Well, we’re back from a quick (Monday to Saturday) 2,800 mile road trip to Chicago. We had tickets to the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony performed by the Chicago Symphony which we’ve heard in years past a couple of times on Thursday. When it got to be time to make plane reservations for the trip it was in the middle of that whole TSA shutdown/slowdown/whatever you want to call it resulting in extremely long lines and it wasn’t clear that TSA would shut down entirely making flights impossible. So we converted it into a driving trip with a stop for a day and a half in Bardstown KY to tour a couple of distilleries we had not been to on previous trips.

I can tell ya the first day was horrible. GPS routed us through Atlanta and we essentially lost 3 hours of time getting around the wrecks and construction which then pushed us into rush hour before we got out the other side and stopped a bit short of Dalton GA for the night. As a result…we’ve made the decision that…like Orlando…we are never going through Atlanta again unless that is our actual destination. As a going through the city thing though…not gonna happen.

Tuesday we pressed on to Bardstown and got checked in. Connie had scheduled 1 distillery tour for that afternoon and another two the next day. The afternoon one was Preservation distillery where we just had a tasting and no tour, and afterwards we headed back to our hotel and dinner. Wednesday we did the Willet distillery in the morning for both tour and tasting but in an unusual thing instead of the tasting at the end of the tour it was distributed through the tour as we progressed from one section to another. We then had lunch at the on-site bar and restaurant and then went over to the relatively new Bardstown Bourbon Experience which turned out to be a decent tasting but was really a much more Las Vegas attraction than most distillery tours are. All of the images below are from Willet except for the glass fronted rickhouse (where they age the bourbon) which is at the Experience. We had excellent dinners at two locations in Bardstown…the Talbot Tavern where we celebrated Neil’s birthday years ago and then at The Rickhouse Restaurant and Lounge…both were pretty darned good.

Thursday we pressed on to Chicago arriving mid afternoon, got checked into our hotel and then had dinner and the concert. Dinner was an experience as places were really crowded and we ended up at Miller’s Pub and got the last non reserved table in the joint. Dinner was good and it was a short walk to the concert hall and then back to the hotel.

Friday and Saturday we headed home with the possibility that we would run over into Sunday if Neil got tired driving or we ran into serious traffic. We figured out a better route home…down through Nashville then Decatur AL and down through Dothan AL to Marianna FL where we got onto I-10 then on I-75 to home. There was no traffic in any of the medium sized cities we passed through and while a few hundred miles were on non interstate highways they were still 4 lane and 60-65 speed limits so we sailed right along. Stopped overnight just north of Decatur and since we had no traffic issues made it home after a stop in Sarasota for dinner at the place we normally eat after Sarasota Symphony concerts for a break.

Other than that…it’s pretty much situation normal here although we did go straight from FL winter to summer with no spring in between. Temps are in the 90s most days now with humidity and lows still in the 70s overnight so Neil’s getting out for his bicycle rides as early as he can and will continue to do that until the fall.

A few shots from the trip…Neil just took a single small body and 1 lens as it wasn’t really a photo trip and just used that and his iPhone for the shots.

Texas longhorns at Willet

Mash in process of fermentation

The main still at Willet…there’s a secondary column still but it’s a a building with no space for tours. Most of the output at the distillery comes rom this one and they sell one bourbon in a replica bottle based on this still.

Pano of the bar at Willet where we had lunch

The glass front rickhouse at the Bardstown Experience. Most rick houses  are wooden with windows that get opened at certain times of the year and typically (although not at Willet) barrels get moved between racks and floors as they age. Willet never moves them.

One of the unique barrels that Willet uses for some of their product. It’s made of a combination of both oak and cherry barrel staves and hence the contents cannot be sold as bourbon since that requires only new charred oak barrels. The other bourbon requirements are at least 51% corn, made in the USA, distilled to no more than 160 proof, barreled at no more than 125 proof, aged 3 years in new charred oak barrels, bottled at lest 80 proof, and contain flavoring or coloring ingredients except what came from the barrels. If it doesn’t meet those requirements it can be whiskey or corn whiskey or whiskey finished with cherry wood. Since the barrels cannot be reused for bourbon they do not get wasted. They’re sold to Irish whiskey distillers, wineries, breweries, rum distillers and most barrels get used 3 to 5 times before getting discarded or sold for planters or decorative elements. We think that the whiskey sold in the bottle modeled on the still is aged in these barrels.

All in all…it was a great trip although it did take us 3 or 4 days to recover from the long days driving…but the TSA lines were still long the week before last and getting a couple days of doing Fun Stuff© and some excellent dinners is always good.

Interesting things found on the net

How things have changed

I had another one about a woman up in Saskatchewan getting attacked by a moose and her son ended up killing it. The original article from people.com in an attempt to be helpful I guess showed a picture of a moose…but it was actually an elk and not a moose at all. Unfortunately…the article’s been updated after two comments about it being an elk and not a moose so I can’t show you the picture. Neil had just emailed himself the link to the article before so I’ll have to have Neil grab the images as well next time.

Cyas.