The Bourbon Trail portion of the weekend

This is my column originally published in The Leaf Chronicle, Aug 18, 2013

Last week I wrote about the yard sale portion of the yard sale and bourbon trail weekend I recently enjoyed with my sisters, mother and a friend. I closed by promising to share some insight from our visits to the distilleries; however, my editor took liberties when she changed my closing sentence, to include the phrase “bourbon-soaked portion of our trip.”

(This portion was omitted from my “defense:”  I don’t know about other writers, but I rarely read my own articles when they are published; I guess I should start. Imagine my surprise upon arriving at church Sunday morning to be greeted with comments such as “Well, I’m surprised to see you here;” and “Have you recovered?” Fortunately, I attend Trinity Episcopal, where an occasional drink is not frowned upon. I know that the comments were good, old fashioned ribbing, but really, I didn’t understand the cause, as our trip was anything but “bourbon-soaked.”)

So, please, gentle reader, fear neither for my soul, my liver, nor those of my traveling companions. We were quite responsible and reasonably restrained. So, back to the debauchery . . .

When we decided to combine our visit to the “world’s longest yard sale” with a tour of some bourbon distilleries, we started by researching The Kentucky Bourbon Trail® online (kybourbontrail.com). We then found those distilleries closest to Route 127. As we had Nikki and Jessica driving in from Virginia to meet us the first night, we found the one closest to I-64, the route they would be traveling. And set that as our first destination.

Most distilleries close around 5 p.m., but we found that Buffalo Trace Distillery (buffalotrace.com) in Frankfort, KY (not on the official Kentucky Bourbon Trail®) offered a ghost tour at 7 p.m., which not only meshed with our travel schedule, but piqued our interest, too! Upon arrival at the grounds of the Buffalo Trace Distillery, we were immediately enthralled. The 130-acre property, set along the former buffalo migration route, is speckled with four centuries of architecture. Still family owned and operated after 200 years, the distillery and the grounds actually proved to be our hands-down favorite. The ghost tour was an effective means for access to many of the historic structures and learning about the history of the distillery. Our tour was followed by a tasting of our choice of two of four spirits offered. Mom stuck with the Dr. McGillicuddy’s root beer and Kendall enjoyed the Bourbon Cream liqueur. The rest of us sampled the straight bourbon or the white dog—which is the pure distilled alcohol product before it is aged in the oak barrels. (I prefer the aged version.)

The next morning we traveled a winding road, through a vast horse ranch, into a valley in Versailles, KY where we found the lovely setting for the Woodford Distillery. Unfortunately, the yard sale called, so our visit here was brief; hindsight, proved we should have stayed! We did not take a tour, but they did have a very thorough and attractive visitor’s center, where we learned a little about the processes employed by this distillery. We each tried a small taste of their copper pot-distilled straight bourbon whiskey, save Mom (who indulged in a bourbon truffle, which was offered to her). All I can say it, “Smooth.” woodfordeserve.com

After too many fruitless hours spent at the yard sale, we then headed to Four Roses Distillery in Lawrenceburg, KY. We, unfortunately, were joined on our tour by a rather large group of young ladies supporting a bride-to-be (evidenced by one of those mini-veils clipped in her coif), as well as a chatty group of 30-somethings who were more engaged in their own conversation than that of the tour guide. (You know you’re getting old when you throw unmistakably dirty looks at rude people even though you don’t have your 6’2” husband there as your “muscle.”) The distillery was not operational during our visit (another downside) and most of the tour consisted of a movie. Again, the setting was lovely, but this was, unfortunately, our least favorite stop along the Trail®. I feel I must confess a prejudice against the logo—I’m not a fan of rose illustrations and I am put-off by even numbers; three roses, yes--better). Regardless, we did taste the bourbons offered—a magnanimous gesture, to be sure. Our assessment of those we sampled were in keeping with the tour—our least favorite. Fourrosesbourbon.com

From there, we headed to Bardstown, KY. We had reservations in a quaint motel, which they had done their best to update, but it still suffered the odiferous remnants of its obviously former incarnation as a facility which allowed smoking. Other than that, it had a charm that I feel sure I appreciated more than my traveling companions. We enjoyed a lovely dinner, followed by entertainment at the Old Talbott Tavern. I’d have to say that, if any part of our trip came close to being “bourbon soaked” it was here, as they offered a sampler tray of bourbons, which we happily ordered . . . twice.

The next morning we explored a bit of the downtown area, but found most shops closed. We found one shop, The Old Mercantile, open and manned by the friendliest, most informative Texas transplant! A few souvenirs later, we left for a quick drive thru My Old Kentucky Home on our way to our next distillery, Heaven Hill.

Heaven Hill, located in Bardstown, is where you will find Evan Williams and Elijah Craig bourbons aging in oak; the stills are actually located in Louisville. It is also home to the Bourbon Heritage Center. This was our last stop and I was a bit skeptical, as outward appearances would lead one to believe that we had arrived at a prison camp. Surrounded by numerous seven-story white-ish buildings wearing petticoats of black fungus, the Center was actually an oasis of lovely construction and landscaping. Upon our arrival, we joined a tour, already in progress and began to learn a lot about the process of distilling bourbon. The tour of the rick house was fascinating—those buildings are constantly shifting, engineering marvels! Our tour guide, Holly, was an informative and witty delight and the tasting that followed was educational, as well as delicious.

All-in-all, the trip was wonderful. I won’t bother with the yard sale the next time; I’ll just try to get a few more stamps in my Kentucky Bourbon Trail® Passport.

Some of the loot we returned with from the Bourbon Trail.

World’s Longest Yard Sale

My column for The Leaf chronicle, originally published August 11, 2013.

The life and times of a barely-holding-onto-her-forties shopkeeper can appear, to the casual observer, as a lot of fun. I often have folks in my boutique say things like “I would love to have a shop like this one day;” or, “You must have so much fun!” Most days, I will answer these comments with affirming replies such as, “It’s just a matter of putting your mind to it;” or, “Oh yes! I love putting together the displays and selecting the merchandise.” But more often than not, I am thinking, “NO! Don’t do it!”

As for the fun, last weekend was supposed to be all about the “fun” of finding vintage merchandise for my inventory. My mother is still visiting, so she, my sister, Kendall, and I set out last Friday morning with our destination being the “World’s Longest Yard Sale” along the 127 Corridor. The concept being that folks all along Route 127, which runs from Illinois to Alabama, set-up for a collective yard sale the first weekend in August. The sale starts Thursday and runs through Sunday.

This is something Kendall and I have been talking about doing for years, so we were naturally quite anxious to see if it was everything we had imagined. Due to the fact that we had arranged to meet our other sister, Nikki, and Kendall’s best friend, Jessica, in Frankfort, KY at 5 p.m. we decided to start our yard saling (did you know that “sale” isn’t not verb-able?) adventure in Russell Springs, KY.

After departing the parkway for 127, we stopped at the visitor’s center for an actual map (the kind printed on paper and not just doled out in portions explored via Mapquest.com). The lady at the center assured my sister she had been crazy busy, although she appeared well into her solitaire game on the computer monitor. Regardless, our sense of urgency started to increase, afraid that everyone else already beat us to the good stuff. Upon perusing the selection at the first venues we came upon, we decided we were decidedly later. Even though we arrived relatively early on the second day of the sale we felt like we were arriving at the end.

Most of the stuff was exactly what you would expect to find at a yard sale: clothing (mostly labels from a certain chain that also sells food and hardware); new-ish glassware and dishes, in singles or odd lots; videos and dvds; and, an enormous selection of items jumbled in dusty boxes which were obviously intended for the dump, but were accidently stored in a garage or shed, so they were pulled out for the big yard sale. There were a handful of true vintage/antique vendors, but overall, we were disappointed. We had been led to believe (by people who had been to this event) that we would find something more akin to the flea markets we enjoy so much.

Now, in defense of this enormously popular event, we were only able to explore a small section of the yard sale. It did seem to improve north of Danville, KY, but we only had the time available to park and visit two of the larger venues. The vendors we talked to were a little disappointed, as well; by mid-day Saturday, things were not selling as they had in previous years. One vendor, in particular, though in the “better” area (by our estimation) stated he regretted having moved north from his previous location of Crossville, TN.

(I’m including some photos from one of the better stops we made.)

The good news is we had combined this yard saling (yup, I did it again) adventure with visits to a few of the distilleries along the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. That portion of our trip was a complete success and I’ll share a little about that part of our trip another time.