Thanks to lumineaux and Griffyn for a comfortable and friendly home to stay in while I went to the Breeder's Cup.

Thanks to baronsteffan for giving me the idea to buy a Garmin GPS so I could find my way around New Jersey in the dark and the rain.

Thanks to Edmond & Emmeline for a great Halloween party and for introducing me to Jungle Speed. We have to play this at Pennsic!

Thanks to fencerm2 for helping me find Edmond & Emmeline's place.

Sorry I never friended you back, Mercedes! As soon as I figure out your LJ name, I'll be there! Really, I don't hate you.

Thanks, Oceanport Department of Emergency Management, for figuring out how to deal with the big traffic jams after the races.

I took the car, not the NJ Transit, and it was OK. The races were muddy because it poured rain for two days, so even if grey, bay, chestnut, and brown horses started the race, by the end they were all brown, and so were the jockeys. Made it hard to tell what was going on. But it was still exciting being with thousands of other nut cases like me, all cheering and yelling.

New Jersey: where else can you buy gas at fifty cents less a gallon than in New York, at a service area called Cheesequake?

I have tickets for the Breeder's Cup horse races but I don't know how I'm getting there!

Next week, on Friday the 26th and Saturday the 27th, the Breeder's Cup races will be run at Monmouth Park race track in Oceanport, New Jersey. Somewhere between 50,000 and 70,000 fans will be turning out for this world championship of thoroughbred racing, including yours truly.

Here's the problems:

1) This track doesn't usually have anywhere near this number of visitors. People in online forums are saying that there is going to be a horrible traffic jam both days and that visitors should take NJ Transit to the track.

2) The forecast is rain for both days. (And I think that my seats are outdoors with no shelter, and umbrellas are banned,) (And it would be nice to have my car with dry clothes in it after the races.) (And I did also buy a reserved parking pass.)

3) I bought a special NJ Transit pass to ride anywhere in the system for both days. lumineaux has kindly offered me crash space near Morristown for this event, but she tells me that to get from there to Monmouth Park via NJ Transit is a long and involved undertaking, and that I would be better off driving.

4) I would like to come to Edmond and Emmeline's Halloween party after the races Saturday night, and having my car at the track means that I can then go to E&Es place.

So, does this add up to take my car and endure the traffic jams? Can one be stuck in a traffic jam in NJ for untold hours? Or is there always an end somewhere?

ps: Today, I am going to buy a Garmin GPS for the car because I am tired of getting lost all over the Northeast. So I could plug in addresses and find my way around NJ.

What do you all think?

My trip to Louisville went just fine. Even better knowing that I have escaped the snows of Upstate NY, at least for now!!

Met some friends and headed out to dinner at the Cardinals Hall of Fame Cafe, because the hotel recommended it and gave us a card for free appetizers. Um. That's the University of Louisville Cardinals, and last night was their biggest football game in, oh, the last forty years or so, against West Virginia.

This meant traffic gridlock, fans on every street corner a-whoopin' and a-hollerin,', and a Hall of Fame cafe packed with crazed, cardinal-red clothed patrons screaming at giant-screen TVs.

We decided to go for the adventure, and actually got quite a pleasant meal fairly quickly. Yum, carmelized salmon! And since we left before the game was over, getting a cab back to the hotel was easy. Although I did have to tell the dispatcher the score when I called.

Today it's off to the races at Churchill Downs, and a visit to the Kentucky Derby Museum. Tomorrow: The Breeder's Cup!!!

Many of you've heard the bad news about Barbaro breaking his leg in the Preakness yesterday.

He's in surgery today. It's worse than they thought originally. There is a chance that he may not live.

Please keep this good horse in your thoughts.

I dreamed last night that Bob Baffert came to my house for a visit.

No, he didn't tell me who was going to win the Preakness.

I need to get out more.