peek of this week's episode.
No matter where you fall along that journey, get ready to hear about our first-hand experiences as we visit some of the most interesting and amazing places on earth. In this week's episode, we venture to the Bluegrass State, home of horse racing, Corvettes, and America's beloved bourbon. The Kentucky Bourbon Trail isn't just a route, it's a pilgrimage for bourbon enthusiasts and curious travelers alike. Join us as we uncover the rich history, craftsmanship, and flavors that define this iconic trail. And for all of you non-bourbon don't drinkers, there is plenty worry, to see and do along the way. And all of the bourbon fans that travel along with you are going to be glad to have a designated driver. So pack a bag, a snack or two, and let's get started as we immerse ourselves in the sights and flavors of the Kentucky Bourbon
Trail.
out by saying that there really just isn't a way to do every distillery on the Bourbon Trail in a single visit. You could, but would you really enjoy it? I would say this is kind of like saying we're going to go out to California and we're going to go to Napa and we're going to visit every winery while we're there. That wouldn't be any fun, really.
fun and not possible. So, yeah, you're exactly right. So what we're going to suggest is visiting a small list of your favorite distilleries and then maybe checking out a few that you aren't familiar with. And you never know, you might find a new favorite that isn't so hard to find at your local liquor store.
if you're not a bourbon drinker or if you want to explore the area further and extend your trip beyond a weekend, there are other nearby attractions to visit. So, like, let's take the Corvette Museum and Mammoth Cave National Park. Those are both a couple hours drive from Bowling Green. In Louisville, you can take a tour of Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby, and you can also visit the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory, which is located downtown near the distilleries that we're going to talk about. Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace is located 45 minutes to an hour away from Bardstown, as is the Maker's Mark Distillery, and we'll talk about a lot of these later. So there's really plenty to see and do in this part of Kentucky. And if you want to check Indiana off your list as well, well, just cross the bridge there in Louisville and visit Indiana too. We had already visited most of these places with our kids on a previous trip, but we also took them to the Maker's Mark Distillery, and they still tease us about that even
Yeah, they do. So great memories in Kentucky. So let's talk about the Bourbon Trail and the trips that we did and our tips for taking this trip. As of a couple of years ago, over 70 distilleries were operating in the state of Kentucky. However, only 18 of the larger distilleries and about 30 of the craft distilleries are a part of the official bourbon trail. And surprisingly, a few of your favorites are not officially part of the bourbon trail. Now, they are right there, and you can obviously visit them, but when you look at an official bourbon trail, you're going to see some missing off of that particular list.
Yeah, there's a few that you just leave, you know, scratching your head and say, why is this not part of the bourbon trail? Because I believe that they really are part of driving the whole bourbon craze. Talk about the elephant in the room. Why is Buffalo Trace not on this list? I actually
have no idea. I don't know if we learned about that or talked about that. So if so, I don't remember. So you'll have to, anybody who knows, you'll have to let us know. The Bourbon Trail was established in 1999 by the Kentucky Distillers Association. It takes you through the heart of bourbon country, and it was designed to bring tourism through this collection of distilleries and the towns along the way. So it's made up of the big, what they call the signature distilleries, some of the big companies, but then also a lot of little small craft distilleries, a lot of which even to this day I had not heard of. And
what, 70 distilleries that are operating inside of Kentucky. So, you know, at best, you're talking about 48 of them that are part of the Bourbon Trail. So you're going to run into a number of different ones along the way. And this is your opportunity to find different things and really learn about really some of the bourbon families as well. There's a picture somewhere, you can google it, but it's called the Bourbon Family Tree. And I thought that was really neat because it tells you like there's like, I don't know, seven different bourbon families. And then it shows you which bourbons are part of which family. So, you know, for example, Buffalo Trace makes a ton of different bourbons that are in there and it's all under the Sazerac tree.
interesting, right? Where all this, like the history came from. And then also just, you know, as you go learning about, you know, why do they make, you know, why do they make the bourbon there? Right. What were the characteristics? You know, what makes up a bourbon? Right. We're not going to get into all that because that's what you'll discover on the trail. And you'll hear it over and over and over again. And then you'll be like, no, what was that again? But those are some of the things that you'll get from the tours and stuff like that, that it's really interesting. Just the history and, you know, makes a bourbon a bourbon.
of fact, you'll be such an expert that when you're in the party or in the room and someone starts saying that, you know, all bourbon must come from Kentucky, you'll be able to correct them immediately and tell them exactly what makes bourbon bourbon.
tell them exactly what makes bourbon bourbon. So we had the opportunity to do actually two trips just a few weekends apart several years ago associated with picking up our youngest dog from a breeder in Indiana. So this is something that we did, I guess, really as this bourbon craze was just kind of getting kicked off, right? And bourbon was just like becoming a big thing. And a lot of things were hard to find. And this was one of those things where we said, oh, that would be fun to do. And it was just lucky that we got to do this in conjunction with going to pick up the dog. It wasn't too far outside of Louisville. And so we just said, this will be a great opportunity for us to take two weekends and pick, you know, two different locations. So the first trip we had to go, we had to go meet the litter and choose one of the puppies. And then a few weeks later, we got to bring him home. So our trip is going to look a little bit different than what most people are going to do, but it really gives you a good outline about like maybe what's realistic. So Scott, what, what did we say that we would recommend as far as like amount of time for somebody to do the bourbon trail? Well,
I think a long weekend is really ideal for doing the bourbon trail. And literally we just did the trail twice, I think. Right. So we chose, um, a couple of different areas that we wanted to focus in on. And we went and spent a few days in each of those areas as a part of this trip. And so, you know, I would say that the pattern that we used is probably a good one for visiting the bourbon trail. It's like I said, you're not going to be able to visit all of them. You're not really going to want to. by the time Honestly, you see one distillery, you've seen pretty much all of them. A still is a still is a still. Maybe some have a pot-shaped still, and maybe some of them are using column stills, but at the end
And you it's funny that you mentioned that. know, We talk about in the Scotland episode, as far as the making the scotch, the day that we got to drive through the Scottish Highlands, everything was closed, but we still drove through and we were like, oh, look, here's this one, here's this one, here's this one, all these brands that we were gonna, we didn't go into a single one, you guys, because they were closed, but it's like, oh, well, that was neat to kind of see where they were. And then, of course, you can try them and taste them. So you could almost do the Bourbon Trail that way, like pick the ones that you want to do. If you don't want to do a tour at every single one, you might want to do a tasting or you might just want to walk in and visit the gift shop and, you know, look around. And we're going to talk about the towns because you definitely wanted to see some of the towns
stuff too. Yeah, I think honestly, the towns become a greater part of the story than the distilleries themselves as we unfold this.
So my other question, Scott, as we get into this, do you think that we should give our opinions on the ones we visited or just leave it up to?
Well, I think, you know, bourbon is one of those things where everybody has their own particular taste, the things they like. You know, you're going to hear certain people talk about flavors and notes they taste. But quite honestly, I've been in a room where they're talking about all these flavors and notes and all I can taste is rubbing alcohol. flavors and notes and all I can taste is rubbing you alcohol. it really So, just know, depends. I have my favorites. Other people have their favorites. And, you
the way we should leave That it. sounds good. So what we're going to do is we're going to give our suggestions, like Scott mentioned, about how we did this trip, how we would recommend that you maybe think about doing the trip and other things not to miss. Not just for the bourbon, right? But for the whole experience. And then if you have more time, here are some additional things that you can do. And so what we've attempted to do, because this is obviously what worked for us and for you, is group ones that are in the same area together. And we just ended up, like we said, we just ended up picking a few because we couldn't visit them all. And we'll tell you about the areas that we're in and then some of the other things that we did.
going to suggest that you take this as a long weekend. So if you come into town on Friday morning, you know, early Friday morning, get arrived in Louisville, go pick up your car. You're going to need to have a rental car for this trip. But let me say also is there are some private tours that you can book that will take you around to these various distilleries. So that may be an option. And we'll talk about that later. But let's say, you know, maybe one of the non-bourbon drinkers is with you and they've said they'll be about that But let's later. you say, maybe know, one of the non-bourbon drinkers is with you and they've said they'll be your designated driver. You're going to want to have a car to drive through, you know, Kentucky and see these different trails and all the different scenery. So we had lunch in downtown Louisville. You know, we wanted to get started. We had gotten in around lunchtime. And I would say, make sure you check out all the great restaurants there in Louisville. You can get anything from, you know, Jeff Ruby Steakhouse to local barbecue joints, which is what we had at Feast Barbecue. And then we started checking out some of the distilleries. And so there was one that we came across called Peerless Distillery, and it just looked like a really cool place. We walked in, very nice vibe to it, and we got lucky because we could do a tour right away into private tasting. And so this was neat. Like I said, we'd never heard of Peerless before. While we were there, the owner was inside the distillery. And so they introduced us to him. And he's a Georgia Tech guy. And since we're Georgia Tech folks, you know, it was kind of an interesting conversation and to get to meet him. But then we went out and we had this little bar over to the side. And you sat down and we got to do some tastings there. And their biggest thing is they had these, I would call them small batch, bourbons and ryes that they would do. They would just do very limited release of them. And you had to be there to pick them up when they were released or else they were gone in a short amount of time. Anything about peerless?
Well, a couple of things. So I can't remember. Is peerless something that you can buy in stores?
You can now. I don't think I've ever seen it before, though.
And then I would just say, I think what we did, and this is just a good tip. I think we had booked like a couple of tours that we're going to talk about in a second, like for a little late in the afternoon, just in case we had like a flight delay or something like that. So we wanted to give ourselves some cushion room. But then after we had lunch, we saw that this was right there and just got lucky that we got to do the tour. They had availability. I would say if you have something that you have your heart set on to book a tour ahead of time, because a lot of these have, you know, time tours and if they fill up, they fill up. And especially if you're there on the weekends but if you have some extra time right it doesn't hurt to go in and see and ask as
and so we did have tickets for old forester in a place called rabbit hole old forester was right there in downtown Louisville. Although I believe that their main manufacturing and distilling is probably done somewhere else, they at least did some their own site where we were at. And on the day that we were there, they had actually released their President's Choice, which was a very limited edition, single barrel pick. a very limited edition single barrel pick. And this is every year the president goes in and chooses a barrel. And then that's the one that they bottle and call the president's choice. And so we were able to get a bottle of that
there. But I felt like this one was, I mean, yes, for show, but also like a working place, right? So they had like some of their storage there and some of their production and stuff there. One other thing I wanted to say, yes, we got lucky. We got to do kind of like a little tasting like in the midst of that. But a lot of these distilleries also have like really special tastings. And so if you have one that is just like your absolute favorite, that might be a special treat just to look into that. So this wasn't something that we did there, but I did notice like they had a special like room set up that somebody was about to have like a sit down tasting right in at Old Forest or where I was was kind of like a walk through and you tasted as you went through. So just be aware of that because we've done some of those or seen some of those special experiences, different places. So look for more than just maybe like the regular tasting. If that's, you know, that you have one that you just really love or it's a special occasion and it's like, oh, this would be really meaningful. Like, and we can talk about this in a second, but like at Buffalo Trace, for example, there might be something special there that you want to look into, some kind of tour or special tasting.
Rabbit Hole, you know, relatively new bourbon, I would say. It's not aged very, very old. And so it tasted like new bourbon, if you know what that is. That's the one where they're talking about all these different flavors that I should be tasting. And all I could taste was the rubbing alcohol. So that one wasn't, you know, my particular choice. But I know I've heard other people say that they really like this one. And here's
what I would say about Rabbit Hole is I think they were more known for maybe like the cocktails. I feel like once we got to the tasting, it was more about some of the cocktails and then you could order some other cocktails. But also they are the place where you did the tasting was like maybe not on the roof, but way like up at the top of the building. Right. So you get like a view of Louisville and they have like a balcony and stuff like that. So each of these really offers like some kind of unique experience. And so I think that's, that's part of it, too. It's not literally that you're going to these distilleries, and you're watching them do the distilling process, and you're tasting it, but it's like what the whole experience is. And that's why you don't want to be rushed to say, okay, we're going to book like four in a day. And we've got, you know, this time and this time and this time and this time to really just take the time to, you know, soak in the atmosphere and different things like that too. And
a lot of these distilleries, you know, they take a lot of time and effort to improve the grounds and beautify the grounds. And that right there is worth seeing as well. And so you don't want to be rushing out to go to your next place and not get to experience the place as it was designed to be. But going through Louisville, one thing I would say is there are a ton of tasting rooms in Louisville as well. So it's not a distillery. They're not doing any distillery there. They might have like a museum or a quick, you know, tour of some sort that they do. But the idea is that they just give you an opportunity to have a tasting room and maybe a gift shop there. And so, you know, they've got Michter's, they've got Stitzelweller, Evan Williams, Angel's Envy, right? All of those are right there in downtown Louisville.
So while there are several in Louisville, and you know, if you've traveled and you might could just decide you want to, you know, stay the night there, right? Have dinner there too, and then get up the next day and go somewhere else. But we highly, highly recommend that during this trip that you don't just stay in Louisville, right? Because sure, you could do a bunch of tastings and just see that. But there are so many other things to enjoy on the trail, right? The small towns and the beautiful landscape. And here's one of the things that we loved about driving in the area is that you'll notice that as you pass a lot of these farms and the barns, you get to see something that we kept noticing. And so we had to look up like, what is this? It's called the unique barn quilts. It'll be painted on the sides of these different barns. And it's based on the concept of a quilt square found on old-fashioned quilts, and they're unique to the family or the land. But what was interesting about it is this is not like, this is a really old concept.
Yeah, I did a little research on it, and I think dates back to like 2001, so 2001, where this lady was visiting all these different locations like West Virginia. I think she had some family there and stuff like that. And then so on the drive, she noticed all these different barns and outbuildings and stuff like that and how unique they were that, you know, they had different shapes and they were of different ages and stuff like that. And then she came back and I believe her mother was a quilter. And she decided that she was going to hand paint a quilt square on the barn. And so that's where that got started from. And so now this is something you can see all across the South, even to the point where, you know, our sister-in-law on their barn, they wanted to have one of these barn quilts.
Yeah. That was just something neat. And especially if you're not from the South and used to the scenery, right? So, I mean, we're from Georgia. We're from Atlanta. And so, I mean, Kentucky is fairly similar, but just beautiful in and of itself, right? And different. But if you're from a different part of the country or another country, like you're just going to appreciate the different landscape and just the different parts of, you know, Kentucky and getting to see that. So if you don't want to do the Bourbon Trail driving yourself, book Bourbon Trail tours from Louisville on Viator and let someone else do the driving for you, take care of the tour times and all that good stuff. So when you are looking at tours and activities for a particular destination, our favorite way to book local experiences is through Viator. We like using Viator because of the free cancellation policy. Plans may change so you can receive a full refund if you cancel at least 24 hours in advance of most experiences. Book your spot now and pay later with their reserve now, pay later feature. And of course, before booking, always read the trusted reviews. Viator has 4.3 stars from 140,000 plus Trustpilot views. You can go to sunshinetravelers.com slash Viator to explore and book a bourbon tasting experience today.
talk about the drive to Frankfort, Kentucky. So we left Louisville. We started driving towards Frankfort and we had booked an Airbnb in downtown. So we decided we would go and have dinner in downtown Frankfurt. That is the state capital as well. And so just down the street from where we were staying was the state capital. It was around Christmas time. And so everything was all lit up. The town was all, you know, decorated for Christmas. And so it was really a cool time to be there. And so we went to dinner and then after dinner, we just kind of walked around a little bit. So on Saturday, we knew that we were going to drive over to Indiana. And this was the first time that we were going to be able to go and check out the litter of puppies and see them in person. And so we got up that morning. We went to Bee's Bakery downtown. We got us some coffee you and, a couple know, of baked items or whatever. And then we
Yeah. And so, Scott, we were talking about, okay, okay well why did we stay in Kentucky a lot of times well this particular case when we book this right we you have to book more than one night you can't just stay in like an Airbnb or apartment like this just for one night and all the other distilleries that we wanted to do on this particular trip were in that same area so Frankfurt is a good spot for that and the place that we found was like right downtown. So like Scott mentioned, we could walk the night before to go to the restaurants. We could walk that morning and it was just, it was a neat little place. Also another note about Frankfurt, Kentucky. So being from Atlanta, which is the capital of Georgia, it is a huge city and Louisville is also like a huge city. But Frankfort, Kentucky, while it had the state capital and stuff like that, it was actually a pretty small town. Right, Scott? And then there were a few streets and then a couple of lines of these restaurants and shops and antique stores, bookshops, stuff like that. But it wasn't by any means like a huge city. Yes, a big capital building, you know, and government work type stuff, but not a big city like you would think of a capital city that we're used to. So just a note on that. Okay, so what do you visit in the area of Frankfurt, Kentucky? Okay, so in this area, you're going to be able to go to places like Buffalo Trace, Wild Turkey, Four Roses, Bullet, Woodford Reserve. So that's kind of, if those are things you're interested in, then Frankfurt would be a good place to do that. Now, if you only want to do one of those or so, like you could book just like a hotel room. But like I mentioned, we did the two nights because it was like Airbnb and that was the minimum and that was just what was going to work out for us. And so what we did was after we went to the bakery on that Saturday, we went and did our puppy visit. And then we had actually made sure that we booked a tour at Buffalo Trace for that afternoon because that was a big one that we wanted to go see. We wanted to go see where they bottled the Blantons and stuff like that. And somebody had told us about a Netflix documentary called Neat. And so we want to pass this along to you because if you are interested in bourbon, number one, and if definitely if you're going to go do the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, you need to see this first. It just gives you a good overview and lots of good information. first. It just gives you a good overview and lots of good information. And another cool thing that we got to do on the tour that we did at Buffalo Trace at the end, there's somebody in that documentary who has worked at Buffalo Trace for a long time named Freddie Johnson, who was actually giving a couple a private tour. And so we had said, oh my gosh, that's Freddie from the documentary, but then they've also got some Freddy different products and stuff like that. So he's kind of like a celebrity, wouldn't you say? Yeah,
he's actually third generation working for what is now Buffalo Trace. And so, you know, not only did his father work there, so did his grandfather. So that's a really neat part of this, you know, and Freddie, and he really plays really big into the story around Neat.
Yes. And so that was nice. And he was so nice. We were like, oh, you know, we saw you on the documentary, and he took a picture with us. And so that was just, that was really cool to, you know, see that, and then get to meet him as well.
And that's a really neat tour. You don't go so much and see the distilleries and stuff like that. They take you into this old rick
house. That's the name of it, Scott. There we go. You guys, we really have been here. We do know this. It's called a Rick House. There
you go. Yeah. You go into this old Rick House, and it's actually in a historic building there on that property. And so they've got that set up with video where you sit down, and then there's someone who comes in and gives, you know, a live presentation and stuff like that. Very well done. I would say they're kind of like almost the Disney of the bourbon trail, if you will, in the way that they handle all of their presentations, stuff like that. And then we left out of there and got to go into the room where they actually bottled the Blanton's bourbon. And so you see the little, you know, cut glass bottles with the little horses. That's Blanton's. If you don't know much about bourbon, it's one that so many people have chased their entire lives just to try to get their hands on a single bottle of it. And so you can watch it being put into bottles. Now you can't get it there, but you can watch them do that process. And so they were actually bottling while we were there
Yeah, that was really neat. So two things to know about Buffalo Tries. The first one is I want to tell a story because that is what we like to do. On the video, Freddie talked about how if you have a bottle of bourbon that is expensive, special, whatever, don't just keep it in the bottle. To open that bottle and share that with special people for a special occasion.
Yeah. In the video or in the documentary, rather, he tells the story about a pretty rare bottle that he had. He had been gifted that from work or something like that. And or maybe it was his father. I think it actually was his father. And so, you know, and they enjoyed this bottle together. And he said the memories of enjoying the bourbon inside the bottle was far greater than having the bottle on the shelf. Was the, you know, basically the premise of the story. And it was interesting because a couple of years later, my brother and his wife went there and they brought me back a bottle of Eagle Rare that Freddie Johnson had signed. And my brother said something about, oh, I guess I'm gonna have to buy two now because he's not going to want to drink this bottle. And Freddie said, why? He said, this ink's on the outside. It didn't bother the bourbon on the inside. And so that's just kind of the way he is and kind of his personality, really larger than life and a really big part of Buffalo Trace's history.
So that's very cool. The other thing that you need to know is, and Scott mentioned, other thing that you need to know and Scott is, mentioned you can't buy Blanton's there, but also is they do have some special release days for some different things, but you have to kind of know, and I think you can check their website and see or even call. So just know that like, just because you go there, you're not going to be able to get some of, you know, the things that they release except for on these special release days as well. So just kind of knowing that in advance.
Yep, that's right. You know, and people line up really early on those days to come in and buy. Obviously, they limit the number of bottles that you can get. People do it every day, I think. We did really end our trip there in Frankfurt after we had visited Wild Turkey. We did a tour there and then went to Four Roses. Let's talk about Four Roses for a minute, though, because I don't think I really knew a whole lot about Four Roses before that trip. It just looked like it was a really neat distillery. And we went in there and I remember, you know, it's one of those where you do the tour and once again, you see stuff going through stills and stuff like that. But then the tasting at the end, they had some of their, you know, limited release products and stuff like that as well. And I think that was like where we tasted Four Roses for the first time. Single barrel. The single barrel. Yeah. Yeah. The Four Roses single barrel. And it's like, hey, this is really good stuff.
Single barrel. The single barrel. Yeah. Yeah.
come to find out it was something that you could buy in Georgia readily off the shelf.
Yeah. So a lot of times you go to these experiences and then you find new things that you might enjoy, right? That mentioned, oh, we can actually get that at home. And so we can get that, enjoy that. Now you mentioned about one of the other ones being very Disney-esque. I felt like part of the presentation of Four Roses, very well done, right? Was very Disney-esque i felt like part of the presentation of four roses very well done right was was very disney-esque also but then you had the the walkthrough tour with somebody but four roses especially set out on a big piece of property right with gardens and and different things too so each one of these is just so unique wild though, was very interesting, it was the tasting room was set, like had a fantastic view. Do you remember that?
Yeah.
that too. And they had just done their partnership with Matthew McConaughey and he had done like a bourbon or a whiskey or something with them. And this one was interesting, though, because you actually, part of the tour, you got in a van and they took you to some different places because that property is so big.
well, I think all of them have built a lot of capacity since we were out there. You know, the bourbon craze in America was driving a demand that they just couldn't keep up with. And so they had to build these brick houses because, you know, the bourbon stays in there at a minimum four years, right? That's the least to be called a bourbon. But the really good ones, the better ones, are around an eight year. So from the time that they make it to the time that they can bottle it is eight years. And so they've got to sit in these rickhouses and age. And so, you know, there was just a lot more. It's not like you got demand today and then tomorrow you can turn up the volume and really get a lot more product off the line. So they had to build this capacity. They had to build these buildings to age and store the whiskey in. And so they're really just now starting to see some of the impacts of that expansion come along.
And then I just think with the popularity of it, a lot of them have built these tasting rooms and tasting experiences and tours and things like that as well.
I mean, there was a reason that I compared it to Napa earlier, because it's very much like Napa, right? You have these really nice tasting rooms that you can go to, these really nice tasting rooms that you can go to. And, you know, they're showcasing kind of the specialness of the product. And that's what these distillers are doing as well.
Right. To distinguish themselves, right, from each other, distinguish the brands from each other. And then a lot of these, you're going to find different brands within, you know, under one distillery, I guess to say. So a couple of other tips I would say is that just think about, you know, as you schedule your day, of course, getting, getting breakfast, but then also like, you know, where, where would we stop for lunch? Or do some of these places have, you know, like a charcuterie board you could also get you or, a sandwich know, that you could pick you up, just kind know, of knowing like you how, like a charcuterie know, board you could also get you or, a sandwich know, that you could pick up, you know, just kind of knowing like how, you know, how to plan your meals. And then also look at opening times, closing times, special events, things like that so that you can, you know, kind of plan out an itinerary,
So, you know, that was Sunday. We had to drive back to Louisville, get on a plane and headed back home. But we knew we were going to be right back out there in just a few weeks because that was when we were going to go and pick up our puppy from the breeder. So on our second trip, we flew out on a Thursday, landed in Louisville, picked up the car and drove immediately to Bardstown. and drove immediately to And Bardstown. Bardstown is this great little just quaint city, lots of little small shops and restaurants. And it just so happened that we were in Bardstown on the day that they were having their Christmas parade. And we heard people talking about the Christmas parade, and we didn't have anything to do that night. So we went into town thinking that, you know, we would see two or three floats pulled behind a pickup truck and, you know, just be a short parade. Boy, were we wrong.
was the most elaborate small town Christmas parade that I have ever seen. The local radio station was set up like not just to where they were broadcasting, but to where like almost announcing like we could hear them. But then it was obviously on the radio, too. And it was just like.
Thanksgiving parade.
parade. Yeah. Every group in the county, I guess. I don't know, probably was in this, right? Sports programs and dance programs and businesses and churches. And I think one, I was looking
back through my
my pictures and I guess I had like made some notes and send them to my kids or Snapchatted them. And sometimes I would take the screenshots and stuff like that. I think I had made a note that somebody, they had said on one of them, somebody had actually worked for Disney. And you could tell this float was like over the top and they were going to give prizes and awards. And it was absolutely something to see. So if you ever, ever find yourself doing this right at the beginning of December, look up when this Christmas is going to be. I think
be. I think it's the second week in December, the second full week in December. But definitely try to plan your trip around that. Because I want to say this parade was about two hours long. I think
I think so. We. Okay, guys. And you know how we are about eating and food. We're like, oh, my gosh, we're going to like not be able to find somewhere to eat. You know, after this parade, we'll have a suggestion for you in a second. I literally took so many pictures of this little small town Christmas parade. It really made an impact on us.
And, you know, those announcers, they were so funny because, you know, they're just a little small town and they're talking about Jim Bob, you know, and all the work that he's done and all the places he volunteers and, you know, stuff like that. And it was just really a great, well-orchestrated, well-produced event. And like I said, it was, I don't know, maybe it's only like an hour. Maybe it seemed like two hours because we were hungry and we were expecting it to be five minutes, but it was a really long parade.
had a picture of another guy going around, like they also do at Disney, where they sell all all the light up stuff and he's selling the light up swords and necklaces you know and the kids are buying all these things and yeah that was something else so we did get to eat we again were staying downtown within walking distance to the downtown to this parade and we passed by this place called Old Talbot Tavern, which is actually like an inn as well. I saw when I was looking to see, you know, are they still open, that you can actually stay there. So thankfully, they were like, yes, you can still eat here. And it was almost like an old English, like little pub type place. So that was a neat place to eat.
But it also had a very, I don't remember the historical significance, but there was some historical significance to that little pub as well.
Yeah, I think I do remember her mentioning something. But so Bardstown is probably a place where if you do the Bourbon Trail, you are going to visit because it's going to be, so between Louisville and Bardstown, you could stop at Jim Beam. And then you can go to places like Luxro, Maker's Mark, Willett, Evan Hill, Bardstown Bourbon Company. There's like a lot of ones and different, wouldn't you say, Scott, then so we in frankfurt all of those i think buffalo trace was close by those other two were a little bit further but these were all like very close to bardstown yeah yeah and so then on friday we actually had made a point to like book tours and have tastings and stuff like that to luxro which is one of the ones I mentioned where it's, that's the distillery, but they have a lot of different brands. I don't
remember which ones are their brands, but they're, they're ones that you would know and recognize. It's Luxro Distillers. If you look at that bourbon family tree, you know, you would see a bunch of names that you know that
remember which
are a part of that.
And I want to say on that you know that are a part of that. Yeah. Yeah. And I want to say on that we probably just did one, a tasting. We had done so many tours. We visited Maker's Mark again to do a tour and a tasting, even though we had been there before. That one's a neat one because of where it is set. Just like a neat, almost like a sprawling property, very quaint and old looking. And then we also visited Willett. And then the other thing I remember doing during that day is just stopping at some different liquor stores and different things like that to see what you could buy locally, what was available, what the price points were and stuff like that.
Yeah. So while you were saying I looked up some that, of the bourbons that you can find there, like Ezra Brooks, Rebel 100. Now it's asking me to put in my birth date and all that stuff. I can't see anything near, but there's some names in there that you would recognize matter of fact ezra ezra 99 is one of my favorite bourbons and it's a really cheap bourbon i mean i think you pay 29 30 bucks um for a bottle of that and it's easy to find much you know much different than all of the Buffalo Trace stuff that's out there.
much our trip because then on Saturday we had to pick up our puppy and then we had a puppy. We had to find a room in Louisville where we could keep the puppy. And then that's like, you know, 24 seven puppy mode so that we didn't do any more distilleries, but we're still in puppy
in puppy mode.
know. He's much older now and much, much calmer. Much until there's food on the counter, let's just say. Or a kid has a stuffed toy close to him. But yes, well, he carries a little blankie around. So yeah, it's actually quite cute. So a couple of things, a couple of resources that we have for you. First, if you want a list of the officials, both the signature and the craft distilleries that we mentioned that are on the trail, their locations, we're going to put a link to that in the show notes. But then we're also going to do something else. We are going to put together a Kentucky Bourbon Trail itinerary that is going to organize the different towns, the different distilleries that are there, and kind of like if you have this many days, you know, here's kind of what you can do and here's the ones that you should pick, different places you should stay and stuff like that.
so we'll get that published out, sunshinetravelers.com, and you'll be able to go in, look at that one along with other itineraries that we have published out there as well.
Yeah, and so the link to that will be in the show notes too. So if you just kind of want a jumpstart on that planning and then take some of the things that we have talked about, but just kind of, just give you a starting point, right, for planning and organizing that as well. And I did want to say, so if you then wanted to extend your trip, you want to extend your trip or you wanted to, you know, go to some of these that are a little bit further away. further away. Think about doing some of those things that we mentioned, right? Think about doing some of those things that we mentioned, right? If you haven't done those, the Corvette museum, go into mammoth cave,
going to Louisville slugger.
going to Louisville slugger. Yeah. Louisville slugger museum, go into Churchill down, stuff like that. Cause there's just a lot to see. And then just taking time to walk in some of the shops and the restaurants. And we talked so much about the parade in Bardstown, but it actually had a lot of cute shops, coffee shops and stuff like that. The next day we had gone to the coffee shop or the next two days, I guess we'd gone to a coffee shop downtown. I had taken some pictures and those are my phone. So also be sure to kind of look at our Instagram too for some pictures and some videos just to kind of get a feel for what the bourbon trail you know kind of know some of the steps conceptually right you can look at you know see some of the pictures and see some of the videos and stuff from when we were there
of that's a little bit of a blur to me because we had a big issue at work and I woke up to that on Saturday morning and I really, you know, consumed me for quite a while there afterwards, uh, and having a new puppy. So like had a lot of things going on, but, um, I can tell you, um, both of those trips that we made were just phenomenal trips and I would highly recommend them to anybody. But like I said, you know, go out on Viator and look for, they have private tours on there. And you can book that private tour through Viator and someone will come pick you up at your hotel or wherever you're staying and they will take you around to all these different places. So if you're, you know, worried about not having a designated driver or something like that, this is, they'll have it all taken care of for you. They'll make all the plans, all the arrangements, drive you there, you know, have water, snacks, all of those things for you as well. So go check that out. And that'd be a great way to really get to enjoy all of the distilleries. But I also say driving through the countryside, going to some of these distilleries was part of the fun. And so you got two different options there. And maybe you choose to do a little
bit of both on your tour.
aficionado, this is a great way for you to experience exactly where your favorite bourbon was born, distilled, and aged to perfection. But don't forget to slow down and experience the majestic scenery around you, as well as the small towns sprinkled along the way. If you have a favorite memory from visiting the Bourbon Trail, please send me an email, scott at sunshinetravelers.com. I always look forward to hearing from you and being able to share this information back with our other listeners.
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