May 27

Our first stop was in Concord, NC to spend a few days with Daughter #2 and family.  We went to the movies, did some bowling, cooked some great meals and just hung out.  This was a great way to start our big adventure with a little family time. 

May 31

We headed north to Princeton, WV for a quick overnight on our way to Frankfort, KY at a Harvest Host location (Harvest Host is a website feature where you can locate places to park for a overnight stay, no frills, no water, electricity or sewer.  These places are all over the US from parking lots of businesses, wineries and farms) Our Harvest Host was the parking lot of a train museum.  The road to Princeton was a great way to put the truck to the test on pulling the trailer. We felt like we were on a e-ticket roller coaster ride (all curves, up, downs but no upside down) beautiful scenery even saw the capitol building from a far.

June 1

We had a great sleep with no fears of organ harvesting while we slept.  Hooked the RV back up and hit the road again.  Walter was getting excited as he knew that 3 days of bourbon tastings were only a few hours away.  We arrived at the RV park that we were going to call home for the next few days.  There is a process once you arrive at the RV park.  Unhook the truck, get the RV level/stable, hook up water, electricity and sewer, check the inside to see what bounced around or fell during the trip.  Once that is all done it is time for some fun:

Day 1: went straight to Buffalo Trace (4pm) to check out their gift shop/bourbon selection.  We lucked out we were able to catch a “barrel tour” this tour gave you the history of the distillery and took us through the barrel dump process for small batch bourbons.  Followed by a walk through the Blanton's bottling house where they dump the barrels one barrel at a time and prep for shipping.  Then back to the gift shop for a few purchases.

Day 2: back to Buffalo Trace in the morning to see if we could score some of the daily specials, yippee for us, we did.  We were able to get 2 Blanton's mini bottles and of course 2 750ml bottles of Blanton’s as well.  Note: only one of these bottles per person is allowed in a 90-day period. 

The day had just begun, we hit the road to Heaven Hill Distillery in Bardstown.  This was a great tour. We learned the story of the family that has owned it since the first rack house was built, did some tasting of 4 different bourbons and were able to bottle one of them on our own. Not sure if these bottles are souvenirs or for drinking, will figure that out later.

The day is not over yet, we hopped in the truck and zoomed down the highway to Louisville to go to the Brown Hotel for a Hot Brown.  The story of a hot brown is an open-faced sandwich that was created in the 1920’s.  The Brown Hotel attracted over 1200 guests each evening for its dinner dance.  In the “wee” hours of the morning, the guests would grow tired of dancing and retire to the restaurant for a bite to eat.  Bored with traditional eggs and ham, the chef delighted his guests by creating “the Hot Brown” an open face turkey sandwich with bacon, tomatoes and a delicate mornay sauce.   The Hot Brown was born and now a Louisville tradition.  We had a Hot Brown 14 years ago when we visited Louisville and never forgot how decadent they were and just had to have it again.  They were as good as we remembered well worth the drive.

But wait there is more, since we were in downtown Louisville we decided to have a little bourbon experience.  Many of the distillery’s have small store fronts where you can do tastings, we found ourselves visiting Michters for a 10-year-old poor (they did have a 25 year for $1000 a pour, we decided to pass) finished the day at Bardstown Bourbon Company and Even Williams.

Day 3

Final and last distillery, we had booked a tour at Willett.  What an experience.  Our guide was great, enthusiastic and full of distillery’s history.  She had strategically placed the bourbons we would be tasting throughout the tour, it was like an easter hunt but better.  By this time, we were bourboned out and were looking forward to our drive to Illinois the next morning.  So, we headed home for a streak dinner and a good night’s sleep.

Special Note: When we were sailing there was always a detail or mishap on the boat, something breaking.  Well, an RV is not any different.  We noticed that the toilet was acting up and not filling with water to flush.  Good thing we have a handyman (Walter) that is not afraid to get his hands dirty.  With knowledge from the internet (thank you google) he was ready to pull up his sleeves and get it fixed.  Our land yacht is not any bigger than the sailboat, (small spaces) but with a few creative moves Walter got it fixed and we were ready for the morning coffee to kick in.

Worlds #1 handyman