Friday night was the "balloon glow" at the Ky. State Fairgrounds. For those unfamiliar with the Derby Festival, there is a hot air balloon race every year. The night before the race, all of the balloons are inflated and lit up right at sundown. They don't leave the ground, but it is quite a sight. Most of these events are free, but require a "Pegasus Pin" to enter. The pin costs $6 and is good all Derby season. I arrived about 7 pm and was astonished by the size of the crowd and the traffic. I was OC my stanless 1911 in a cross draw rig. I placed my Pegasus Pin down low on my shirt, so that I would be asked where it was and I could direct their attention close to my firearm. I didn't want to deny anyone the privilege of viewing my beautiful firearm. I entered and walked around for 2 hours without any problems. Once sundown arrived and the ballons were lit, I left. It was getting dark and I don't think anybody could see my gun, anyway.
I decided to go downtown to the riverfront and hit the "Chow Wagon". This is all part of the Derby Festival. It's food and drinks, carnival rides and music all in one place and all free, with a Pegasus Pin. The place is pretty well lit up but again, I thought is was too dark to get any attention, so I left and went up river to the Big 4 Bridge and took a stroll across the river. I had several people stop me and ask it OC was legal and why I carried like that. A couple of "big eyes" but no negative reactions. 4 people stopped and thanked me for carrying and said they felt safer with me there.
Today, I went back to the "Chow Wagon" and walked around in the daylight. I stopped at a Ram Truck display and talked about trucks and got in and out of a couple of them, nobody mentioned my gun. Alittle further inside, one of the vendors ran out from his stand and asked if KY was an open carry state. He was from Illinois. We talked for about 10 mins. Much smaller crowd today than last night, but at least it was daylight. I saw a helicopter service offering rides up the river and over the city and wondered if they would object to my gun, but never tried to buy a ticket. There was a stand selling beer wine and mixed drinks and I decided to see if they would sell me a drink. No problem, just as they started to pour the drink, I stopped them. I haven't had a drink in over 12 years, so I told them I just wanted a Ginger Ale. He said that they didn't have Ginger Ale, but he knew an "old bartenders trick" to just mix 7 up and Coke to get Ginger Ale. He served it to me in a plastic cup with "Miller Lite" on it.It looked like a mixed drink and I walked around with it in my hand for an hour then decided to leave. Just as I started to leave, this guy came running up to me and said, "You can't take that beer out of here." I told him it wasn't a beer and turned to continue out. He jumped in front of me and got right up in my face and said, "well its a mixed drink then." I just stepped to the side and he jumped in front of me again. I told him it was just Ginger Ale and told him to smell it. He said, "Oh, I smell alcohol in there. You can't take it out." I told him I was going and he really got in my face then. I said that he'd better change his way of talking to people or somebody would "straighten him out" someday. Then I asked him for his name and he wouldn't give it. I pulled out my cell phone and started to take his picture and he ran off. I got the picture and went to the main entrance and asked to speak with the person in charge. Just as we started to talk, two LMPD officers walked up and took over. "We hear you threatened a guy over there." I said, "No, not at all and told them exactly what the conversation had been and told them they needed to leave me alone and go tell that other guy to learn how to talk to people." I suggested that they smell the drink, but they wern't interested in that. I told them that we should all go back to the stand where i bought it and ask the bartender what he put in it. They didn't want to do that either. Soon the cops were telling me how the conversation went and that they didn't like me carrying a gun and threatening people. I just told them that if they had some charges on me, cite me now, otherwise I was leaving. They told me to stop and said that I had threatened the other guy. I said, "let's all just go over to that table and sit down where we can all listen to a recording of what was said and by whom. It is all on this recorder right here." and I pulled out my voice recorder. Their demeaner changed immediately. Nobody ever listened to the recording, but just knowing that one existed was enough. All of a sudden they were very apologetic about the way I had been treated and said they were going to go "have a few words with the other guy''. I left with my gun and my "drink".
What's the take away from all of this. Well, in my mind, it is that when you record conversations, you get all of them, good, bad, ugly and maybe even embarrassing for you. Even the parts that you didn't expect to get when you started. Those cops knew that everything that they had said was on that recorder, too and they weren't too crazy about anybody hearing some of the things that they had said. If you carry a gun(OC or CC) you need to carry an audio recorder, at a minimum. You will never know what you might get on it. Video would be even better, but video recorders are hard to hide.
When I left the two cops were looking for the other guy. He had disappeared.