Bourbon & Balls Two Day One

What can I say?   We made to Bardstown, Kentucky," Bourbon Capital of the World" .    We played golf, we ate some southern cooking and drank some bourbon.

The Cork and Bottle in Covington was closed at  10:30am on Easter Sunday morning and you'd think you could buy a bottle of hooch when you need one.

There were some early casualties, due to premature consumption.










There was golf.  Bad golf, but golf.    

Check out the brown fairways at the Old Kentucky Home State Park. It's April, and spring time is in full swing, dogwood and redbud trees are in full bloom and the fairways are already  browned out.  Really, really dry here.




And we ate.  Contining in the Stroker and Ayce tradition of eating our across the south, we dined at Kurtz' Restaurant in Bardstown.   Southern cooking and hospitality at it's finest  and family owned since the 1930s.
Check out the video: Kurtz Restaurant - Small Town Flavor

 We had dinners of country ham, fried chicken, kale greens with pot likker to be sopped, green beans cooked like grandma did with bacon and fried johnny cakes too.

Some of the crew finished dinner with the biscuit-based bread pudding with a bourbon & raisin sauce that had them  moaning for more.  

Tomorrow, we are off to Kentucky Cooperage, Makers Mark and more badly played golf.    Sure beats the hell out of work.

Bourbon and Balls 2 April 2014

Testing doing the blog from my phone.

Ayce is tripping without Stroker this time.   Golf and Bourbon in Kentucky this week.

Stay tuned for the stupid stuff.

Awesome Picture that I didn't take

This was the view of the track from our seats above turn onee at Eldora

Eldora Truck race pictures

Sometimes you need to be creative when you forgot to pack drink glasses

Ayce n' Stroker -   Stroker didn't want to eat dirt

Motor Racing Network and SPEED Channel were there

Stands filling as evening approches

Night time shots of the track

Infield full of Transporters

Fireworks on and off the track

Father and son, and local favorites (at least for some) Dave and Ryan Blaney in line to qualify.  Both driving for Brad Keslowski Racing.










And we had drunks. This group came to drink beer and they did a lot of that.  Most of them stagger their way out of the stands long before the checkered flag.

 

Notes from Eldora

 We've been home a day or two,  and it's time to post some thoughts on the Eldora NASCAR Truck race

1.  These people know to take care of their customers:
         Parking:  Never have I attended a large event with better traffic control before and after.    We got to the track early, but there were dozens of  people directing traffic into parking places.  And after the race, they had the traffic patterns organized so each parking lot went a different direction on the local country roads, so that we ere out of the lot and on the road within 10 minutes of the end of the race.  And never seemed like we were in a traffic jam

           Prices:  I'm sure that NASCAR had some say in the ticket price,  but $40 for reserved seats isn't bad if you have looked at  prices for an NFL game, concert tickets or the $150+ they get for the Indy 500.  Concession prices were reasonable too.    $2.00 beer, $2.50 hamburger, and $4.50 for a pork tenderloin as big as a dinner plate.

           Pottys:  With a big crowd things can get messy.   But big clean restrooms and dozens of Porta-Johns took care of nature's needs with out much fuss

          The show:    The racing was great, everything went off on schedule, and once qualifying runs started at 5:00 pm there was constant action on the track until the feature ended at 11:30 pm.  A couple of late model heat races and a feature filled in the gaps in the truck program.  (and the late models made the trucks look slow.

2. NASCAR reached a lot of old and new fans by putting on a show in the dirt.  Lots of interest, a sell-out crowd and great racing made this one a winner for NASCAR.   There is no way the Brickyard 500 at Indy this weekend matches any of the excitement we experienced at Eldora.

3. Next Year.  NASCAR will have to repeat this event in the future.   If they do,   Stroker n' Ayce already plan to be there.   We'll try to get seats on the north terrace where we can put up out lawn chairs and coolers.  And a full tailgate party, both pre- and post-race is a must.

Next: pictures:

Fun in thre dirt

Stroker n Ayce are on their way to play in the dirt.   Actually, we will be watching others play in the dirt as NASCAR returns to their roots and brings the Craftsman Truck series to Eldora Speedway tonight.      


 







We have our tickets

ear plugs, goggles, coolers and other necessary racing accessories ready to go.

Look for pictures and reports on the race in a day or two.  

Sometimes you just have to have a sense of humor

Ayce really digs any car that is unusual, weird or where the owner/builder clearly has sanity issues that he has yet to come to grips with.

At a car shoe like the Good Guys PPG National, you see so many of the "classics"  (Tri-five Chevy, Ford Roadster, 68-69 Camaro, GM A body, etc) that the occasional Packard or LS1 powered Rambler get your attention.

Also, any thing with rust, bad paint or old school parts is considered cool.  Chromed engine parts, billet anything, or even the ubiquitous Chevy small block is enough to lose Ayce's attention.

So with that in mind let's look at some cars seen at Columbus that caused the needle on Ayce's  Meter of Cool to swing towards the red line.

Gremlin X

Rat Rod Chic
Skull radiator cap,
 Reenforcing wire grill
No. 10 tin can air cleaner
Rust






Gremlin trivia:  
Two future U.S. presidents drove AMC Gremlins during their younger days.
"Bill Clinton drove the back roads of Northwest Arkansas in his green AMC Gremlin" during his 1974 campaign for the only attempt he made for a seat in the United States Congress.
An AMC Gremlin with a Levi interior was owned by the George H. W. Bush family and driven by George W. Bush in 1973 while getting his Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree

Small Block powered, slammed 1951 Willys Army Jeep

 All out Auto Cross race truck..RU Faster Than a Redneck
Everything about this truck is high performance racing equipment - except the body

1956 Chevy Black and White - with Bubble Gum machine

This is the way to make an un-cool four door cool.   Dig the door logo.

Sick Boy will make coffin shaped fuel cells, and other macabre car parts

Fuel Cell in his truck.

Bullet holes are real - not the cheap, artificial stock on one from from the store.