Day 13 Traveling Home

Still catching up on posts.  Monday was our last day in Shepardsville Ky.  We got up early got the RV rigged for travel.  We were on the road before 9am.  The GPS said it was a 6 hour trip home but we always have to add several hours for fuel stops, rest area stops to walk the dogs and having lunch.  It took almost 9 hours to return home.  Normally we would not drive that long but since we were heading home and would not have to worry about setting up the RV we decided to go all the way.  Got home just before 6 pm.  Had plenty of time to unpack the RV fridge, have supper and watch the season premiers of NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles.  We had a great trip.  I won't winterize the RV yet.  We have several months before the first freeze here and we may want to take a short trip before then.  Great thing about being retired and having the RV, we can be very flexable.

My retired motto is: "every night is friday night and every day we wake up its saturday again"

Day 12 Rain, Rain, Rain!

got a little behind in posting.  Our plans for Monday were to have Pat and Archie meet us at our camp site and the four of us would head down to Bardstown Ky to have breakfast and take a walking tour.  When we woke up it was raining cats and dogs.  The forcast was rain all day.  Can't really complain, its the only rained out day we had on the trip.  So after a few phone calls back and forth we decided to meet up at a Cracker Barrel five miles up on the interstate ( exit 121 ) from us at approximately 9am.  At least thats what I thought was the revised plan.  I have to admit, I have some hearing loss, so I may not have heard all that Archie said on the phone.  As it turns out, Diane and I drove up to the restaurant and Pat and Archie drove to our campsite.  When they saw that our CRV was not there they took off for the restaurant.  However, Archie got confused on how the interstate exits were marked.  He thought they counted up going south when actually its the reverse.  So he was headed south and we were north of the exit our campground was on.  After awhile I got worried so gave them a call on their cell.  They were down at mile marker 112 when I got hold of them.  So to make a long story short, I got them headed in the right direction and we met and had a wonderful visit and breakfast together.  Diane had her usual french toast and I had my Old Timers breakfast.  To my surprise, Pat and Archie also love the Old timers too.  When we left Archie had a gift for Diane.  The day before we were commenting on the many jars of green beans that they had put up for the winter.  We had some of their green beans for dinner on Sunday and they were great.  Nothing like fresh, home grown veggies.  So Archie gave Diane a jar for us to take home with us.  The rest of the day was spent inside, catching up on reading.  The only decent channel we got on the antenna was a local CBS station so were able to watch the season premier of Hawaii Five-O.  I'm going to have to look into getting one of those antenna signal boosters that they sell at Camping World. 

Day 11 Visiting with family

We drove up to Crestwood Ky to visit my sister Pat and her husband Archie.  My brother Bob and his wife Linda drove down from Independence Ky by way of Georgetown (pick up daughter Kasey at Georgetown College).  My sister cooked a beautiful meal and afterwards had fresh baked apple pie and ice creame.  Here are a couple of pictures of us sitting around the table chatting about our children and granchildren.  Was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  It has been over five years years since the three of us had gotten together at the same time.

Here is a group pictute.  From left to right, Archie, Pat, me, Diane, Bob and Linda

Here is a picture of the three of us.  I'm the oldest, then sister Pat and brother Bob is the youngest
Whenever the three of us get together we take a picture to commerate the few times the three of us can be together.

Day 10 Jim Beam Distillery Tour and Kentucky Bourbon Festival, Bardstown Ky

We drove down to Clermont Ky and toured the Jim Beam Distillery there.  Was a very interesting tour.  Everything you wanted to know about how the worlds finest bourbon is made.

Inside the master distiller's house, where several generations of Beam's oversaw the family business we watched a seven minute video on the history of Jim Beam bourbon distilling.  Here is a picture of a miniture distillery that was showcased at the 1964 Worlds Fair in New York City.  This replica actually works.

From here we saw an exibit of one of the olodest copper stills in America.  It was capable of making three gallons of "white dog"  (moonshine).  The clear liquid was then stored in 53 gallon oak barrels and the aging process gives the bourbon its color.  Its aged anywhere from 4 to 9 years.

This is a warehouse where the barrels of bourbon is stored while aging.  These buildings are not heated or cooled.  There are nine floors.  Barrels are stacked in rows three high and fourteen deep. Each barrel contains 53 gallons of bourbon.  Thats a lot of bourbon!

Notice the color of the trees.  They are not burnt.  The black is a fungus that grows on trees and roofs of buildings around the distillery.  Its refered to as "angels share" because the angels get to sample fumes given off from the aging bourbon.  This helped the govt men in finding illegal moonshine stills.

After the tour we got to sample some of the small batch bourbons distilled here.  We sampled 129 proof Booker's and 80 proof Red Stag.  Believe me you can really taste the difference.

display of the different Jim Beam bourbons

Its late, tomorrow I'll post some pictures of the Bourbon Festival.  We intended to tour some of Bardstown but the town was so crowded due to the festival that we decided to try and come back on Monday and do that.  So we ate lunch at Mammy's Kitchen and then headed back to the campground.

Day 9 Travel Day

Rolled out of bed about six thirty this morning.  The temp got down to about 47 last night.  We have a small electric heater that we kept on low all night to keep the chill off.  Had to turn on the RV heater once we got up to get warm.  Back home we would still have the AC unit running.  Was a lot easier traveling today although a little breezy.  Must be the front that came thru Kentucky that brought the cooler weather.  We arrived at the Louisville South KOA about 2:30.  We were assigned site 317.  Not the greatest site to have.  Its got the basics but we're disapointed.  Thats going to happen when you go to a new campground for the first time.  You have no idea what site to ask for.  Now that we are here we will scope out the rest of the sites and make a list of sites to choose from if we return here in the future.
    Tomorrow we plan on visiting one of the distilleries on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail and then head down to Bardstown Ky.  Want to visit "My old Kentucky Home" and there is also suppose to be a Civil War Museum.

Day 8 Travel day

We almost got an early start this morning.  After leaving the campsite we drove separately down the hill to the CC entrance.  After hooking up the car to tow I noticed that I left the 90 degree adapter on the water intake.  This made me remember that I also forgot to take the pressure reducer when I disconnected the water hose.  LOL  Had to walk all the way back up to the site and back to retrieve the gadget. We have a detailed checklist to use when we get the RV ready to take on a trip.  I need to make up one to use when we break camp.  the day was overcast.  Ran into some heavy fog on I-64 west in West Va.  Also rained most of the way up the West Virginia turnpike.  When we pulled into the Ashland/Huntington West KOA about 3 pm  we finally saw blue sky.  This KOA is convienient to I-64 at exit 179.  I would recommend it for an overnight stay if you need one.  Tomorrow we head west to Louisville Ky.  We will be staying at the Louisville South KOA.  Will be touring that area of Kentucky as well as visiting with my sister.

Day 7 part 2

After the walking tour of Staunton's historic districts we ate lunch and then headed to the Frontier Culture Museum.

The museum is an outdoor, living history museum featuring exhibits and programs that explore the origins and history of the American people.  The first part of the walking tour shows how the people who imigrated lived before they came to America.  The first exhibit is a West African Farm.  Unfortunatly, these people did not come voluntary.

Next we have the English, Irish and German Farms.  Each farm had someone there who gave us an oral description of how they lived.

English Farm house

 Irish farmhouse

 German Barn

This bed is typical of the Irish farmhouse.  We were told that due to health reasons most had to sleep sitting up in bed to breath easier.  Hench the shorter beds?

The next exhibits show the homes that were built in the different periods after the migration to America.

1740s American Farm

1820s American farm

1850s American farm

1850s Barn

Inside the barn was an authentic replica of a Cyrus McCormick horse drawn reaper

All of these structures, both from overseas and American were purchased, disassembled, and transported to the museum and put back together.  Its an amazing amount of man hours that went in to all of this.  We really enjoyed the museum.  Would recommend it to anyone interested in american history.