OK short boring trip report due to jammed schedules. We spent 3 days in Nashville with our good friends the Damons and took in the music scene which included the Country Music Hall of Fame and a concert at the Grand Ole Opry.  We also visited the Civil Rights Museum as well as Hermitage…Andrew Jackson’s home.

The Damons stayed in Nashville while we took a road trip through Kentucky and spent time at the Mammoth Caves National Park, and Abe Lincoln’s boyhood home. We did a short hike to Knob Creek where Abe purportedly almost drowned, but was saved by a childhood friend.

We stayed  for three nights in Bardstown, the hub of the Bourbon Trail. It is a fabulous “down home” little town and we loved it there. The restaurants were really good and one night we wolfed down Kentucky "HOT Brown”  the region’s speciality dish…..An open-faced turkey sandwich with bacon and tomato covered with a creamy Parmesan cheese sauce and broiled until bubbly. It is a about 1000 calories and 54% fat,  a tasty dish perfect for a heart valve bypass procedure later on.

We also enjoyed old fashion bourbon cocktails at the Talbot Tavern, the oldest Bourbon Tavern in the USA… built in 1789, when you would arrive on horseback. 

The days were spent touring several distilleries. Our favorite was Jim Beam and we really liked 1792.  Makers Mark was really hard to find even with a GPS. The grounds were fabulous but the culture was too corporate and impersonal.  

It had been a long time since I had been in Louisville and I was there on business,  so this time we took advantage of going to the Mohammad Ali Center and the Louisville Slugger facility where ELG treated himself to a custom bat with his name, Red Sox and number 8 (Carl Yastrzemzki’s number) engraved. ELG loves souvenirs and Gerry even made an exception and bought herself a baseball shirt. 

The Ali Center was fabulous, we could have spent the whole day there. 

Thats all folks

Respectfully submitted