Kentucky Woman She Shine With Her Own Maker's Mark!

Welcome to Kentucky! This was definitely my favorite visual of the day!!

I headed out from Nashville, planning to visit Louisville and Lexington today. To do that involved all interstate travel. That provided a few interesting views, including a peek at the Corvette Museum. (Bear with me -- I'm shooting these at 75 mph from the road!)

Kentucky is beautiful! These pictures don't do it justice. Amazing how the terrain changes when you cross the line into the Bluegrass State.

By the way, I've seen no bluegrass since being here.

Bored with the interstate, I decided to detour to the Maker's Mark distillery for a visit. That put me on a two-lane highway with no shoulder and the possibility of rounding a corner and finding myself smack behind this:

Nonetheless, the posted speed limit is 55 mph. Gotta love non-urban areas in the US!!

On the way, I discovered I was near Abraham Lincoln's birthplace. So I detoured from my detour and toured the national museum there.

This was the first Lincoln Memorial. Normally you can see a re-creation of the log cabin in which he was born. However, it was closed for renovation so I had to be satisfied with a movie and some artifacts in the visitor's center. It was actually quite informative and charming. Quite inspiring that a US president could come from such humble origins.

Arrived at Maker's Mark and it would have been 45 minutes to the next tour. Instead, lovely Jeannie (shown in the photo below) gave me a private introduction to the family history and what makes this bourbon different.

The secret? They use wheat instead of rye. Makes the bourbon a little smoother.

After touring the house, which is set up to have the kitchen look like it did in the fifties when they were experimenting with the formula, it was off to the gift shop. There, I was able to buy a bottle of Maker's Mark and seal it myself.

Well let's just say that Betty, the person teaching me how to do it, was better with the sealing wax than with the photography. But here I am, sealing a second bottle. It was fun and what a great promo. Personally, I fell in love with their new blend -- Maker's Mark 46. It's even smoother and less fiery going down. I can see I now have a new winter drink!

By now I had spent so much time on my detour that it didn't make sense to backtrack to Louisville. So I left that for next time and continued on to Lexington. David had put me in touch with his buddy Phillip, who runs a non-profit art gallery there.

We had arranged to hook up for dinner. Turns out it was his dad's birthday and the family was gathering next door. So I joined the festivities, along with his dad's girlfriend, her daughter and son-in-law, and, later, Phillip's girlfriend Lina. French dinner where I had delicious Chilean sea bass (yes, I know it's evil, but oh how I love it) with haricots verts (yum), potatoes, and grilled cherry tomatoes. Marvelous!

After dinner broke up Phillip, Lina, and I went out for a drink. Here we are at the local gay bar enjoying a balmy evening in Lexington:

The photo does none of us justice. But I wanted you to see us having fun!