We left the Elkhart Campground and headed to the Elks in Fort Wayne, IN. They have electric only and it was 30 amp, but the parking lot where we had to park was headed downhill. The view was terrific, right over the golf course.
This is the RV in Fort Wayne. The Golf Course in right beside us, and in front of us is a baseball field. The Elks have a swimming pool and nice patio area as well as the dining room and bar. The night we were there they were having a casino night and had gambling tables set up.
We only spent one night there and headed to the FMCA office in Cincinnati, OH. They have full hook-ups with 50 amps of power in back of the office, all on concrete. The weather is finally sunny and warm, so we decided to stay for a couple of days. We are still catching up on sleep and rest! All the rain gets to you. Inside the coach gets muddy and clothes get wet and we were ready for some sun! Frank got up on the roof of the RV and cleaned it off. He said it was really dirty. Now with all the rain, just how does it get so dirty? So at least until it rains again we have a nice clean coach. I cleaned inside and think I got all the mud, grass and gravel cleaned up. We didn’t do much in Cincinnati except pick up our mail and buy groceries.
Gidget said, “leave me out of all this work stuff, I’m tired!”
We are headed to Lexington, KY to visit Dixie’s nephew, Bret and wife, Laura.
Kentucky welcomed us as we crossed the Ohio River. We headed to Kentucky Horse Park Campground.
It is Labor Day weekend and the water and electric sites are all reserved, so we ended up parking in overflow electric. Which was great with us. Instead of being parked on blacktop or cement and have water and electric, we were parked on grass and had 30 amps of electric. Enough to run one AC at a time. It’s not real hot, so that works. Plus we were right near the pavilion where the square dancers were dancing and having a good time.
We called Bret and Laura and they invited us over to their neighbor’s for a bar-b-que dinner. We were only 8 miles away from their home. Perfect!
Jim, the neighbor, cooked outside, but we ate inside—lots of flies and mosquitoes outside. Above is Bret, and the neighbors with Laura and Frank.
On Sunday, Bret had to work half a day, and we wanted to go to church, so we planned to meet in the afternoon and go somewhere for lunch. Good Ole Bret, he remembered how much I like Mexican food, so we found a great restaurant and I had my Mexican Food Fix. Then we stopped by Laura’s frame shop and gallery where she works, and back to the coach where we played a great game of Mexican Train and had a little dinner and dessert.
Gidget made herself at home in Bret’s lap!
Monday, everyone had the day off so we decided it was a great day to go to the bourbon distilleries. There are eight of them in a circle outside of Lexington. We knew we wouldn’t make it to all of them, so we picked three. Some of the others were closed for the holiday and weren’t doing tours. The first one we went to was Buffalo Trace.
The first Distillery we went to was Buffalo Trace. It has had three different names and was established in the late 1800’s. It was one of the only places in the US that made bourbon during the prohibition. Only to export. The warehouse below is immense and we did get to step inside. The plaque above tells how many barrels are stored in this one warehouse and you can see in some of the windows where the barrels are stacked right up to the top floor!
Bourbon, Bourbon everywhere and each barrel has it’s own bar code!
Below is the “rails” that the barrels are rolled on to move them into and out of the warehouse. They are all gravity fed by a slight incline. Each barrel weighs over 500 lbs! The men have to position them just right, so the bung hole is facing up. There is a practice area between two of the warehouses and they even have contests between the employees to see who can get the most barrels rolled into a rack, with the bung holes up, and do it in the least amount of time.
Being boxed above is Blanton’s single barrel bourbon. Special bottling of only one barrel that has exceptional taste. Some of these go for over $200.00 a bottle.
This is the clubhouse on the grounds. It is used for employee functions and also rented out for weddings, dinners and parties. All the logs used to build it were from log cabins that were being torn down. This company is very eco conscience. The grounds are beautiful and everything is well maintained.
On to the tasting room! Frank and Bret did the tasting, until they got to the liqueur. They had a liqueur that was like a Bailey’s and cream. That Dixie had a taste of. And guess who bought a bottle of it! You guessed it. Dixie did! In the gift shop we had a great time. I even found a hot fudge sauce with bourbon in it and a biscuit mix was made from some of the dry mash. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m gonna! It was a great tour, and even though we had rain when we left the Kentucky Horse Park, we drove away from it and had a spectacular beautiful day. We had so much fun we decided to do it again and go to another distillery!
Onward to Four Roses! I remember my Dad giving me a shot of Four Roses Whiskey in hot tea with lemon and honey for a bad cold. Then I had to go to bed, cover up and “sweat it out.” Thank goodness for the honey and lemon, I didn’t like the taste of the whiskey.
This was our guide for the tour. I want you to look on the barrel. You will see a empty bourbon bottle with four roses. Each stop we made there were live red roses. Very cool! Because this is Labor Day, all the workers were off, so we had a nice quiet tour, but didn’t get to see any working machines. During the summer when it is hot, this distillery shuts down and does it’s maintenance. We had to go in the back door to see the equipment. OK with us.
The front of the distillery, and inside one of the cooking pots. Nice top!
The stills. How the alcohol is condensed and the proof is measured.
Above is just some of the equipment used in the process of making bourbon. Now you can make your own! Four Roses no longer makes a whiskey blend. They are only making bourbon now. The company has been bought and sold three times and is now owned by a Japanese company. Velly Interesting!
That’s a new use for a barrel.
Back to the tasting room, and a look at how to weigh a barrel. Again Frank and Bret did the tasting. At least at the Buffalo Trace they had a root beer for Laura. We just browsed around in the gift shop. Nothing exciting or unusual.
By now it is close to dinner time and Bret and Laura took us to a beautiful old Hotel and we enjoyed our first taste of Spoon Bread. The whole experience was beautiful. The Hotel, the walk around the square and all the interesting things they told us about the area.
It was a wonderful day, a great weekend and lots of fond memories. Tomorrow we leave and Bret and Laura go back to work!
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