Our first meal was at a Waffle House

So along the lines of a life “different but better,” Rob and I recently played tourist in Louisville, Kentucky because, well, why not?

We had some free tickets on Southwest Airlines that were expiring soon so we studied their route map for a funky, interesting place we had never been to. Naturally we found ourselves in the land of baseball bats, bourbon, horses, a famous boxer, and fried chicken. Gotta say, we done good!

Our first day out and about took us into the Kentucky Bluegrass in search of bourbon. Neither Rob nor I are much when it comes to hard alcohol, so we were excited to learn about the beverage that looks so enticingly like a tawny port. A hopeful mmmmm!

With some research, we took a fantastic “hard hat” tour of the oldest continually running distillery in the US, picturesquely located right along the Kentucky River. Buffalo Trace Distillery managed to keep on brewin' during Prohibition due to the “medicinal” need for bourbon. There was a prescription in one of their display cases. According to our tour guide, docs were allowed to write one bourbon prescription every 10 days. "Two teaspoonsful, in hot water and sugar, 3 times daily." With over 6 million prescriptions written during the 13 years of Prohibition, apparently bourbon-cured illnesses were highly contagious and exhaustingly recurring during those delicate years.

Being home wine makers, Rob and I both found the bourbon making process fascinating. There were a number of parallels, and the sweet, bready, woody smell of fermentation was just as lovely...and without all those pesky fruit flies. We got to sample some 147 proof alcohol straight off the still. It was called “white dog.” I lightly dabbed at it with my tongue. Oooh, doggies! I quickly decided it made for a much better hand sanitizer. As we left that area of the factory, we spied one of the guys on our tour hanging back and shooting down what dog was left in a glass. This was not the same guy as was carrying a beer bottle in his back pocket throughout the tour. The bottle might have been for his chew, though, come to think of it. Ah, life in the country.

When it came time to sample what we had seen being made, we were offered two choices from among about ten selections. Rob and I plotted so as to experience the widest breadth in our inaugural bourbon tasting. We decided on a small-batch bourbon (bourbon blended from several different barrels) both neat (room temperature) and chilled; a single barrel bourbon (expensive stuff from only one barrel); and a cream liqueur made from bourbon and a heavy, sweet cream. I learned: I like chilled better than neat; I could actually taste the difference between the small-batch and the single barrel bourbons; bourbon may look like tawny port but it don't taste nuthin' like tawny port; and cream and root beer are brilliant additions because otherwise bourbon is downright icky.

Rob and I were the only two on the tour who did not finish any of our samples...well, aside from the root beer float. The white dog shooter eyed our half-full shot glasses longingly as I handed them back to Becky the Tour Guide/Bar Tender. I think she was on to him, though, since she dumped them out right in front of him as he watched in horror.

For dinner we went to a local BBQ place which was OK but not great. It was a little chaotic sharing the dining room with an entire high school cross country team. Apparently Rob and I are now at that age where we are officially invisible to anyone whose age begins with a 1. Good news is, we might surprise them by appearing in a number of their photos.

As a high point to dinner, though, we got to try this amazing stew thing called burgoo. Traditional versions were made with squirrel and rabbit and any other fresh meats and vegetables left over at the end of the harvest and canning season. I think the one we tried had chicken, beef, and pork. I will be Googling it soon to determine if left-over turkey would be a good squirrel substitute come Thanksgiving. Burgoo might go lovely with the cream bourbon we brought home.