N 38° 12.322 W 085° 46.075

from Local Treasures

N 38° 12.322 W 085° 46.075

I found my way to Churchill Downs, where the parking-lot attendant gave me a free ticket to the races. She was kind, to be sure, but also doing her part for the track. Although a fair portion of the 12,000 Future Farmers of America who had converged on Louisville the night before seemed to be here, I spied very few others inside who looked old enough to place a bet.

The Future Farmers were having fun; and I eavesdropped as I passed each clique. Some were talking about the horses, or about how cool it would be to bet or to be here for the Kentucky Derby. One boy was practicing lassoing, to a mix of jeers and admiring grunts. Most of the girls, by far, were talking about boys—whispering, pointing, giggling, poking each other—as each new guy walked by. When the third race was announced, though, everyone (even the girls) turned toward the track, quiet attention focused for the scant minutes it lasted, cheers erupting when Cha-ching Cha-ching won. When it became clear it’d be a while before the fourth race began, I decided to hunt for the cache.

To my surprise, it was outside the park. So, with a wave to the kind lot attendant, I walked away from the track as well as from my parked car. A tall stone wall separated the manicured racetrack from the now graying city. Exactly halfway down the wall (I think), a film canister holding the cache log was tucked into a crack in the mortar, behind dead ivy, just below the eagle’s nest.