the official itenerary

Barring any more catastrophic weather events, (there was already a tornado warning in Lexington today and all the horses had to be evacuated to the indoor arena at KHP) in Lexington or Atlanta, we will be on the road by 10:00am tomorrow. I am admittedly a weather wimp, and when the weather is scary like it has been all day, I spend a lot of time with the dogs in the closet under the stairs in our house- thank goodness for WiFi, or I would have had a very boring few hours lately. The weather this spring has been nothing to joke about though, with deaths all over the US and a reining barn in the Carolina's that lost several horses- I just can't imagine the devastation that I saw in those pictures, so don't make fun of me for my closet dwelling every time the storm sirens go off!

My friend Mck and I have a very busy few days ahead of us, but for anyone who is staying home this year, we promise to report about the trip and the horse shopping for Mck. We are staying with a dear friend named Shelly, who is in dental school at UK and has graciously allowed us to camp out in her one bedroom apartment in Lexington for the duration of our trip. Her husband, who still lives and works here while she is in school, has a birthday this weekend, and has decided to celebrate it with his own trip to Lexington, so he is coming up on Friday night, accompanied by a stowaway, my husband, who at the last minute decided to come to help him celebrate his birthday, and probably make sure that I don't bring another horse home since we are visiting many OTTB's for sale, which for me, is sort of like releasing all of the Kardashians into a 'free revealing dress' store! Wow, that might be the longest run-on sentence I have ever written! Whew!

Anyway, I am really glad that Ryan gets to experience Lexington for the first time and maybe he will understand why every year on the way home I call him and say things like, put a "for sale" sign in front of our house because we are moving! Experiencing one bathroom with 5 people for a weekend might be slightly less enjoyable, but I will probably not have a nervous breakdown because there will be enough "horse time" to counteract my fear about sharing bathrooms.

So here's the plan!
Thursday:
10:00 am- get on the road!
5:00 ish- arrive in Lexington, breathe in the KY air and smile!
evening- two sale horse appointments: Jay and bay mare
dinner eventually

Friday:
5:30 am- rise and shine!!
6:00 am- leave to watch morning workouts at Keeneland
breakfast at the track kitchen
8:00 am- go see sale horses at the Thoroughbred Training Center
10:00 am- Rolex dressage starts at KHP
1:00 pm- back to Keeneland for closing day of races
afternoon/evening- go see cute mare called "demanding"
COTH get together dinner at the campground! drink wine and meet fun people!
husband arrives in Lexington, and surely falls in love and starts shopping for farms ;)

Saturday:
possible early morning visit back to training center if we haven't found a horse for McK yet!
XC day at Rolex! hang out at KHP and shop the trade fair!
Jep's birthday dinner and royal wedding watching!!

Sunday:
more shopping at trade fair at KHP for the good deals!
Stadium jumping day at Rolex!! my favorite! it's funnel cake time today!
two more horse appointments in afternoon if needed!
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