Sunday, June 14, 2015

Buffalo Trace Distillery Tour - Frankfort, KY - Dirt Track Racing

(Frankfort, KY) Hi 88 Lo 70 -- Jim loves bourbon. A few years ago we toured all 6 bourbon distilleries that at that time made up the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. (They've added two distilleries since then.) One of his favorite bourbons is Buffalo Trace, so on Friday we revisited the Buffalo Trace distillery here in Frankfort. (Click on the pictures to enlarge.)



Jeff was our tour guide. He has a background in chemistry so he was able to go into great detail about the distilling process.



Buffalo Trace produces several brands of bourbon. Some of their smaller brands are labeled and boxed by hand, like this crew bottling Blanton's Bourbon.






There were many displays of bourbons covering the long history of Buffalo Trace.

One of the many warehouses where the bourbon is aged anywhere from 2 to over 20 years, depending on the brand.  



We were taken inside to see the hundreds of barrels, all at different stages of the ageing process.













Our tour group was quite large.









Everyone  to sample some bourbon at the end of the tour. For those who don't drink, or don't like bourbon (like me), they offered some root beer they make on site.


After our tour was over we took a drive through Frankfort. Jim found out online that Daniel Boone was buried at the Frankfort Cemetery, so we made a stop there to check it out. I like to walk around old cemeteries anyway. 















































The cemetery is on a big hill overlooking the Kentucky State Capitol Building.













We went back to the RV park and found it was filling up fast with weekenders. There was a group of "teardrop" RV enthusiasts who got together for the weekend. I talked to Mona, who showed me her custom teardrop unit. There's a small AC, TV, a queen bed and many of the comforts of home. She said their group travels to different states on weekends (they all work). If it's rainy, they stay inside and watch TV. There were nine in the group and it looked like they were having a good time. 









The back of a teardrop RV opens up to reveal a small kitchen. Mona brings her Keurig coffee maker with her.









Bill, one of my chat room friends, came over Friday evening for a visit. We sat and talked for a while, then went to dinner at Gibby's, a small local restaurant in downtown Frankfort.

Dee and Bill


We were told by the park manager to try a local delicacy called Kentucky Hot Brown. It's turkey, white bread, tomato slices, and a creamy white cheese sauce, topped with cheddar cheese and bacon, then baked in the oven. Your basic heart attack on a plate. :-)  We all ordered it and it was very delicious, and very filling!











Bill drove us around downtown and took us by the Capitol building and the Governor's Mansion.


We said goodbye to Bill, then closed all the shades and stayed inside our air conditioned home on wheels while all the weekend "campers" enjoyed their outdoor life. We were pleasantly surprised at how quiet the park was, despite all the kids riding their scooters and bikes all over the place. (Double pane windows are the best!) Fortunately the pool and playground area is was at the other end of the park.

We found another dirt track in the area, so Saturday night we drove to Richmond Raceway, just south of Lexington, to watch some more racing. On the way we had dinner at Culver's. It's great to be back in Culver's territory. :-)  The racing action wasn't as good as last week in Tennessee, but we did see a lot of crashes, including two cars that flipped over. One of the features had to be shortened from 25 to 18 laps because there were so many crashes and the race was taking too much time. It ended up being a late night.












The sunset over the track was beautiful, which added to another great night of racing.









We had a great time the last couple of days. We move to Illinois tomorrow, where we'll enjoy some family time for a few weeks.

2 comments:

Paul and Marti Dahl said...

So now I know why there is a bourbon shortage, and I can blame it all on Jim! :cD

Phyllis said...

While visiting Scotland a couple of years ago, we toured a distillery. They asked if anyone had toured one before, we said Jack Daniels. Tour guides reply was I Mean A Real Distillery. Sorry, Len's favorite is Jack. Scotch, not so much.

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