Kentucky

Curious Roadside America

The worst of the snow thankfully remained north of us as we crossed into West Virginia, though we did get a dusting overnight and up to a few inches in some places as we drove through the state over the next few days. We stopped at a few curious places along the way but there wasn't very much for us to see here, our goal being Kentucky which is famous for producing thoroughbred race horses, and bourbon whiskey - and you might have guessed that we are not that keen on horses, Arriving in Kentucky we could tell straight away that we are very much in "The South" now - the welcomes are very warm, the accents pronounced, and everyone says "Y'all" (as in Y'all have a nice day now).

Stopping in Frankfort we toured several distilleries before moving on to Louisville, home of Muhamed Ali, and continuing on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail to Bardstown. There are many distilleries on the trail, from the huge producers like Jim Beam who produce over 50% of all bourbon, to the smaller craft distilleries like Limestone Branch who just have a few barrels ageing in the same room as the pot still.

Outside Jim Beam. The Beam name has deep roots in Bourbon.

Bourbon originated from when Kentucky was part of Virginia, and was the frontier to the Wild West. As an incentive to attract settlers to the area, anyone who could build a cabin, plant an acre of corn, and live here for a year was given 400 acres of land to settle on. Many people came, and those who succeeded soon had a surplus of corn, and with nowhere to trade this surplus they turned to making whiskey, and the rest is history. Production was limited to just four licensed distilleries during Prohibition for "medicinal purposes" but is currently enjoying a global boom.


At each distillery that we toured, we learnt something new about how their particular product is made and the history of the distillery - and many are surprisingly interlinked, not least by the Beam family name. The rules for what can be labelled Bourbon are very strict, and although the process for making bourbon is the same across every distillery, the tours are as unique as the brands themselves. We've learnt about the importance of the pure local water which is from limestone bedrock, the mashbill (the unique recipe of grains), the fermenting process using the proprietary yeasts which are closely guarded trade secrets, the first distilling of the brewers beer into low wine spirit, the secondary distillation using a doubler to produce the high wine spirit known as white dog, and the barreling at no more than 160 proof into new, charred white oak barrels.

Newly filled barrels waiting to go for ageing in the rickhouse

Then there is the ageing in wooden rickhouses and how natural temperature variation throughout the seasons push and pull the spirit in and out of the wood to impart flavor and colour, plus the water lost to evaporation during the ageing years - the angels share. Finally there is the dumping of the barrels for batching and the bottling line, some which were completely automated and others all done by hand. Despite the strict rules and essentially the same process, the subtle differences in each step by each distillery produces a wide variation of the finished product, not to mention the different bottles, labels and finishing touches such as hand waxed bottle tops.

Last stop on the trails was a visit to Independent Stave, a cooperage in nearby Lebanon, KY where almost all the barrels used to age bourbon are made. Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures there but it was fascinating to see how the barrels are hand raised by the coopers, charred to specification and sealed by hand. These barrels can only be used one time for ageing Bourbon, and once used are often sold to distilleries in Scotland for ageing Scotch Whisky. If you're partial to a wee dram then it is likely to have been aged in a previously used bourbon barrel from Kentucky.

National Corvette Museum

Its not all about bourbon though - Kentucky is also the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln who frequently crops up on our travels and we visited his birthplace and boyhood home which are both part of the National Parks Service. Not far away is the National Corvette Museum, which is located right next to the very plant that produces these classic American muscle cars in Bowling Green, KY. We heard about this museum early into our travels, as inside it a massive sink hole opened up in February this year which swallowed and destroyed eight cars on display. It was well worth visiting though we didn't enjoy the long drive back in the dark in torrential rain and whilst being overtaken by eighteen wheeler trucks at 75 mph !

Yeee-Haaar

We've now moved on into Nashville in the state of Tennessee, well known as the home of Country music. We've already been to the Willie Nelson Museum and Cooters Place - a museum of sorts dedicated to the 1980's tv series "Dukes of Hazzard" and run by Ben Jones who played the character of Cooter the Mechanic. Thanksgiving has been and gone, as now has Black Friday and all the commercial hysteria that goes with it - out of curiosity we did stop by a Walmart at 5pm on Thursday just to see the hoards of people queuing up to get their hands on a bargain TV.

Y'all have a nice day y'all, and as usual please click here for a selection of our latest pictures, which are all from the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.

Maryland to Virginia via the Capitol

US Naval Academy in  Annapolis, MD

Before leaving Maryland we stopped in at the United States Naval Academy in Annopolis. The entire campus is a National Historic Landmark covering 338 acres, and is home to many historic sites, buildings and landmarks. It was very interesting to learn how the candidates live there and are trained, and what a privilege it is to earn a placement there.

Crossing the state line into Pennsylvania, we stopped at Gettysburg which is home to the biggest battle ever fought on US soil, and also where in 1863 Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg address (Four score and seven years ago...). Its a physically huge site, and after a trip to the impressive visitors centre to see the restored Cyclorama we toured the battlefield on a National Parks bus.

View over the Gettysburg historic battlefields from an observation tower 

Scattered with memorials and monuments from both the Union and Confederate states, the battlefields are a truly unique memorial to the many lives that were lost on both sides, in a style of fighting and battle that is thankfully consigned to the past. The town is very much lived in however the surrounding fields are mostly untouched or have been restored, and now make up the Gettysburg National Military Park. It was very interesting to learn about and understand the origins of the civil war over the fractious issue of slavery, and to ponder the possibilities had the result swung the other way.

Sachs Covered Bridge

Leaving Gettysburg we stopped briefly at the Sachs Covered Bridge, that was used by General Lee's retreating Confederate Army and still standing today though to foot traffic only. Next stop was the Crystal Grotto's near Boonsboro, a natural cavern complex with more formations per square foot than any other known cave system in the world. Taking 100 to 150 years to form just one cubic inch, the speleothem's varied from fine and delicate to gigantic columns from floor to ceiling, and was an impressive sight.

On the same day we made a quick stop at Harpers Ferry national park, at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers. Being right on the boundary between the Union and Confederate force, it was a strategic position and the town changed hands no less than eight times during the course of the civil war.

Sunny Obama

Finally making it to the Capitol, Washington D.C., we had perfect weather to see the sights, first stop being the White House. Not expecting to see anyone significant especially as The President was away in China, we had a great surprise to see the two first dogs Bo and Sunny out on the South Lawn which made our day.

Within walking distance is the National Mall,  a national park in the heart of D.C. We walked to the Washington monument, through the park to the World War II memorial at the end of the reflecting pool, and on to the Lincoln Memorial where the imposing statue of the solitary figure of Lincoln sits in contemplation. As we stood on the very steps where in 1963 Martin Luther King delivered his "I have a Dream" speech, it felt like a truly monumental place for many reasons. The nearby Jefferson memorial, though not as prominent in popular culture or with visitors, was equally impressive though we couldn't help being reminded of a certain Simpsons episode where Lisa visits Jefferson because Lincoln was too busy !

World War II Memorial on the National Mall with the Washington Memorial in the background

Getting ready for the first ever
"Concert for Valor"

Around the Mall are many museums and we spent a long time in the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, which was very moving and emotional. It was a busy week in D.C. because 11th November is veterans day in the USA, and the Mall was the setting for the first ever "Concert for Valor", held in honor of veterans of the US Armed Forces. Unsurprisingly, security was incredibly tight and having seen the number of porta-loos we decided to skip the free evening concert and watch it live on TV instead. Fortunately the estimates of 800,000 people were over enthusiastic and in the end around 100,000 people turned up, but we are still glad to have seen the preparations.

Selfie in front of the Capitol

On our final day we visited the United States Capitol building on Capitol Hill. Like many of the museums and public buildings in D.C. it is open to anyone and free to tour. Starting with a short film and an exhibition of the history of the building, the highlight was touring the building, starting in the crypt, moving through the old supreme court chamber, and finishing in the impressive rotunda beneath the famous dome, despite it being surrounding by scaffolding for refurbishment.

 Adjoining the Capitol by underground tunnel is the National Library of Congress, strictly speaking the Jefferson Building which is one of three that make up the library as a whole. The building is just as impressive as the Capitol itself, and we learnt that the original collection of books was completely destroyed by the British in the war of 1812 when they used the collection of books as kindling to burn the Capitol building.

US Capitol looking East from the Mall

Icicles. Its that cold !

Deer on the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway

Having had our fill of museums and state buildings we are back on the road, going west inland through Bluegrass country and heading towards Kentucky. We've already driven Skyline Drive and the BlueRidge Parkway, atop the Blue ridge mountains of Virginia in spectacular sunny weather, and visited the famous Luray Caverns with more stunning calcite formations. We planned to go inland now before winter sets in and whilst its still fairly mild, but if you follow the news you may have seen that the USA is in the midst of an Arctic blast. The night before last the outside temperature dropped to -10c, so perhaps that hasn't gone quite to plan, however there has been very little snow here like unlike the north of the states where they are measuring it in feet per hour. Fingers crossed it doesn't get as far as where we are !

Finally for the folks who follow us but are not on Facebook, here is the link to the latest selection of photos. Next update should be around Thanksgiving at the end of the month, so please keep checking back.

Massachusetts to Maryland

Nantucket, where whales used to be processed.

The weather forecast for the weekend in Cape Cod was not great but we decided to chance a day trip to Nantucket, the island famous for whaling and now a booming tourist destination. As it turned out we had a near perfect day, with sun shining and calm winds for the hour long ferry crossing as foot passengers. The history of Nantucket is as diverse as it is rich, from its early origins with Native America tribes, to the settlement by the English and the whaling boom, the great fire of 1846 and eventual decline of whaling after the advent of modern petroleum refining.

We learnt much of this via a walking tour of the town which was part of our visit to the whaling museum, hearing also about how many whaler families followed a Quaker lifestyle and how advanced the islanders once were over their mainland counterparts. Nantucket has also produced some famous people, notably Mr Macy who started Macy's department store.

The similarities to our home island of Jersey were quite striking - near identical area of land mass, similar climate with milder winters than the nearby mainland, high house prices, expensive cost of living, and many other problems and advantages of living on a remote island. One big difference though was population, only around 10 thousand residents, many of whom move away for the winter.

Pilgrim Monument
Provincetown.

Next stop was Provincetown, right at the top of the Cape Cod peninsula. Another town with plenty of history, this is where the pilgrims landed on the Mayflower in 1620. On top of the hill overlooking the town sits the Pilgrim Monument, the tallest all granite structure in the USA, where from the top we could make out the outline of the skyscrapers in Boston, forty two miles away.

Woods Hole Oceanic Institute

Leaving Cape Cod we stopped at the Woods Hole Oceanic Institute, a private non-profit research and higher education facility dedicated to marine science, education and research. We reckon TJ might like to find out more about this place. Shortly after this we crossed briefly into Rhode Island, the smallest of the fifty states but the one with the longest official name - "the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations". It was the first colony to prohibit slavery in 1652, and the first state of the original thirteen colonies to declare independence from British rule back in 1776.

Mark Twain's house, Hartford, Connecticut

Driving over another state line into Connecticut, we visited the house of Samuel Longhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name of Mark Twain, in his home town of Hartford. He traveled very extensively in his day, and having encountered him many times during our travels it was really good to see where he settled and to learn more about the man himself, who did far more than just write great books.

Continuing on through the rolling hills of Connecticut we stopped briefly for lunch in Mianus, a neighborhood in the town of Greenwich, for no other reason than it appealed to our childish sense of humour (note that if you read that previous sentence and it didn't make you snigger, then you probably don't understand our sense of humour !). Shortly after we crossed into New York State for the second time on our trip, and after a frustrating and long drive through downtown Manhattan we swapped our rental car in Queens for a few days hopping on and off the NYC metro.

New York is a huge city, the most populous in the USA, and with something for anyone and everyone. We've seen and done so much in just a few days - vibrant Time Square buzzing with energy in the evenings, the ice rink and Christmas Market in Bryant Park, the stunning Grand Central Station, the amazing view from the Top of the Rock observation deck in the Rockefeller Plaza complex overlooking Manhattan Central Park, walking the Brooklyn Bridge on a cold sunny day, riding the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, the nine foot tall clock weighing two tons in the opulent lobby of the Waldorf Astoria hotel, and walking through a small part of the enormous Central Park. Visiting the 9/11 Memorial was a moving experience, the two pools located in the footprints of the twin towers a solemn reminder of those who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks of 2001 and 1993. New York has rebuilt though, with the new One World Trade Center being the tallest structure in the western hemisphere and just having opened to its first tenants this week. The observation deck is not yet open but it will be a great view from up there.

Panorama looking north over Manhattan and Central Park, from Top of the Rock Observation Deck

Our timing for New York was great for several reasons, firstly it was Halloween and there was a huge Halloween parade along 6th Avenue on the evening of 31st October, secondly a friend from Jersey was also in NY at the same time, and we met up one evening in Times Square and had a great catch up (great to see you Dave), and finally it was the weekend of the NY Marathon. No doubt that we've walked many miles but nowhere near the length that each of those fifty thousand competitors did on that cold Sunday.

On the Brooklyn Bridge, with Manhattan in the background.

We could have stayed longer in New York and done much more but the constant noise of car horns and sirens, crowds of people and endless hot dog stands are quite intense across the senses. Leaving New York we quickly crossed into yet another state, New Jersey. This is the 4th smallest but the most densely populated of all the states, named after the birthplace we share with Vice Admiral Sir George Carteret. The Jersey Shore is home to seaside resort towns like Atlantic City, famous for its boardwalk, casino's and beach, and driving along the coast it seemed like every waterfront house had its own boat dock. Being well out of season now,  New Jersey was only a one night stopover for us and today we crossed from Cape May to Lewes by ferry into yet another state, Delaware, and then drove a short distance into Maryland. That brings our tally up to 31 States so far, and it wont be long until we reach Washington D.C. (which isn't a State or even in a State, though some Americans may argue otherwise to that last one !)

Finally for our readers who don't do Facebook, here is the latest batch of photos for you - click here to see them.