The long, winding road to Nashville – One-Stop Entertainment Extravaganza

Full disclosure – this weekend involved very significant-automobile enhanced superspeed boost. There was just too much we wanted to see!

First thing out of Louisville, we hooked it southeast to Bardstown. This part of Kentucky is the part most people refer to if they refer to the Bourbon Trail as a physical location (even though the Bourbon Trail is more accurately characterized as a website, and even more accurately as a state of mind).

We managed to hit four distilleries in Bardstown:

Barton 1792 – The Bourbon is cheap but not too bad; the tasting was free; and the guy who told us the story sure had charisma!
Willett – We couldn’t get in on a tasting, but we did buy a flight. They have some nice whiskeys. I found out they make Noah’s Mill, one of my favorites. I also recommend their four-year rye. (In a lot of distilleries I went to in Kentucky, and Bardstown was no exception, the person giving the tour would point out that they weren’t rye drinkers, they didn’t really like rye. Man up man, rye is spicy and it puts hair on your chest.)
Preservation – Had a nice little tasting.
Bardstown Bourbon – Made some competently blended whiskeys.

Then we went on to Mammoth Cave National Park to spend the night. I tried to bike a bit down some forest trails but even though my Surly is tough, it’s really not made for that. My mountain bike could have done it but we have ditched the luxury of two bikes.

I’ll tell you what – Mammoth Cave is one mammoth cave! (Did you get the clever wordplay there?)

On this part of the tripwe also learned that Kentucky grows tobacky of the non-wacky variety. Down some side roads were barns full of the stuff for smoking. (Huh, I guess tobacco gets smoked once when it’s being prepared and once when it’s being consumed. There’s a thinker.)

Even now, you can just tell that it’s eager to trickle cancer down upon you.

Then it was on down to Bowling Green to see the National Corvette Museum. Seeing so many sleek and high-end cars were dazzling. I learned about the 2014 sinkhole which opened up under the museum and swallowed up a few of their cars. And, they had a really neat room where they put cars that look like something Beetlejuice would drive.

Vintage Corvettes
Neat looking cars
Includes some survivors of the great sinkhole
They have lots of really awesome cars from cartoons
A few more
Spooky
Little something red for you
An actual Indy pace car – they have lots
I guess I’d take this one too

Our Airbnb for the next week was outside of the small town of Greenville, in a religious center that was being renovated. I’ll say this for Kentucky, they have some good donuts. If you’re ever out in these particular hills, I recommend J&H Tasty Bakery.

And, we made friends with an exceptionally friendly tailless cat. So sad we had to leave her behind!

All the cuteness of a real cat compressed into this tailless abomination

Then going out of Kentucky and into Tennessee we hid a few more distilleries:

The Bard Distillery, which is just getting started but has some decent product and very friendly owners. (And if you do go there, you may as well go to Cousins’ Restaurant and get probably the best fried pork chop sandwich in town.)
Old Glory Distilling, the highlight of which was the surprisingly tasty vodka filtered through sugar maple charcoal.
Leatherwood Distillery, which make a whiskey from horse feed. Yep.
MB Roland, which makes some of the best whiskeys I’ve ever had. From wheat whiskeys to ryes to bourbons and beyond – packed with richness and flavor from start to finish. It’s not in most people’s way but I recommend it! And, the tour was very informative – even for an old drinking pro like me. I bought a bottle of their single barrel. It’s the same recipe as their regular bourbon, just from a barrel that they found was exceptionally good – and I agree. Smooth without being bland, it has a sweet funkiness I rarely find in bourbon. It has a full mouthfeel and a pleasant lingering roasted caramel aftertaste.