kentucky

When we left Charleston and headed towards Kentucky, we experienced a bit of a reprieve from the oppressive heat! I was so excited to be able to make a stop on our way through Kentucky to meet up with one of my good friends from high school, Laura. Laura recently had a baby boy, so it was fun to be able to meet the third addition to the family, as well as see how much her other two have grown! It was so wonderful catching up and just hanging out with her family.

The next day we continued towards Bardstown, Kentucky, where Guy’s niece Barbie lives with her sister and her sister’s family. Before meeting up with Barbie, we decided to embark on a tour of a local bourbon distillery (since this is the bourbon capital of the world) at Maker’s Mark. It was a charming place, and we learned all about the process of turning grains into bourbon. We were a bit surprised when we were standing in front of the giant tubs of “mash” and the tour guide told us to stick our fingers into it to get a beer-esque flavor sample. It all seemed so unsanitary until we realized that the mixture would be heated to very high temperatures after our “infestation.” At the end of the tour we got to sample the classic bourbon, mint julep and some delicious bourbon chocolates.

From there we met up with Barbie, who gave us a tour around the town, including her church where she would be teaching VBS that night. She also scored us some free tickets for a musical playing that evening held at the amphitheater in My Old Kentucky Home State Park. It was a beautiful evening, and great watching the show under the stars. The topic was a bit odd for a musical; “Floyd Collins” is a true story about a local spelunker who got trapped in a cave and eventually died while the community attempted to rescue him. Despite the non-traditional theme, the production was very well done - apparently college students from around the country come to perform at this venue, and they were all quite talented.

Friday we did some exploring of the city of Bardstown, including Old Bardstown Village, the Civil War Museum, and the War Memorial Museum. We were quite impressed with the amount of historical information and artifacts at these places, especially considering the size of Bardstown. After a sobering afternoon looking at all things war-related, we went out to eat at a fabulous Mexican restaurant with the rest of the fam.

Saturday we took a short drive to Mammoth Cave, the longest known cave in the world. We were lucky to get tickets for a tour, since the place was PACKED and we snatched up the last three tickets for the final tour of the day. We were all looking forward to the cool relief of the cave due to the steamy weather that day. When it was finally time to take the tour, the ranger proceeded to scare me half to death through all of his “warnings.” I think it’s the closest I‘ve been to having a panic attack in years. He began by telling us how long it would take for someone to reach us if we got injured in the cave since we were in the middle of nowhere. Then he asked us to consider if we were claustrophic, which I’m not, but as he continued to describe the cave I began to feel that I was. That, coupled with the fact that the tour had been oversold by dozens more people than normal made me feel like the walls were closing in. “Fat man’s misery” he bellowed “is a passage that is only 18” wide and goes on several hundred feet.” “Directly following that is tall man‘s misery which is 3 ft high.“ As he was describing all of this I had flashbacks to the Floyd Collins performance from the night before and saw my life pass before my eyes. Had Guy not purchased us all tickets and were we not at the entrance of the cave, I’m not convinced I would’ve gone through the cave experience. Once we walked into the cave, though, I actually started to calm down. It was a very fascinating experience, and most of the cave “rooms” were quite large. Even the “miseries” were not as bad as the ranger described at all (his rather portly size should have cued me in that I would be able to navigate them just fine). The tour lasted a few hours and Barbie suggested having dinner at a very popular American establishment that I had never experienced: Sonic. My experience = yum.

Sunday was the 4th of July, and we had a day packed full of activity. We started out the day at church, full of patriotism and politics (the “other side”), but had fun watching Barbie play the drums in their band. From there, we went back to Barbie’s home where her sister Arneida and Arneida’s husband prepared a delicious BBQ for us to stuff our faces with. Later, Arneida, her daughter Rachel, Barbie and I went for a girls only trip to watch the latest “Twilight” movie, of which we thoroughly dissected afterwards. Barbie, Guy and I then headed to Waterfront Park in Louisville to spend an evening full of music. The three of us had a blast watching Arrested Development and Michael Franti take the stage followed by an incredible fireworks display. Michael Franti shared a really positive message, got the crowd involved and had everybody dancing. He even invited tons of kids to come dance on stage just as the fireworks started. The evening was definitely my favorite part of our trip…very memorable and meaningful to me.

It was hard to the leave the next day, and was an emotional goodbye. We made lots of wonderful memories in Kentucky, though, with an exceptional young lady.