At 9 this morning we headed to Tyrone Hill, also known as Wild Turkey Distillers. The boubon trail is not for the feint of heart. Our tour guide, Casey, was a real pistol of a Kentucky girl. Ned was wearing an orange shirt, apparently Tennessee football colors, so she picked on Ned for most of the tour. Of course, it didn’t help that we were from California. It was a great tour, really interesting. The temp is still hovering around 100 degrees so it was nice to be on a bus going from the distillery to the rickhouses.
Unlike Willett Distillery yesterday, the tastings were much more manageable...(at 11 in the morning). My nephew Marc had given us a bottle of Russell’s 10 yr from Wild Turkey. After tasting the 4 samples the Russell 10 yr was still the best. Thanks Marc! The tasting room here is called “The Angel’s View.” (Bourbon drinkers will get the pun). It overlooks the Kentucky River. Some yahoos from California have a bungee jumping business off the train trestle. It’s the highest bridge in Kentucky. It costs $150 per jump. All the locals think this is nuts. I agree.
We took a lunch break between distilleries. Knowing that it’s probably our last chance for real Southern bbq, we chose a local bbq joint. Best beans I’ve ever eaten. I am now obsessed with trying to recreate this recipe. Everyone be forewarned. I’ll need tasters.
Next stop on the bourbon tour was Buffalo Trace. Hands down most charming campus. It’s designated as a National Historic Site. I loved the brick buildings. Even the rickhouses were made of brick. So fun to see the barrels in the windows of these brick buildings. Buffalo Trace tours and tastings are free, so there were a lot more people on this tour. You don’t get to go into the distillery on this tour, but they make up for it by allowing us to go into the bottling plant. In fact they even let us walk the line and talk to the employees as they were bottling. Every distillery talks about the amount of bourbon that is lost the longer it ages. These guys had a great visual aid of it. (The one with only 1/3 left has been aged for 18 years.)
Buffalo Trace is experiencing a shortage of bourbon. So, for two of their tastings they offered us a vodka that they make and the “white dog”, which is the booze that hasn’t been aged yet into barrels. Thanks, but no thanks. I came for the bourbon. We tasted two bourbons and a dessert bourbon. Think a Bailey’s bourbon. My son-in-law, Kevin, makes a great Manhattan so naturally Megan and Kevin get a bottle of their good bourbon. Enlightened self-interest.
With the temps still hovering around 100 degrees, we decided not to stay at Big Bone Lick State Park. (Yes, that’s really the name). They didn’t have a place to swim. We perused the map, did some research and decided to cross over the Ohio River into Indiana. I really enjoyed the back roads on this trip. Things I learned: Frankfort, KY is so charming and quaint! Dates back to the 1790’s and parts of it look like Boston; and the Ohio River has some impressive barges and many of the towns along this river look like the towns in Iowa along the Mississippi River.
We’re staying at Mounds SRA in Brookville, Indiana. Know what it has going for it? A lake!! A beach! Water that is not above body temperature!! We arrived a bit before 6, quickly paid for and picked out a campsite and then just drove to the beach. We were that ready to swim. It was friggin’ awesome. We hung out in the water until at least 8. (Great thing about Winnie is that when there are no showers to wash the sand off our feet she comes thru.) Ironically, we had chosen one of the shadiest campsites at 6 pm. We are the ONLY people in this loop of the campground so we had quite the selection. When we came back at 8ish, our campsite was the only one in the blazing sun. Go figure. Only thing to do was break out the Russell bourbon, buy some ice and make the best of it.
We’ve officially left the South. Telltale sign, no more Mountain Dew Soda Machines at the campground restrooms and no more washers and dryers in the campground.
