We didn’t waste any time and headed out with cousins Stella and John for the start of our Bourbon trail road trip. For those that don’t know, this is not a hiking trail, but rather consists of a number of bourbon distilleries in Kentucky that you can tour.
The first stop on our trip was Oklahoma City. Got in town with just enough time to grab some dinner. It was raining when we got up the next morning so we headed straight over to the Oklahoma City Memorial Museum. This memorial was built to remember those that lost their lives during the bombing in 1995 of the federal building in downtown OKC. Will and I had been there before, but thought it was well done and something that the cousins might be interested in seeing as well. It was again a very moving experience and some of the exhibits had been changed/added since Will and I had been there a couple years ago.
It was another full day of driving through the rain as we headed on to our next stop Memphis, TN. Have you ever stayed the night at a Bass Pro Shop? Well, we hadn’t and a few of the stores also have a lodge, one of those being Memphis. So, we had decided to spend the night there. The store and the lodge are inside the glass pyramid that you see when crossing the Mississippi River driving into Memphis. The Big Cypress Lodge is a really cool place to stay. The rooms are on the 2nd and 3rd floors and are made to resemble cabins in the swampy woods. Staying at the lodge gives you access to the glass elevator and bar area at the top of the pyramid. So, we went up to have a drink and check out the view. It was a really neat experience and we enjoyed our time at the Lodge. And it was one of John’s favorite parts of the trip.
It was a cool view looking down
Then it was time for our visit to the home of Elvis Presley, Graceland. They have changed some things since Will and I had been a few years ago. The gold records and some of the other memorabilia has been moved from the house to a larger museum exhibit space. This was a much needed change as the space on the home was too small and cramped. It rained the entire day as the rain from tropical storm Olga was coming across the country and following us. So, we decided to just hit the road instead of trying to grab some food along the infamous Beale Street.
On to Nashville, where we toured the Grand Ole Opry. Again the tour had been changed somewhat and I think the changes were for the better. We then decided to get our bourbon tasting started early. John had gotten a drink the night before made with a local bourbon which we were told had a distillery in downtown Nashville. The distillery is located in the former factory space of the Marathon Motor Works which produced cars in the early 1900’s. The buildings have been converted into a number of small boutique shops and restaurants. We grabbed a sandwich at the Engine Stop Deli. They even had gluten-free bread, so I highly recommend it. Seriously, the food was pretty good. At our tasting we learned the rules of bourbon making and how to properly drink bourbon. It was a good detour.
Bourbon Facts
- Is all bourbon, made in Kentucky? No, just needs to be made in one of the fifty states. However, Kentucky does produce about 95% of all bourbon.
- Mash bill must be at least 51% corn.
- Barreled in new charred white oak barrels.
- Must be barreled for a least 2 winters.
- There’s other rules regarding the proofing when distilling, bottling, etc., but these are the main points.
A very expensive ceiling 
That night we headed down to Broadway. We walked into a number of bars and listened to some great music. The live music scene is still very much alive in Nashville, which is fantastic because we don’t get that much in Albuquerque anymore. What a fun evening.
Well HELLO Nash Vegas!
Then it was on to the piece de resistance, Louisville, KY and the main destination for the little adventure. Headed to our first stop of the day, Old Forester. This is the oldest continuously operating distillery as they managed to obtain one of the 6 licenses issued by the Feds during Prohibition. Yes, my friends, they got a doctor’s note and were able to stay producing and selling bourbon for medicinal purposes only, of course.
Cool looking place, but we didn’t stop in. 
The mash 
We had just enough time for a quick tour of the Louisville Slugger Bat Factory before our next scheduled tour. Anyone who’s familiar with baseball has probably heard the name Louisville Slugger, they currently only have about 13% of the market share. They also have a museum there with a lot of history about various bats used by some baseball pros of years gone by. But, we were on a tight time frame and just had time for the factory tour. It’s an interesting process, but picture taking is allowed in the museum only.
Our next appointment was at Angels Envy. They are a family owned company started by a former master distiller of a large bourbon company and his son. The distillery building where they currently are located broke ground in 2013 and so everything still looks shiny and new. They also have a cash bar and after the tour we had one of their fantastically crafted cocktails. The bartender recommended a place for dinner right across the street called Against the Grain. We all shared the meat platter and got a sampling of Kentucky BBQ. It was a lot of food even for the 4 of us, but man was it good.
It says needs a little more maturity 
Finally got to our home for the next couple of nights. A two bedroom place on the lower floor of a large older home. Great host, who gave us great restaurant recommendations right in the neighborhood. We were right off Frankfort Ave where are many local restaurants and shops. For breakfast, it was off to Con Huevos. Will thought it was okay while the rest of us really enjoyed our breakfast. Maybe Will needed a little bourbon before breakfast to wake uphill taste buds. Let the day’s bourbon tasing begin, we were off to Clermont, KY and the home to Jim Bean. They are “The Big Guy” when it comes to bourbon. They sell about 1/3 of the bourbon worldwide. They managed to stay in business during prohibition just mining limestone. At least only mining is the official story. Got to see the bottling process in action and watch my own bottle as it went through.
Yes, the I Dream of Jeannie Bottle started life as a bourbon decanter 
There’s my bottle 
Then it was in to Willet. They are a much smaller operation with some really good bourbons. In one of the rick houses they were curing some meat. Might have to come back and try that bourbon flavored meat one of these days, sure smelled good in there.
Our last tour of the day was Barton 1792. Each time we did a tour we learned something else and each one tended to highlight something different. Barton has constructed a drying house to dry all their spent grain mash, evaporate the alcohol and sell it to the farmers as feed. In one year the building paid for itself. From here I just had to get a bottle of Barton 1792 the chocolate ball bourbon. It was like drinking dessert. For dinner, we went to the Irish Rover. My ground lamb cabbage rolls were really good and the guys really liked the fish and chips.
Quick drive by of Churchill Downs 
Lamb cabbagge rolls 
Our last bourbon tour was the following morning at Four Roses in Lawrenceburg, Ky. We managed to have just enough time to squeeze in breakfast at Shelby’s Diner. Good hearty real food at that little diner where the tables were filled with her regular customers. Four Roses has 10 different recipes that they use for their bourbon. This us unusual as most distilleries use the same mash bill recipes for all their bourbons. They store their yeast strains in California in case of fire. Um, based on the fact that California is burning up right now they may want to rethink that strategy. Four Roses was also one of the 6 companies to keep a liquor license during prohibition.
We’d had enough bourbon tastings to last a while so it was on to Bowling Green, KY and the start of our return back west. We made a stop at the National Corvette Museum. There were some beautiful cars and the guys acted like kids in a candy store. The museum goes through the history of how the Corvette came to be and give glimpses of what might becoming in the future. I thought one interesting part of the museum was their handling of the sinkhole that occurred in 2014 in the middle of the museum. The sinkhole occurred when a ceiling of a cave under the museum collapsed . The museum now has an exhibit talking about the incident and how it was repaired and the fate of the 8 cars that got swallowed. One car suffered only minor damage and started right up after having fallen 30 feet.
It was a long rainy day of driving down to New Orleans for us the following day. We headed to Bourbon Street to get one of the famous Pat O’Brien’s Hurricanes. They still pack a powerful punch. Saw some of the crazies including one large man dressed in nothing but a jock strap and a rainbow tutu with a unicorn horn on his head. No, my friends, I do not have pictures of that because somethings you just can’t unsee.
My shrimp and fried grits 
Decked out for Halloween
A storm rolled in that night and dropped the temperature about 30 degrees with heavy wind and rain. The plan was to check out the WWII Museum as our first stop on the hop on/hop off bus tour, but the weather was miserable. So, we just grabbed an Uber to the museum and decided we would jump on the bus once the rain let up. The WWII museum is rated as one of the top museums in the nation by TripAdvisor visitors. We agree as Will and I had done this one before and thought it was an excellent choice for a rainy day. They have been steadily expanding the museum since we had visited. They really is so much to see that we only covered a small portion in the half day we were there. We were finally able to drag Will out of there as it had stopped raining and we had more to see of the city. Got on the bus and Dustin gave a good tour proving us with a little history and interesting tidbits about New Orleans including his personal restaurant recommendations. We hopped off at the French Quarter stop to check out Café Du Monde. Stella hadn’t been to New Orleans before, so we were trying to make sure she got a smattering of the typical tourist spots. It was Halloween and even by late afternoon Bourbon street was starting to get a little crazy. When do you discover you’re old? When just going to the nice dry hotel room sounds like a better option then being out there in the middle of Bourbon Street chaos.
The next 2 days we spent driving back to New Mexico another trip was over and done.
The Invasion Edition Map at the WWII Museum 
Sign posted when entering Los Alamos WWII Museum 