Mark Twain tells us a lot about ourselves. In Hannibal MO, we couldn’t go into a shop, restaurant or elsewhere without seeing quotable quotes from the man himself. I admit, I have not read enough of him or his insights and travels…. Maybe tomorrow.
We allowed 3 extra days for the trip across the country prior to the start of our caravan. This was in case we ran into weather or car troubles. But no such problems occurred so we headed to Nashville for a couple of days to prepare for the tour. Grand Ole Opry! Need I say more? I was looking for the Minnie Pearl look alike but did not find her.
The Opry is set as a radio show that airs live and recorded. They had several acts that played a couple of songs each. The variety was great….new country to old-time sounds. The place was packed and they put on quite a show.
My friend and I headed into the city to find Carter’s Vintage Guitars…a huge collection of fine guitars. I actually played on a $14,000 Martin guitar (okay I strummed it a bunch). It still sounded great even with my playing it.
The weather was heating up quite a bit (90’s) but luckily the RV resort had a pool to cool off in. I got to talking with a guy from New Jersey who comes down often. He recommended a place that shouldn’t be missed….The Loveless Café. So, we headed there for lunch the next day. Now this place is southern cooking as its finest. A very busy diner and store, located at the northern end of the Nechez Trace. It was in a quiet suburb of Nashville, SW of the city. They made homemade biscuits, great chicken, ham, cheesey grits…all the fixins.
The time has come, no more delays….we are needed in Kentucky. So off to our first stop, Bowling Green.
In Bowling Green, we met up with our peeps. 24 other Airstream trailers and 45 people. What a site to see….all of us there, getting to know each other and hearing each other’s stories. There actually were 5 couples from the west coast in attendance….3 from Oregon and 1 from Southern Calif.
Bowling Green is 
where Corvettes are made and has the Corvette Museum…the one that had a sink hole that swallowed up several cars a few years back. They had a great display of the lost cars and the hole. What we came to learn is that most of Kentucky is built on a limestone slab with a huge water supply under it….lots of tunnels and caves. No wonder a sink hole occurred.
They fished the cars out….but not much survived.
The weather continued hot….mid 90s. So to cool off, we took a tour boat into a vast cavern right under us. The ceiling was so low, we had to duck down to avoid hitting our heads. The highway we just overhead about 50 feet. But the cavern was cool in many regards. They used the entrance as a speakeasy dance hall during prohibition and through the years. They still hold events there.
From Bowling Green, the party moved on to Bardstown and the start of The Bourbon Trail! Whether Bardstown is the ‘Capitol’ of the bourbon trail or not, it had lots of distilleries in close proximity. We started our tour at Barton Distillery, home of Barton 1792. We began to notice right off that buildings were either painted black or looked like something black was smudged all over…even the fences were black. This was explained as the “angels share” of alcohol off-gassing promoting the growth of a black fungus on buildings, trees, fences…. During prohibition, the ‘Feds’ could easily find a still nearby by looking for blackened buildings. So the bright entrepreneurs of those times simply painted buildings black.
There are more barrels of bourbon stored in Kentucky than there are people. Each barrel weighs in excess of 550 lbs. To ensure the buildings stand straight, they measure the plumb line often when loading and unloading the buildings. If the building begins to rack, the plumb bob will show it and the building becomes unsafe to be in. While driving to different distillaries, we were introduced to a unique Kentucky phenomenon…narrow laned roads with virtually no shoulders and 50 mph speeds. These roads dipped and turned without warning. Glad we were not towing trailers. While in the area, we also visited Makers Mark, Limestone Branch and Lux Row distillers. Hands down, the greatest tour was conducted by a member of the Beam family at Limestone Branch Distillers. He spoke as a true Kentuckian.
Limestone Branch Tour Video (short)
Bardstown hosts the annual Bourbon Festival which occurred while there. Every large distillery was there along with a variety of small craft distillers, music and craft booths. We delighted in a car show at the entrance to the festival but it was so hot we didn’t stay long…we are fare weathered. The highlight in Bardstown for us was the evening dinner train through the countryside.
Next stop, Louisville.
