Kentucky is Abraham Lincoln’s boyhood home. We selected three places to stop as we inched our way toward Georgetown.
Our first stop was the Lincoln Birthplace at a farm called Sunken Springs. The story of this site’s constriction is more interesting that the fact that Lincoln was born here. This cabin once toured the country on a wagon and was stored in a basement on the East coast when the tours ended. A Kentucky group bought the cabin, built the monument, and shipped the cabin parts back to Kentucky. Seems the inside of the monument was too small to hold the cabin, so the logs were cut to make the cabin fit. As it turns out, this is not the original Lincoln cabin and Lincoln never lived in it. So, now they call it a symbolic cabin.
Our second stop was Lincoln Museum. It was closed. Oh well, it didn’t look very inviting from the outside.
Our third stop was Lincoln’s boyhood home. It was also closed. That’s the end of our Abraham Lincoln in Kentucky tour.
Next up is the Marker’s Mark distillery. This is a great tour. The grounds are immaculate, the people are friendly, and the history is interesting. The tour takes you thru the various steps required to manufacture Bourbon Whiskey from grinding the grain, fermenting, distilling, aging, and finally bottling. In their oldest fermenting building, we were able to actually taste the brew in the vats at several different ages. It starts out tasting sweet and progresses to a somewhat bitter brew.
The bottling line was operating during our visit, so we could see the bottles getting their distinctive red wax seal.
Next up was the Kentucky Railroad Museum New Haven, Kentucky. Their weekday train rides had not started so we walked around a bit before heading to Bardstown, KY.
Bardstown has a Historic section with many preserved buildings. Unlike many places, the old buildings of Bardstown have not all been converted into tourist shops selling the standard assortment of cups, pictures, and little items you can but on a shelf. We had lunch at a converted drug store – it has been converted but the lunch counter is still a lunch counter. We split a good BLT and each had our very own old fashion chocolate malt and watched the town pass outside the front window.
We arrived to Georgetown, KY by late afternoon. Our dinner was salads at the Lock and Key coffee house in downtown Georgetown. The coffeehouse is housed inside a building that once was a bank. The vault has been converted into a room that is available for meetings. Good food and friendly service plus free wifi. We spent almost 2-hours in a front corner enjoying our meal and coffee.
We spent the night in the Wal-Mart parking lot with a couple other RVs. I was doing a couple last minute things on the computer before turning in and found an open wifi site available right there. Free overnight camping and WiFi. Life is good.
