As the day continued, and the mud caked to their bodies thickened, I thanked God none of them were riding home with me.
Then, several hours later, while riding the media shuttle from Churchill Downs to a parking lot near Papa John’s Stadium in Louisville, we pulled up to a red light.
There, near an interstate ramp, a yellow cab was pulled over because of a flat tire. The cabbie, three times the size of jockey Calvin Borel, who rode Super Saver to the winner’s circle in the 136th Kentucky Derby, stood dejected outside his cab, his shirt tail out, his callous hands covered with rubber gloves.
His two passengers were tightening the bolts on the tire.
Not your average passengers.
But two mud warriors, two young women wearing sun dresses and cowboy boots. Their mothers should have seen them.
Remember, I said it was a media bus. We’re a cynical group. Several of the media rolled down their windows and yelled at the cabbie, making fun of him and his manhood. Some of the photographers grabbed their cameras and clicked away.
Everyone seemed to be laughing, well, except for the two women and the cabbie.
When the woman finished tightening the final bolt, she turned toward the bus, and, well, gave us a one-finger salute.
“That’s how we say, ‘hello’ in Kentucky,” one native journalist said.
The women climbed into the back seat, and the cabbie picked up the blanket — he didn’t want his passengers getting their knees dirty — and stuffed it in the trunk.
The light turned green.
That was the most memorable two minutes of the day.
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