the Paris Marathon (42km) last year so 5km should be nothing!				I signed up for the timed race (because that's how I roll), whereas the girls opted for the casual run. Left-to-right again: Beth, Jenny, and Jenny's twin sister Heather (and Heather's young baby girl Madison in the stroller).

While I was off busting my guts, I left my little camera with Kristina to capture the action.
Plenty of roadside entertainment, singing about breasts.

I was aiming for a time of 20 minutes but came in at 21:21 - not bad. That time placed me 26th out of the 603 timed runners who started - not bad :) After the Paris Marathon I couldn't walk for three days hehe. This time round I just couldn't walk down stairs for three days. It's not for lack of fitness given how much I cycle, but the legs just aren't in running shape.

Later in the day we met up with the rest of the UK Swim and Dive Team on campus for yet more drinking (dear me) before heading to UK's football stadium to watch Kentucky get thumped by Mississippi.

Ahh American football, where they all line up in front of each other wearing a ton of body armour, bash into each other, and then do it all again. Seriously though it's quite good to watch. A little too stop-start-stop-start for my liking coming from a rugby background but still good.

As with the last football match I was at back in Texas, there was a big half-time show by the university's marching band, and a lot of cheerleaders who I was just waiting to fall and break their ass (but they never did).				There's about $30,000 worth of lenses in this photo, and depending on what cameras their using about $15,000 worth of them too. Good to know they're using Canon equipment, like me (with my comparatively little $1,500 camera and $600 lens).

That was my last day of the trip. The next morning I flew out over white-fenced horse farms and landed back in the concrete jungle where dreams are made of.

So, while not having my passport wasn't a problem flying out of New York, it was flying out of Lexington and I was pulled aside for additional screening by security (which thankfully didn't extend to having a rubber glove jammed up my ass). As for my GPS, well it was on its last legs but I managed to stretch it out on a single charge. Anyway, after all that action and excitement and drunkenness I was exhausted! It was great to meet Kristina's possy after only hearing their names for years now, and even better to start exploring more of the US of A outside of what little I had seen of it already. Next trip: Alabama and Louisiana in six weeks - about as southern and redneck as it gets, yeehaw!

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