Day 47 -- All around Frankfort, Kentucky -- 151 Miles

Today turned out to be a whirlwind of adventure. Our plans were to visit the Maker's Mark distillery near Loretto, Kentucky, which was at least 60 miles from our camp in Frankfort, and the Buffalo Trace Distillery which turned out to be about fifty-five files closer. The only problem was that since it was Sunday both weren't open until noon or later. This left us in a quandary as to how best to spend our morning.

After some discussion, we decided to head for Maker's Mark which would theoretically put us there close to noon, and leave Buffalo Trace for the return trip. This worked pretty well, though unfortunately we left the route planning to Concetta's IPhone application called Waze.

Ms. Waze decided that we certainly hadn't had enough hair-raising trips on this local Bourbon Trail. That meant we ignored the helpful roadside sign that told us to stay on Route 555 to Maker's Mark, and instead we got to pretend we were Daniel Boone and pick our way through the forest on tracks where only 18th century Indians and small animals were comfortable traveling.

Really, I kid you not, by the time we arrived at Maker's Mark we had navigated some of the narrowest roads we've seen since traveling the rural donkey-cart roads in England. In England they figure if they make the asphalt any wider than one car it's just a waste of materials. After all, you're expected to just drive into the hedges to let the opposing car pass

And that's just what we found ourselves doing. At first the two-lane road onto which Ms. Waze had routed us was pretty scary since it was just wide enough for two small cars and we could usually squeeze by the oncoming Honda by perching on the edge of the asphalt. But then Ms. Waze routed us onto a track that looked like someone's driveway. In fact, our own driveway is at least half again wider than this narrow ribbon of asphalt.

This ridiculously narrow track is naturally where we met the most oncoming traffic. We even had to figure out how to squeeze by another RV, which thankfully was able to take advantage of someone's driveway to edge off the pavement to let us pass. We finally made it, of course, but not before I had left noticeable finger-grip marks in the steering wheel.

But before we tackled these heart-stopping, 18th-century-width roads to Maker's Mark, we stopped about lunch-time at a picturesque historic site called "Lincoln Homestead State Park." Now Concetta and I most often go out of our way to visit anything and everything related to Abraham Lincoln. We've been to places he lived in his early years, we've been to his father's farm in Illinois, and we've been to his home in Springfield that he occupied before becoming President. But somehow we'd missed the site in Kentucky where Lincoln's father proposed to Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks.

Here's Wikipedia's description: "Lincoln Homestead State Park is a state park located just north of Springfield, Kentucky in Washington County. The park encompasses 120 acres, and features both historic buildings and reconstructions associated with Thomas Lincoln, father of President Abraham Lincoln."

"The two-story Francis Berry House is the only original structure; it was where Nancy Hanks, Abraham's mother, was living and working as a seamstress while being courted by Thomas Lincoln. Thomas is said to have proposed to Nancy by the large fireplace in the cabin."

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Two other buildings are reconstructions: the "workshop" where Thomas learned blacksmithing and carpentry, and the "Lincoln cabin." The 16 feet by 18 feet structure was built on the site of the original Lincoln cabin where Thomas lived with his family as a boy. It is made of 115-year-old logs. The furnishings were made by Thomas Lincoln as an artisan."

"Captain Abraham Lincoln, the president's grandfather, had moved to the site from Virginia in 1781-2 with his wife Beersheba and their children following the American Revolutionary War. He was killed in May 1786 in an attack by American Indians. Thomas was saved by his oldest brother Mordecai's shooting an Indian before he could do anything to the boy. Captain Lincoln was buried near the cabin, but the exact location is unknown."

So there you have it. The historic site didn't do too much to impress the visitor other than to tell the story with a half dozen information signs and some antique furniture, but still it felt sort of awesome to be standing in the same cabin as Abe Lincoln's father stood in to ask for the hand of Abe's soon-to-be mother. While Abe's Father's house was a reproduction, the Nancy Hanks house was the actually cabin in which the future 16th President's father proposed to his future bride, the future President's mother. You just don't come across that sort of history every day.

Since the Lincoln Homestead Park was to be our lunch stop, we spent quite a bit of time walking the grounds and photographing the contents of the cabins. But what made the stop especially nice was the reception we received from the museum docent, Jackie. Jackie took one look at my U.S. Navy hat and perked right up. "Were you in the Navy?" she asked, a touch of excitement in her voice. When I told her I was, she said, "Me, too!"

After that we two launched into a mutual description of our respective naval careers, where we'd been posted, and how long our enlistment had been. Jackie had been in the Navy twenty years and had served places as far flung as Key West, Florida, and the country of Scotland. The two of us must have talked for a good 15 minutes. I learned she had gone in as a dental hygeniest, but had soon be designated a corpsman. I told her I had flirted with the idea of becoming a corpsman, but had backed off when I saw the movies of all the blood and gore corpsman dealt with on a daily basis.

Thankfully, Concetta spent the time looking at all the souvenirs in the museum store and kindly let Jackie and me wind down our Naval reminiscences. I had a great time reliving the old days and meeting a new friend on the road.

When we moved on from the Lincoln site was when Ms. Waze took us on "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" with all the wild bumps and undulations of the Disneyland ride. But fortunately we finally made it to the Maker's Mark parking lot where a very nice level spot had been provided for RVs. The lot was a fairly long walk from the gift shop, but it was a bright and beautiful day and we didn't mind so much.

As it turned out, Marker's Mark really dazzled us with the quality of their operation. Everywhere you looked the grounds were thoughtfully designed and landscaped. There were loads of flowers, herbs, and beautiful trees surrounding the walkways as we descended the hill from the parking area. I think we could have waited for the shuttle, but the walk was a wonderful experience.

Once at the gift shop we quickly picked out several bottles of what we thought might make exciting presents, and we even had help from one of the customers who professed to be a collector of fine Bourbons. Seeing neither T-shirt nor hat that I especially wanted, I settled for a bottle of "Limited Reserve" that took my fancy. I'm not sure what it will taste like since we didn't opt to taste anything today, but I'm sure I'll like it.

When we left Maker's Mark we set our GPS to find the Buffalo Trace Distillery before it closed at 5:00 p.m. We had just two hours to make it the sixty miles back to Frankfort to make our purchases. Unfortunately, we didn't make it soon enough to grab a particular bottle that Concetta wanted. In fact she was told that they had just sold the last one before we walked through the door. But never mind, we chose a couple of others that we knew were good, found a t-shirt for my collection, and we were back on the highway toward our evening camp before closing time.

And that's our adventures for the day. We had a touch of classic Bourbon Trail fun. We had a bit of history from a couple of hundred years ago. And we had a beautiful day in Kentucky. What more could you ask for? And when you hit the two-lanes and head for all those places you've been dying to see, The Happy Wanderers wish you happy travels and exciting destinations.