Daylight woke us from our dreams this morning. No alarms. No housekeeping. Just beams of morning light. Just the way I like it. We apparently slept so well that we missed breakfast. In fact, we awoke just two minutes shy of the kitchen's closing. By the time we showered and dressed, we found it was much closer to lunch time instead. Jason and I found a place called BJ's Steakhouse. Seemed like a good place for lunch. They were completely decorated for Halloween; flying bats, skeletons, witches, and broomsticks lined the walls. Below are pictures of Jason and I enjoying our meal:
My stuffed potato and broccoli below:
After lunch we headed over to the Wild Turkey Distillery. Today we were going to try to see Wild Turkey and Makers Mark. We arrived at Wild Turkey a little later than we originally meant to, due to sleeping in. We ended up having to wait roughly 30 minutes for the next tour to start, but we browsed the gift shop while waiting. Once the tour guides were ready, they gathered us onto a bus and drove us over to the actual distillery. Below is a picture of the Wild Turkey distillery:
The large green silos in the bottom picture are where they store all the grains for the bourbon. The largest is for corn, since bourbon is not legally allowed to be called bourbon unless it has a minimum of 51% corn in it. The other two are for Rye and Barley. Some distilleries will use wheat instead of Rye to make it sweeter, but Wild Turkey uses Rye to give it more spice.
The picture below is of the beer still, which is where the alcohol is separated from the grain. Apparently almost every, if not every, distillery will give the left over grain to farmers to slop their pigs, cows, and horses. Our tour guide said "We have very happy cows in Kentucky." He asked if anyone was from California. Unfortunately no one was, but he then said "people from California say they have the happiest cows, but ours are happier."
The picture below is of Jason and I in the fermentation room where the grains become fermented. They used steel vats instead of Cyprus since they are easier to clean. The tour guide was kind enough to take the picture for us. Behind where the tour guide stood was a small window showing the quality assurance room. The room was filled with bottles and bottles of bourbon and tons of glasses filled with bourbon. Originally he said, "And here's the employee break room..." haha! Nice break room :^)
Once finishing the tour of the distillery, we were picked up by the bus and taken back to the gift shop. There was a small tasting room at the top of the shop where he allowed us to pick two different types of bourbon for a sampling. Jason tried Russle's Reserve 10 year and Rare Breed. I tried Small Batch Single Barrel and Rye. All were good. Once finishing our tasting, we went to the gift shop and bought two glasses that said "Bourbon Trail" on it and a Bung Knocker. Below are pictures of those two things:
After buying gifts we went outside to see the scenery. They were located in a beautiful spot. We also found this thing:
Below is a picture of their property at Wild Turkey:
After finishing our Wild Turkey tour, we discovered we no longer had enough time to see Maker's Mark. One thing no one tells you when trying to complete the bourbon trail is how far away each distillery is from one another. Looks like we'll complete that another day. We decided to spend the rest of our day seeing Lincoln's home in Kentucky. Although people believe Lincoln believe he's from Illinois, he actually was from Kentucky.
On the way to finding the Lincoln's Homestead State Park we took a wrong turn down a random road and stumbled across some amazing country scenery. The first picture is my favorite. Since Kentucky is a very country place, we were able to stop on the road for quite some time and take these pictures.
As Jason and I drove by I quickly grabbed Jason's attention and told him to look to my left. As you can see, there are quite a grouping of cows close to the road... no gate to keep them in. It was amazing! Jason took these pictures on our way back, the cows staring at him as though an old friend saying hello. It was amazing! The two pictures below look identical, but we decided to post both because the black cow has clearly moved while everything else remains unchanged.
As we continued down this random road, we stumbled across this old home. We thought it was beautiful and would make a wonderful creepy photo if done in black and white. Love it!
Another picture of the old home:
After returning to the correct road, we traveled for quite some time through Kentucky's beautiful countryside. Visiting Kentucky has given me a new understanding for the phrase "rolling hills." The land was simultaneously flat and hilly all at the same time. We'd reach the top of a hill to find miles and miles of farmland, only a few old trees blocking our view. Suddenly a new hill would emerge, followed again by another stretch of cornfield. Wind was also a strong presence as we drove. With few trees blocking their path, the wind would strongly pour over the hills and through the ruffling cornstalks. It was beautiful!
Here is a picture of a cornfield:
After making our way through miles and miles of hills and turns, we finally found the Lincoln homestead. We parked and tried to buy our tickets to view the log cabin replicas, but unfortunately they were closed by the time we arrived. We were able to look around and take pictures, peering in windows on occasion. The weather was unforgettable! Sunny but cool, the crisp fall wind whipping through our hair as we walked around the park. If only we could have captured this beautiful fall day in a picture; sealed every gust of wind and inch of sunlight in a bottle for later revisiting! No description can give justice to such a perfect moment.
Although unable to pass on the ineffable sensation, perhaps these pictures may provide a hint of the beauty that we encountered.
The Brown's at the Lincoln's Homestead.
Above, a replica of a Lincoln Log Cabin. Below a closer view of this cabin.
Below, Jason in front of the log cabin. We have a very similar picture of Jason at Nathaniel Hawthorne's home when we visited Salem for our anniversary.
Below are pictures of this cabin from the viewpoint of Lincoln's mother's memorial.
Below is a picture of a bell Jason thought was neat. I agree. You're welcome.
A wide picture of all the log cabins, excluding one.
A closer view of the cabin above.
Below are pictures of an old bridge we found on their property.
Me in front of the bridge and cabin.
Jason in front of the bridge and cabin.
A small stone tunnel that you can walk through. We didn't... seemed kinda creepy.
Below is another picture of us.
A stone wall near the old bridge.
A small picnic area behind the log cabins and by the old bridge.
So beautiful!
Just no words for how beautiful this place is.
Another picture of the log cabin that we loved so much.
The small path leading to the bridge.
Soon Jason and I realized we were extremely hungry and decided to head back for dinner. We decided to find the Claudia Sanders Dinner House. This is basically KFC, but higher quality and named after his wife. Here is a picture of the mansion:
The picture below is of a strange building near the mansion that we assume is part of it due to being so close and also being white.
Below is a close up of a statue in front of the strange building. Still not sure what this is exactly.... the building, I mean. Clearly the statue is of a loose woman.
Jason and I walked in and were immediately seated. Here is a picture of the inside. To the right, a bust of Col. Sanders.
As soon as we were seated, Jason promptly left to find the restroom, as it had been hours since having bourbon and a large diet coke. Yay for public restrooms. While he was gone, I ordered him a water and myself a diet coke. Our waitress also provided us with scrumptious rolls, which took every inch of self-control for me not to consume while Jason was gone. Delicious-looking, right?
Jason soon returned, the rolls quickly consumed, and our waitress returned to receive our order. Only moments later our starters arrived. here are pictures:
Not much time had passed before our main courses arrived, followed by a refill of rolls. When the waitress came to give us another roll, she paused and then said "You're skinny... we can fix that." She then gave me two rolls. I did not complain. Here are pictures of our food:
We left dinner with a full stomach and in very good moods. Our drive back to the hotel was roughly an hour, which meant we were able to watch the sun go down on our way home. It was stunningly beautiful! We rolled down the windows to allow the cool, fall air to sweep over us. Again, no words to describe how amazing this felt or how beautiful the landscape was. These pictures also do not to it justice. Also, keep in mind we were driving very fast for some of these.
Finally, as the sun fully set, we arrived at our hotel. We will end this day with photos Jason and I took of the glasses we received the day before at Heaven Hill and Four Roses. Also, goofy pictures Jason took of me with my bung knocker.
Lovely pictures. You two aren't having fun, are you?
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