Back from Bowling Green

Not Southampton Old Bowling Green in England. Not Bowling Green Square in New York City, either. I’m talking about that quaint little town in southwestern Kentucky. In case you didn’t know — I’d forgotten — it’s where Western Kentucky University is located, at the top of a hill overlooking the town.

My late brother Don used to go there for work — the town, I don’t know about the college — fairly regularly. He was probably watching as I checked out some of his old haunts. Pun intended.

I started this trip thinking I would spend some time at Kentucky Downs just over the Tennessee-Kentucky state line. It’s where my sister Lucy first met my daughter Elizabeth. There wasn’t much going on there that day, though. Too early in the morning, I guess — 11-ish — but I might use it in an upcoming story. My wife wondered what sort of person hangs out at a casino on a Thursday. And the answer is… mostly retired people.

I woke up that morning with no idea I’d be driving an hour and a half north. It was just a spur-of-the-moment thing. Last weekend’s trip was also unplanned and the same distance, only south.

My day began normally enough, letting our Boston terrier, Cleo, into the backyard to do her business after breakfast, while I went upstairs to my coffee, I mean to my office. When I came back a few minutes later to let her in, she wasn’t staring through the glass door, waiting, as she usually is.

I went out onto the deck in my socks to look for her. It took a second — it’s not a big back yard — but I found her chasing something. It’s usually one of the rabbits (we have at least two wild ones living in and around our yard at the moment), or one of the salamanders that we also have in our yard that she’s obsessed with. There was a salamander (not a normal-looking lizard, so I’m guessing salamander) in the garage the other day. I intentionally left the garage door open an hour or more to give it time to get back outside. I thought maybe it had wandered in a few days prior when we left it open, then got locked in. I didn’t want it to starve.

Anyway, this time it was a robin fledgling just out of its nest which sits between the wall and the gutter downspout above our back deck. The bird’s parents were divebombing Cleo and complaining loudly. Cleo was not responding to my commands to “leave it!” I should have said it in German. All the best dogs speak German.

I could have left my socks on, but didn’t want them soaked from the morning dew. I took them off, walked down to the fence where Cleo had the baby bird sort of cornered, picked Cleo up, and carried her back into the house. An hour later, after she and I got back from our walk — out the front instead of back door this time — and came in through the side gate, the bird was gone. It must’ve been okay and was able to fly off. I couldn’t tell if it returned to its nest. Anyway, that was exciting. I’m sure the birds thought it way too exciting.

At Kentucky Downs, I circled the parking lot in my car and got a much-too-short video — because I’m not getting any better as a videographer — of an unused horse racing starting gate off to the side of the track’s far turn. I then parked and went inside the casino to look around. Almost everyone sitting at a slot machine (gaming machine, whatever) had a lit cigarette in their hand. I tried not to breathe. Funny thing is, the place does provide a no-smoking room with a nice view of the track, but you have to walk through all those smokers to get there.

Most slot machines nowadays look like large concave big screen TV screens, turned vertical, with buttons at the bottom to push for that all-important tactile experience. There were posters on the walls showing people who had, over the years, won thousands of dollars. Spoiler alert: Nobody won anything while I was there.

After Kentucky Downs, I considered driving another couple of hours north to Churchill Downs in Louisville, where the Kentucky Derby is run. I was there many, many years ago for the Breeders Cup. Here’s the link to my post at the time. When I saw that the races (for this meet on this day, anyway) don’t start until 4pm, though, I settled for Bowling Green. Didn’t want to make this an overnight trip.

If I had done my research and made a proper day trip out of it, I would have seen that there are plenty of cool things to do in BG, as they call it. The BeeGees were probably huge in BG. Speaking of huge, I noticed that humongous American flags are a thing there, and not just at car dealerships. Something else I liked was an old, well-preserved but now defunct Standard Oil gas station. The station itself is on a street corner, of course, with the rest of that block now a city park. I was going to stop at Lesa’s Dairy Dip for lunch, but it was too crowded, so I ended up at Freddy’s Steakburger on my way out of town. It was too crowded there, too, but I had to eat. I thought it was a local chain, but the link above shows that they’re a fairly large regional chain.

Closer to home, on the north side of Nashville along Dickerson Road — known for its hookers, though didn’t see any — I passed by a Dollar General. A young black man was hurrying but not quite running out of their parking in my direction. It was 85 degrees out, he was dressed in long pants and hooded jacket, and in an obvious hurry. Nothing suspicious there. I kept driving, but did mess with him by staring him down.

The only reason I was taking side streets was because I-65 was at a crawl due to construction. Let’s hope that guy didn’t turn around and memorize my license plate and is now hunting me down. Probably not. I’m sure he has better things to do.

Oh, before I forget: I just published my latest novella today, Dub’s Dilemma. It’s the first fiction I’ve published in several years. Huzzah, as they say, or at least used to. It’s not available through Amazon just yet. They require a few more steps than everyone else. Stay tuned.

Here’s the blurb: Dub was a mid-level IT guy who liked to keep things simple, not get involved, stay out of trouble. Darla had other ideas when he showed up at her lab, the only one left to fix her problem. Together, they escape from their employer, bioweapons maker LeHavre Research, hoping to stay one step ahead.