Hot Springs Derby Days With Bubba's Brews and Degenerate Gamblers
Writing a post on your phone is not the easiest but Chad’s last post inspired me as soon as I got done reading it and had to put something down or at least get started.
Damn! As soon as I begin the barking starts like wild wolves intimidating the antelope in the wild mountain country of Wyoming. Okay, maybe I’m just sitting at the campsite’s fenced in yard and my two mutts are barking ruthlessly at an old retired lady who spent the night in her $200,000 RV and her perfectly groomed shitzu is making it known they’re not invited to the party. Fine with me I’ve got morning breath, have’nt had my coffee yet, and don’t feel like a chat. I’m busy throwing sticks to the wolves and hoping I can type a little for the blog.
It’s beginning to become a beautiful morning in the Ouachita Mountains and I’m staying at a cabin in the Hot Springs National Park. I love tent camping but was glad we made the decision for a cabin as tornados and thunderstorm warnings were in the area most of the night. This isn’t just any trip to the Ouachita National Forest or expedition to favorite hiding and off-season stomping grounds of Al Capone and Babe Ruth. No, I am here for The “Racing Festival of the South!” The Arkansas Derby is this weekend and I’ve got my sights set on some underdogs and trifectas. I know very little about horse racing but the only way to educate yourself on something is to dive right in.The winner of the big stakes race capping off the day goes to the Kentucky Derby to compete and who will really remember the outcome but only the sheer exuberance of the final feet of the race.
I’ve been excited about this trip all week. It’s a family outing for my girlfriend’s folks and they like to have to have a good time. Tuesday I cleaned my lawn mower’s carburetor and got it running after a winter’s nap, played some tennis on Wednesday, and got some time out on the lake in 30 mile per hour winds. Looking back, I shouldn’t have traversed the lake in those dangerous conditions in a kayak but hell I was there so what else was I gonna do?
The trip from the Ozarks to the Ouachitas truly began on Highway 7 riding the curves in stomping rain following an 18 wheeler possibly either making their first or last drop of their long week.
I never like to ride close to truckers and give them their space especially in shitty weather conditions I think they all deserve that. Highway 7 is not the route to be zooming at 80 miles an hour around curves in the mountains especially when tornado warnings are in the future.
Anyway, this is a new day I’m writing. The sun is setting behind my Ozarks hideaway, the first half of Merle Haggard’s “Back to the Barrooms” album is playing on the record player. Buying vinyl records these days I believe is the best experience for someone who enjoys music such as Merle or Hank Williams Sr. and Jr. because you can always buy one of their records a little used for $1. “Back to the Barrooms” is one of those records. Is that the correct punctuation for an album title. I just needed some space to write about the final track of the first side “I Don’t Wanna Sober Up Tonight.” Great song that anyone can relate to and makes you feel good. I got to see Merle Haggard in concert twice, one time in high school with me and my buddy Andrew traveling to see him open for Bob Dylan in Jackson, Mississippi and the other time with fellow GA writer Derek at the Bonnaroo Music Festival of 2009. At Bonnaroo that Sunday we saw the procession of Todd Snider>Robert Earl Keen>Merle Haggard>Snoop Dogg>Phish. That festival really deserves a blog post of its own, whether or not it was approaching 9 years ago somehow.
April 25, 2018
There’s no reason I should be watching a baseball game involving the Washington Nationals and the San Francisco Giants in the first month of the long season and the score an egregious 15-2. Washington is the team that’s up by 13 runs in the 7th inning but they are the road team crossing the country for the matchup. This game is in San Francisco, a city that I have been wanting to visit for many years, especially after the Grateful Dead became my favorite band, or at least the musical artist I have spent the most hours in my life listening to since I was 13 years old.
May 9, 2018
I have to finish this article my goodness it’s been almost a month since the actual Arkansas Derby which was to be my focus for the feature. Since the actual Derby concluded I’ve made another trip to South Arkansas this time to visit some relatives and attend a Jason Isbell concert at the Griffin Music Hall in El Dorado, a nice indoor venue bought with Murphy oil money.Happening that same weekend was the Kentucky Derby, which I was not able to watch which is a shame but dang I hadn’t had a mint julep all day and was driving, already later arriving to my destination than expected. Justify was the winner in the Kentucky Derby and two horses that I saw in Hot Springs a few weeks ago, Arkansas Derby champion Magnum Moon finished 19th out of 20, and show horse Solomini finished 10th, which only sounds like a solid race competed compared to Magnum Moon. The Arkansas Derby was a fun event but horse racing events can drag on if you’re not winning and have ran out of beer money.
In fact the highlight of the day was driving the scenic roads up to the Hot Springs Mountain Tower thinking it would be car to car with pre-Derby visitors enjoying a breath of fresh air before the aroma of cheap cigars, overdressed drunks, and un-bathed degenerate gamblers hit the race park. In fact, the racing horses themselves are among the least foul smelling of the creatures that would be there. But alas, we were one of two or three cars in addition to a jogger that made that trek up Hot Springs Mountain an hour or so before the first race. Not that I’m complaining, I didn’t need cats from a neighboring county to be chugging Natural Lights and blaring Ted Nugent or Florida Georgia Line.
I see why quite a few writers, and some of the most talented in addition to being some of my favorites have been heavy drinkers. There is something about writing that makes a man thirsty. I myself am taking advantage of the warm May late afternoon here in the Ozarks to drink from a bottle of red muscadine wine while sitting in a fold out camping chair next to my fire pit, hoping my tomatoes and peppers got enough sun today in the garden nearby. The dogs are out and about with me watching the cardinals and rose breasted grosebeak birds flying through the yard getting fat off of the feeder above us.
I have been non stop writing this article and getting somewhere with it thank goodness but the animals are thirsty wanting to get inside to the air conditioner like the lazy, inside dogs they are. Hell I can’t blame them as we skipped Spring this year and have hit full blown summer temperatures this week of 86-88 degrees not allowing anyone to get acclimated just coming from an average of temperatures in the 50’s and 60’s. Fellow Arkansan Joe Nichols had a song “Sunny and 75” and the band the Silver Jews had a lyric in the song “People” that goes “it’s sunny and 75, it feels so good to be alive” which is so true. But we didn’t have those perfect days this half of the year. Maybe in October!
Well, I didn’t write much about the actual horse racing event but feeling this buzz from the muscadines reminds me more of the solid dinner and drinks we shared at the Cajun Boilers restaurant in Hot Springs, one that has good after-drinking food and sits next to the Ouachita River. I got some kind of seafood platter that included fried catfish in addition to a variety of shrimp and that paired well with the pitcher of local craft brew Bubba Brew’s Arkie Amber Ale. The Arkie Amber Ale was very smooth drinking, rich in malty goodness and the slight bitterness from the Czech and German noble hops. Next time I’m in Hot Springs I want to stop at their brewery as this selection was delicious.
At our table of ten of my girlfriend’s family, the other beer drinkers were mid-school age types that swore by Bud Light and considered this amber ale “too dark.” Yes it cost $2 dollars more but it was far worth it. The bottle of muscadine wine is about through, it’s time to grill some dinner, so let’s talk sports. The Warriors and Rockets are both headed to the Western Conference Finals in the NBA playoffs which are no surprise to anyone since Houston acquired point guard extraordinaire Chris Paul to go along with James Harden. In the Eastern side of the league the Cavs of Lebron James fucked the entire 82 game season off to finish 4th in the league because they could and just swept four games to zero the Eastern Conference champion Toronto Raptors. As of this moment the Boston Celtics are ahead 3 games to 1 against the Philadelphia 76ers who have the most raw talent with Embiid and Simmons but have not put it together but one game this series. The NBA playoffs have been a let down again, something that I alluded to last year in an article. However, the Western Conference Finals look to be entertaining with the Rockets trying to upend the Golden State Warriors, the NBA champions the last two of the three years. Games should average in the 130 point range for each team all of us basketball fans are hoping. I assume Lebron James and his ragtime team of role players will advance to face that winner but the Celtics and 76ers play an elimination game tonight, trying to be the only game of these conference finals to go to 6 games. Before this bottle of Southern vino is finished I am also excited about the NHL hockey playoffs and I hope you are to. Until next article.
T.D.
Photo credits to T.D.