Kentucky

After we left West Virginia, we headed west to Rick and Carol's for a few days of catching up and relaxing with them.  It was great to reconnect.  I think all of us will be on diets after this visit as they fed us so very well with salmon, tri tip and homemade navy bean soup plus many lunches and dinners we had around their neighborhood.

On April 1st, we decided to try a couple of distilleries on the Bourbon Trail in central Kentucky.  It is a very pretty drive down to Lexington and we headed first to Wild Turkey.  You drive through a beautiful old town of Lawrenceburg then follow a winding road, cross a rickety bridge, and climb a hill to arrive at Wild Turkey Distillery.  There are so many 4 and 5 story warehouses on both sides of the road and signs leading us to the Visitor Center.  I listened to their retired master distiller talk to different groups shopping in the gift area - he signed hat, t-shirts and bottles.

One factoid about Wild Turkey's Kentucky location is this company also owns Sky Vodka.  While the vodka is made up north, it is shipped into Lawrenceburg for bottling.  We were not taken on a tour of the vodka bottling operation...now that I really would have liked to sample!  HA!  We took a tour of the bourbon distillery and had tastings in the main building.  Their Honey Wild Turkey was good but I still prefer tequila.

Mike and I during the Wild Turkey Distillery Tour

One of the visitor's displays

 

 

After Wild Turkey, we stopped for lunch in Lawrenceburg and then drove on to Woodford Distillery.  Their visitor center is beautiful and sits up on a hill.  From the porch you look down upon their old 1800's warehouses.   We chose not to tour this distillery but enjoyed a tasting.  Yes, the picture below is my empty tasting glasses.  I preferred the Distiller's Select but only with the dark chocolate truffle....and those of you that know me know, since my last rounds of chemo, I can't stand the taste of milk and dark chocolate.  Woodford Reserve Select made me a chocolate eater again!



Endings

The past few weeks have been difficult.  On March 13th my mother entered into hospice care.  She had lived with my sister Liz for the past 2 years and was slowly fading away.  She passed on March 23, 2016.  Mike and I started preparing that day to leave Texas and pre-packed all of our belongings, except for daily clothes by the 20th. (There was also the final trip to Goodwill for all the things we discovered we no longer needed to carry with us!)  So when the call came, it took us just the final day to load everything into our truck and head north.

Of course any trip with the two of us is not without some drama.  The morning of March 24th we stopped in Livingston to pick up accumulated mail and found a jury summons for Mike.  He was supposed to have reported on March 21st!  I was sure that he had a "failure to report" subpoena sworn out against him and would be arrested at any minute, being the hardened criminal he is.  Needless to say we went to the courthouse right away to correct this error.  And happily Livingston is used to dealing with Escapees like us, who travel full time.  The clerk just said "OK, when do you want to serve?"  So we will be back in Texas on September 26th for Mike to serve jury duty.  And I cancelled the last 2 weeks of our Colorado trip.

The trip to West Virginia was good as the roads were clear but the orange barrels are EVERYWHERE!!!  I know they are the state flower of PA, but seriously?????  Anyway, with all the rain in Arkansas, it looked like the whole state is just one huge swamp.  There was water standing on both sides of the roads in fields.  I don't think it is because AR is growing all of the world's rice, it just looked like it.

So we finally got to WV and had a very nice funeral for mother.  Liz's son-in-law Nelson officiated at the ceremony.  As with all funerals, we saw many friends and family and, for me, quite a few unknown people who knew mother over the years and came to pay their respects.  She is now laid to rest beside Daddy and Bruce.

Edith's Shinnston High School Senior Picture

L to R:  me, Liz, mother, Becky