This is the most dramatic podcast ever and iHeartRadio podcast. Chris Harrison and Lauren Zema back in the home office in Austin, Texas, but just barely off of our Kentucky Derby debut.
The Kentucky Derby Drama is really it talk about a dramatic event, in.
Some ways good drama, in some ways bad good drama. Am I hungover? Am I tired? I feel like my whole body is like Oh, after that weekend.
Lauren and I wanted to do this, this spectacle that is the Kentucky Derby, So we went to Louisville.
This this was on your bucket list.
Yeah, it's something I wanted. You know. A little known fact I worked for a horse racing network back at early two thousand ninety nine into like two thousand and two. When I started The Bachelor, I was still working at a place called TVG, a horse racing network. It's what I did every day.
I'm sorry, but it's not a great name for a horse racing network.
It sounds like TV was called like television games something, as I think was.
The we called HRN horse racing.
I think that's taken. Oh good, good call, though, But we I got a lot of ideas that I was a sportscaster back in the day in Oklahoma City, and that's what actually prompted me to move to LA was to continue sports casting. And then I started doing Home and Garden and a game show and all the way into The Bachelor, and then once the Bacheler kind of exploded, I left tvg and was obviously full time.
I note. It always blows my mind how when we go, especially when we travel in Middle America, how many people recognize you from being a sportscaster in Oklahoma.
That happened on Sunday at the airport. This guy's like, weren't you on Channel nine?
Yeah? He was. He was an elder, he was older, And I think that's the problem is that that is the elder Oklahomans now who remember me from my days in at kW TV News nine.
Give it to me again. In the broadcast, it was full broadcast.
Chris Harrison Sports Line nine.
Okay, you had a very good, chill broadcast voice. Mine was way to over the top. When I look back at all eclips of myself coming out next.
You know what that is? That's your et voice.
That's very much fun.
When you do when you used to do entertainment tonight voiceovers, I'm like, who is that human?
I know, well, I think you got to up the energy on a voiceover. You know, I would always tell people it's all your and we were news and it's fast paced. There is a different cadence you have to bring because your voice is telling the whole story.
But I definitely have an et voice.
And so yeah, it's fun when every now and every now and then someone says you used to work at Channel nine. But anyway, so we digressed. We went to Louisville, went to the Kentucky Derby together. The pomp and circumstance, the clothes, the pageantry, the cocktails, we did it all. We came in hot. We went in. So there is the Lady, the Equine Ladies race on Fridays. There's a thing called the Kentucky Oaks.
And that is basically, let me clain what he did wrong.
He's telling me. I'm like, I'm kind of expecting. Actually, here's a mistake I made. I thought, because of your HRN background that you knew all about the Kentucky Derby, but neither of us had been and you kind of have to be there on the ground to get what each event is specifically. But I'm asking Chris, well, what's the deal on Friday and he goes, okay, well Friday is this thing called the Oaks, So that's for the girls, and so you know that's the girls event, and then.
We're going to go to this gall derby for the girls.
Okay, And he says, then we're going to go to this gala on Friday night, the Unbridled Eve Charity Gala. And I'm like, well, where are you going to be on Friday during the day then? And he's like with you, what are you talking about. I'm like, well, you said it's for the girls, like it's a girl's event, Like so are you going to go golfing?
What do the boys do? And he goes, I meant girl horses female horses.
So for those that don't know, the Kentucky Oaks is the female version of the Kentucky Derby because the Kentucky Derby is predominantly for three year old male horses. Now female horses Philly can run in the Derby and has and has done very well historically. It's tough for them. They just don't kind of hang in with the boys in that division. So typically the Kentucky Derby is all male.
God, we're learning so much here at HR.
So anyway, we were together.
We were together at the Oaks, and another thing I learned kind of just being on the ground the Oaks people borderline dress up just as much as they do for the actual derby.
That wasn't a thing Like the last time I was at the Derby was twenty years ago. When I was there, I covered it for a week and then I actually left on Friday night, so I didn't technically attend the derby, but.
I was there to tell the story.
Ultimately, everything was fine, but he had a family medical there was.
A medical emergency that I flew out of Louisville on Friday night, on the eve of the Kentucky Derby. If you want to see a lonely, sad place on Friday, the night before the derby, fly out of Louisville. If you ever want to Robin air If you ever want to Robin Airport, do it on Friday night before the Kentucky Derby. There's not a human It was me and one Gate agent and she didn't even want to be there. So yeah, I'm the only human being that's ever flown
out of Kentucky on Friday night before the Derby. But the Oaks wasn't such a big deal. It was pretty lightly attended. It was well under one hundred thousand, probably well under fifty thousand. No one really got that dressed up. You and I showed up Friday. Luckily I had a coat on and you were pretty dressed up. But it was it's Derby day again. I mean, everybody is dressed to the nine.
Yes, I mean luckily we kind of live by the rule of it's better to overdress than underdress. We were still underdressed, and we were still a little underdressed, but we brought what we thought was just sort of kind of like daytime cocktail attire. I had like a little leather shorts on and I threw on a blazer. And what is amazing is the everybody's encouraged to wear pink at the event and support of breast cancer awareness, and they bring survivors out onto the field and it's really awesome.
But luckily we were able to I always throw on a blazer, and that's going to dress up and outfit. We both did that. I think I was the only woman there in a blazer, but it works.
And who did we immediately see upon entering the Kentucky Oaks Our dear friend Bob Guiney, Bob former bat By Robert Eugene Guiney, who is going to join me? Just a little bit later, Bob and I did a oh post Derby hangover Sunday morning edition of the most dramatic podcast ever. He came over and was nice enough to join me before he took off and headed home. So the interview with Bob Guiney, which got really deep for a Sunday morning that's coming up in just a few
So we enjoyed our Friday at the races. Then we immediately went home got dressed for the big gal.
Oh non, I got to settle in on meeting Bob Guinney, Oh.
Yeah, that's true. You guys had never met I.
Had never met Bob Guiney and I he is one of those people that I connected with him instantly.
We were at the gala on Friday evening and I had my hand in the air and I was singing along to this song cheap Trick.
No, it was actually too amaze by you A room stars that's a jam around and Bob was doing the same and we locked eyes and we just both went, I get you, you get me. I really love Bob Guiney, and I finally am seeing why you for years have been sighting with no shade to anybody else but your two favorite the bachelors you've remained closest with as Andrew Firestone and Bob Guiney.
And Bob's someone I've loved in a door, but he obviously lives in the Pacific Northwest. We just don't see each other very often. And it's funny. He's always said to me, I can't believe I haven't met Elzi. I feel like I've known her my whole life. I feel like we're best friends and I've never met her. So he was equally excited to meet you, and that was it was awesome. We had an absolute blast.
Bob is a blast in glass and I learned didn't know this Bob guinea a little older than you. Yes, I didn't really realize any bachelor it'd ever been.
A lit a rare early bachelor before Byron Velvick when we specifically went older, Bob, is it? What is it? How many months? A few months. Yeah, he's about to turn fifty two. Actually, oh, today is actually officially his birthday.
Robbing it on Bobby's birthday.
Oh my gosh it today is actually his fifty second birthday.
Happy birthday. Bomb.
The eighth is his birthday, Mate. And then I turned fifty two in July, so he's a little bit older than mate, which is which was very rare at the time. Again, one of the reasons we are so close is we have so many things in commons.
You've gone through life together.
Yeah, we have the same musical taste, we have the same you know, just vibe.
Well, Bobby's got babies. You got kids in college. Bob is a one year old.
Well, and we talk about that coming up in the interview. We talk about the juxtaposition of our lives of I'm going to pick up our kids at college tomorrow and he has a fan.
He's going to pick them up at daycare a two year old and he but he's so awesome.
And one thing I loved about the whole weekend was, and this is a huge reason that I fell in love with you from the start, was I loved your friends. I think of friends are such a reflection of who a person is, and Bob is a person who he immediately brought us into his crew. He's been going to the Derby for a long time and he is a crew he hangs with their and he brought us in and they were all super fun, and so it was just like a really quick easy I felt like we
had a group and a Derby family right away. And I love people like that who are the more, the merrier and welcoming. And they were so much fun, maybe too much fun. When it was the last time, we were out till three.
Am dancing to a Bob Guiney song.
What was the song called again, Girlfriend, Girlfriend. I also learned Bob Guiney was in a band.
He was in a band called We talk about all this in the interview fat Amy and all that, but he was and by the way, very damn good. One thing I didn't mention in the interview, and I should mention Bob performed at a charity event that I hosted in Dallas. Like early days, I hosted this charity event a friend of ours from school high school had passed away from cancer, a guy I went to high school with, and so I wanted to host kind of a big
charity benefit for him and his family and cancer. And Bob's band came in and played.
He showed up.
Greg Grunberg was there Slash Alias Slash Star Wars and everything else. Greig Grunberg has been in and Bob played and it was incredible. The guy lights the place on fire.
He's so here you can with him. I'm like, oh, I see why this guy was the Bachelor for sure. So Friday night we go to the Unbridled Eve Gala and thank you to Unbridled Eve for having us an incredible charity.
And an amazing event. I mean, we walked in the room is stunning. We got to get dressed up. But the night did not come out come without debate.
Chris Harrison and I, well everybody, we got in an argument. An argument that tour at the very fabric literally of our relationship.
It really shook up social media as well, if you were following our stories this weekend. It had to do with Elzi's dress. She had the beautiful dress and.
From my favorite boutique here in Austin, Estilo. They also have an online website shop there. They have the best curated stuff.
For all your other one thing I like to do for my lady. I want to know what she's wearing. I look at her dress. I was wearing a black tux, but I like to have a little accent to match your dress.
It's very sweet and I love that about you. And also, you were great at giving opinions. You really help weigh in on the style of the evening. And in this case, you waiting.
Maybe it's a pocket square, maybe it's my bow tie, whatever it is. But in this case, you were gone, you were out of town. So I was packing and I went into your closet and I pulled out your dress and I had this amazing dark midnight blue bow tie and this other blue bow tie, and I'm like, okay, this will be great for your blue dress. And I pulled your dress out and I held up the blue bow tie, and I'm like, this is clashing. This is not This dress looks blue, but it's not blue. I mean,
that's so weird. So I went back in my clock and I had this other bow tie that has like some really dark emeralds and almost like teals not the right word, but had these really dark kind of midnight green dark emerald whatever it is. I held that up to the dress. I'm like, oh, that's identical. That looks really good with this. It was kind of this emerald green leads into blue bow tie. It was really cool and I'm like, Okay, great, I'm glad I looked because this dress is not you're feeling.
Proud of yourself. Well, guess what you're wrong.
Apparently the dress is blue. The dress is not green. Although I have seen a few people taking your side on Instagram, but everyone, thank you for weighing in, and I feel that overwhelmingly. I'm announcing the results of the Instagram commentary here on the podcast.
The dress is blue. Blue for the wind.
Yeah, I mean, and some people really buried me on this. People I didn't expect beca Tilly. I'm talking about you, Caitlin Bristow, Taylor Harrison daughter. A lot of people really stabbed me in the back on this one.
That's your definition of stabbing in the back.
I just look, there was one picture. I will say that I appreciate you doing that where when you went to that kind of one picture from the mirror, everyone said, oh, I see it is a weird kind of light to that.
I'm gonna win. I want to win fair. It's like from bringing on the movie, we're going to be the best. We have to beat the best. So I included all the most stress.
It's important thing. You look spectacular.
Thank you.
You were the star of that red carpet. And then we went in and danced star butts off. One thing, Elsie, and I appreciate about you because obviously a child of the eighties, I love to dance.
Yes, I do.
Too, and I actually have always felt a little out of place because my millennial y two k two thousands of years and high the dancing was what we called grinding. I mean it was just literally rubbing your butt up against each other. And I like the eighties dance. I like the footloose dancing kick those speed out the dances I would see in John Hughes high school proms and movies, and so I actually love eighties music, even though we're
sixteen years apart. I grew up like in middle school, I was using lime wire and Napster to download eighties music very legally, and so we have all the same musical references, which really works well for us.
It works very well because it's important us. Music is important to us.
Yes, but now look what I loved about this weekend is the only things we were quote unquote fighting about were really dumb, minor things. And that always makes me feel like we have a great relationship because anything we even remotely laughably butt heads about is so minuscule.
And we really weren't fighting.
No, no, we really were, but we were a little on the same or not on the same page. At the end of the night of the night, and this was on me. We were were dancing for like two hours. We had a great night, and then everybody else, I mean, it's hit in midnight, and I guess some people were going to stay at the gala and then maybe go out, but they still didn't know where they were going yet. And I was so tired, And this was my fault. I had stayed up too late packing.
The night before, and so we weren't on the same page about going out. You were more energized than me.
Well, Jack Harlowe hosted a big party that was not that nice. Yeah he did. No, that was his night. He was his party as well. And there was a Jack Harlow party where I know Patrick Mahomes, the quarterback for the Chiefs, was there. Aaron Rodgers was there several other football players.
So I made you miss all these apples, so.
All these I knew all the athletes were there, and so I knew some other people were showing up. So I was like, Okay, this, this party is going to be pretty good. And we had never been before. I'm like, let's do this, but we chose not to.
Okay, you're too good of a person. You did not tell me that that was what you were just like, there's a party. I didn't realize you'd be missing meeting these athletes that even as a grown man you idolized.
Well, I mean, I don't idolize any of them, but okay, Meyer, it's fun to hay, it's a good hang.
And so you're that good of a person that you didn't even tell me.
Well, it's not that big of a deal to be to go see them, but it would have been fun. I'm sorry, It's okay. It was probably better because then we woke up Derby day and we weren't completely wrecked.
Well, right, everybody else has been out till four in the morning, and then we had to do the whole Derby day and I was like, I got nine hours of sleep. I'm energized. Good to go.
The last text I got from Bob Guiney was at three point thirty in the morning. They had just wrapped up in his room.
I just felt on Friday, I danced, I drank, I'd had fun. Let's call it a day.
One thing. You and I agree, and on a high note, and on a high note, and ride the wave you're on and then end on a high note. And you usually don't regret that because then we got up Derby Day and we were ready. And Derby Day is a long day. You got to hit the red carpet and do all the stuff around noon one o'clock.
You know, the more and more we're together, this is just a big thing to say. But the simpleness that I love about our relationship is we just like to live life the same way. Like we are all always on the same page about oh, let's go out to you tonight. Now, let's stay tonight.
We're tired, we want to rest, or let's let's stay out until this time, or let's do this this way.
We're very it's very easy in that way.
And the Derby for you know, when you're there in Louisville doesn't start till seven o'clock at night that I did. The race doesn't seven o'clock at night, and so you get there at noon one o'clock, so you're a six seven hour day and plus getting ready and all that, it's an eight to ten hour day, which boo hoo, but you just got to pace yourself. It is. It is a marathon, not a sprint.
Even though it is literally a sprint of a race, a two minute.
Race, a mile and a quarter. And yeah, Lauren was not the sportiest sports person in the world. But when I explained to her, they call it, you know, the fastest two minutes in sports, the greatest two minutes in sports. She's like, what does that mean? I said, this whole thing is going to be over in two minutes.
She say, run around the track one time.
She's like, all of this is for twenty horses to run around the track one time and two minutes. I said, that's it.
I guess I can't complain. I complain football's too long, and now I'm saying that the Kentucky Derby's too short. But I will say I am walking away from this week in a changed person in that I will no longer I will never again not read the itinerary. We were given an itinerary, and I kind of knew you'd read it, so I didn't worry about reading it myself. I should have read it, because then I would have known this two minute thing that had started at seven pm that was on me.
And I am also definitely saying.
This out loud because I am going to become that bride who wants everybody to have read our wedding itinerary, so it can't be an Inpacrit anymore.
I should have read this schedule.
And the other great thing, Bob Guiney's with us. Were having a blast, and there were other great people. We were with Lisa Leslie, who I love and adore. Oh my gosh, you got to know her her and her husband.
Basketball icon and stunningly beautiful and so kind and just wonderful.
Yeah, she made one short joke that kind of cut but she she's awesome and we had a great time time. And you know who else showed up to the derby, which we didn't know they were coming. It was kind of a last minute deal. Jason and Caitlin. Jason starred at Kaylin Bristow. We were able to We didn't see him derby day, but we were able to meet and have breakfast and hang out as well, and so it is great to see Jason and Caitlin.
Very hard to find people the derby. I also didn't realize one hundred and fifty.
Fifty thousand people it was the you know, the most one hundred and forty ninth. It just gets bigger and bigger every year. They keep adding more grand stands at Churchill Downs. It is just massive.
So we're at the derby, We're trying to find people, but also being realistic in that situation, you have to sometimes text your friend and.
Say I love you, I can't get to you, Okay, I'll see you when I see you.
But because we were trying to meet up with too many people, but we're we're drinking and we're having fun. The race happens, and you guys, there are other races before the derby, and I had spent all day picking losers. Chris Harrison had spent all day picking winners, and then it comes down to the actual derby, and his first time ever at the derby, this man picks the winner.
It was awesome and I felt now in hindsight like I might be a jerk because I lost my mind. If you saw the video on the stories, I was not cool, calm collected, which typically I am. I was in it, may have had a few cocktails, having a blast, and when I was screaming. You ever had of that moment when you're like, you're at a sporting event, so you know a lot of people are cheering, but I turn around, I realize I'm the only one really yelling,
meaning I'm the one that really picked this horse. Everybody else lost money, which makes you a real a hole and a bad winner. And so I felt like I was doing a touchdown dance at you know, at someone's funeral. But it was so damn fun And I love this horse, and I had loved everything about it and had picked it.
You done a lot of research.
You were going down the red carpet, and at the red carpet at the derby, everyone asked you, well, who do you have?
And you said I had two horses, kings Range and then Match or Mage. We're really still not sure how to even pronounce the horse. It's m age.
If it's mage, it rhymes with a word. It shouldn't rhyme.
Yeah, sad, but so I don't know. But anyway, hindsight, I may should have maybe used a little bit more of my inside voice, but I couldn't help it. And it was awesome.
Well, I was so happy for you because this was such a bucket list moment for you to be at the Derby and you had picked the winner, and you've done all your research and you're so good at what you do. But so I, I mean, I'm like a and I was just proud and excited for you. So I said, give me your phone. I'm in a film while you just watch the race and enjoy.
And so I.
Got the moment of you and then I stopped rolling and he turns to me and he goes, okay, I kind of blacked out for a second.
Did I swear.
Speaking of of you know, all the research in the world, because usually all the research in the world means nothing and you end up losing to you know, whoever picked it by the cute name or the color of the horse which had that felt was earlier on the card, which is the races. We get there, we sit down, it was like the sixth or seventh race, and we we had this nice little cocktail table. There's a cocktail
table next to us. There was like eight women and like two or three guys at this table, and we got to be friends because you're sitting there for quite some time. And there was this race and they decided the ladies thought it was funny because there was a horse called No Balls.
That can't have been the name.
The horse was called no Balls.
I think it was spelled with one L, and we were saying it wrong.
No this horse, I will look it back up. And so this horse is not so the ladies, who have also had a few cocktails, start giggling and they're like, we're gonna bet on this horse No Balls. The guy's like, guy, ladies, don't do this. Don't do this. This horse is no good. It's a long shot. The ladies don't listen. They go put all their money on No Balls. They won six thousand dollars. This horse crushed it.
And this is why gambling becomes a problem.
So these girls come back and they're screaming, I'm like, what happened. They're like, we put all of her money on No Balls and they have hundreds and hundreds of dollar bills or just like what a great sense?
Chapter ten of the memoir, all of my money on no ball.
All my money. So then that that became the running joke the rest of the Kentucky Derby day.
Well you picked the winner. You crushed it. And now I will say we had an incredible weekend. I mean I've seen news headlines in the past years about how the whole derby's.
Been rained out. We had great weather, great people. We were just so lucky. We did have some travel and commute snaffoos, the first one getting out of there. Now I didn't know at the time.
I later found out this is more people than I've ever attended the Derby before. Yeah, and it started pouring rain right as the derby letout, So we got it great weather all day, and then at the end it was so sad.
It was bizarre. Sure, everyone steps out, so.
The feathers on the hats are wilding, the mescaras running down our faces. Women are taking off their heels and just walking through the mud. I didn't blame them. And the traffic. We were in a car. The traffic. I think it took us an hour and a half to get out of the Derby.
To go about five or six miles back to the hotel.
Now, granted, I'm happy because I'm like, I'm blessed. I'm in a car right now. I am thank you because I'm not walking in the pouring rain. But and we also just saw people who'd given up. I mean someone had grabbed a tarp. They were under a tarp. One man was standing on his phone in the rain, just not even moving, just like whatever.
Some people had just given up.
It is what it is. We get back to the hotel, We sit down to dinner with Bob and friends Bob and Co. At about ten pm.
The winter is the amazing place. And by the way, shout out to not only the city of Louisville, but Jeff Ruby's Steakhouse, Yes, which is where we ate dinner. And we didn't know it was just attached to our hotel. And it turns out this Jeff Ruby, the gentleman who owns it and his family. They sponsor all the jockeys and it's kind of a tradition that the winner comes to Jeff Ruby's.
So it was so much fun and all the people were so kind, and we're just drinking and having a blast. And then I kind of broke my own rule, which is don't stay out late. We had a late dinner and then we went to the after party, which was like almost shutting down. At that point.
I'm getting everybody tequila shots. People were maybe mad at me about that the next morning. What was going through your mind? Because you were a lot more you were you were not taking the shots with me about.
When I see you going a certain direction at a certain hour, I go the other direction because I know one of us is going to have to pick up the pieces at some point.
Wow, I mean you were making it sound like I'm pulling me out of the gutter or something.
You were going. No, I just saw you going to you. We were at twenty thousand feet. I saw you taking it up to fifty thousand. They fly with me, and I said, yeah, I can't. I can't fly that high. There's only enough oxygen for one of us. So I'm gonna let you go. I'm gonna stay safe down.
Making me feel even worse about the fact that we didn't go to the NFL party.
But then then we all decided this will be a great idea. Let's go back to the hospitality suite, which is attached to Bob Guinea's room. And let's turn on some music and let's we had a little dance party. There was about twelve or fifteen of us.
Also, essentially it was like we were I kind of feel like I was in college again the whole weekend because we were doing the thing where you're like pre gaming, having a drink in at somebody's hotel room before you go out, and then we went back afterwards. It was like I was twenty two on a trip to Vegas with my friends again.
And then we wake up Sunday morning. We woke up a little early because again Bob Guinny was nice enough to come in and do an interview, which you will what you'll hear in our bonus episode, so listen to that. But then we decided to have breakfast with Jason Tartick. Caitlin we saw her after she didn't quite make breakfast.
Hey fly high baby.
Our girl had to sleep in a little bit. But Caitlyn finally woke up at their moms.
We did wonderful mom.
Oh my gosh, missus Tartic and it was so sweet because.
I didn't expect this, but Jason's like, well, the moms really want to meet you, Like, oh, okay, well, great, love them and I was so happy to meet them because I think we follow each other on Instagram and Dale and Lester are just two beautiful ladies.
So it's wonderful to meet them. Good to see Caitlyn and Jason. And we're like, okay, everything's gone so swimmingly. Well, this is awesome. Yea. Our flight wasn't until a little later in the day and a thunderstorm had blown through and it was gone, and we're like, okay, this is going to be good.
Well, let's just take this moment in because we should have known, I mean, we were This is the mistake you make.
You're flying too high, too close to the sun.
There had been a thunderstorm earlier in the day and our friends had gotten stuck in it.
They'd had a horrible travel day. But we're heading to the airport, you guys thinking we're immune to this. We've got this because everybody else left this morning and we've missed the big airport traffic. The thunderstorm is blown through, everything's going swimmingly, and then the airport and then the horseshoe dropped.
We walked into the airport and could barely get in the airport. When the automatic doors opened up, we were faced with this massive humanity and I was like, dear God. I was like, thank God, I don't have to get in that line. And I don't know what these people are doing. I'm going to slide right through. We have no bags to check. We are cruising. And then the security guy says, this is the security line. Just start walking back and so.
But it's almost hard to describe. There are like the amount of people you guys. As we step in, the line is wrapped around the side of the airport. But we actually for once got to the airport like with an hour and a half and a half. We usually get there much closer. We were like, could be a busy day. We got there with an hour and a half. So we see this line wrapping around the airport. But we're thinking, well, we've cut time.
We're good. OK.
It was the It turned out it was the busiest day in the history of Muhammad Ali Airport there Louisville, which is insane because.
We get in there, but we see the line and I'm saying to Chris, I don't know, like, is this the right line? We do have tsa PreCheck. Is this the correct line. A guy tells me no, no, no, tsa pre check and not PreCheck. It's all one line. We're like, okay, cool. So we start walking and the line keeps going. It is around the perimeter of the airport twice. Yeah, it just kept going.
It was laughable.
I mean so, but what I love is in this situation, you and I are both like, well, what can we do.
I'm like, I don't know. If we're making this flight, it happens, we don't get stressed about it. We're like, I think.
It's out of our hands. There's nothing you can do. And by the way, it wasn't anybody's fault per se. It's just it was a comedy of airs of on the busiest day in the history of this airport, weather delays and other issues, and there's fifty thousand private jets trying to get out.
It was.
It was a mess.
Yes, so we are we jump in the line, and I think because I traveled so much for work with ET and you obviously traveled so much for work with The Bachelor, we're just both of the attitude of like, there's nothing we can do here.
Everybody is trying their best. It's different if you feel like someone's screwing you over something, but everybody's doing their best. Everyone's kind, We're doing we can. Everybody's in the same situation.
If you can't control the situation, just go with it and deal with it.
And I don't get why people freak out in those moments, because I'm like, who do you think you are?
Like? You see everyone.
Around you, right, yeah, right, everybody around you is suffering and trying to make a flight.
To two things I noticed. One, everybody was really cool, like everybody around us everybody. Nobody was fighting, nobody was yelling like, everybody was chill. Nobody was saying, hey, I'm about to miss my flight, because everybody was about to miss their flight because nobody expected this delay. We finally, after about thirty minutes, we got back to where we entered the airport. This is back to the beginning, Back to the beginning where we had just walked through the
electric doors to get into the airport. We to thirty minutes to get back to that point, and we see a big a list star walk yet yes, I mean what.
Was Also I felt like the Louisville Airport was like the Golden Globes on Sunday. I mean, there were some famous faces of people catching flights after the derby.
I'm going to out this person. It was John Ham. Yes, John Ham walks.
In the airport mad Men star John Ham.
And I will say this, everybody who walked in the airport had the exact same look on their face. It was you, you just got out of your car everything and the outside of the airport was not indicative of the inside. So you walked in thinking everything's cool, and you walked into Mayhem and everybody just was like, oh my god.
It was an ocean.
Yeah. And so John Ham, like everybody else, had this oh my gosh, and he had a hat on and kind of was trying to keep his head down so no one saw him. But he asked this this security guard who was right there at the door of like, hey, what's the deal, kind of like we did. And to his credit, John Ham just said cool, took a left, walked all the way to the back of the line like we all did. I was like, he took it
like a chance and no one noticed him. You and I just I think you actually noticed a mis entertainment tonight and you're like, that was John hamm and so we heard the conversation.
Well, I kind of had a moment where I thought, you know, I've interviewed him once or twice.
I think you've run into him. I had a moment where I thought, like if we just if we yelled John, I actually would be like, come jump in line with us, Like this is chaotic. You know, like anybody when you see a friend you were like, hey, come jump in the line. Etiquette can be a little iffy on that.
I think in this case, I actually don't think anybody would have cared because the line was so nuts that it's like whatever, Yeah, sure if you see your friend, but I didn't want to yell to him and like make anybody realize who he was. And then he's got to, you know, spend the rest of the day taking.
So John Ham number one, good on you for just being a dude and going to the back of the line. Number two, sorry, we didn't let.
You in the line.
So we finally make it through security. I started a clock, so it took us a little over an hour hour and a half to get through security.
And at this point we think we're probably missing our flight.
But the right the door closes ten minutes before a flight. We went through security twelve minutes before our flight.
It was that closed. We were twelve minutes going through the machines.
We sprint. We Elsie and I had a plan and I said, you start running. I will catch you because my bags are second. My bag goes through. LZ is already running. I'm pretty quick. I did lap you. And we make it to gatebe throw that. We make it to gate B two and I'm just you know, I'm we're gassed.
Well, we're very good, like, we're very airport aware.
So we were thinking we could make it because we're like okay, I mean, and the airport staff was so nice. I'm like, hey, can we go in this security line? Please startch a little short. He's like, sure, pop in.
We're going through, and the American Airlines is app was still telling us at that point that our flight was on time. So we're trying to make it. We run to gaate B two. You run up to the gate and they tell.
You, no, this isn't even your flight. Your flight hasn't even landed. Don't worry about it.
They say, our flight hadn't even the plane wasn't even there yet.
And there it wasn't boarding. The app is wrong. Nothing's happening for us.
And this became the most delightfully dramatic plane You know what.
I can't say it. You say it. That's your line.
It became the most dramatic travel day ever.
But okay, delightful, delightful.
Delightfully dramatic travel day ever because it wasn't horrible and it was actually fun somehow, because the Kentucky Derby is so awesome and Louisville and the people. It wasn't bad that we spent eight hours in the airport.
We were never in a bad mood. Everybody around us.
I mean there were one or two people we were getting tense, but I think part of it is the spirit of the derby continued. And by that I mean most people were drinking. My favorite part maybe was I would advise a couple things when you're stuck in the airport. One one thing Chris and I always do a you're gonna be with each other all day, so you can take a break or two from each other and be like, get up, stretch your legs, walk around, so we take turns.
I'll sit, yes, I'll sit with the stuff.
While he goes and like get snacks, and you know, I'm charging the phones and he's off walking around and then we'll switch and maybe I go get whatever a dinner is gonna be. And I walk around and I like to see what else is going on at the airport, Like there's great people watching at the airport, and I kind of wanted to see is it as crazy everywhere in the airport as it is at our gate? And the answer was yes. I go for a little walk. There are lines of people everywhere.
It is packed.
And there is maybe two restaurants the Louisville Airport and one of them is a Chili's. And outside of this Chilis, I have never seen resourceful like it. They had found those tables, those folding tables that you get like Walmart, and set them up outside the Chilies for an additional bar.
Outside of the restaurant. They were serving drinks. I'm calling it folding table Chilis.
They were tailgating inside the airport. There was a tailgate party at Chili's. They had moved outside. There were so many people. They moved outside, set up a bar and were just like someone selling beer or handing out beer out of a trough on the corner.
I mean, I got a double margarita. The bar donder was also named Lauren. She had a bottle opener with her name on it, and she is pregnant. So thank you Lauren for working pregnant and giving the people the drinks. I said, can I have a margarita? She said, I gotta go get the sweet and sour mix, but I'll do it for you. I mean the kindest people. There was one airport staff member walking around with palettes of water to give everybody water. I was it was a party. It was the Derby round four.
And everybody was also a bit of a humanitary aid situation, meming with the palette of water, handing out water. Just everybody, make it sure already was okay? You know, everybody's exchanging like phone chargers because the guy next to us needed a charge. And it was just you know, people taking care of people, neighbor taking care of neighbor.
And they're also always on a crazy travel day becomes that part where like the flight of people start to
band together, we become a team. Yeah, and it's like what info do you have about you know the game that we're in, meaning, oh, hey, I heard the gate agent said this, and you know, rumors starts spreading the game of telephone one hundred percent and it becomes okay, well, I heard that we just need a crew, and if we can just get a crew, like basically, what was happening was the weather and all the private planes at the airport had majorly backed up travels, so planes were
sitting on the tarmac for hours, unable to take off. At one point, the airport started running out of fuel. Fuel trucks came in.
Then crews were timing out because they can only work so many hours, so eventually our plane needed a crew.
We were actually we felt lucky that we weren't on a plane, because those we had friends on planes, and they were thirty forty deep on the runway and they sat there, as you said, for hours, so they were at least stuck on planes. We felt pretty lucky to be.
In the terminal. I was. I was at the folding table chilies. I'd rather be there.
Than with a guy from Yellowstone.
I found there.
I found out you had a little date. We did not say you were at Chili's having cocktails with the guy from yellow Stone.
No, I didn't even say hello to him. Oh my gosh, you're so was it Kevin Costner or Kevin Costner? He needs a drink right now.
Gosh, for all the Yellowstone fans out there, that is drama, by the way, I'm totally divulging, but into a dramatic headline. But Kevin Costner, the show is ending after season five and he still hasn't signed his new contract. And apparently the rumor is that the hold up is he's not going to sign on for the show until he finds
out what John Dutton's fate will be. He does not want to be in a situation where like John Dutton, I don't know, goes down for I'm choking on a rib And that's the way he sees his end.
I love the power and the leverage that Kevin Costner has here, like, well.
You very much helped make that show. I mean, it's a.
Great is the show? I mean without Kevin Costner and without the pandemic? Have we ever heard of Yellowstone? I'm not sure Kevin Costner really put that thing on the map. It legitimized it, for sure, Yeah.
Because it wasn't around for a few years and then in the pandemic. I mean that's when you and I started watching because we binged. But yeah, it's Kevin Costner. I mean, he's an icon.
And that's not taking away from all the other people we've gotten to know and love on that show who are wonderful, but it just helped to have that name to launch it. And obviously, being confined to our homes, we became desperate for content and started watching things that we admit. It's a great show, yeah, and it turns out now, but the fate of John Dutton is now in the hands of this negotiation, and it'd be interesting
to know if Tyler shared and the Creatorlor shared Taylor. Sorry, if Taylor shared, and I have too many Taylors and Tyler's in my life, If Taylor Shardan has an idea of what he wanted, and if that changes because of this leverage that Kevin Costner has, we digress. It was not Kevin Costner, but you did see someone from yes, and.
Again I did not say hi because I didn't want to draw attention, but he was. He was over at the Chilies as well. The Chilies became the Carbone in New York. It became the Beverly Hills Polo Lounge. The Chili's was the spot to be. At the Louisville Airport.
You couldn't get a reservation.
There was a line outside.
You had to know people, You had to call it months in advance.
There was there were the ropes, the velvet ropes. Could you get around or not?
If you couldn't, you were at the folding table bar, which is where I was. But I was okay with it.
So, I mean, we started drinking with the people around us at our gate, and uh, now there was a bit of a test of our relationship. You you're very good.
At travel and thinking outside the box, and you thought, can we get on another flight on standby in case this flight doesn't go because they were telling us we don't know if ultimately now we have a crew for your plane.
Yeah, because our first crew timed out they went home, so our plane was just kind of sitting there. We had no crew. Four hours four and a half hours later, there was another flight to Austin and we thought, okay, I'm just going to go put us on standby, and we got on standby and we were number one and number two on standby.
We have a lot of airline points from all our work travels. So we're high on status now.
But Lauren Zima is a little bit higher now than I am.
Smashing the patriarchy with airline points.
I'm not sure how this happened. So there is at the end of the day, one seat remaining on this flight to Austin that we know is going to leave.
And this became a bigger test of our relationship than whether the dress was blue or green.
And this became very public because everybody from our flight is now who we know because we've been hanging out for six hours, is now standing around and they call Lauren Zema Lauren Zema and she goes up there and Lauren says, hey, you know, how many seats do you have? And they say one, and she says, well, we're traveling together. Sorry, we're going to pass. And so you walk back to me and they said they only had one seat. Well,
the next person on the list, Chris Harrison. Please come Chris Harrison.
So now it's being announced around the whole airport obviously.
And everybody from our flight, we've all gotten to know each other, so now they know. And I walk up there and I said, I don't know. Everybody should I take it? Is this going to be the end of our relationship?
I can't believe you're saying this is such a laugh right now? We are. Really it was.
A good moment. Everybody really enjoyed the moment.
Were you performing for the crowd or were you really thinking about taking that seat and leaving me at the Louisville Airport.
A little bit of both. No, at the end of the day, fly together. At the end of the day. It all worked out the good karma. And then the third girl who was in.
Line behind us, she's blowing past this.
I would not have taken this seat, but it made for a really fun public moment.
You were entertaining.
The people was thinking would this guy take? I mean, think about how public that would have gone. Chris Harrison leaves or Zona headline in the lurch.
Although I will tell you I had friends and family at the airport at this point. I would have been fine. My girl at the Chili's, she would have gotten another margarita. I'm good to go.
So we all take the Walk of Shane back to our gate, back to our original plane, which still doesn't have a crew. But then it happened. Two flight attendants show up then, and the crowd goes wild. The airport, our little gate erupts into standing ovation. These two gentlemen, our flight attendants, have no idea what's going on. They just got to work. They're like, what in the hell.
They don't know that we've been waiting there for seven hours that we The flight attendant literally goes, what happened to you?
Then one pilot, the main guy, shows up.
Applause, applau clause.
The people go crazy. He has no idea what everybody's applauding about, but he takes it in.
Then the co pilot, whoo, you always need a co pilot. That's a lesson, don't leave a person behind.
This guy apparently he's used to applause because he leaned into it and starts waving to the people and really enjoyed the moment of getting a standing ovation, doing a.
Royal the Queen in the utter coronation wave.
And I love that everybody had this vibe of we were just happy, even after eight hours. We were happy to have the crew. They showed up and they flew us to Austin. The flight was fun because everybody was in this mood of we had just made it through something together and we made it home.
We made it home. I have to be honest, I didn't think it was going to happen.
I mean, we'd kind of resigned ourselves to like, look, we might be going back to Jeff Rubies and Louisville, having another great dinner and just leaving in the morning.
But it took off. It happened, and I actually, looking back on it now reflecting the next morning, I love that it happened.
I'm not saying I don't know, it's weird. I've probably never felt so good about being stuck at an airport. I always say airports bring out the best in people and the worst in people.
But in this case, it was the best. Everybody was happy. Answer for me, no, and now we've actually got a story and it was great.
And kudos to everyone at the Louisville Airport, all of you. We feel your pain from yesterday. Hopefully everyone got to where they needed to be either today or tomorrow. But it was awesome.
What was a lesson you're taking away from the weekend.
People in the Midwest are amazing. People are good. Louisville's amazing. The people of Louisville. The Kentucky Derby was an incredible experience. And people are good. Most people are good. Yes, they help each other. Everybody was doing their best. Everyone at the restaurants were doing their best. Everybody was really kind and if everybody can keep that attitude, it made everything okay. I saw everybody was feeding off that vibe.
I saw something. It's almost like as your phone listening, but I saw something on my phone yesterday that it was just a quote that said something like negativity is contagious, but so is joy.
And I was thinking.
There was one guy at our gate who was I mean literally at one point he was kind of punching his bag and talking to himself. He was really freaking out about the fact that this flight was late. And I noticed on the plane towards the end he actually was smiling. And I think what happened was just he kind of saw like when you see that everyone else around you is helping each other out, is laughing, you start to think, wait, you start to look at yourself and go, hold on, why am I not in this place?
Or maybe you just get in a better mood from what you're seeing around you. And he had adjusted and so that made me really happy. And like you said, it was just people are generally good everybody. We had no bad moments yesterday, even though we were in what could have been a bad situation.
Smile, it's contagious.
Well.
It was the most sorry for taking your line, delightfully dramatic day and weekend ever, the most delightfully dramatic Derby.
From the Derby winner to the Emerald Green dress, to the travel to the John Hamm of it all. It was an amazing weekend and again a shout out to Kentucky Derby. You delivered. Very rarely will a bucket list moment exceed expectations. It did, and I hope you had a good time too it.
You know, I really, looking back, this weekend could have been kind of a big make or break weekend, I guess. But turns out we love each other and I enjoy spending time.
I thank you for your sense of adventure, thank you for just going along with things that you're not even sure what you're getting into. I love that about you, and I love that about us, and I love that we met so many people also in Louisville that came up and said, hey, love the podcast. Love what you guys are doing. Please keep doing this and that meant the world to Lauren and I love you guys so much.
And now don't miss the next episode this week, which is you and Bob Guiney, who he might be even a bigger love in your life than me.
And that's okay, bonus episode of Bob Guiney. If there was anybody who got more love than the winner of the Kentucky Derby, it was Bob Guiney there in Louisville. That bonus episode. Check it out and until then, we'll talk to you next time because we have a lot more to talk about. Thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram at the most dramatic pod ever and make sure to write us a review and leave us five stars. I'll talk to you next time.