The Great Road Trip of 2017-Part 2

Part 1 is HERE.

So we rose early since we needed to cover a lot of miles on Day Two.
But first it was off to the free breakfast in the area in the office of the motel.

So we go in and approach the breakfast "offerings" counter.
There is coffee(and lots of it, unfortunately I don't drink that).  There was an empty jug of fake orange juice(at least that's what the Walmart label on it said).  Another almost empty jug of Walmart milk.  A two tiered display rack with 4, count 'em 4 slices of cheap white bread(bet it was Walmart's version of Wonder Bread), 1 slice on each piece of the display rack.  There was a toaster but I didn't see any butter/margarine or jellies/jams.  There was also one of those acrylic cereal holders with about 1/4 full of some sort of raisin bran cereal.  And a couple of wrapped danish pastries you find in a gas station convenience store.
Just a lavish feast of offerings, right?
I wish I had brought my camera to breakfast to get a photo of this piss poor excuse for a breakfast..

Let me mention here that this motel wasn't owned by the company(Days Inn or Knights Inn)and was owned/run my folks from India.  Not that I have anything against immigrants from India or anywhere else and certainly nothing against anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur and buy an old run down motel in an attempt to make a living and garner their version of the American Dream.
I only mention that because you'll see a pattern emerging later on in this saga. ;-)

So hubs hit the coffee and took one of those cellophane wrapped Danish.  I put some cereal in a bowl and poured some milk on it and lifted a spoon full to my mouth.
And the milk was actually HOT!  Not room temperature but like it had been heated in a microwave(which there was no microwave to be seen there).
WTF?!?
And the raisins in the cereal(Gosh, I HOPE they were raisins!)were like pebbles-rock hard.
But I ate the cereal anyway and hoped I didn't break a tooth.

So we packed up and hit the road right after so called "breakfast" as we had a stop Hubs wanted to make while we were in Frankfort Kentucky.  A few miles and a few turns later we were at Buffalo Trace Distillery.

This place is a massive complex of old buildings, new buildings and barrel warehouses.
There was a short orientation/presentation before the actual tour which we sat through.  The guide said Buffalo Trace(a recent name for this distillery, previous ones being George T. Stagg and O.F.C. aka Old Fire Copper)was named for the Great Buffalo Trace that use to be a feature of this area along the banks of the Kentucky River.

The buffalo wore a great path through this area hundreds of years back as their herds migrated westward as European settlement drove them from the eastern parts of America.  As pioneers started moving westward from Virginia and the other seaboard colonies some set up in this area of wilderness due to the fertile bottom soil and the good quality of water in the rivers and streams.  These pioneers soon found they could grow a good quality of wheat crop here and the limestone filtered water made for a high quality of liquor.

The guide then talked about how distilling spirits has been going on here since the 1700's and claims to be oldest continuously operating distillery in the country(though Burks' distillery who now produce Maker's Mark Bourbon claim the Guinness Record title as Burks' has records going back to 1805). Then he said 2 brothers from Virginia, Willis and Hancock Lee started a distillery on this spot in 1775  and named the area "Leestown" way before it became Frankfort.

At this, I turned to Hubs and whispered, "You know, I'm probably related to those Lee boys.".
And later that night in the hotel room I went ancestor hunting and yep, they are my 12th cousins 5 x removed. lol

So as we are sitting listening to this distillery tour guide's my stomach starts flip flopping.  Not a good sign.

Then we all were walked over to the barrel houses or the warehouses where the barrels of bourbon are aged.

It was already almost 90 Degrees outside of Frankfort KY but these dark barrel houses were nice and cool still and I didn't want to leave them.

Too bad it was the beginning of the trip and there is no way we could fit one of those barrels in the car. lol

Hmmm, an experimental blend on Hold for the Master Distiller to tinker around with(or drink)lol.......

Then it was over to the production room were the bottles were capped, labeled and boxed to shipping.  It was a very small building and we just slipped our way among the stations where employees were working.

I found that very odd that first off, the workers would want strange folks wandering through their small workspace and secondly that the company would allow this!  No other distillery we have ever been too before has done this.

Cases of Finished product stacked in that room.  See how cramped it was and they allowed pictures to be taken.

Here the tour guide is showing a display of different products they make and some sort of display of special horse commemorative tops they made for some reason that people collected on a piece of charred barrel(that was the whole set-you could buy them per piece or buy this display piece with the whole set?).  I think that was what he was talking about but I was feeling clammy and nauseous at this point and was trying to stay upright and I wasn't fully listening and just wanted to go find a bathroom. ;-)

After the tour we were all force marched in the heat taken to the second floor of the original distillery building to the tasting bar.

Bourbon and Vodka at 10 am ish?  Why not!

After 4 shots of bourbon(I did a hard pass on the vodka)my stomach seemed to settle down a bit.

Then it was downstairs into the gift shop to.....shop.

 Many MANY different t-shirts to buy on display.

Hubs got that one on the right in this photo with all the surnames of the Master Distillers over the years.

At this point in time (July 2017)Pappy Van Winkle had died and Buffalo Trace was making some version of his whiskey under a licensing agreement so they had Pappy merchandise too.

But for us it was mostly to look.  

Hubs bought some bourbon(of course)and that t-shirt.

As for souvenirs I didn't buy any"thing" to take home.....though those buffalo stuffed animals were cute.
And there were some photo ops too.........

Do I look less than thrilled in this photo or what?

Hubs pretending to break into the "liquor jail" where they kept all the very expensive/old bourbon.

Another visitor offered to take our photo together.
I did manage a smile in this one as the 4 shots from the tasting bar were starting to "hit" me.....

A replica of the water tower outside with merch on it.

And a gratuitous shot of a book with a bowtie Dr. Spo would love to have............

I found something in the freezer case near the door for myself.

There was frozen chocolate bars/truffles made with bourbon.

Next to that was ice cream made with bourbon and that's what I bought.

So I took my bourbon ball ice cream out to the car, turned on the a/c full blast and savored that small piece of heavenly delight.

And between the bourbon tasting back in the building and consuming my little cup of ice cream with liquor in it my stomach felt much better.

Honestly, I believe all that liquor after drinking spoiled milk for breakfast at the motel kept me from food poisoning or any other sort of gastric distress that was setting in.

And Hubs said after eating the ice cream I immediately nodded off in the car for a good hour.  I guess I can't hold my liquor no matter the form it comes in. lolz

When I woke up(or Hubs punched me because I was snoring)this is where we were..........

Somewhere outside of Louisville.

I had to look up what this building was that said "Yum!" on it.  It's the sports arena in Louisville.

The rest of Day 2 coming up next time.

Sluggy

The Great Summer Road Trip of 2013.....Day Two

We were up bright and early(ok, maybe I lie?)on Wednesday morning.  Hubs went down to the lobby for some breakfast(free with the room but sadly pitiful pickings)and I took a pass on the repast and got myself ready to leave.

And as soon as we hit the car, we hit a snag.....

 

At last we were ready to hit the road. Day Two was a long day of driving as we had to get from north central OH to north IL near the WI state line.

 

We stopped to fill the gas tank before hopping onto the Interstate and I snapped this shot of the convenience store window..

Would you look at the price of a gallon of milk??
Seriously.....$2.75?!
We pay just shy of $4.00 in PA, land of the draconian dairy lobby.
Next time we go to OH, I should load the cooler up with moo juice!

 

No sooner than we got onto the interstate, we saw this......

Yep, Construction Season was in full bloom in August on the Ohio Turnpike.

After we hit Indiana we needed to stop for lunch.  So we got off the IN Turnpike, or tried to.  Seems the exit booths in IN are NOT manned, so you have to pay via an automatic toll taker thingy.  The car in front of us at the exit booth couldn't seem to figure out how to pay.  We sat there what seemed like hours before Hubs made the unlawful decision to back out of the lane and get into the other lane which was empty.

Yes, we are criminal fugitives now in the eyes of the state of Indiana.

Finally got out of the toll area and ventured into La Porte IN to find some food.

I found it interesting that we were in Indiana and driving down Indiana Ave.

 

 

Yes I AM easily amused sometimes.....

We finally settled on Arby's since it wasn't McDonald's and we wanted to get back on the road quickly as we still had miles to cover before our official stop for the day outside of Chicago.

Here is a video of my lunch......can you tell I am bored?

 

Then it was back onto the highway where I saw my first Triple Tractor Trailer Truck.  They are not allowed on the highways in PA.....

And then another one.....

We passed this building driving down the interstate outside of Elkhart Indiana.....

I looked it up when we got home.
It's The RV Hall of Fame.
They have a museum of RVs.
Only in America folks......

Ok, so I got bored with taking pictures of triple trucks fairly quickly so I started taking shots of these....

Every town we went by seemed to have a water tower with it's name on it.

Then we passed a big patch of weeds that had turned autumn colors already, in mid August....seriously?!

And after awhile we happened upon our first sign of what was just on the other side of the Indiana line.......

And then we hit it......Chicago traffic.
YIKES!
Now I realize when I mapquested(that is a verb, right?) this route out I made one strategic error.
I let the route take us through DOWNTOWN CHICAGO and the Skyway.
DOH!!!

Here are some shots I took as we approached from the IN side......when I wasn't closing my eyes and praying or hanging on for dear life as Hubs zigzagged through 6 lanes of traffic looking for our lane.....

Let's just say things got a little tense about now and bad words were flying about the cabin and I could have used a belt of something strong or a tranq but had to settle for chewing my fingernails and the thought of taking pictures was frowned upon by my chauffeur.

And I will stop momentarily here to bitch about highway tolls.
Really OH, IN and IL?? 
It cost us over $20 in assorted tolls for a one way trip through your states to Chicago.   That's some price to pay for the fun of being caught in the cluster f*cks of traffic that your highways are!
My one and only trip to/through Chicago before this was via train and THAT was a nightmare ride as well.
I have to say that neither is my idea of fun.  How do you people who live here deal with this all. the. time.?

I've now driven in Chicago, Metro NY/NJ area and Washington DC traffic and I have to say that I'd rather deal with the latter two than Chicago's nightmare.
I think about Tanner and how she wants to move to this part of the world and I just want to shake my head...... lol

After we got out of the insanity that are the roadways around Chicago, we made tracks to our stop for the day in Palatine IL.
I was finally going to meet in person someone I've been online friends with since about 1999.

On the way, we passed this intriguing building with a police car sitting at the end of that driveway.....

Turns out it is the Village Center for Inverness Illinois.
Those turret looking things are called "The 4 Silos" and it's a community landmark.
And don't speed through Inverness or the cops will get you.
Hey, I'm just sayin'....  ;-)

Finally we got to my friend Marsha's place.  After hugs and a short visit with her roommate too we went out to a local eatery, The Palatine Inn for a snack and more gabbing.
I got a plate of Kijafa Cherry Crepes and it was HUGE!  Marsha took half of it home for her roommate to enjoy.

We took a couple of photos outside by their garden before we took Marsha home and hit the road again.....

It was great to finally meet ya Marsha!

Back into the car pointing north and onward to near the Wisconsin border.

Even though it was rush hour, sooner than I expected we came into the town were we would be staying a couple of nights.

A typical little Midwestern town with a picturesque Main St.

And your typical Midwestern rush hour commuter train delayed us a couple extra minutes.....

And then we were pulling into the driveway at the one and only Sonya Ann's house.
And Sonya Ann was NOT home! lolz

Ok, so her hubs Den WAS home, as was the often maligned DJ so we got a nice laid back welcome.
Sonya had run out to the store.

But as soon as she returned from her errand, the frenetic energy and mayhem ratcheted up 4 notches and the drinking began.
Sonya Ann hugged me and then put a drink in my hands saying, "drink this!"
Pretty much everything about that night afterwards is a blur in my mind.....

Oh, I do remember Den made us a yummy Chinese dinner(2 different entrées!)and it was as good or better than anything at my local Asian restaurant.  As my kids use to say to me when they were little, "You sure are a good cooker!"  And that Dennis is!

After dinner, time just seemed to fly.  Everyone was getting along so well.
I suspect all the liquor had something to do with that......hehehe

And now I am going to post a photo and Sonya Ann is going to bitch slap me for doing this....but in a loving and kind sort of way......

The woman doesn't like her picture being took and I can't figure out why not!?

Oh, I heard me some stories that night......about her kids(when DJ wasn't in the room), her in laws, her friends in RL and also the internet buddies(I bet most of you reading this had burning ears that evening....hehehe). 

But the funny thing about that night is that I can't remember a single story.
Dang!  I knew the liquor that never stopped being poured was all part of her evil plot so I'd never tell her secrets.  Otherwise, she would have had to kill me and hide my body....and honey, that's a whole lot of body to be hiding!

Just go ahead and draw devil horns on all those grinning faces in that photo because I know you want to and it would be quite accurate for what was probably being said at the time that photo was snapped.

And thus ended Day Two of the Great Summer Road Trip of 2013.

To Be Continued......

Sluggy