Day 4 of 30 Days of Mayhem: Louisville and Driving to Cincinnati

As we were packing the van at the hotel this morning two young couples walked by to their SUV and gave us a shocked and somewhat disdainful look as they saw everything we were shoving in the back of Reveille. It made me laugh and think, just you wait, this may well be you one day in the future if you are lucky.

Why does this make we want to sing the theme song for Beverly Hillbillies?

In discussing our plans for the day it was clear we were not going to be able to fit everything in and make it to Cincinnati by 4:00 pm. Michael graciously offered to skip the Jim Beam tour. I insisted that was not going to happen because I knew he really wanted to do a distillery tour and we had already missed the Maker's Mark one yesterday. I felt we could skip the tour at Churchill downs or scrap going to Indiana if we needed time but I wanted him to go to a distillery.

The girls were reading off license plates from the hotel parking lot to Ruby who decided she wanted to join the licenses play game. Her response, as she was a bit overwhelmed by the speed at which they were rattling them off, "OK, slow your roll!" Where does she come up with this stuff?

Michael making his own personal bottle of single barrel Knob Hill

Collectible bottles of Beam. We found some Interesting Painted Collectible bottles when we were going through the stuff from Michael's grandparents houses a year ago.  They are now in a box at my house.  This display make me want to find them when I get home.

Rehm posing with the white dog (aka moonshine) 

Michael helping empty the barrel of Knob Hill that he now has a bottle of.  This has a name but I don't remember what it is.

Michael sealing his bottle with his aggie ring.  It looks really cool but I haven't gotten a picture yet

Our first stop was the Jim Beam Stillhouse. It was beautiful scenery and a very interesting tour. Charlotte and Ruby enjoyed about the first half of the tour. They had Gumby and Pokey along taking pictures of them on the tour which allowed them to express their creativity and enjoy it more. Rehm and Eliza Claire enjoyed it because they love learning about anything.

Looking up into the Warehouse.

My favorite part was going in the warehouse. The smell of the bourbon and the rustic wood reminded me of being in a tobacco barn. The way the barrels were stacked did too. I wish there was a way I could share the smell of the warehouse with you. It was awesome. Let me clarify,aging bourbon smells nothing like curing tobacco. They just both smell good and the environments and smells reminded me of each other.

After the Stillhouse we headed to Churchill Downs for a quick stop. Charlotte was in tears and didn't want to be on a crazy long trip any more because her feet hurt but she wants to wear cute shoes instead of comfortable shoes. I might have basically said "I told you so," which of course did not help the situation at all. I did apologize a bit later. We did not do the tour. We did not have time and honestly I think two of our children would have revolted after the hour and a half distillery tour. The stop mostly consisted of trying on hats in the gift shop and making pressed pennies.

Next up was a quick stop and walk at the Falls of the Ohio State Park in Clarksville, Indiana. It was really pretty and somewhere we could have easily spent an afternoon. We needed to be in Cincinnati by 4:00 pm so a quick stop sufficed.  If Rehm is reading he would like to point out at this point that we were not actually in the state park. Where we parked was .2 of a mile from the entrance to the park and we walked the opposite direction away from the state park to the river. He was not happy with this decision.

Huh, A sign that says we were in the state park, even though we did not go the way our wonderful son asked us so politely to go and insisted we were not in if we didn't.  How is that possible?

We made it to Cincinnati just a couple of minutes late due to traffic.  We got to spend several hours with a bunch of family.  We got to see Helene’s first cousins Helga and Adele, Helga’s son Ken and his wife Colleen, Helga’s daughter in law Maggie, Adele’s daughter Janie and her family (Brian, Elliott and Sally Jane).  Most of the family I had not seen since Michael’s grandmother died in 1999.  Our kids had only met Adele and Janie.  

We met in a meeting room at the facility where Helga lives.  It was perfect.  There was lots of room for the kids to move around.  And if anyone was loud there was not one to bother.  There was a beautiful courtyard area outside where they could get outside and get some wiggles out as well.  We had dinner and visited.  Of course the kids got squirrely and ready to go before the adults did, but I was very proud of how well they all behaved.

All of the great behavior had a price and one of my angels was not so angelic in the car on the way to the hotel.  In fact, the exchange with said child got annoying enough that I put myself in time out by asking for a car blanket and covering my head with it.  I hate there are no pictures as I know I looked like a fool.  But it did help diffuse the situation and kept me from strangling anyone.  At one point, while under the blanket, I responded to something that had been said, the child in question informed me I was not supposed to be talking.  I inform the child that the rules of the car blanket over the head was that the person under the blanket could not be spoken to. I found this comical, the child did not.

We got to the hotel around 9:00 pm.  But we didn’t have to cook dinner tonight after we arrived as we ate with our family. So the girls went swimming, Rehm watched the West Wing and I vegged for a bit.  

Plans for tomorrow are to visit the Cincinnati Zoo and drive by where Dallas and Helene both grew up.  We are staying in the same hotel again tomorrow night so we don’t have to load and unload the van tomorrow.  I can not even express how happy this makes me.  Actually, I don’t think we have a single night stay again until the very last night of our trip. Yippee!  It’s the small things that make me happy.

Random tidbits:
Kentucky has had the most roadkill of the state's we have visited so far.

Wildlife seen: Chipmunk at centennial park, squirrel, deer.

States Visited so Far: 5

Over and Out,
 Reveille Rider