{"id":2227,"date":"2013-09-08T09:38:55","date_gmt":"2013-09-08T14:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=2227"},"modified":"2013-09-08T09:46:00","modified_gmt":"2013-09-08T14:46:00","slug":"smoky-mountains-day-2-adventure-awaits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=2227","title":{"rendered":"Smoky Mountains: Day 2 Adventure Awaits"},"content":{"rendered":"

So as predicted, we slept in. But only a little.\u00a0 Sascha can\u2019t seem to make it past 6:30 to go out.\u00a0 It\u2019s not because she needs to go to the bathroom.\u00a0 She is wasting daylight if she is not out there guarding her yard from the much dreaded squirrel population.\u00a0 As soon as it is good and daylight, she has to go out and sit in the yard.<\/p>\n

I got up at 6:30 with Sascha.\u00a0 Rich was left to sleep in a bit.\u00a0 I got the paper and sat down to read in peace and quiet.\u00a0 I made it through the whole thing before anyone else stirred.\u00a0 After Rich made it through the paper, we showered and packed the car.\u00a0 Rick helped get most of the stuff out there so I could pack.\u00a0 Don\u2019t think he was trying to get rid\u00a0of us, do you?<\/p>\n

No, he was hungry and invited himself to breakfast with us at Island.\u00a0 We went out and eat a very nice meal.\u00a0 That should hold us for a while.\u00a0 But we couldn\u2019t start just yet.\u00a0 Rich forgot his Bourbon Trail passports and really wanted them for the stops in Kentucky.\u00a0 We finally got underway.<\/p>\n

Getting out of Chicago wasn\u2019t too bad.\u00a0 Traffic was relatively light with only the big trucks taking the road.\u00a0 We hit I-65 in good time.\u00a0 Then we got to Indianapolis.\u00a0 The downtown route was shut down for construction.\u00a0 This meant we had to take the loop around.\u00a0 The traffic moved fine for a while, but was stop and go around the bottom half of the circle.\u00a0 Finally, we managed to get back on 65 and head south again.<\/p>\n

A few weeks back, I had to go back home to Southern Indiana and I stayed with my friend, Kay, and her husband, Don. I had forgotten my jacket while I was there.\u00a0 I decided that I really wanted it on the trip.\u00a0 We made a slight detour to go out to her house to get it.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t stay long.\u00a0 Don was showing Rich around the place while Kay and I talked for a bit.\u00a0 Pretty soon, we were back on the road and headed to downtown Louisville.<\/p>\n

A couple of years ago, we had stayed downtown for a trip to visit the Bourbon Trail.\u00a0 We had stopped by the Marriott to get a drink at Blu and hang out for a while.\u00a0 I thought it was a very cool hotel.\u00a0 I really liked the location.\u00a0 This was our stop for the night.\u00a0 We were 2 blocks from Fourth Street and just down from Bluegrass Brewing Company.<\/p>\n

We went by BBC for dinner.\u00a0 We started off with pretzel sticks and beer cheese.\u00a0 It was so good.\u00a0 From there, Rich had hot brown while I had a fish sandwich.\u00a0 Both were excellent.\u00a0 I had the Dark Star Porter.\u00a0 Rich started off with the Double IPA.\u00a0 But his second choice was better.\u00a0 They had a Bourbon Barrel Stout that was out of this world.\u00a0 Now, I don\u2019t like bourbon that much and I loved this beer.\u00a0 I wished I had gotten that one.<\/p>\n

After dinner, we walked down to the Jockey Silks Bourbon Bar at the Galt House for a drink.\u00a0 We were trying to catch Jeanne. Now Jeanne was the nice bartender who had started us off on the Urban Bourbon Trail a couple of years ago.\u00a0 She had explained a lot of information to us and we appreciated the help.\u00a0 Unfortunately, Jeanne was no longer there.\u00a0 We had the signature drink for the bar though.\u00a0 This was the Jockey\u2019s Dream.\u00a0 It was a fruit punch made with bourbon.\u00a0 I loved it, but Rich wasn\u2019t too thrilled with the sweetness.<\/p>\n

We completed our drinks and walked out to the Belvidere to enjoy the river and the sunset.\u00a0 Both were beautiful for the evening.\u00a0 The Belvidere is the platform with gardens and fountains that overlooks the river.\u00a0 We watched a very large barge of sand and gravel make its way up river toward Cincy.\u00a0 At one point, a boat had stopped in the shipping lane to fish.\u00a0 The barge was blowing and blowing its horn for the smaller vessel to move.\u00a0 He finally did.\u00a0 Bet that was a shock to almost get run down by a barge at twilight.\u00a0 There is a reason why they mark those lanes with the buoys.<\/p>\n

Then we walked down to Main Street and over to Fourth Street.\u00a0 Festivities were already under way.\u00a0 There was a band playing, people dancing, people wondering around, and just a general nightlife.\u00a0 We walked down to the Maker\u2019s Mark Bar.\u00a0 Rich had experienced a Manhattan there two years ago.\u00a0 He was wanting to try it again.\u00a0 We settled in at the bar and Rich ordered his drink.\u00a0 We noticed that some of the bottles were signed.\u00a0 I just had to ask why.\u00a0 Nicole, our bartender, said that when someone famous came in, they always tried to get a bottle signed.\u00a0 There were sports people, music stars, and movie star types.\u00a0 Pretty cool.<\/p>\n

Rich finished his Manhattan and we moved on out to the street.\u00a0 The evening was warm and we wandered slowly back up to Jefferson Street.\u00a0 When we got almost to the entrance of Fourth Street, a young guy came running out of nowhere to Rich yelling, \u201cCool shirt, man!\u201d\u00a0 He and Rich were wearing Hawaiian shirts.\u00a0 I guess his friends were giving him a hard time for his style.\u00a0 He just had to appreciate someone else\u2019s similar style.<\/p>\n

We wandered back to the hotel.\u00a0 But before going upstairs, we had to stop by Blu.\u00a0 Unfortunately, neither one of us had room for more alcohol.\u00a0 So it was beddy bye time.\u00a0 We went up and got ready for bed.\u00a0 We found out that the internet connection was going to cost us $15.00.\u00a0 No way.\u00a0 I got out the hot spot and we had internet for nothing.\u00a0 I still didn\u2019t get my blog written that night though.<\/p>\n

\"Rich<\/a>
Rich at his favorite brewpub in Louisville, Bluegrass Brewing Company.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rich<\/a>
Rich on the stairway to Bourbon in Galt House.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Watching<\/a>
Watching sunset from the Belvidere.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Entrance<\/a>
Entrance to Fourth Street.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Band<\/a>
Band playing on Fourth Street.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rich<\/a>
Rich doing a rose pose outside of the Maker’s Mark Bar.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Manhattan<\/a>
Manhattan at Maker’s Mark Bar.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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So as predicted, we slept in. But only a little.\u00a0 Sascha can\u2019t seem to make it past 6:30 to go out.\u00a0 It\u2019s not because she needs to go to the bathroom.\u00a0 She is wasting daylight if she is not out there guarding her yard from the much dreaded squirrel population.\u00a0 As soon as it is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,12,13,14,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2227"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2227"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2238,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2227\/revisions\/2238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}