The Waverly Hills Sanatorium is an old, haunted tuberculosis hospital located just west of the Kentucky Expo Center show grounds, site of the giant dog show. Thousands of patients died horrible deaths here in the early 1900's, and in the '60's it closed its doors forever. It's now potentially full of ghosts and creepiness, although it's also currently full of security guards. And since it's the month before Halloween, they hold a sanctioned haunted spook house in there with people hiding behind doors and shit, jumping out to scare you. It is known for fabulously distressed decrepidness, and the body chute.
Trespassers there will be shot. Or maybe eaten.
I just made that up. But I don't know. This is Kentucky.
In the 1850's, Louisville had a huge slave trade and lots of tobacco and pig farms. If you bought and sold tobacco, slaves, or pigs, you would have liked living in Louisville. The convenient location of Louisville on the Ohio River made it a stronghold for the Union during the Civil War. Go Union.
Churchill Downs, where the Kentucky Derby started just after the Civil War, is down the street from the Kentucky Expo Center, which is by the airport. There's some kind of shindig dog party there during the dog show. We'll skip it. But we'll go over there one day and look through the fence.
Muhammad Ali is from Louisville, and there's a street named after him. Colonel Sanders, you know, the guy with the chicken, had his chicken HQ in Louisville, right down the street from my motel. He died in Louisville and is buried at Cave Hill Cemetery. There's a big cave there. It looks fancy.
There's also a giant cave under the zoo in Louisville. You can drive around in there in a jeep. There are a lot of caves in Kentucky. And a lot of haunted things. I'm not sure how many haunted caves there are. I'm working on this.
There don't seem to be a lot of Starbucks in Louisville. But there is a Whole Foods in Shelbyville. There seem to be a plethora of restaurants called Cracker Barrel. Cracker Barrel? Clearly, we won't be in Kansas anymore.
7 comments:
You've never heard of Cracker Barrel? It's one of those places with fake lanterns and peg games on little triangles of wood and rocking chairs (that you can buy and take home, of course) outside the entrance. You could definitely have fun skewering it in a blog entry.
Thanks for the other info about Louisville, though. The sanitarium sounds super creepy.
I have no problems with rocking chairs in restaurants, maybe we will go try some crackers in Louisville. Also there is a giant antique store that specializes in human skeletons from old timey doctors' offices! I hope there is time to make it to the dog show, many things to see in Louisville!
cracker barrel is kinda like a giant dennys, except they have a big store you have to pass through to get to the restaurant part, where they sell all sorts of candies and treats that folks as old as i remember but thought they didn't make anymore. steer clear is my advice.
valpig
(Great they just have to point out that I don't have good control of my commenting html.)
You should go to Cracker Barrel (or a Stuckys) just so you can write about it, as they evoke strange feelings for me but I wasn't blogging them.
Churchill Downs was a shock for me when I saw it through the fence. Nothing at all what I imagined: http://nondogblog.frap.org/2010/09/churchill-downs-reality-check.html
a friend who used to live in louisville recommends this place:
http://www.lynnsparadisecafe.com
check out the giant toaster horse. really.
valpig
Laura,
Embrace the Cracker Barrel. Once in a while, as a treat will not endanger your heart health. Buy a kitchen witch in the handy and ubiquitous chachki shop. And remember: Y'all is singular, like "Y'all come with me to the bathroom." and "all Y'all" is plural, as in "All y'all need to help me finish up this here red eye gravy and chicken fried steak..." Good lucK in Kentucky!!!!
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