Beyond the Derby: Horse Around in Louisville - United Hub

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Beyond the Derby: Horse around in Louisville

By Bob Cooper, May 05, 2016

The Kentucky Derby

You can watch how Major League Baseball bats are made at the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory in downtown Louisville, yet Louisville — more populous than 11 MLB cities — surprisingly doesn't have any professional sports teams of its own. Instead, Louisville residents pour their enthusiasm (and thousands of gallons of mint juleps) into a two-week festival culminating Saturday, May 7, in the Kentucky Derby.

The Derby, continuously run since 1875, is the World Series of thoroughbred racing squeezed into a two-minute race. Much more than that, it's a major-league celebration that's been called the "biggest party in the South" (sorry, Mardi Gras). But whether you make it to the Derby this year, or visit Louisville when it's less crowded, you'll discover there are many ways to horse around in town that don't involve betting or binoculars.

Horses (of course)

Visiting Louisville without catching a race at Churchill Downs, or at least seeing it, would be like skipping the Eiffel Tower in Paris. You can choose among several guided tour options; all include admission to the Kentucky Derby Museum at the famed racetrack.

Bourbon bonanza

Bourbon lovers are drawn to the distilleries around Louisville just as wine lovers flock to the wineries of the Napa Valley. Several Louisville-area historic distilleries with tours and tasting rooms are on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, topped by the extravagant Evan Williams Bourbon Experience, which opened downtown in 2013. If you'd rather not drive, Urban Bourbon Trail restaurants, taverns and hotel bars where fine bourbons are served are within walking distance from downtown.

Museums and more

The Slugger Museum and Bourbon Experience are two of the 10 museums and attractions found on a four-block stretch of downtown Louisville's Museum Row. The two newest additions are the Muhammad Ali Center and Frazier History Museum. The former is a six-story, $80-million tribute to the city's most famous native son. The latter (with no connection to Ali's boxing rival Joe Frazier) features several daily interpretations of scenes from history by costumed performers. Also, the Speed Art Museum at the University of Louisville reopened in March with the completion of a $50-million addition that nearly tripled the gallery space.

Kentucky kingdom

For the kid in all of us, Kentucky Kingdom and Hurricane Bay just added Storm Chaser, the first roller-coaster in the U.S. to feature a barrel-roll drop from the equivalent of 10 stories up. Along with four other coasters, the amusement park has 31 rides and 13 waterpark rides, slides and pools — fun for kids and adults.

Fossil fun

Besides hiking and bird-watching, fossil-viewing is popular at Falls of the Ohio State Park, just across the mighty Ohio River from Louisville. Limestone fossil beds cover 220 acres at the river's edge, revealing many fossils from 390 million years ago. The best fossil hunting is between August and November, when the river level is lowest.

Coming soon

You don't need to watch a horse race to come to Louisville for a big event. Abbey Road on the River (May 26-30) is the world's largest Beatles-inspired music festival, and the Forecastle music and art festival (July 15-17) attracts more than 75,000 annually to Louisville's Waterfront Park for bands like this year's headliners, Alabama Shakes and The Avett Brothers. Live music, especially indie rock, is ingrained in the culture of Louisville year-round — a city where "Keep Louisville Weird" is a popular slogan.

How to get there

Louisville International Airport is only 2.5 miles from Churchill Downs and seven miles from downtown. Visit united.com or use the United app to plan your trip to see the ponies, the city, or both.

United Cargo and logistics partners keep critical medical shipments moving

By The Hub team, July 02, 2020

By working together and strengthening partnerships during these unprecedented times, our global community has overcome challenges and created solutions to keep the global supply chain moving. As COVID-19 continues to disrupt the shipping landscape, United and our industry partners have increasingly demonstrated our commitment to the mission of delivering critical medical supplies across the world.

United Cargo has partnered with DSV Air and Sea, a leading global logistics company, to transport important pharmaceutical materials to places all over the world. One of the items most critical during the current crisis is blood plasma.

Plasma is a fragile product that requires very careful handling. Frozen blood plasma must be kept at a very low, stable temperature of negative 20 degrees Celsius or less – no easy task considering it must be transported between trucks, warehouses and airplanes, all while moving through the climates of different countries. Fortunately, along with our well-developed operational procedures and oversight, temperature-controlled shipping containers from partners like va-Q-tec can help protect these sensitive blood plasma shipments from temperature changes.

A single TWINx shipping container from va-Q-tec can accommodate over 1,750 pounds of temperature-sensitive cargo. Every week, DSV delivers 20 TWINx containers, each one filled to capacity with human blood plasma, for loading onto a Boeing 787-9 for transport. The joint effort to move thousands of pounds of blood plasma demonstrates that despite the distance, challenges in moving temperature-sensitive cargo and COVID-19 obstacles, we continue to find creative solutions with the help of our strong partnerships.

United Cargo is proud to keep the commercial air bridges open between the U.S. and the rest of the world. Since March 19, we have operated over 3,200 cargo-only flights between six U.S. hubs and over 20 cities in Asia, Australia, Europe, South America, India, the Caribbean and the Middle East.

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Celebrating Juneteenth

By United Airlines, June 18, 2020

A message from UNITE, United Airlines Multicultural Business Resource Group

Fellow United team members –

Hello from the UNITE leadership team. While we communicate frequently with our 3,500 UNITE members, our platform doesn't typically extend to the entire United family, and we are grateful for the opportunity to share some of our thoughts with all of you.

Tomorrow is June 19. On this day in 1865, shortened long ago to "Juneteenth," Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce that the Civil War had ended and all enslaved individuals were free. For many in the African-American community, particularly in the South, it is recognized as the official date slavery ended in the United States.

Still, despite the end of slavery, the Constitutional promise that "All men are created equal" would overlook the nation's Black citizens for decades to come. It wasn't until nearly a century later that the Civil Rights Act (1964) ended legal segregation and the Voting Rights Act (1965) protected voting rights for Black Americans. But while the nation has made progress, the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd have made it undeniably clear that we still have a lot of work to do to achieve racial parity and inclusion.

Two weeks ago, Scott and Brett hosted a virtual town hall and set an important example by taking a minute, as Brett said, "to lower my guard, take off my armor, and just talk to you. And talk to you straight from the heart."

Difficult conversations about race and equity are easy to avoid. But everyone needs to have these conversations – speaking honestly, listening patiently and understanding that others' experiences may be different from your own while still a valid reflection of some part of the American experience.

To support you as you consider these conversations, we wanted to share some resources from one of United's partners, The National Museum of African American History and Culture. The museum will host an all-day Virtual Juneteenth Celebration to recognize Juneteenth through presentations, stories, photographs and recipes. The museum also has a portal that United employees can access called Talking About Race, which provides tools and guidance for everyone to navigate conversations about race.

Our mission at UNITE is to foster an inclusive working environment for all of our employees. While we are hopeful and even encouraged by the widespread and diverse show of support for African Americans around the country – and at United - we encourage everyone to spend some time on Juneteenth reflecting on racial disparities that remain in our society and dedicating ourselves to the work that still must be done to fight systemic racism. By honoring how far we've come and honestly acknowledging how far we still must go, we believe United – and the incredible people who are the heart and soul of this airline - can play an important role in building a more fair and just world.

Thank you,

UNITE (United Airlines Multicultural Business Resource Group)

Leadership Team

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Making every step of the travel journey safer for you

By United Airlines, May 20, 2020
United Clean Plus | Clorox

We remain passionate about connecting the world safely

United CleanPlus SM is our commitment to putting health and safety at the forefront of your journey, with the goal of delivering an industry-leading standard of cleanliness. We're teaming up with Clorox to redefine our cleaning and disinfection procedures, and over the coming months, we'll roll out Clorox products across our U.S. airports, starting in select locations, to help support a healthy and safe environment, and to provide transparency and choice throughout the travel journey.

At the airport

  • At check-in:

  • 1
    Implementing temperature checks for employees and flight attendants working at hub airports
  • 2
    Installing sneeze guards at check-in and gate podiums
  • 3
    Encouraging use of the United app for contactless travel assistance and more
  • 4
    Promoting social distancing with floor decals to help customers stand 6 feet apart
  • 5
    Rolling out touchless check-in for customers with bags

  • At the gate:

  • 6
    Disinfecting high-touch areas such as door handles, handrails, elevator buttons, telephones and computers
  • 7
    Providing hand sanitizer and
    disinfectant wipes
  • 8
    Allowing customers to self-scan boarding passes
  • 9
    Boarding fewer customers at a time and, after pre-boarding, boarding from the back of the plane to the front to promote social distancing
  • 10
    Rolling out Clorox Total 360 Electrostatic Sprayers to disinfect in the airport

On our aircraft

  • 1
    Providing individual hand sanitizer wipes for customers
  • 2
    Requiring all customers and employees to wear a face covering and providing disposable face coverings for customers who need them
  • 3
    Providing onboard items like pillows and blankets upon request
  • 4
    Disinfecting high-touch areas, like tray tables and armrests, before boarding
  • 5
    Reducing contact between flight attendants and customers during snack and beverage service
  • 6
    Ensuring aircraft cleaning standards meet or exceed CDC guidelines
  • 7
    Using electrostatic spraying to disinfect aircraft
  • 8
    Using state-of-the-art, hospital-grade, high-efficiency (HEPA) filters to circulate air and remove 99.97% of airborne particles
    • The cabin recirculated air is exchanged every 2-3 minutes

Cleveland Clinic We're working closely with the experts at Cleveland Clinic to advise us on enhancing our cleaning and disinfection protocols for the safety of our employees and customers. Visit Cleveland Clinic's website to learn more about COVID-19.

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