My Oaklawn trip...

So yes, I headed up to Hot Springs, Arkansas yesterday. Mom and Scott decided not to come, so it was just me making to trip. It was a nice 6 hour drive (it would have been 5 & half hours, but I stopped 4 times for things like breakfast drive-thru at Grandys, coffee at Starbucks, gas twice, restroom from the Starbucks coffee...) I got to Oaklawn just in time to run in and place a win bet on the first race (a winner, yay!)

I met up with everyone up in the Carousel room... Al & Kat from Virginia had a table reserved, so I sat with them and Warlock. Also seated up there was Jaydee from Missouri, so I got to visit with him too. Later Hoosier Carol and Hoosier Hubby came up to say hello. Smith ventured up and talked for a while, and so did Longshot from Texas.

Part of our motley crew- Jaydee in front, then left-right
Al, Hoosier Carol, Hoosier Hubby, Kat, Warlock

Sorry, I didn't get a pic of Smith or Longshot : (

About Al's outfit for this year's event... Shar sent Kat the fabric for his pants- John Deere tractors on a bright yellow background, matched with a bright grass-green Colonial Downs vest, bright yellow jacket, and yellow&green tie. Here's a close-up of the pants:

Mr. Echols would be green with envy.

Anyway, for Al & Kat I presented their artworks I did of their trotter Tom Bruce. One is an acrylic painting of him trotting in high grass, and the second one is a headshot in chalk pastel:

These are lousy photos, in the headshot you can see the hair on his face & neck, more detail than shown here. They look much better in person. Anyway, they seemed happy with the art.

And did I get my bread pudding? Of course I did! There was a wonderful buffet, and I grabbed a bowl of pudding. Then, a few minutes later a waitress came over to the table with another full bowl... courtesy of Jaydee, haha. So I had a couple bowls of it, enough to last me til next year. But Hubby's mad at me, on the phone he told me to bring him home some bread pudding... but I accidentally ate it all... and forgot to bring him any... opps. I'm not going to live this down for a while...

Anyway I won a few bets here and there. I got the dime superfecta in the 4th for $52.00... it woulda paid more but the officials declared a dead heat for 2nd place, and I didn't have it both ways in my wheel. Then I had a winner in the 3rd race until they disqualified BOTH 1st & 2nd place horses and dropped them to 6th (how unusual is that!) Also had some little exactas and such. But I made the mistake of going down to the slots room after the races... last year I won $180, but my luck wasn't as good this time and I merely lost what I played.

So in all I had an entertaining day with friends, chatting with Kat and trading quips with Warlock. Unfortunately since I had to drive home I didn't get to stay and see more folks on Saturday, there were quite a few planning to be there.

The drive home wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, I expected storms the whole way but I only hit them the last 2 hours in Dallas. I just drove directly behind the truckers, letting them lead the way on the highway. I passed 4 wrecks (in downtown Dallas, no surprise there) and one 18-wheeler in the ditch next to the highway, but I got home safely at 1AM. And man am I wiped out today! But it was worth it.