Some extra money and a fun afternoon

Awhile back I got something in the mail about a class action lawsuit against the bank and/or appraiser company (I can't remember who it was specifically against), who did our refi back in 2007. Apparently they overcharged customers on the appraisals. So, I sent it in, thinking hey, maybe someday I'll get a few dollars. I got the check in the mail yesterday - for $63! Not bad for something I wasn't expecting in the first place. I deposited it straight to my Capitol One savings account.

DD and I had a really fun afternoon yesterday. When we went to the horse races last month a friend of ours messaged DD (he had seen her Facebook post that we were there) and said they have horses that run there. He messaged her last week that they would be there this weekend and if we wanted to come he'd show us around the paddocks, etc. We went yesterday and had a great time. First we had some lunch with them at some restaurant back near the paddocks (didn't even know it was there) and then he gave us a tour of the stables they use for their horses. It was pretty quiet back there by that time, close to first race. The horses were just in their stalls relaxing, munching on some hay. Such gorgeous animals!

One little thing I just loved was a sign hanging on the wall of the stables we were in. It was an old sign from the old original horse track. This is the track I went to as a kid with my family and mostly just with my dad. It got torn down and years later this new track (different city) was built for our area. I loved how they had that little memento of the old track.

Then we walked down to the main track/grandstands area and he gave us a little tour of the upstairs areas and we got our racing program. We sat outside, just past the grandstands area, on some round tables with umbrellas near the track side and the area where they parade the horses by before the race/winners circle area after each race. It was a great area to sit compared to being inside the grandstands area, where it was much more crowded.  I only won on one race, but it paid me $17 so I ended up coming out $6 ahead overall. We only stayed until about 4:30 because DD had other plans that evening. Even better was we didn't have to pay for parking or admission! We got to park where friends had their motorhome and then walk in with them and their special passes in the back gate.

We learned more how to read the horses stats in the program and other general questions we were curious about. I didn't realize most all the horses stay there at the track all the time. I asked how jockeys were picked to ride a horse and during one race a horse was just not going to get into the gate. Nope. He was having nothing to do with it. Friend was saying they will scratch him and I asked who makes that decision. It's a state horse racing commission vet.