So we have a large female here. You've got leaf on your head.
You got leaf on your face. There you go.
Hello. And welcome to George Goes Everywhere,
the show we explore city and see as much of it as we can, all about spending more than $100.
I'm in Louisville today, or should I say Lou-u-vul?
That's closer to what the locals call it.
I don't know if I'll quite be able to pull that off, but I'm gonna try.
Anyway, I'm kicking things off in front of this Greetings from Louisville mural.
Now, there are a lot of murals around town,
but this one spoke to me cause it looks just like a postcard. It's a cool story actually.
It's part of a project called Greetings Tour.
They're a pair of artists who travel around painting postcard murals like this
in cities, all over the country. And I love sending postcards whenever I travel,
so this really just caught my eye. Anyway,
today I wanna hit a bunch of different things. Some super well known, others
more obscure. Here, let me show you what I mean.
See, Louisville is well known for being the home of KFC and Colonel Sanders,
but it's not as well known for being the origin of the song Happy Birthday,
as evidenced by this appropriately named parking lot.
It's known for being the birthplace of Muhammad Ali and even has an entire
museum dedicated to him.
But it's not known for being the birthplace of the high five.
However, they say in the late 70s,
the Louisville Cardinals college basketball team did invent it. Now admittedly,
there are some other competing origin stories out there, but hey,
I'm in Louisville. So the Louisville Cardinals version is the version I'm going with.
High-five?
Okay, she didn't want to high-five me, but that's okay, that's okay.
Anyway, let's kick things off with one of the most well known things about Louisville,
the Kentucky Derby. Now being here during the race sounds like it'd be amazing,
but even if you're not, doesn't mean you can't check out the venue.
So I've come to Churchill Downs, the home of the Kentucky Derby,
where they have a Derby Museum. Now, about the price...
I'm going hog wild and I'm spending a full $40 here,
but that's not just for the museum.
That includes a little something extra afterwards, but we'll get to that.
This is great.
You can actually place bets here and they even give you a full ticket.
And I like Stream Kid to win. Ah, oh, he's not doing well.
Come on, Stream Kid. Ah, no, no, we lost the last second. Uh!
Okay. I didn't do very well at the betting,
but maybe I'll do better at actually riding some horses.
Come on, go!
Ah!
Sixth place? Six out of six? Mmmm.
I kinda like this. All right, let's weigh in. A jockey should weigh no more than 126 pounds.
I weigh much more than 126 pounds.
Here's where I am and there's where I need to be. So yeah,
probably not gonna be at jockey anytime soon.
So remember when I said I was dropping 40 bucks here?
That's because I sprung for what they called the Superstars & Spires Tour.
It's where they take you through the exclusive areas that all the high rollers
hang out in during the races. And let's be real,
this is the closest I'm ever gonna get to it, so I might as well take advantage now.
This is a better view than the television cameras. This is amazing!
It's really nice hanging out here when it's empty.
It's just very peaceful here right now.
They say it's about $8,000 to sit up here on Derby day. So yeah,
don't think I'll be coming here anytime soon. This is great.
All that's missing is the food and drink and horse racing and celebrities and roar
of the crowd. But other than that, it's exactly the same.
And while I'm here, I wanted to mention something
I discovered at that Colonel Sanders figure earlier.
Did you know that Colonel Sanders wasn't a military Colonel? He's called Colonel
because that's a title that Kentucky bestows on people for like contributions to
the community and stuff like that.
There are over 100,000 Kentucky Colonels out there, which is awesome.
I wanna be a Kentucky Colonel! Colonel George Igoe. I like that.
I like it a lot.
All right, we've arrived at the moment
you've all been waiting for. Or maybe it's just me who's been waiting for it.
It's time to have some Kentucky bourbon. Now I love bourbon,
but you can also get that pretty much anywhere. So if I'm in Louisville,
I should have one of their signature drinks,
the mint julep. And believe it or not, I've never actually had a mint julep before.
So I'm entering uncharted waters here.
So I've come to the Silver Dollar where I hear they have amazing mint juleps.
They have a technique with this kind of coat,
the cup in mint rather than crush it and leave it in.
I'm really pumped to try this. Wow, that's pretty good.
I guess I was worried that the sugar and the mint would overwhelm the bourbon,
but that's not the case. It more compliments the bourbon. It's the kind of bourbon
you can drink during the day. Guess that's why it's popular at the Kentucky Derby.
The gentleman working here said that he thinks it's not just the best mint julep
in Louisville, but the best mint julep in all the world,
which is a very bold statement,
but I like his confidence.
It's served in this metal cup here, which is just freezing.
I mean, it keeps the drink cold, but my hands are freezing.
I gotta maybe do one of these... Yeah. Okay.
Before we walked in here, I probably would've told you that bourbon is perfect on its own.
You don't need to mix it with anything. But now after having this,
I get it a little bit more. I get why you want to try to... not dilute the bourbon,
but just sort of compliment it. So I think mint juleps, they have a new fan.
One thing that's unmistakably Louisville is the Louisville Slugger.
I mean they put the city's name in their brand, so they're kind of linked.
And one thing that's pretty hard to miss in Downtown Louisville is the
Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory. Now I'm a huge baseball fan,
so coming here's pretty much a no brainer for me, but don't get nervous if you're not,
because from everything I hear, it's awesome even if you're not a baseball fan.
They got a pitching machine that simulates a major league pitcher right here throwing a 90
mile an hour fastball and-- holy moly, that is so fast. Oh my God.
But forget fastballs, the real star of the show here is the factory tour.
The smell of this place is amazing. It just smells like a lumber yard,
but it's baseball. So it's even better than a lumber yard. So this is awesome,
they have a whole video about the forest where they gather the wood and the lumber
mill, where they select the wood. It's really comprehensive. Just awesome.
This is not some kinda like fake tour. This is like a legit factory floor.
This is pretty intense.
You have a yellow line here that you're not supposed to cross
and I found my foot slipping over a little bit. So gotta watch out for that.
Hey, I got one.
So I'm not gonna lie to you, that was bad. It was really bad,
but it actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be.
So I'll take this as a win. High five!
All right, I want to give a quick update on this Kentucky Colonels thing that I mentioned
earlier because I've been looking into it and I really don't see why I can't be one.
First off, they talk about making contributions to the community. Well,
I'm in town making this show,
hopefully encouraging people to visit this fine city.
Then they talk about being an ambassador of foodwill and fellowship.
I do nothing but spread goodwill and fellowship. I mean, remember
I tried to high five that stranger earlier. I mean, didn't work, but I tried.
And lastly, they talk about a noteworthy deed.
Okay, I don't think I have that one yet, but otherwise I'm close.
So we'll see what happens.
So have you ever heard of burgoo?
I sure hadn't but it's an iconic dish of the Kentucky Derby. It's ingredients
vary, but it's basically a stew with assorted meats and vegetables. Basically,
people just kind of toss in whatever they have on hand,
which is why it's also sometimes referred to as roadkill soup.
And if that doesn't get your tummy rumbling, I don't know what will.
But I'm gonna get some at Frankfort Avenue Beer Depot,
a smoke house where I'm confident the meats used will be decidedly better than roadkill.
It's kinda like a chili with like pulled meat and veggies.
It's like a chili on steroids, basically.
I do like to give you a ton of crackers to break off onto it.
Not enough things do that.
That should be a more common thing is breaking off crackers onto the food.
Hmm, this is spicy. It's got some kick to it.
It's the kind of food that hits back when you eat it. You know what that means?
Gotta crumble some more saltines into it. You know, cut it down a little bit.
Oh man, my nose is running. I was not expecting this to be as spicy as it is.
This is challenging old Georgie boy. I'm good. I can finish.
I can definitely finish. I think I can finish. Last bite. Oh,
Oh. See? Told you I would finish. My mouth is on fire, but it was worth it.
So from what I've seen,
most of the locals have never even heard of this next place.
And in the course of doing this show, I've never seen anything like it.
It's called Idlewild Butterfly Farm & Insectarium. What is an insectarium?
Well, it's kind of like a live insect zoo, but Idlewild here is very hands on.
So not only do you get to see the bugs, you get to hold the bugs.
Who's the lucky roach today?
What's that noise? That's the bug.
Oh boy.
Oh! Listen to that!
Yeah, these are the Madagascar hissing cockroaches.
And we can definitely tell how they get their name. You wanna hold her?
Sure.
Oh!
Hey buddy.
I've never been this close to cockroaches and I live in Los Angeles
so that's really saying something.
This is a Giant African Millipede.
So many legs.
Oh!
It is very ticklish.
It's a little ticklish.
I think it's really fun how the legs move in a wave pattern.
Right, right. Moving like kind of in unison, but separate.
In a ripple.
Yeah.
We just got a millipede treadmill going right here. He's moving!
He's moving, he's getting some exercise in.
This is Pinky Pie. Pinky Pie is an orchid praying mantis. Doink!
That was a hop.
Oh, that tickles.
She just gave you a look.
-She gave me some side eye. -She gave you some side eye. -She gave me some side eye.
High five? Yeah. That was a high five.
Well, I don't think I'm going to top getting a high five from a praying mantis anytime
soon. So I think I'm about done here in Louisville,
but I did wanna try to do something to strengthen my case for when I apply
to be a Kentucky Colonel.
I need some kind of noteworthy deed and I actually think I got one.
Remember when I said that Louisville's claimed to inventing the high five was contested?
Kentucky Colonels... here I come.