I Run Louisville

I compare my summer working at Fort Knox like working 99 Mondays and 1 Friday.  Here in this training environment, every day looks almost the same as the one before it until the last day.  There is a monotony that cannot be ignored.  However, life here wasn't without engaging in some extracurricular activities.

While I was here I looked up and signed up for three local races.

The Parklands 5k Run! was just outside of Louisville in a beautiful park.  The weather was great, clear blue skies, low humidity, and temperatures in the 60s. The course - an out and back - was on roads and pathways, over a small river, and had wildflowers everywhere.  Best part of my day was finishing second place for my age group!

The NENA Run For 9-1-1, was a 5k in Louisville, along the Ohio River. An odd race, it started at 6:30pm, following a day of the National 9-1-1 Association convention. I was one of a handful of non convention goers to sign up. I got there so early that I helped the organizers set up the course. I also got to hear first, and then see a piece of history as one of the last flight worthy B-17 WWII bombers passed over head. Witnessing that and taking first place for my age group was the best part of the day.

 

The Summer Sizzler- Louisville was a 10k that was supposed to be in Parklands, the location of the first race, but was relocated to the park along the Ohio River, where I ran the NENA 9-1-1 race. This course was an out and back along the river, over the awesome, Big Four pedestrian/bike bridge and the Ohio River, and back to the start line - TWICE.  (The organization of this race was the worst I have ever seen, period.)  The best part of the day was running the bridge and finishing seventh overall and first in my age group!

Not once while I was running did it feel like a Monday.  

Happily Annoyed - A Parenting Win

"Get off the bed!  But let me get a picture first."

I love that they are all together for a few days. These moments are going to be rare in the future.  Sam has a life outside of the five of us. TJ will be coming into his own soon with school, work, and a driver's license.  Grant is a few years from any of that but he looks up to both of them.  

They find comfort in one another's company and that's a good thing.  

They used to be so small. Not too long ago.  In fact all five of us could fit on the bed.  

Camp Seagull Can't Beat Down Team Brown

Being a part of a family requires teamwork.  I often refer to all of us as Team Brown. Everyone has a part to play on Team Brown and sometimes the parts are interchangeable. Someone is the coach, someone is the task master, someone is the medic, someone is first one done, someone is the last one done; and no role is specific to one person.  I love that about this family.  I have seen Sam be a coach to her brothers. I have seen Lisa lead the charge. I have seen TJ be good to the dog.  

This past weekend, Team Brown was very busy.  I flew home from Fort Knox, KY, to get the boys from Camp Seagull while Lisa took care of her mom; which is another long post for another time.  Needless to say, it was important for me to be home and help.

The drive to Camp is two and half hours, one way.  The boys spent four weeks there, sailing, swimming, shooting bow and arrows, and just being boys within a very safe and structured environment.  I love that Camp rewards them with really enriching, life long memories and skills.  Samantha can sail a keel boat, Grant has his US Power Boating license, and TJ became certified as a Life Guard this summer.  Truly, Camp is one of the last good places for children.

However, at the end of Camp - and at the end of one, two and half hour trip - there are two boys with all of their crap ready to come home.  Some of the clothing is still dirty or wet; or both.  Shower caddies are askew. Last year we didn't even realize we lost Grant's sheets until we got home.  The kids themselves are tired, slightly sunburned, and ready to go home.  This year however was a first. This year it was pouring down rain during pick up. This was not a gentle rain. Lightning and thunder punctuated they desire to get out of Arapahoe, NC!

TJ, God bless him, was ready.  Everything was packed, neat-ish, and ready to go.  Grant, on the hand, was a hot mess who we couldn't find for ten minutes, and then slipped and fell in the mud as he ran back to his cabin. His stuff was all over the place and went into the van piecemeal.  Patience is not my strongest virtue some times but since I hadn't seen Grant in a month, I kept it together. But seriously, can we insert an eyeroll here?!  With the promise of Chipotle when we got home we headed out Fuquay Varina. 

Within minutes Grant was asleep and TJ was catching up on his phone. Grant's camp cough turned out to be the flu, which wiped him out for days (along with a good case of pink eye), and TJ's camp cough might be a residual side effect of his Covid diagnosis. Either way, they are on the mend now. 

Within an hour, the rain passed and the sun came out for a nice ride home and the team was reunited when someone - who likes to do laundry - hugged us and made us dump the entire contents of the van onto the garage floor to be cleaned. 

Go Team Brown!

SDFWTK

Another trip without the kids! Another chance to connect and adult without having to parent.  This time we took advantage of my assignment at Fort Knox, KY and Sam's wedding to have Lisa stay a week with me and visit parts of Kentucky - and a little of Indiana!

On Monday we drove up to Louisville and parked down by the Big Four Bridge, an old railroad bridge that crosses the Ohio River into Indiana. The massive steel structure is now a pedestrian thoroughfare with joggers, sightseers, bicyclists, and walkers.  With no clear direction except north over the Ohio and into Indiana, we went into Jeffersonville, IN, in search of dinner.  The whole area was filled with eclectic restaurants and pubs.  It seems like we walked until we were beyond hungry and ended up in a neat little pizza place with open air seating and a dude strumming a guitar.  We asked the "local" waitress what there was do to in the area and she admitted that she was from Kentucky and drove over to work every day.  The waitress who was from Jeffersonville wasn't any help either.  So much for advocating for your town.  We walked back across as the sun was setting. Sunsets in Kentucky in the summer are particularly illuminating because we sit at the very western edge of the Eastern Time Zone.  It was still light at 9:30pm.

On Tuesday, we went to trivia night down at the Flywheel Brewing Company in Elizabethtown, KY.  Hardin County only recently repealed its status as a dry county within the last ten years.  The is only one brewery and one real bar.  Since we are familiar with breweries and are pretty good at trivia we ended up at the Flywheel sitting with a bunch of strangers answering questions, making acquaintances, and drinking beer. 

On Wednesday we went to Bardstown, a quaint, turn of the 20th century, small Kentucky town known as the gateway to the bourbon trail.  Makers Mark, Jim Beam, Four Roses, Bardstown Distilleries and several other are all located within ten miles of downtown. Bardstown is a nostalgic reflection of America 80 years ago.  We started off with a cocktail and walked around in the late afternoon heat.  We ended up for a short stay in this unusual store with home furnishings, clothes, art work, and glassware. They were getting ready for a book signing by a woman who was a connoisseur of  whiskey and bourbon and her husband who was the master  distiller of  Reservoir Distillery in Richmond, VA.  He brought along three bottles of his work and we had half a shot of each.  Lisa might not be a bourbon drinker but she did try (and finish) all three.  Half intoxicated we found a place to eat that made exceptional burgers and fries. Unfortunately, most of the town was shut down with the exception of a man in a cowboy hat driving a horse drawn carriage offering rides for $100.  

Thursday we were back in downtown E-town after short and pathetic tour of a local distillery.  We walked around the town square and found a running store, another pizza place, and stopped in the Bourbon Barrell Tavern.  Mallory - our amazing bartender - made Lisa a bourbon drink. Mallory quickly realized that Lisa didn't like it, took it from her, and made her something completely different that she did enjoy.  The BBT is a double store front, Main Street, USA, venue. One hundred years ago, one side might have been a general store and soda shop while the other side sold clothing and fine apparel.  Today, one side is a huge bar of glass and wood with high ceilings and exposed brick walls while the other side has a small stage, lighting, and tables. The bar side has a saloon feel to it and the stage side feels a little like Nashville. 

Friday, Lisa got the nickel tour of Fort Knox. She got to see Cadets complete First Aid, come out of the "gas chamber", and visit the nerve center of Cadet Summer Training, the TOC!  She may or may not have been completely underwhelmed.

Friday night we had dinner with one of my former students who was now a Battalion Commander headquartered on Fort Knox.  Chris was a solid Cadet who I pushed to be a leader beyond him just wanting to be an Army Physical Therapist.  Whatever guidance I gave him way back in 2004 took root.  Chris gave Lisa glimpse of who Captain Brown used to be with hysterical anecdotes about me chasing my students up and down the staircase of Barton Hall. I had a hard time explaining to Lisa who that person was - just prior to her entering my life - and how I managed to yell and be so mean when I am not like that in real life.  Being an Army ROTC Instructor was the best job I ever had and seeing the positive results of my efforts in the accomplishments of others was/is a great reward unto itself.  Oddly enough, we ended up at the Bourbon Barrel Tavern again.  

Saturday we made a trip to downtown Louisville. We stood outside of the Louisville Slugger Museum and took in the preserved architecture of West Main Street. The highlight was the Muhammad Ali Center, overlooking the Ohio River. Ali, is and was, The Greatest. He was an American in every sense of word; loud, proud, conflicted, violent, pious, generous, a warrior and a peacemaker - at times in conflict with

his nation and himself.  I have always admired him for refusing to be drafted into the Vietnam War because he knew it would cost him his boxing career and yet he did it anyway. He fought the system and won and then reentered the ring to win the title two more times. His boxing career only allowed him the ability to be an international messenger of peace and brotherhood. He is a rarity among humanity. One half of the Center is dedicated to his boxing career and the other half is dedicated everything that followed.  You get a little misty seeing the torch that he lit the Olympic Cauldron with.   

Kentucky is exceptionally hot this time of year and the big lunch, the heat and the walking took its toll on the two of us. We got back to the hotel and quickly fell asleep for a good hour or so.  

And just like that the trip had to end. Life got in the way.  In the morning we drove down to Nashville so Lisa could catch the 8:30am flight out to Raleigh.  It went by too fast but it was great.

Here is the rest of the good pictures:

Big Bat!

Bardstown

Me and Squinty Magee

The Heart Stopper

Skyline at Sunset