{"id":2239,"date":"2013-09-08T20:50:09","date_gmt":"2013-09-09T01:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=2239"},"modified":"2013-09-08T20:50:32","modified_gmt":"2013-09-09T01:50:32","slug":"vacation-day-3-give-em-the-bird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=2239","title":{"rendered":"Vacation: Day 3 Give ’em the bird"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day 3 of vacation dawned sunshiny and bright with the sound of a jackhammer outside our window.\u00a0 At least they waited until 8:00 AM to start drilling on the street below.\u00a0 Well, we had things to do and places to be anyway today.<\/p>\n

We got ready, packed out bags, and headed out of Louisville.\u00a0 As we were heading out to catch 64, I saw that my old stomping ground had been revived.\u00a0 O\u2019Shea\u2019s Irish Pub is in the old City Lights and Doc Crow\u2019s BBQ is in the old Great Midwestern.\u00a0 Now I have a reason to come back and check out more stuff.<\/p>\n

For breakfast, I had found a restaurant that I thought Rich might like.\u00a0 Wild Eggs sounded very similar to the Yolks restaurant we found in Chicago.\u00a0 Rich did admit to me on the way out to the restaurant that he was a little bit hungover from the drinking the previous evening.\u00a0 To be fair, he really doesn\u2019t drink that much these days.\u00a0 Some greasy food and coffee would help.\u00a0 Then I\u2019m making him drink bourbon this afternoon.<\/p>\n

We arrived at Wild Eggs to find people standing outside.\u00a0 That was a good sign, if you don\u2019t mind a wait.\u00a0 There was free coffee at the door that you could enjoy as you wait.\u00a0 We stood outside and talked.\u00a0 Everyone was churning around in small and large groups.\u00a0 Everyone directly ahead of us went in.\u00a0 It would be our turn soon.\u00a0 I look up and Nicole, the bartender from last night, is walking in the door.\u00a0 How cool.<\/p>\n

A group of people came to sit on the bench when the previous occupants had gone inside.\u00a0 An older gentleman came up and started talking to us.\u00a0 I think he was looking for fresh ears to turn that morning.\u00a0 The group he was with were mostly women.\u00a0 Soon, our pager buzzed and it was time to say good-bye to the nice man.<\/p>\n

We got seated and made our order.\u00a0 A carafe of water and a carafe of coffee came to the table.\u00a0 Good, we should have a supply of coffee at our fingertips without waiting for someone to come by.\u00a0 I ordered chorizo sausage gravy and biscuits with a side of grits.\u00a0 Rich ordered the breakfast burrito with black beans.\u00a0 The food arrived and was wonderful. The gravy was tangy with a little bit of spice.\u00a0 The grits were real hominy and not the instant dried stuff.\u00a0 Rich\u2019s breakfast plate was amazing.\u00a0 Everything was fresh and delicious.<\/p>\n

Then it was time to hit the road yet again.\u00a0 We were heading to Lawrenceburg, KY and the Wild Turkey Distillery.\u00a0 I think we\u2019ve planned to hit just about every distillery there is on the Bourbon Trail.\u00a0 Wild Turkey was Rich\u2019s next choice.\u00a0 We arrived a little after 12:00, got tickets for the tour, and had a 20 minute wait.\u00a0 We walked around the shop, purchased a t-shirt for Rich, and then hung around outside.\u00a0 There were kids barrel rides dressed up as turkeys.\u00a0 I just couldn\u2019t resist getting my picture taken.<\/p>\n

Jonathan, the tour guide, came out and gathered us up for the bus ride to the distillery on the property.\u00a0 We got the history lesson for the operation from their start in 1895 through today.\u00a0 The bus dropped us at the door.\u00a0 Before going in, Jonathan explained about three large silos just outside of the door.\u00a0 One silo is for corn, the other for malted barley, and the last one is for rye.\u00a0 The contents of the three silos is the week\u2019s worth of materials for making Wild Turkey bourbon. Impressive.<\/p>\n

During the tour, Rich explained about being a homebrewer and the similarities.\u00a0 Jonathan immediately zeroed in on the fact that he had to talk to Rich when the tour was over.\u00a0 We walked around the plant and viewed the displays.\u00a0 Finally, it was back on the bus and to the tasting room.\u00a0 Of the 6 or 7 types of bourbon produced at the distillery, you could sample two of them.\u00a0 Lucky for Rich, I wasn\u2019t sampling.\u00a0 I got two of the bourbons he wanted and he used his tickets for two others.\u00a0 This gave him a total of four to sample.\u00a0 I did sneak a little sip of each.\u00a0 I know have a new favorite bourbon, if I really drank bourbon.<\/p>\n

On the bus, I was talking to the lady in front of me.\u00a0 She was wearing the most beautiful American Indian jewelry.\u00a0 I asked her about it and found out that she used to deal in this type of jewelry.\u00a0 She and her husband lived in Grants, NM.\u00a0 They ran a shop there and worked with several artists to provide jewelry.\u00a0 Lucky her.\u00a0 I told her my story about Rich thinking I knew the name of every American Indian jewelry artist in the southwest.\u00a0 Too bad she isn\u2019t still in the business.\u00a0 Today, she, her husband, and her sister-in-law are travelling the country.\u00a0 Last week, they were in Cape Cod.\u00a0 Today, they were in Kentucky.<\/p>\n

So the tasting ended and Jonathan got to have his conversation with Rich.\u00a0 We gave him the AHA website and Charlie Papazian\u2019s name.\u00a0 He and Rich talked details and how to get started.\u00a0 After stressing the process and not the actually jumping right in, I think Jonathan saw that he was going to be working at this for a while.\u00a0 We might start hearing his name in the world of beer.<\/p>\n

Time to make a decision.\u00a0 Rich wanted to buy a bottle of the best bourbon he had tasted.\u00a0 It actually came down to two bottles.\u00a0 The Kentucky Spirit was great and not that expensive.\u00a0 However, he could buy a bottle of Rare Breed and have a special label created for the bottle.\u00a0 His label said:<\/p>\n

Bottled specially for the 12 Bar Blues Bar<\/p>\n

This is the name of Rich\u2019s bar in the basement.\u00a0 When the ladies at the desk asked about the reference and he explained the name, they thought it was really cool.\u00a0 One of the ladies asked why a name like that.\u00a0 Tanya said, “I’d drink at a bar named 12 Bar Blues Bar!”<\/p>\n

It was a day of old guys.\u00a0 One of the older guys from our tour came in and asked for directions to Louisville.\u00a0 Only he wasn\u2019t saying it any one of the 5 accepted ways to pronounce it.\u00a0 The ladies behind the counter were laughing and kept saying Luval, but the guy wasn\u2019t listening.\u00a0 One of the tour guides stepped in to help him.\u00a0 But every time the older guy said Louisville, the ladies at the counter started shouting Luval!\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t help myself and after the third time, I started helping them shout, too!\u00a0 We went out for about 10 or 15 minutes, before Rich made me leave.\u00a0 But I was having fun!<\/p>\n

OK, back on the road again.\u00a0 We headed toward Lexington and made our way to I-75.\u00a0 This means we took a couple of circles.\u00a0 In Lexington, they love their circle drives.\u00a0 We found 75 and headed south.\u00a0 The country here is pretty much mountains.\u00a0 You are driving through the edge of Harlan County and Hazard.\u00a0 This is coal country.<\/p>\n

Both sides of my families are from Kentucky.\u00a0 My mother grew up in a small town called Crail Hope. \u00a0My granddaddy\u2019s place still evokes a lot of memories.\u00a0 Smells always send me back there.\u00a0 One of them is the smell of crude oil.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because they were pumping crude oil from a couple of wells on the property while I was growing up.\u00a0 That was how he supported himself when he retired from farming.\u00a0 We stopped at a gas station to fill up the tank.\u00a0 Right next door was a well head pumping away.\u00a0 It reminded me of walking around the fields at my granddaddy\u2019s.<\/p>\n

We meandered our way down to Knoxville TN and toward Gatlinburg.\u00a0 Our cabin is right off the parkway between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg.\u00a0 I knew the weekend traffic would still be in Pigeon Forge and probably slow us down.\u00a0 But what we got was absolutely ridiculous.\u00a0 It was car show weekend in town.\u00a0 Turns out, the entire strip in downtown is the car show.\u00a0 Cars of all kinds were lining the strip on both sides.\u00a0 People had their chairs out and sitting in the grass next to the highway.\u00a0 Three lanes of traffic were going 10 miles an hour for about 7 or 8 miles.<\/p>\n

We figured out to stay in the center lane to keep out of the cruising cars.\u00a0 But that didn\u2019t mean we were going much faster.\u00a0 We just stopped less.\u00a0 People would run across the 6-lane highway.\u00a0 I think it was an old fashioned game of chicken.\u00a0 Cars were moving back and forth between lanes, depending on if they needed to turn around and go back around the strip.<\/p>\n

After an hour, we finally made it through town and out the highway to our cabin.\u00a0 At this point, you are technically in the Smoky Mountain National Park.\u00a0 We got to our road and turned up this big hill.\u00a0 For those in Southern Indiana, this was the equivalent of driving the Knobs.\u00a0 It is basically a single lane road that goes straight up the hillside.\u00a0 Our cabin appeared on the left and we pulled into the concrete pad.<\/p>\n

As I thought, the cabin is literally hanging on the side of the mountain.\u00a0 The concrete pad is little bigger than our CRV would fit on.\u00a0 We opened the door and started moving in.\u00a0 It is a little worn, but pretty much as advertised.\u00a0 The whole cabin is a large great room with a loft for a bedroom.\u00a0 It was going to be cozy and welcomed.<\/p>\n

After getting set up and making a grocery list, we headed into Gatlinburg to look around and grab some food.\u00a0 We stopped in at the Smoky Mountain Brewery.\u00a0 The place was packed with football fans watching one of several games.\u00a0 I guess this is the place to be.\u00a0 The food was pretty good and the beer wasn\u2019t bad.\u00a0 We found out that we could have parked in their lot for free after eating there.\u00a0 We would know better next time.<\/p>\n

Now we had to find a grocery store.\u00a0 Turns out, the two places in Gatlinburg were closed up tight with for sale signs.\u00a0 Oh My God! We had to go back to Pigeon Forge!\u00a0 Maybe the traffic was clear and people were going to bed.\u00a0 Oh no!\u00a0 They were still going strong at 9:30 at night.\u00a0 After another half an hour, we made it down to the Kroger.\u00a0 In the checkout, we found out that if alcohol was not in a plastic or paper bag, it was considered an open container when they stopped you.\u00a0 We got all of our stuff in plastic bags and packed up to head back on the strip for the cabin.<\/p>\n

At 11:00 PM, the cruise was still going on and people were just starting to close up and pack it in.\u00a0 We managed to get to the outside lane, which made it go a little faster.\u00a0 We got back to the cabin before midnight.\u00a0 We decided to sit out on the porch and watch the mountain disappear into the fog.\u00a0 The stars come out.\u00a0 Rich said he saw a shooting star, but I didn\u2019t see it.\u00a0 So there is confirmation.\u00a0 After a while, it\u2019s pretty dark.\u00a0 Rich went up to bed.<\/p>\n

After all the driving, I was still pretty awake.\u00a0 I had blogs to write so I sat in the living room on the big couch with my feet up writing.\u00a0 The sounds of the cabin are quiet and shifting.\u00a0 I hear things dropping on the roof.\u00a0 The windows are open to the breeze and the cool evening air.\u00a0 We sitting up in the air, but I worry that animals can climb up this high.<\/p>\n

Finally, it\u2019s time to call it quits.\u00a0 I go to bed, but I\u2019m too hot to sleep.\u00a0 I keep listening to the sounds around me.\u00a0 That is, I try to listen, but the sounds of Rich sleeping are getting in the way.\u00a0 I want to put my hand over his face when I need to hear something, but that would only wake him up.\u00a0 I look out the window cut into the side wall of the cabin that looks out to the sky.\u00a0 I can\u2019t see any stars even though it was clear out.\u00a0 Oh yeah, the window is too dirty to see.\u00a0 How would you clean it up here?\u00a0 I finally go to sleep only to wake in the early morning hours thinking that raccoons have gotten into the kitchen downstairs and knocking things over.\u00a0 I got downstairs, but it\u2019s only the ice maker dumping ice.\u00a0 What? No imaginary raccoons?\u00a0 Back to sleep\u2026finally.<\/p>\n

Oh yeah, and the reference to the title for this day is the slogan out at Wild Turkey Distilleries.<\/p>\n

\"Rich<\/a>
Rich doing the rose pose at the Wild Turkey Distillery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Big<\/a>
Big kids will play. Just a little wild before the tour.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Our<\/a>
Our coach awaits.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Barrel<\/a>
Barrel houses and shipping department.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Looking<\/a>
Looking down inside one of their fermenters. No, Rich, you can’t have one.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"After<\/a>
After the fermenter, the liquid moves to the beer well. It’s a lot of liquid.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo<\/a>
Photo op in the distillery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rich<\/a>
Rich tasting not two, but four of Wild Turkey’s very best.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"One<\/a>
One of three silos that hold the products to make fine bourbon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Looking<\/a>
Looking from the back porch up to the road at the cabin. It’s a long way up.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Hot<\/a>
Hot tub on the porch will come in handy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Day 3 of vacation dawned sunshiny and bright with the sound of a jackhammer outside our window.\u00a0 At least they waited until 8:00 AM to start drilling on the street below.\u00a0 Well, we had things to do and places to be anyway today. We got ready, packed out bags, and headed out of Louisville.\u00a0 As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,5,6,12,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239"}],"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=2239"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2251,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239\/revisions\/2251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}