Monthly Archives: October 2011

Bi-annually you can head 20 minutes down Dixie Highway and check out the adrenaline fulfillment known as the Knob Creek Gun Range Machine Gun Shoot. The other 50 weekends of the year Knob Creek is just a gun range but on these two magical weekends all hell breaks loose.

The event is dedicated to the modern marvel known as the machine gun. Everywhere you look, there is something that will make you think, ‘damn, that’s awesome!’

When you first arrive, you will spend a large chunk of your time just going through the vendor tents before you ever get to the horny stuff. Anything gun related, you can find it here. But I didn’t come here to barter with merchants. I came to get my carnage fix that could have only been provided one other place, the Vietnam war.

It was about 5 o’clock when Hell’s gates opened and the ability to hear quickly diminished. This is when “the line” began to fire several machine guns simultaneously at targets (such as cars, boats and school buses) in a holler already packed full of explosives. The sky turned black.

All of this fury was unleashed after a prayer over the loudspeaker and the signing of the National Anthem of course (God bless the South).

The thing I looked most forward to doing was the Jungle Run. The Jungle Run is a Rambo style free-for-all target competition through the woods. This is where I suffered due to my failure of researching big events in advance. Apparently you have to be there at 9AM at the latest to even get registered for this thing. So unfortunately, my roommate and my hopes of running through the woods blasting away like we are in Contra is going to have to wait until April.

I hear if you pay enough money, you can hop in a helicopter that will fly you above the wood’s trenches while you shoot the chopper’s turret at prearranged explosives. This is only further mayhem that I will plan more meticulously in the future.

It was at this point my roommate and I decided to head back to the Jeep when what do you know, there’s a Vietnam Huey just a football field’s distance away. So of course we hopped in and gave it hell!

Halfway between Louisville and Lexington, off of exit 35 on I-64, sits a modest little establishment known as the Ken-Tex Bar-B-Q. Often times I’ve passed the exit paying little to no attention to the food sign. It wasn’t until recently I actually read the sign and put it together. Ken…Tex… Kentucky food. Texas food. What a great idea!

There’s not a lot to say for the food that your curious mind can’t already being asking itself. Yes, it is authentic Texas bar-b-q with a Kentucky twang. There are plenty of Kentucky grown vegetables to accompany your pulled pork.

Don’t let the building’s exterior fool you, the inside is much smaller than one might imagine. The decorations make you feel more than right at home while the attitude of the servers reminds you that you are in very much in small town Kentucky.

Finally, I will reassert my recommendation for this quaint restaurant if you live in either Lexington or Louisville and have friends that live in the other. It makes for the perfect meetup!

It was a hectic Sunday morning due to the many errands I had to take care of. I also needed to make sure my comrades were not going to bail on me on this trip. I knew this was a concern because of my many previous visits to race day events. And as I anticipated, they bailed at the last minute. But that’s never stopped this one man wolf pack from having a good time.

So I got a late start from Louisville, (One hour and 14 minutes before green flag to be precise), but I made good time for what a four cylinder, unaerodynamic, Jeep Wrangler can do. I also knew that the traffic situation would be nothing compared to the disaster that was the inaugural Nascar race at the speedway. I would think this is because people seem to be less interested in Indy car racing. I can’t seem to figure out why people are less interested, the cars go faster and make louder noises!

I pulled into the general admission parking lot, walked to the ticket booth to pick up my ticket, went to the bathroom, got a drink and went to my seat. The second I got sat in my seat, that green flag was being waved. I patted myself on the back for being good at what I do, impeccably timing things.

I assume many of my readers have never been to Kentucky Speedway and this picture doesn’t quite seem to do justice, yet I feel that it goes unbeknownst that the track is surrounded by some of the most beautifully rolling hills in the Bluegrass state. All this aesthetic pleasure quickly diminishes as the smell of burning rubber, sounds of 200+ mph engines, and the feeling of flying debris sticking to your face quickly engulfs you into the race.

Something also tells me that many of my readers haven’t played Super Mario Kart in years and have forgotten how racing circuits work. You see, the drivers accumulate points in descending order based on the position they finish in a race. After the season is over, the driver with the most points wins the circuit.

Here’s where the beauty lies, Kentucky Speedway is the 2nd-to-last track on the IndyCar series circuit. So it is theoretical that the circuit winner could be determined in Kentucky.

Going into this race it was looking like the circuit champion was going to be crowned here as circuit points leader Will Power needed to finish just a few positions in front of 2nd in points rankings, Dario Franchitti. Somewhere around lap 64, I was starting to think this was the most likely outcome as Power was inching closer and closer to lapping Franchitti who was about 10 positions behind.

Around lap 100, there was a yellow flag and I ran to the bathroom. I returned to see that Power was no longer even on the pole. WTF?!? I asked myself. Apparently something in his car went terribly wrong and he was now running close to last. Even more surprisingly, Franchitti had squeezed his way to first.

The positions remained similar to this until lap 175~ish when Hoosier Ed Carpenter managed to ride up next to Franchitti and produce the most amazing final 25 laps I had ever seen. Each lap the leader swapped back and forth by no more than a foot.

Final Turn, Final Lap of the Kentucky Indy 300

Finally, we reached the last lap and Carpenter had just enough give to pass Franchitti on the final turn and take the victory by 98/10,000 of a second ensuring the need for a race at Las Vegas in two weeks. I was sad that the champ wasn’t crowned today, but with such an exciting finish I was not disappointed!

The beginning of October brings even more artsy stuff to Louisville with the St. James Court Art Show. And what a beautiful day in October it was. Everything about the atmosphere felt right for the art show.

Located right in the heart of Old Louisville, surrounded by Victorian mansions I can only hope to one day afford, the Art Show manages to close roads and takes up several blocks.

As you make your way through the maze of tents you start to question whether or not you will actually get to see all of the exhibits. (I’m actually not quite sure if I did manage to see it all.)

It’s evident that the art show really brings the community together as exhibits varied from high school tents, local artists and hobbyist, to even young children playing fine instruments.

It was probably for the best that I forgot to stop at the ATM before I ventured though the show because I would have spent a fortune. I saw little knickknacks here and there, arts and crafts and even that certain piece to fill an empty corner in a room that just really brings a place together. I also caught myself browsing through an abundance of Louisville oriented prints as well as other Kentucky prints that really reminded me of home.

But what kind of gathering of people would it be if you didn’t have a chow wagon? Exactly!

Finally, I found my self in the center of St. James Court when I found the beautiful water fountain and flame lit street lights powered by a gas line and thought to myself, “Why have I never explored Old Louisville on a Sunny Day before?”