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Left the hotel in Louisville about 11, drove around old Louisville, and are perhaps five by ten blocks old fine, large, well kept old brick and stone houses on narrow tree lined streets, a very lovely area.
Looked for a cafe but very little retail, although you would think there would be at least a little strip serving folks in the district. Through downtown, not much there, especially Sunday morning. Drove across the Oho River into Indiana and a mile west to Falls of the Ohio State Park. The falls were an important landmark for early travelers and explorers, including Lewis and Clark, who met here on their way down the Ohio and up to St Louis and on west. Like so many run of river falls, this one has been drowned by a low concrete dam to allow for barge navigation, and there is a lot: they say the Ohio River carries forty percent of all river traffic in the United States, likely the Mississippi the rest. But the big Devonian shale(?) beds were out of water and accessible for walking and looking at the many fossils on the surface.
Saw what I think was a variety of blue winged warbler in bug cottonwoods, then back across the river, west out of Louisville on Hwy 60 through horse farm country, with the requisite modern manors. Hard to believe there is so much money spent on something as useless as horses, but I suppose the pleasure of the idle rich have always been with us.
As usual all through Missouri and Kentucky, this is riding lawnmower country where many folks have very large yards. I've seen more men – and a few women – than I can count manicuring their grounds on riding lawnmowers.
Down a long hill through a steep walled canyon, across the Kentucky River
into downtown Frankfort hemmed in by river and mountains, shares the bottomland with Buffalo Trace, the oldest continually operating distillery in the country (began in 17 ) built where buffalo and then Indians gathered to cross the river. The distillery has a fine collection of brick buildings from several eras, including fine large warehouses where 300,000 barrels of bourbon are aging. The whole place has the sweet, caramel bourbon smell from the whiskey evaporating from the barrels – the “angel's share” and they get a lot, more than half of a barrel aged 18 years. They say there are more barrels of bourbon than people in Kentucky and it seems likely. Nice collection of historic photos, one of a 93,000 gallon fermentation tank still in use.
I took a short tour, didn't see them making bourbon but toured warehouses and the building where they hand bottle and label their high end stuff , including the single barrel Blanton's. Tasted several bourbons, including a fine rich bourbon cream. My spirits lifted, I drove past the state capitol
then up the hill, onto I 64/75 around then off on another beautiful and very narrow blue highway through more horse farms to Fort Boonesborough State Park.
They send the tent campers into the rougher, dirt road Sycamore Hollow where Daniel Boone and company decided to settle in Kentucky and started building cabins until ordered to move out of the bottom to higher ground. Wouldn't you know it, the RVs got the high ground with nice lawns, paved roads and shower buildings, but the $3.50 internet worked fine down in the hollow. Woodpeckers, and a pair of very noisy jays at sunset in the sycamores.
