Hotels, Motels, and Lodging thoughts

While fresh in my mind, thought I'd comment on the places we stayed.  We stayed in a mixed bag of places...mostly hotels, but some more unique places.

Before this trip, I thought Comfort Inn and Hampton Inn were similar.  They really have diverged.  Hampton Inn properties (we stayed in 3 in diff cities) are much, much nicer.  Super clean, high end bedding, great breakfasts.  Comfort Inns were OK in multiple places.  We stayed one night in an America's Best Value Inn which was clean, but quite basic.  We also stayed one night in the Boulder Outlook Motel which was definitely the worst (but not near cheapest) lodging.  Residence Inn for a few nights which was pretty nice. And the best place we stayed was the Wildwood Inn near RMNP (also by far the most pricey).  Experience booking all of these was pretty good, but I used a mixed bag of options to get good rates from priceline to direct websites to using points. Overall, I was most impressed by Hampton Inn as they really seem to have upgraded their properties over past few years and staying in them feels like you're in a much richer hotel (like Hilton or Westin or Hyatt, etc).  Generally, though, these come with free parking and are more self-service than the higher end properties, which is too my liking.  I'd be confident at this point booking at Hampton Inn pretty much anywhere in US and feeling that it would be a great stay.  The price difference btwn Hampton Inn over others I list is quite minimal and worth the small increment (if any).



 

 

It's all over

What a great trip.  We made it back to Blacksburg late on Friday and that ends our trip. Fabulous time.

On the way back, we got to satisfy one last food craving - for chili.  There's (at least) one great place to stop for that and it's Cincinnati.  So, on the way, stopped at Skyline Chili and grabbed some tasty plates.  If' you've never had Chili from this town...it's super tasty. Sweet tasting.  We both had it five ways, which includes beans, onions, cheese with the chili over spaghetti.  Highly recommended.

We did have an hour and a half delay in WV due to an accident, but we forged on anyway and made it back home a bit after midnight.

State plate game

Been tracking state license plates using app uspl8s.  44 seen so far...missing Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Rhode Island, Hawaii, New Hampshire, DC.

Update: In WV, we saw Maryland and Maine...but were still 5 plates short of the goal.  I thought we'd see them all on this trip, but we did not. Oh well.

Long day of driving

Finally made it to hotel in Peoria after driving since 9am this morning (Mountain Time).  Had a really interesting lunch/dinner at a random place Little Chicago Pizza and Gyros in Mason City, Iowa.  It was like eating at grandma's house.  No one else in entire place other than me, Susan, and the cook (and owner?) Pizza was ok, but it was sort of weird.  Mostly, I think it was weird because the place was so dead and it was around 5pm on Thursday and the place was oddly kept.  Interestingly, reviewers on urban spoon seem to really like it.  Nothing wrong with it, just got a weird vibe and there was just no one around.

Badlands are bad

Bad meaning good.

Went to Wall Drug Store (which is much more than a "drug store")...kind of like South of the Border for South Dakota.  Really weird place.  It started out when they began offering travelers free ice water, which they still offer today.  And they still have 5 cent coffee.  Really.  They do.  I saw a sign coming in and thought it was a joke, but we arrived, purchased a couple donuts and then got two 5 cent cups and it wasn't even bad.  A throw back sort of place.  Other items are normally priced, though.  Anyway, we checked this place out for a couple hours then headed to the Badlands National Park (BNP).

BNP was cool.  As usual, we took a whole ton of pics and posted some of the best here.  I will say that the iPhone takes some sweet panoramic pictures.  Nice.

Anyway, we now have the job of driving to get home.  We're about 22 hours driving if we go the best route which appears to be across Minnesota, down through Iowa and Illinois, through Dayton and ultimately WV on our way back to the 'burg.

We might have a couple more short updates...but most of our fun is now over.

Buffalo, Buffalo and more Buffalo!

We didn't realize ahead of time that seeing Mount Rushmore would take such a small amount of time, so we had an extra day here in Custer.  There is more to see here, so we still had an eventful day.  Mostly due to the buffalo (which are actually bison, but commonly called buffalo here).  We started by just exploring the little town of Custer.  Around the city are painted buffalo, similar to the painted Hokie Birds in Blacksburg.  We did take a small sampling of pictures with some of these as we toured the main drag of Custer.

For lunch we hit the highly recommended Black Hills Burger and Bun Co.  We found it to be worthy of all the praise.  We each had a delicious burger there and would recommend it to anyone traveling to the area.

For our afternoon fun we headed into Custer State Park to drive along the wildlife loop.  There were all sorts of animals we were hoping to see, primarily the buffalo.  The drive started slowly... we saw a couple of deer (which live in our backyard back home, so that wasn't quite as thrilling for us) and some cute prairie dogs.  Then we drove for miles just enjoying the landscape because there were no animals for us to see.  We finally came across some stopped cars and paparazzi and found a small herd of friendly burros.

We finally hit pay dirt near the end of the drive when we found a very large herd of buffalo.  We pulled up with the line of cars (no one pushing their children outside with these animals thankfully!!!) and suddenly all the buffalo were moving.  We had arrived just when the herd decided to head to a field on the other side of the road.  This was very exciting for us, but also a bit on the scary side.  They are massive animals and there were a great many of them.  It was still an amazing experience to be surrounded by them especially since there were a lot of young calves with them.  Check out the video.

After we left the park we had a minor encounter with a couple of pronghorns and then we headed up route 16 to see Mount Rushmore through the tunnels.  Yes, we did go back to Rushmore, our parking pass is good through December, and we were so close, so why not?  We did not stay long, but it was still impressive and then when we left we found a Mountain goat momma with her baby .

Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, Lincoln

Mount Rushmore seen.  Check it off the bucket list. Pretty incredible that most of the work was done with dynamite via blasting.  400 workers built it between 1927-1941.  Very cool ceremony for veterans (and current military) at end of evening lighting ceremony.  We did spend a bit too long there...got to site before 4pm and wanted to stay until lighting which was at 9:30p, but it was pretty cool.  Not as big as you might imagine, but still pretty incredible.  I think they need to add a Reagan head to this, but I guess that's never going to happen.  

Often for sports, talk radio guys like to talk about the all time NBA Mt Rushmore or similar.  So, if you like, you can check this out: Steelers Mount Rushmore

For driving fans

The drive from RMNP up to South Dakota is pretty darn boring.  Nothing to see.  But, at least the speed limit is 80!  I've never seen that before anywhere else in US.  I wonder if this is the maximum posted anywhere in America?

Drive to top of world

Early on Sunday, we drove up on Trail Ridge Road to the Alpine Visitors Center.  About 11 miles of this road is above the treeline and for much of the drive one is above 12,000 feet.  Lots of driving near cliffs (sans guard rails) which is pretty interesting.  I'm running out of ways to note something is cool or awesome or the like, so take a look at the pictures and see for yourself.  Nice.  It's tundra at the top and for July was pretty darn cold (low 50s).

Got back to our crib just in time to watch the soccer game and see Germany defeat Argentina.

We then went back out to park and relaxed near a nice stream for a while.  To cap off the evening, we went back into RMNP one last time, at night, to do some star gazing.  One great thing about lodging here is that we're pretty much in the closest place you can stay to the park without staying in the park...so it's really quick and easy to get in and out.

We are heading up to Mt. Rushmore early on Monday.

Lucky

Some days things just go your way and some days are even better!  Today was mostly extraordinary! The highlights: Prime parking spots, an enormous bull elk, a DOUBLE rainbow, a great dinner and a shirt!

Let's start with the parking... our plan for the day was a 6.5 mile hike up Deer Mountain in RMNP.  We did not get the earliest of starts and we were a bit worried about parking because there is not really much space for this trailhead in the park.  So our first bit of luck came early because we scored a prime spot in an official parking space!  Now the hike was long... Brian already mentioned this bit in his post earlier today, but what he didn't write about, which we discussed later was how much walking we did by the end of the day.  Brian hooked me up with a FitBit Force last Christmas and I enjoy racking up the steps each day.  Today was a record setter for my FitBit... 26,500 steps today! This includes our hike up Deer Mountain, a jaunt around Bear Lake and some meandering around the quaint town of Estes Park.  This day of major walking for us is second only to our hike up (most of) Mt. Saint Helens a few years back.  That was a long hike!

After our hike and a bit of rest time, we decided to venture out again because our time in the park is limited.  I had read that Bear Lake was a nice visit and did not involve hiking so we hit the road.  On our drive out to Bear Lake we came across a man practically in the street, many cars stopped and realized he was photographing some wildlife... looked to be an elk.  Well, we were not really able to stop, but I was excited to see it.  Our next bit of major luck came when we arrived at the parking area for Bear Lake.  More cars stopped and people on the streets with cameras.  I saw the elk and practically dove out of the car to get in the paparazzi mix.  It was enormous!  You can see in the pictures and video.  It was pretty cool.  That elk could have cared less that we were all standing there, he just went about his business chomping on the greenery after a brief rainstorm.  After he returned to forest, we went on the Bear Lake.  This is a very popular destination at RMNP, but some luck for us was that it had been raining and it was now very foggy, so the parking lot was near empty and the lake path was relatively quiet.  The foggy part was a bit of a bummer for us as well, but we decided to walk around the foggy lake anyway.  Good thing because by the time we were halfway around, the fog was already clearing and near the end I was able to get some lovely photos of the lake with the surrounding tree reflections. Yay!

So, hiking and RMNP time is done for the day and I reminded Brian that we needed to go see the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. A famous, historical hotel and the site of the movie The Shining.  It just so happens that we have a movie poster from the shining in our house, so I figured Brian would like to visit this hotel.  As we neared the hotel I was thrilled to notice a rainbow and then Brian pointed out that it was a double rainbow!  We found a stopping point and I took somewhere close to a million pictures of it! I won't post all of them, I swear.  It does not get much luckier than a beautiful double rainbow!  I had a thought at that point that we should play the lottery...

Following our trip to the Stanley Hotel, we headed into Estes Park "downtown" to do a brief bit of shopping.  You see, when we were waiting in that horrid long line for the Coors Brewery tour I noticed a girl wearing an Estes Park Colorado t-shirt and I really liked it and knew that we were heading here.  I was determined to find the shirt.  It looked fairly new on her so I figured she had acquired it recently so I thought it would be a piece of cake.  It mostly was.  We went into a few shops and looked around but didn't see it, so we decided to stop for a bite to eat.  Excellent sandwiches at Poppy's Pizza!  After dinner we did not have much time left before stores would be closed and Brian was really more interested in heading back to our room, so I said, just one more store... all I needed.  There was the shirt!

Tonight was the full moon... quite a lovely day with lots of  luck.  Hoping to see some big horn sheep, or some bears tomorrow... or both!

Red rum! Red rum!

Fans of The Shining ought to enjoy a picture or two from this part of the trip.  The Stanley Hotel is in Estes Park so we stopped in for a quick visit.

Babbling Brook

Have you ever listened to those audio clips of a babbling brook for relaxation?  Well, I figure they must record that at a place like this.

Holy Elk, Batman!

Elk.  On side of road.  Huge.

When is a 6.5 mile hike fun and not torture?

If you're like me (lazy), usually you'd answer "never".  Well, let me tell you.  It's worth the nearly 7 mile round trip when one is hiking Deer Mountain Trail.  So, so cool.  It was pretty rough. We took frequent stops and it did take us about 1 and 3/4 hours to get to the summit.  We stayed up there about 45 minutes and then it took us about an hour and half back to car.  Summit was truly breath-taking with views for miles around.  A must see if you ever make it to this park.  Bring water and snacks.  We saw some people way under-prepared and I'm certain they didn't make it all the way up which sucks for them.

Flatirons - incredible hike and views

On Friday we were up early for two reasons.  First, we were staying a relatively nasty motel and wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.  If you do "Priceline's Name Your Own Price" you might want to be quite careful in your criteria.  The room wasn't particularly cheap - costing us over $125 for the night, but the place was highly questionable.  We survived...and yes we've turned into big babies as we've gotten older. Secondly, we wanted to get out and hike the Flatirons near Boulder before heading to Estes Park.  Mission accomplished; it was truly outstanding. The views there are just unlike anything I've seen and one can hike near to the summit (although you really need to CLIMB once you get to a certain point so we had to stop...but got very close to top).

Flatirons and Boulder itself is a place we will want to return to.  We could have probably stayed there for several days and had an enjoyable vacation.  Excellent time.  Oh...and we had a salad for lunch (after partaking in some Asian food the day before) as we are finally cutting back on the ridiculous caloric intake rate we were on the first several days of trip.

After leaving Boulder, we cruised up to Estes Park and checked into the Wildwood Inn. Super nice suite here with mountain views, private hot tub, tempur-pedic bed, kitchen, etc.  Couldn't be more different than accommodations in Boulder.  Staying here until Monday, so it's great to have a nice "home" less than a mile from the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park.  Ventured into park late afternoon on Friday and it's pretty darn impressive.  A ton of pictures to come.    It's so much cooler here.  Right now it's about 60 degrees and a bit overcast.  Hopefully we'll avoid rain at least in the AM, so we can get in a good hike.

Decided to leave the big city behind and head towards Boulder early today.  Denver is a very cool city and I'm sure we could do many more great things if we stayed longer, but we were longing for the mountains and decided to head out.  We did make two stops on our way up to Boulder.  First, we went to Red Rocks - they have an amphitheater and some amazing views.  Tons of huge stars have played this location, but when we were there it simply was a tourist area.  The non-tourists, by and large, were there to use the steps for exercise. You'll see runners in some of the pictures.   This place is incredible.  Check out the pictures.

We then headed towards our hotel in Boulder, but along the way we ended up passing right through Golden. Frankly, when I saw the sign I said something like "I think there's a brewery in Golden...as I think there's   marketing for some sort of beer being made in Golden, Colorado". As you probably realize, it's Coors. So,we figured given that we literally were driving right through the home town that we'd have to take the tour. All I can say about it is that the people at Coors need to visit Busch in St. Louis to learn how it's done. We waited in line for more than an hour and half, some of which in 90 degree sun, to then load on a bus which took us on a rather lame city tour.  Then, we finally got to go on a self-guided walking tour.  The tour itself was fine and they did offer 3 nice size tastings at the end.  But unless you really like Coors products, the tasting leaves you wanting tastier products.  We did get Blue Moon (which I do heartily enjoy), along with something called Batch10 and Coors Banquet.  Also tried something so good that we cannot remember it's name.  Overall this event took us around 3 hours and it wasn't too great.  If we had gone out of our way to get to this tour, we'd have been super frustrated.  They have no idea how to move a volume of people in the summer through their facilities and they just said it was super busy in summer.  No duh.  AB seems to have no issue pushing through 10X volume and we didn't wait more than 15 minutes for that tour.  Nonetheless, it was free.

We arrived in Boulder around 3.  What a really nice town.  Went to the heart of the place - Pearl Street and got some food at Wok Eat.  Checked our a bunch of specialty stores and just took in the scenery.  Ended up then also going to the 29th Street Mall to do some browsing.  Tomorrow begins the mostly outdoor portion of our trip, so this was one last foray into major civilization.  Boulder seems like a great town.

KC to Denver is a long drive

Driving across Kansas is quite far and quite boring.  I guess many of you already know this, but if you don't, I'm telling you now.  It's 400+ odd miles of mostly flat farmlands with nothing to see or do.  It took us much of the day yesterday just traversing this vast wasteland.  At least the speed limit is 75.  Cruised across state and got to our hotel in Aurora just in time to catch overtime of the really boring match between Argentina and Netherlands.  Why didn't Netherlands try to score?  What a disappointing strategy.  Go for the win, rather than sit back and defend.  If the US had half the players they had, with our attitude, we'd win the entire World Cup.

After a super long car ride, we were pretty darn hungry, having only eaten snacks all day in car.  Decided to go to (yet another) Man v. Food favorite, this time it was Beau Jo's pizza, home of the Colorado style pizza. it's kind of like Chicago deep-dish, but sans dish.  Just a really super thick pizza filled with toppings galore. Their menu was awesome.  We got a two pound half-n-half pie, my half was filled with every meat possible and Susan's was filled with veggies.  Guess which was better?  We had to compare this to Mellow Mushroom, but they are so different, it's hard to compare.  I guess it just comes down to what style pizza one prefers.  Anyway it was good.  Yet another great meal on this journey.

Decided to do some walking in downtown Denver and went to State Capitol.  Really nice there.

KC, a brief stay

Following the splendor that was St. Louis, we arrived in KC prepared to be underwhelmed and frankly, we were.  If there's a heart or theme to this city, we didn't find it in our brief stay. Best we can tell KC is a bunch of disparate areas with no unifying center.  St. Louis had the Arch and Busch Stadium and a bunch of hotels/eateries near the river.  KC just doesn't feel the same at all.  Not necessarily bad, just different and in this guy's opinion just a bit less interesting.

Our first stop in KC was to the Power and Light District.  I must say it was super cool...KC Live, similar to the area in Louisville of similar name.  We arrived at what we thought was the start of the Germany-Brazil game, only to walk in on a throng of Brazil fans that were pouting.  We looking up and saw it was already 3-nil...and very quickly it was 5-nil.  Crazy.  We did hang out at McFadden's, a cool sports bar, and had a beer while we watched the complete humiliation of the Brazil team.  By the time the game has ended, we were super famished and figured it was time for some KC ribs. {BTW - heard that for USA games this entire region in picture below was totally packed with people which was easy to imagine when we saw how great an area it was for watching any sort of event...giant screens, tons of bars, plenty of places to sit, etc).

On the advice of the bartender at McFadden's we headed to Oklahoma Joe's and grabbed some ribs and dirty rice.  Mmm....quite good.  Rated as one of the best in KC, they didn't disappoint. The ambiance of the place didn't match Pappy's (this place was literally in a gas station) , but the food was on par.  Saying a lot giving how good Pappy's turned out to be.  If I would have gotten the same dish, I could have done the head to head comparison, but had to go ribs this time.  Susan and I split a rack.  They didn't have the fried corn, though, so on that count, Pappy's wins.  All in all if you're in KC and want some great food, OJ's is on point.

To wrap up our tour of KC, we decided to go check out some fountains (I guess KC is famous for them) and did this in the Country Club Plaza a definitely upscale dining and shopping region of the city.  This was totally different than the first two stops in our KC tour and there was historic architecture, fountains, parks, a tons of high end shopping places and a bunch of restaurants (like PF Chang's, Cheesecake Factory, Morton's and then some more exclusive sorts of places).   Kind of cool and if our stay here was longer, we probably would have spent more time in this district.

A wrap for KC.  Kind of dull, but ok.  Long drive tomorrow to Denver, but we've almost reached our ultimate goal of the drive!

Pirates strand 47, give game to Cards

Ok.  So maybe it was only like 12 runners left on base, but man, that was painful.  A game which started with lightning and an hour rain delay ended with fireworks.  Adams blasted a 2 run shot in the bottom of the ninth to crush the Pirates hopes.

Cardinals 2, Pirates 0 in a game the Bucs totally dominated.  If at the end of the year, the Pirates are a game out behind St. Louis, this will be THE GAME they should have won.

Busch stadium is really nice.  Sound system is amazing (VT could learn something about how to fill a stadium with sound from these guys). View of the arch from one's seats is quite cool.  It was a fun time, just would have been more fun if the good guys hit the 9th inning homer, rather than a walk-off going the other way.

Brewery fun

After so many distillery tours, had to check out at least one brewery and given our locale, it had to be Anheuser-busch.  Free tour and tasting. Plus, if you are there at 3pm, they give you a third 4 ounce Bud in addition to the 4 oz Bud earlier and the full pint of our choice (we both had Shock Top) that just comes standard.  Tour was just ok.  We did learn that they use rice and "beechwood" in Bud, which makes it different that most similar lagers. Not my favorite, but it was free.

Susan was really happy to go here too...for the free tour and beer, but more so to see the Clydesdale horses. We saw a couple on the tour and at 3:30pm, they brought one around for pictures.

Best lunch...ever?

Went to lunch today at Pappy's Smokehouse and it was completely awesome.  One of the best lunches in a while and maybe the best of my life.  I had the burnt ends, while Susan had pulled pork.  Deep-fried corn on the cob which was sweet as sugar, on the side. Also had a tasty cream-soda from Fitz's. Mmm...so good. The preparation of the meats just must be the trick. I don't know how they do it, but it's really super tasty. Place opens at 11...we arrived at 11:20 and waited more than 45 minutes in line to buy our lunch. It was easily worth the wait.  I cannot recommend this enough if you are in St. Louis.

This is a restaurant that was featured on Man v. Food.  Adam Richman ate a crazy big plate.  I had a normal meal and was stuffed, but in addition to what I had, his meal had a full slab of ribs, yet another sandwich, two more sides, a quarter chicken, a frito pie...just nuts. I was stuffed with what I ate.

 

Gateway Arch is pretty incredible

Started off the day strong. Walked across street (pretty much literally) to the Arch.  We could see Arch from our hotel room, out window. It's the kind of thing you just have to see in person.  It's really, really ridiculously tall.  From the ground it just seems so high that no one could possible go up to top, nor would one want to. But, we did it anyway.  In the "lobby" (I don't know what else to call the holding pen before you go up), there's a small 5 person pod, with a miniature door.  I really thought they were joking about us riding in that to the top. No joke. We were lucky in that we got to Arch by about 9:30am because it was 95 degrees out today and line when we left was crazy long. Anyway, you and 4 other brave souls cram into this tiny pod, on small seats and up, up you go. Took about 4 minutes...some herky-jerky motions and elevator-like ride later and we made it to top.  This pod system was built in the 1960s.  Most things from that era are now totally defunct and yet we trusted our lives to this system.  Interesting.  The windows at top are really just portholes looking out. Really small.  And ceiling in top of arch is maybe 7 to 7.5 feet tall.   If you are claustrophobic you'd want no part of this event.  Oh...and you probably wouldn't like it much if you don't like heights. But, to me it was super cool.  A must do.

From Bourbon to Butterflies

The first three days of our trip we were a bit preoccupied with bourbon tastings.  I didn't actually mind, we were in bourbon country after all, but today it was a nice change for me to go to a butterfly conservatory.  The first time we went to one of these was on a trip to Niagara Falls.  There is a really nice butterfly conservatory on the Canada side that I highly recommend if you are in the area.  So far I have not found another conservatory to match it in size.  The one here in St. Louis is very nice, just not as large and today was extremely hot.  It would normally be warm for the tropical flowers and for the butterflies, but today was a bit excessive and took a little bit away from the experience.  I still took way more pictures than one needs of butterflies and would definitely go again on a cooler day.  I have not included all of the butterfly pictures in our St. Louis album, but there are some in there for those of you that might enjoy seeing them. (The blurry picture of the pretty blue butterflies was about all we could get of these.  They do not stop flying much and when they do they keep their wings closed.)

For the geographically challenged...

Ok.  So, in this day and age looking at maps seems so 1980s.  We didn't consult any maps prior to leaving home other than the high level google map on this site.  It's great to be able to rely upon fancy phones and car GPS systems, but sometimes looking at maps is useful.  Not that it really caused us much trouble.  But two things to know.  First, when driving from Louisville to St. Louis you will drive through both Indiana and Illinois on your way to Missouri. Secondly, there is time zone shift in Indiana. Who knew?  I guess we could have known both facts had we consulted some sort of map ahead of time, but I guess we learned anyway. So, we got a free extra hour in St. Louis.  Nice!

Night Cap

Capped off another fun-filled day at Fourth St. Live.  It's the hipster party area of Louisville and as you must know, we're all about partying.  Stayed out until nearly 10pm tonight.  We are animals.  After a nice long walk back to hotel, we shall sleep soundly.  Off to St. Louis in AM.

Horse racing town

I guess when one thinks of Louisville and probably the whole state, he'd think of maybe basketball and probably horse racing, not necessarily in that order. We were staying only about 5 miles from Churchill Downs, so decided to take a walking tour.   Tour was ok.  It was worth doing.  Would have been much better if there had been racing today, but they are closed for summer (we were a week too late to partake). The place is really massive. I've been to tracks before like Penn National and Colonial Downs (and once upon a time the Preakness), but this was really a big place.  Pretty impressive.  They showed a 360 degree movie in a unique theater, had a small museum, and gave us a brief tour.

Evan Williams and Lunch at Mellow Mushroom

To end the bourbon tour, we decided to walk over to the Evan Williams Experience, which was a couple blocks from our lodging in downtown Louisville.  Frankly, it was disappointing. Probably because we had been to multiple distilleries on consecutive days, but ultimately having a place like this in a downtown area just simply doesn't feel as authentic as out in the Kentucky boonies.  They did have a really cool display in the lobby of the place:

We skipped the tour after others tours on back to back days and they didn't offer tastings otherwise.  Boo hoo.  I was also dismayed that their prices were higher than normal retail, which is opposite the other places we went.

Wanted some pizza and decided to check out the Mellow Mushroom. Interestingly, one of these is being built currently in Blacksburg on the site of the old and famous Backstreets.  A very tasty meal.  Got a pizza with meatballs, fresh mozarella, and basil.  Great beer selection too.  Should be a hit in Blackburg.  If you check the picture roll from Loiusville you can see a nice shot of the pie.

Day 2 notes

After noshing on some tasty treats at our Hampton Inn near Lexington, we took off for Jim Beam.  Lots of fun there overall.  We made our way to Bardstown for a drink and a quick visit. The town was pretty dead because of the holiday, but worth a stop.  For the evening, we attended a festival in Bullitt County.  The day was gorgeous - mid 70s and cooler in the evening with a nice breeze.

The lasting memory I'll have from this festival is in regards to the people.  By our sampling at this event, seemingly 80% of the people in Kentucky smoke.  It's so rare I even see smokers anymore, that it seemed really strange.  Additionally, holy crap, the people are ugly.  I'm no supermodel (clearly), but all I can say is that these have to be some of the ugliest, backwoods people I've ever seen.  Ok, so it's a mass generalization to say the state of Kentucky has ugly people, but what we saw tells me it must be a top10 most ugliest state.  Think Honey-Boo-Boo mating with Frakenstein and you'll get the picture.  We were tempted to post some pictures, but didn't want to single out any one hideous creature we saw.  Oh...and if you think it's just me, it's not.

Check here: States with ugly people

So, not quite at the top of the list, but in the discussion.

Got to hotel really late on fourth, hence the posting of this on 7/5....

Bullitt Blast!

What fourth of July would be complete without some fireworks?

Interestingly, we had a room reserved in downtown Louisville, right near the river and near a park that in past years had a giant festival on the 4th, but this year, apparently due to budget constraints, they cancelled the festivities.  So, we had to look elsewhere.  We choose to attend the Bullitt Blast in Shepherdsville which is about 20 miles south of the city.  The had a giant multi-day fair going on which had kiddie rides, fairground foods, petting zoos, live music, and fireworks.

Here's a quick sampling from the band:

Fireworks began around 9:45...they were just ok.  Trees were obscuring our view and the show definitely had gaps, but it was cool one could hear music while they fired. In Blacksburg, we don't get music during our displays given the way the park is laid out.

Bardstown is the Bourbon capital and "nicest town in US"

After the bourbon-fest at Beamery, went to Bardstown for a bit.  Got fancy bourbon drinks in an old tavern, specifically, Old Talbott Tavern.  The town was quaint and kind of nice, but I think they exaggerate a bit calling themselves the nicest town in the US.  Got to catch some of the Brazil-Colombia World Cup game on TV while we sipped our drinks.

Jim Beam smells really good

If you look closely at this bottle, you'll see my initials on it.  Jim Beam allows one to "create your own" bottle of Single Barrel Bourbon, which is a relatively new product in the Beam offerings.  I chose a bottle, rinsed it, put in on the line and then we got to watch it go through all steps culminating with hand labeling with the barrel number and other details.

Trip to Jim Beam was quite enjoyable. The aroma of the entire place is amazing even when you get outside the distillery and the smells inside are even more intoxicating.  If you like bourbon and you've never been inside the barrel room of a distillery, it's a bucket-list kind of event.  All of the buildings smell great, even the mash buildings earlier in process.  So, so good.

For lunch, we grabbed Brisket and ribs at Fred's smokehouse which is on the same property as the distillery. The food was pretty good and the bourbon baked beans were incredible.  But my gosh, the servers were sloth-like in their execution.  It was the fourth and so lines were extra long, but they moved at a glacial pace, so it took around 45 minutes to get a freakin' sandwich. 

We got complimentary glasses and the tasting room at the end of the tour was a highlight. They had high tech machinery for doling out the shots which was super cool.  The flavored bourbons are tasty too - they had a green apple and black cherry and maple, etc...good stuff.  I've never really consumed much of the Jim Beam line of products, but might start. They do produce more than 50% of the world's bourbon and interestingly half of that goes to Australia.  

Day One is a wrap

Day one of our trip is quickly coming to an end.  We were up quite early today as the excitement of the trip dictated, and alas, that means we need to get to sleep soon.

While the first five+ hours were all driving, we found West Virginia to be picturesque, albeit overcast.  We pretty much just blew threw the state (no love loss overall given the VT-'Neer rivalry).  It was kind of weird that the minute we moved into Kentucky, the skies were blue and sun was shining.  I don't think it was my imagination, as Susan and I both noticed the change.

We went right to our first stop - the distillery of Woodford Reserve.  We took the tour, which was informative, but a bit long...more than an hour seeing the process.  It ended with a tasting.  Nice.  They are a small batch producer and only have two bourbons - the tasty and traditional Distiller's Select and the newer Double Oaked.  I think we both preferred the original, which also is considerably less expensive.  Very rarely do we find ourselves liking a less expensive product, but here's at least one time it happened.

After a couple shots of bourbon, we headed to lunch at Wallace Station and I grabbed a "world famous Guy Fieri approved burger".  This burger had ham and bacon.  Yes, ham AND bacon.  A pretty big slice of ham too.  It was tasty.  Susan got the Santa Anita, which was a club sandwich.  Both were more than adequate. They did give us a bit too many chips, which is saying something because I like me some potato chips.

To wrap up the day, prior to heading to our hotel, we headed over to Buffalo Trace.  Tours already ended for the day, but we were able do to a tasting and check out both their gift shop and the grounds.  Grabbed a bottle of  Bourbon Cream, which is not completely unlike the ever-tasty Bailey's.  Tasted a Vodka, their namesake bourbon, some Eagle Rare bourbon, and got some moonshine (it wasn't really that, but just tasted like it).  The grounds were pretty nice there too.  Much larger than Woodford Reserve place overall, and while the tasting room itself wasn't as nice, the overall grounds were pretty sweet.  Walked around a bit and even got to play on the teeter-totter (see video).

A fun first day.  If all days are equally enjoyable, this will be a great trip. I might think of some more notes in the morning, but for now, signing off.

Wallace Station Lunch

Notice Guy Fieri on the wall behind me (he's not actually on the wall, but there is a small representation of him there). One goal for our trip is to visit eateries frequented by Food Network and Travel Channel food aficionados, but this was pretty random. Saw good reviews on yelp for this place and when we got there we realized it had been on his show.  

Wallace Station

Buffalo Trace Antics

Buffalo Trace.  In a word: AWESOME!

On our way!