Kentucky vs Central Michigan - Sunny Saturday in Horse Country...

Driving east on Interstate 64 out of Louisville on an early Saturday morning, the change in geography starts becoming more pronounced. The stretching plains of the Midwest gradually start undulating into the far western foothills of the Appalachians. The highway bridges a few ravines now, and bisects great rock cuts carved into the Kentucky Limestone. I’m entering Bluegrass Country, the picturesque rolling hills bordered by long sections of split plank horse fence. Thoroughbreds graze on the wet morning grass, while I graze on a few sunflower seeds and motor on into Lexington.

I bypass the twenty dollar ripoff parking in front of a few houses, circling a few side streets until I shoehorn into an open spot along an empty curb. Rap music pumps out of an open window in the house out front, and beer cans litter the garden. A few more houses down, some students are milling around the yard clutching beers, tossing a Frisbee at a PVC pipe planted in the ground. Chalk up another new drinking game I am unfamiliar with.

It’s my first SEC game of the season, if you could call it that. Kentucky fans would be quick to tell you that real athletics on campus don’t start until basketball season, football is just a warmup. Though still certainly an SEC school, there is a different feel on campus than some of the other traditional SEC powerhouses that I have visited. It’s a decidedly more relaxed atmosphere. Still plenty of tailgating and revelry, but without the unbridled passion of a place like LSU for instance.

I mill around the stadium for a few minutes, dickering with the scalpers, chuckling at some of the prices they demand for a Kentucky versus Central Michigan ticket. I find a scraggly kid in a hoodie instead, pawning his uncles’ tickets. Twenty bucks later and I hustle into Commonwealth Stadium to catch the opening ceremonies.

It’s a beautiful Saturday afternoon for football, eighty degrees or so and sunny. I’ve got some extra room on the aluminum bleachers next to me, so I spread out a bit and relax. Central Michigan jumps out to a surprising early lead, stifling Kentucky in the first half and taking a 13-6 lead at halftime. But the Wildcats don’t fold. Finding their rhythm on offense, they score three touchdowns in the second half, one of them an electric 87 yard run by Josh Clemons and cruise to a 27-13 comeback win.

Sunburnt from the unobstructed afternoon sun, I wander out of the stadium after the final whistle and pick my way down side streets to my car. A couple of those same students are passed out on the porch now, hoodies pulled tight over their slouched heads. All is right in Lexington on a College Football Saturday…

Louisville vs Florida International - Cardinals Grounded

Posts will be short this week, since I’ll be on the road in a few days and don’t want to get backlogged this early in the season.

Louisville was a Friday night game during my Bluegrass State doubleheader weekend, and I hustled into the stadium shortly after kickoff, delayed by an impromptu bridge closure into the city of Louisville. Expecting a typical Louisville game, I readied myself for a flurry of offense, porous defense, and final score in the 55-45 range.

Instead, the Cardinals looked meek the entire contest. Floundering on offense, and being physically dominated by the visitors from Florida International University (FIU), Louisville packed little punch under the Friday night lights of Papa John Cardinal Stadium, eventually falling to FIU 24-17 in front of a crowd of 47,228. The win for the Panthers was actually their first over a team from a BCS conference, not exactly a ringing endorsement for the oft maligned Big East.

I spent the second half of the game seated next to a great guy named Tom and his wife. Tom was a Kentucky grad, his wife a Louisville grad, which I’m sure makes for an interesting dynamic during basketball season. A local businessman, Tom and I spent the better part of the second half chatting about some of the Louisville sports traditions, and the pricey stadium renovations that have recently added a grandstand to the East side. Basketball season, he assured me, was the real season to see a few games in Kentucky.

One interesting nuance about Papa John Cardinal Stadium were the Coors beer trailers located throughout the concourse. For those of you uninitiated to the world of college football, this is actually quite an oddity, as ALL of the stadiums I have been to thus far do not allow the sale of alcohol at College Football games – including bowl games. As I learned, Cardinal Stadium technically isn’t located on University of Louisville grounds, as such they are free to sell beer, much to the delight of the fans on this particularly drab night.

Hot Brown Sandwich - The Louisville Legend

There are a handful of towns across the country known for having a signature sandwich, a dish that likely started as an oddity, and has now become an icon for that particular city. The cheese steak in Philadelphia and Italian Beef in Chicago are a few of the obvious examples that come to mind. In Louisville, that offering is known as the Hot Brown Sandwich. While it may sound like something out of the Urban Dictionary, the Hot Brown is one of those elusive cultural standalones that I seek out during my travels. Epic sandwiches are a challenge I simply can’t resist.

Ground zero for the Hot Brown, as I discovered, is the opulent Brown Hotel located in the heart of downtown Louisville. The hefty offering is served open faced on toast points, consisting of roast turkey slathered in Mornay (cheese) sauce, and topped with a couple slices of crisp bacon. Its origins can be traced back to 1923, when chef Fred Schmidt made the sandwich for late night party goers, looking for an after hours snack. It has since become a staple throughout the city of Louisville, but there is something to be said for the original.

Carving into a few bites of my Hot Brown in the classically appointed Brown Hotel, harkens images of a 1920’s flapper scene. Surrounded by marble and ornate frescoes, it’s like being transported back into an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. Gooey, indulgent and greasily satisfying, you might say that the Hot Brown sandwich is the original drunk food. Eating one at the Brown is like connecting with our hard drinking forefathers…

Hot Brown Sandwich History

Old Hickory Pit - Owensboro, the other BBQ Mecca...

When it comes to premier barbecue geographies in the US, places like Memphis, Kansas City, Texas or North Carolina immediately come to mind. While Owensboro, Kentucky, located a stones throw from the southern Indiana border might not typically be associated with that list, the city prides itself on being a barbecue hotbed. Putting their pits to the test meant trying at least one of two stalwart locations in the city: Moonlite Barbecue or Old Hickory Pit Barbecue.

Normally, I would have opted for both, but since Moonlite observes limited hours on Sundays, the Old Hickory Pit became my only option for a late Sunday lunch on the drive back to St. Louis.

Pulling up to the building offered some encouragement, as a sizeable wood pile was stacked up along the rear walls, always a leading indicator of proper barbecue. Settling into a booth in the dark wood paneled interior, I ordered up the usual brisket and ribs along with a few newcomers to by barbecue adventures; bbq mutton and burgoo. Mutton is a specialty of the Owensboro area, so a sampling was in order. Burgoo is a regional side dish, a stew made with various meats, corn and okra along with a handful of other mystery ingredients and spices. It was reminiscent of Brunswick Stew, often found in older North Carolina BBQ joints.

Unlike the delicate butcher block slicing of Texas barbecue joints, or the raspy electric knife found at Snow’s Barbecue, Old Hickory pit takes their slicing to an entirely new level. Hearing the whine of power equipment, I shuffled over to the kitchen area to find the servers carving up my order in a band saw. Intimidating, and over the top. I love it.

I’m happy to report that there is a dedication to the craft here at Old Hickory Pit worthy of it’s long standing tradition in Owenboro. The meats are smoked with care, both the ribs and brisket enjoying well defined smoke rings and a deep smoke flavor throughout. They had dried a bit, likely from sitting out too long, but the deft hand of the pitmaster still shone through. BBQ mutton was fork tender, but I simply don’t have much of a taste for mutton. They gamey flavor of the meat simply overpowers the smoke, and I’d likely not order it on a return trip. The burgoo was hearty side dish, with a touch of heat to it that would make for a perfect winter meal by itself.

In all, Owensboro was a worthy detour on the ride back. While I’d have to sample a few other joints in the city before giving it more praise, Old Hickory Pit was a great introduction to the barbecue capitol of Kentucky!

Wagners Pharmacy

In the shadow of Churchill Downs racetrack, quite literally across the street from the entrance, sits a little pharmacy that has been in operation since 1922. Wagners Pharmacy is a legend in Louisville, and nary a horse racing fan hasn’t walked through their doors at some time or another. Scenes from the recent movie “Secretariat” were filmed at Wagners, and the walls are adorned with an archive of black and white Kentucky Derby photos.

With the height of racing season over for the year, I eased into Wagners early on a Saturday morning and took a gander over the traditional, unpretentious breakfast menu. A few regulars sipped their coffee a few stools down from me, exchanging stories with the waitresses about the Louisville tailgating scene the night before. I gazed around, curious at all the racing paraphernalia, admiring the history in the walls.

I ordered up a simple breakfast, some eggs over easy with ham, then watched eagerly as the lady at the grill scraped the cook top clean and cracked a few white eggs onto the hot griddle. A few minutes later, she plopped my breakfast onto a paper plate and slid it across the counter in front of me. Paper plates were an odd choice I thought, perhaps they just didn’t feel like doing dishes yet. Paper doesn’t have quite the same satisfying scratch sound when you scrape a fork across it, but with the ample portion of ham on my plate, I had little to complain about.

Settling up, I hopped into the car for the morning ride out to Lexington…

Wagners Pharmacy Website

Field Of Dreams: "Is this Heaven? No. It's Iowa."

I was going to write a long winded post about Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa, but no amount of words can possibly do this place justice. To any baseball fan, there is something magical about Field of Dreams, a spirit of something intrinsic, something fundamental. It’s a moving experience.

Simply beyond my ability to capture – I’ll defer instead to James Earl Jones (Terrence Mann) quote from the movie.

“Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.”

Or the Moonlight Graham quote (Moonlight Graham was based on a real person):

“Well, you know I... I never got to bat in the major leagues. I would have liked to have had that chance. Just once. To stare down a big league pitcher. To stare him down, and just as he goes into his windup, wink. Make him think you know something he doesn't. That's what I wish for. Chance to squint at a sky so blue that it hurts your eyes just to look at it. To feel the tingling in your arm as you connect with the ball. To run the bases - stretch a double into a triple, and flop face-first into third, wrap your arms around the bag. That's my wish, Ray Kinsella. That's my wish. And is there enough magic out there in the moonlight to make this dream come true”

I salute the Lansing Family – the owners of the farm and field for keeping this place pristine, non commercialized, and completely free and open to the public.

And rest assured, I slammed a few into the corn during my time in the batters box…