April 30: Lexington-Thoroughbred Center and Horse Park

Our trip to Lexington included the Thoroughbred Center where the jockeys train the horses and prepare them to run in the races.  We had  the opportunity to watch some of the thoroughbreds train on the track. 

One of the trainers discussed how they train the thoroughbreds

 

 

From there we had a short ride to the Kentucky Horse farm.  Several of the past Derby winners reside on the Horse Farm.



Some are bronze statues.

And others are alive and well and living in the lap of luxury, living according to the standards a winner should.

 At the entrance to the Horse Farm was a small stream.  As we were entering two swans were floatng together protecting their eggs  You can see the eggs in the brush near the top left of the photo.


This guy just watched us and wondered what we were doing. 

 

And this guy just told us what he thought of us !!

April 29: Belle of Louisville RiverBoat Cruise

Our first evening in Louisville we went of a riverboat dinner cruise on the Ohio River.

Co, Flo, Barb and Linda enjoying the cruise

Below are some of the views of Louisville as the boat cruised down the river.

Louisville city skyline

April 29-May 4: The Kentucky Derby Rally

We arrived here in Louisville at the Kentucky Expo Center after a lengthy 45 mile drive from Bardstown to Louisville.  Upon entering the Expo Center, we were parked with about 75 other motorhomes on a large open parking area.  The FMCA rally sponsors provided generators that will give us 50 electric service. 

We received our ID's and schedule for the week.  There are activities and tours, dinners and lunches planned for the entire week.  We will be busy from morning till night. 

Bardstown Museums & Old Town

In addition to checking out the bourbon in  Bardstown, we toured the Old Bardstown Village, the Civil War Museum, Women of the Civil War museums, and other museums along Museum Row.

Flo and Barb strolling along the paths in Old Bardstown Village

Old Bardstown Village

 

 

The Nurses in the Civil War Musuems

Touring around town

April 26-29 Bardstown: Bourbon Trail

As most of you know, Kentucky is known for its Bourbon.  The Bourbon Trail follows a route that includes about 8 distilleries; in addition to these distilleries, there are numerous others that are not officially on the trail.  We decided to visit one of the largest and well-known distilleries, Makers Mark, and one of the smallest and not-known-at-all distilleries, Willett Distilleries.

Both tours were very interesting to see how the corn, barley, wheat (for Makers Mark) and rye (for Willett) are fermented into the mash.  The huge tubs fermenting these grains were a sight to see.

 

The first part of our tour was of the grounds around the distillery.

The shutters on all the windows had the Makers Mark bottle.

The mash fermenting

 



As you can see , we are not bourbon drinkers since most of the tastings are still in the glasses.  But it was fun to compare.



Each bottle is individually dipped in wax to seal.

 

While on the tour, we lagged behind the tour group taking photos and one of the bourbon tasters brought a large mug of the raw bourbon to taste.  It was clear in color and about 180 proof.  He said if you light a match it would burn. And it burned going down. 

 

 

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Some fun in a liquor store. 

 

 

The next day we sample the bourbon at the Willett Distilleries.  It is family run and one of the smallest in the area. They only produce about 19 cases of bourbon a week.  It was a very interesting tour since they do a whole different process in distilling and fermenting.  The owner designed this copper distillers "bowl" that fills the entire center of the room.

Barb and Co checking out all of the barrels.

I loved the shape of the bottles.