Louisville, Kentucky; 16-21 April 2023
After ten months of being home bound, the RoadHouse once again is where she belongs: on the road. After that much time off, there were some work-arounds-low tire pressures, leaky water lines…but we are patient and Dan is smart and patient. (And, he actually listened to me about the tire pressure this time!)
We started off at our favorite Ohio State Park, Alum Creek, closest to where Andrew and Madison live. This time, however, we should’ve checked in earlier to get on their schedule. They stopped by our campsite for about 90 minutes and then had to go out for Euchre Night with their friends. We got to sample the ambiance of Henmick Farm and Brewery in Delaware, OH. Good music, good beer, the Thai was ok. But a fun place—we’d go back, and take Fleur next time!
On Sunday we headed to Louisville…follow along with us on our activities!
Bourbon Tasting
We are in the heart of bourbon country, camped in Bardstown, we see they have a store downtown that is The Blind Pig Bourbon Store. No surprise. We’re near James B Beam, Heaven Hill, Maker’s Mark, Four Roses, and many others.
Apologies for the poor story-telling; these loaded in the order THEY chose and I could not figure out how to re-order them!
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| After our tour, we had a bourbon tasting. I was really impressed at how adding just ONE DROP of water to the bourbon changed how it felt on the tongue and how it tasted! |
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| Dan’s personal bottle he had them fill from a single barrel 8-year old bourbon. When WILL we open it? |
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| The tour starts here…and the gift shop is at the end! |
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Marking his bottle with his thumbprint in hot wax.
That is Marie, our funny and knowledgeable tour guide—wow, did she ever have a strong Kentucky southern accent! |
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| The Beam family legacy from Jacob Beam to Freddie. |
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| While we were learning about how oak barrels were made, nearly 200 barrels were FILLED and awaiting aging the racks in the barrel warehouse. |
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| One really long aisle of barrels in the rick house. |
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| Fermentation vats; the step prior to distillation. |
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| A small section of the distillation tower. |
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| Marie, explaining about barrels. Fun fact: one 100-year-old oak tree is needed to produce (only) two barrels! Once the barrel is made, a gas flame is used to char the inside. Each barrel is used ONCE by this distillery, then sold to other companies (soy sauce, tequila, rum, hot sauce, beer, etc) who like the added flavors that leach out of the wood. |
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| Evan Williams moved to Kentucky from Pennsylvania to set up his distillery where the limestone springs produced water of “crystalline purity”; he started making bourbon in 1783. It is now produced by Heaven Hill Distillery, located about a half mile from our campsite! |
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| Visitors center at Heaven Hill Distillery |
Well….I THOUGHT I could just make one big blog post to cover all week but I’m having problems with sequencing the photos and adding more onto these. Let’s just publish this one and then do other posts on other exciting things we got to do this week! Stay tuned!
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