September 16, 2012

09/10/2012

On Friday the 7th we said goodbye to Gary and Lynn and headed toward the Camp Carlson RV Park near Fort Knox, KY.  On the way down Joyce called the park and and found out there was no room for us so we went to "Plan B".  We are now at the Elizabethtown Crossroads RV Park in Elizabethtown, KY.

We had some very nasty weather move into this area but fortunately most of the thunderstorms missed us.  We did get a lot of lightening and thunder but not near what was forecasted.


On Saturday we did a "Parade of Homes" to around the Elizabethtown area.  There are some beautiful homes being built here and are very affordable.

On Saturday evening we went to Jeff Hard's house for a barbecue.  Jeff was a member of the 86th Military Airlift Squadron at Travis AFB, CA while I was there.  He and his wife Darcy had invited several of their friends and the put out a delicious rib supper.

This part of Kentucky is "Bourbon Country" and Bardstown, KY is the "Bourbon Capital of the World".  There are several distilleries to choose from in the area so on Sunday we visited our first, the Heaven Hill Distillery.  Heaven Hill produces several premium bourbons including Evan Williams Single Barrel and Elijah Craig.

 Rack Houses

Our first order of business was to take their trolly tour of Bardstown.  Paul, our tour guide, gave us a lot of information about the town including old homes, museums and of course, bourbon history.

After the trolly tour we took a tour of the distillery which included a movie about the history of bourbon and how it's made.  Michelle, our tour guide the took us across the street to one of Heaven Hill's rack houses where the bourbon is aged.

09/11/2012

Yesterday we made another trip to the Bardstown area, specifically to Loretto and the Makers Mark Distillery, the purveyors of Makers Mark and Maker's 46 which I believe are some of the finest bourbons made.

Our tour here consisted of a walk around the beautiful distillery grounds, a walk through the distilling and fermenting rooms, viewing the printing shop and then the bottling line.  Also included the tour was of course tasting the bourbons, my favorite part.

In the gift shop we bought a small bottle of Makers Mark and then Joyce dipped it in the distilleries signature sealing wax.  Also, we signed up to be Makers Mark Ambassadors.  Our names will be placed on a keg of bourbon and in approximately seven years we'll be notified that that keg is going to be bottled.  We can return to the distillery and get a bottle of that bourbon.  How cool is that!

This printing press is over 100 years old.  Makers makes all of their labels on it even today.

 Notice the shutters.  The cutouts are the shape of their bottles.

 Joyce did a good job on the dip.

After leaving Loretto we had a picnic lunch in Bardstown and then toured the Civil War Museum.  This museum is reputed to have the largest collection of war memorabilia that any other collection in the country.  I don't know about that but I can say the collection is very impressive.

 One of Claudia's descendents is Judge Roy Bean, The Hanging Judge

09/13/2012

Yesterday we toured the Jim Beam Distillery.  This was a self-guided tour that covered several outside displays, a rack house and the visitors center.  If your headed to Kentucky in the future, the distillery will be starting a guided tour in October.

Jim Beam produces not only several flavors of Jim Beam bourbon but some very high-end, small-batch whiskey's as well, including Knob Creek, Basil Hayden, Baker's and Booker's.  At the end of the tour you have the opportunity to taste two of their bourbon's.  My choices were Booker's, a 128 proof whiskey that was the dream of Booker Noe who was the Master Distiller for many years.  This bourbon, although very strong, was smooth as silk.  I then tried their Devil's Cut, a 90 proof bourbon.  I didn't especially like this one neat but could see it mixed with something in a cocktail.

Joyce tried the Basil Hayden and their Red Stag Cinnamon flavored bourbon.  She really liked the Red Stag but the Basil Hayden was a little too much for her.

 Booker Noe and his dog Sallie.

After lunch we toured the rest of Bardstown Civil War Museum.  This part of the museum focuses on World War I through Vietnam with more of the Civil War thrown in as well.

 The Old Talbot Tavern and Inn.  Built cira. 1790.

09/15/2012

On Friday my good friend Ron Bretherick and his wife Debbie drove down from their home near Indianapolis for a visit.  I served with Ron in the 602nd Organizational Maintenance Squadron at Travis AFB in 1966.  The last time I saw Ron was 33 years ago at Loring AFB, ME when the C-5 he was flying on had to divert there with an engine problem.  I was in maintenance then and since I was the only crew chief that knew anything about the C-5, job control asked me to meet the airplane.

During Ron's stay at Loring, we talked about flight engineering and why he cross-trained.  He convinced me to look into the career field and possibly cross-training as well.  I did and the rest is history.

Thanks Ron and Debbie for driving all that way and for the great visit.
More later.

Barry & Joyce