Louisville KY to Goodlettsville TN

We have our obligatory breakfast and head out this morning.

We point ourselves towards Churchill Downs Racetrack which is less than a 10 drive from our hotel. It is an amazing complex of buildings and we go inside and pay the admission price. We check on tours and there is one that starts in less than a half hour and we sign up for it.

The history of the Kentucky Derby is exciting and there are so many horses and jockeys that come to mind during the tour. We are taken through the facilities and down onto the track. Our tour guide, Ally, is pleasant and tells us all about the history of the race and the track! The tour ends with Elee trying on some Kentucky Derby hats and and getting refreshed with Mint Juleps!

We then drive on to downtown Louisville and we locate the Louisville Slugger Museum. A fun stop to see where the famous baseball bats are made! We walk around Louisville and take a few photos before moving on. Have you ever seen a sequined limousine?

We then head out on the road in the direction of Goodlettsville, just north of Nashville where friends of ours live. We arrive later in the afternoon and Juan and Stephanie greet us and we all catch up on old times! They take us into Nashville for the evening onto Broadway where it is a walking street that is a party atmosphere lined with bars and filled with music of all genres. This reminds me of Bourbon Street in New Orleans and Beale Street in Memphis. Fun places, all of them!

So we’ll call it a night! See you tomorrow!

Lexington to Louisville KY

Today we get up and do the obligatory breakfast in the hotel before heading out. It turns out the horse ranch we were looking for is only 8 minutes away so that is convenient. We arrive at the Kentucky Horse Park and it is quite the operation. We pay the $18 Senior Discount and start walking the grounds which are quite extensive. Beautiful country around here. There is a “Breeds” show happening in a half hour and we point ourselves in that direction. We walk around several stables admiring the horses before the show begins and find seats for the show.

The ‘Parade of Breed’ show begins and several gorgeous breeds of horses are brought out on display including Halfoff, Creolo, American Mustang, Nord, and an English Shire, all beautiful horses in their own rights! Our cameras are happily snapping photos as the show progresses and the riders proudly display their steeds talents around the arena.

We then walk the grounds some more before moving on down the road in search of a bourbon distillery to do some tasting. When we arrive at the Woodford Reserve Distillery, we find out that you need to reserve tastings at least 2 weeks in advance! Oh my! But we are creative and inquire about a tour. Oh, you can get a tour in a half hour and a tasting flight comes with that! Problem solved!

So we line up for the tour that starts in 20 minutes and all is good. Stacey, our guide, takes us through the grounds and into the distillery, a very hot building where the hot humid Kentucky air will become pleasantly thrilling to come back into later! As we ascend the stairs into the top of the building, the hot acrid fermentation fumes assault our senses but not in a bad way. Looking into the bubbling cauldrons of fermenting grains is actually quite the treat to watch. Then Stacey takes us down a level to the copper stills which were pretty to look at. It was much cooler on this level also.

Down on the ground floor was where the kegs were filled and transported from there to the warehouses for maturation. Maturation is the process where the bourbon ages and smooths out to become great drinking. They are tested periodically by the experts to determine when to bottle them. Today the bottling line was bottling a 6 year old bourbon. Visitors are not allowed in the bottling process so all we could do was look through the glass windows at the process.

After the tour, Stacey walked us back up to the tasting room for an in depth tasting of 3 different bourbons and a mixed cocktail, all of which were fantastic! She showed us how to really taste the bourbon and how to appreciate the different notes of flavor that each different kind of liquor held. All in all, a very enlightening experience!

So our bourbon tasting completed, we drive on in search of something new in Kentucky. We even come across a castle in Kentucky! Who would have thought of that? We point ourselves towards Louisville next and it is only about an hour away. It is now late afternoon and we arrive and check into our Best Western hotel. We ask the concierge for directions to the nearest laundromat, as we have been traveling for 10 days now and it is time to take care of essentials. He surprises us and points to a hallway and says they have a guest laundry! Well, it is our lucky day!

We take care of our laundry and look up locations for dinner. I find “Momma’s Mustard, Pickles & BBQ” on Guy Fieri’s Triple D site and we checked it out. It most certainly didn’t disappoint! Damon was our waiter and he sat down with us and personally described every aspect of the menu to us! He catered to us personally and made us feel at home! We ordered the Smoked Beef Ribs, Burnt Ends, two sides and hot fried Pickles. The food was better than I have ever had, bar none! By all means, if you ever find yourself in Louisville, KY, you have to eat at Momma’s!

Well, that’s it for today! See you all tomorrow!

Charleston WV to Lexington KY

Today we arise and once again get breakfast in the hotel. Complimentary breakfasts have become the norm and are much more economical than going out to restaurants! So then we pack up and head out.

This morning we head into downtown Charleston to find the Capitol building as we hear it is open to the public, not like the protected buildings in California where the lawmakers are terrified of the public they have created. We even find free parking! So after asking questions of some very friendly locals, we find the correct door to go in and our cameras are happily clicking away (after a quick x-ray security scan, of course).

White marble walls and floors and Elee thinks she is back at work, LOL. Photos of the Rotunda amaze even the simplest of camera lenses and pristine hallways shine as we stroll through them. Senate and House Chambers with chairs aligned and inkwells in order await the politicians return to their lawmaking duties.

We soon amass as many photos as we can and step back out into the sunshine and find our car and drive off in search of new places to see. Deciding to move on, we head towards Kentucky and set our Navigators for Lexington. In about an hour we come across the sign that announces “Welcome to Kentucky”. It catches us by surprise and we want to take photos of it. So we double back and drive by it again. This time I manage to get a photo of it but Elee misses it. So we double back again. Why? You ask, is this photo so important to Elee’s camera? Well, the simple answer is that this completes Elee’s quest to visit all 50 States. So the double back is that important. And the third time is the charm, this time Elee gets the photo and all is well!

An hour later we roll into Lexington and find a hotel. We check in and find a dinner restaurant near downtown in an eclectic area called Chevy Chase Circle. The restaurant is called “The Sage Rabbit” and the food is good.

On a side note, Lexington is the Horse Capitol of the World. Kentucky is my 48th State as I still have 2 more to complete my quest to visit all 50 but that is the subject of another blog page.

Until tomorrow my friends….

Day 09 Roanoke to Charleston WV

This morning we wake and have breakfast and hit the road with the intent to make it to Fayetteville WV. We have been a little disappointed with Roanoke as we thought we would have found more American History there but it seemed to have fallen short of our expectations. But we move on.

As we enter West Virginia, the scenery noticeably changes. The landscape is quite mountainous and green and lush which we like a lot and so do our cameras. We stop at the first Visitor Center and aquire as much info as we can and keep moving on.

We come to a small town of Beckley and stop to visit a Coal Mine and are just in time for an actual tour into a real Coal Mine. Quite the experience guided by Don Barnett, an actual Coal Miner of some 35 years in the mine. He regales us of the stories of the mine and has us singing songs such as “Sold Our Souls To The Company Store” and “Working In A Coal Mine, Going Down Down Down” among others and told us of how it was like virtual slavery as a coal miner. He had our hearts as he told us how it was. We also meet with “Ron Dawn Trucking” in the coal mine and we had to have a photo with them!

But the trip moves on and we do also. We head north towards Fayetteville and the “New River Gorge National Park and Preserve”. We cross the bridge, which doesn’t seem like much when you’re crossing it and stop at the Visitor Center on the other side. Then we take a short hike to photograph the bridge we crossed and the bridge is massive, easily as big as the new bridge that spans the gap across Hoover Dam.

We are shown the road to take that goes to the bottom of the Gorge and across the river where you can see the bridge from below and we head out on the 45 minute drive. Once at the bottom, we walk across the one lane bridge at the bottom to photograph the Gorge Bridge and are not sorry we took the drive. It is a simply gorgeous view!

Once back up on the highway, we head in the direction of Charleston, West Virginia, and shortly into the drive, torrential rains hit us and thunder and lightning surround us. We find out later that half dollar size hail also surround us but we are lucky not to experience that. Driving becomes difficult but we brave the storm and carry on. Within an hour the storm abates and we arrive in Charleston and check into our hotel, a Wyndham, near the Coal River.

We locate a restaurant, “Angela’s, On The River”, for dinner and it is a quaint place right on the Coal River in the Historic Chilton House. It was a quite lovely place and after dinner, Angela herself met us and chatted with us for quite some time, having heard that we were almost finished with our quest to visit all 50 States. She was quite a charming lady and not short on hugs! If you ever find yourself in Charleston, West Virginia, you would be well served to look her up and be her guest!

But it’s that time of day again where we bid the daylight adieu and lay our heads on our pillows for the night! See you all tomorrow!

Boone to Roanoke VA

Today we get up around 8AM and get breakfast downstairs. We decide against driving the Blue Ridge Parkway in the interest of getting to Roanoke in a timely fashion. So we head out towards the highway. About the time we decide we need to fuel up the car, we see a winery off the highway and it is also nearing lunchtime.

We fuel up and head for the winery. Upon pulling in, the first thing we notice is that the grapevines look very sad indeed. The winemaker confirms our observations and tells us they had very bad luck with the grapes. So they turned their operation into a distillery instead. This they had quite good success with and their flavored moonshines are delicious. We get a tour of the distillery an we even buy some to bring home! Those close to us may even get to try some in the near future!

We travel on and make it into Roanoke in the early afternoon and find the travel info center and the attendant gives us useful info and we head out happily into downtown on a walking tour, our cameras happily clicking away. We find a restaurant, “Fork in the Market” and stop for lunch and a brew. We then resume our walking tour and get back to our car some time later.

We have been told to check out the “Roanoke Star” and we locate it on top of a hill. It is a 30 foot tall white star that is illuminated at night. We take some photos in the day and then go find dinner at another downtown restaurant, “Awful Arthur’s” that turns out to be not so awful. By this time it is getting dark and we make it back up to the “Star” where we take more photos of the illuminated Star. At one point, a fun lady, Yolanda Ramos, poses for a photo and holds the Star up in the air! What a fun lady!

Alas, the night wanes and we head back to our hotel to retire for the evening. See you all tomorrow!