The next morning the plan was to wake up early to make it to the Maker's Mark distillery in time for the first tour at 10:30am. Wellll, that didn't quite happen, but we did make it for the 11:30 tour with a few minutes to spare! For those that don't know, Maker's Mark is a premium Bourbon, Kentucky style whiskey. It's pretty tasty! Especially at 11:30 in the morning! ;-) Actually, we didn't a tasting because there is such a high demand for their whiskey, that they have a hard time keeping up with it, and can't spare any for freeloaders. But we did get some yummy bourbon chocolate!
The distillery is pretty much well off the beaten path, in the middle of nowhere in Kentucky. Absolutely gorgeous grounds. And our tour guide had such a great southern accent... it was pretty hard not to smile listening to her talk!
Sorry this picture is so blurry, but it is the only one I have where you can see the bottle shape cut-outs in the window shutters.
This is not only the first drive-thru liquor store in the US, but also the first package liquor store! Wagons would drive up and get their bottles filled with whiskey! Pretty awesome.
The Club House
The fermenting barrels. These are 12 ft. wide and 12ft deep!
And yes! You can put your hands in it! and eat it! The mush tastes different depending on what phase of the 3-day process it is in.
Or you can put your whole arm in it... Just think how many people's hands have been in your bottle of Maker's....
The whiskey aging in the warehouse. It was hard to get a picture of these because it was pretty dark in there.
The bottling and labeling room
This woman had the honor of "dipping" the special bottles and items in the signature red wax.
She's a master dipper!
While driving on backroads back to the main highway, we stumbled upon President Lincoln's boyhood Kentucky home. This is a replica of the cabin he would have lived in with his family.
And a replica of their garden.
Biggest sunflowers ever!
We eventually made it to St. Louis and crossed the Mississippi
We stopped somewhere outside Kansas City, MO for the night. It was a looong day. And we had another 10+ hours of driving the next day to get through Kansas and to Boulder....
Eric started the drive through Kansas. It was sunny, warm and pretty uneventful. Eric kept wishing for some huge thunderstorm to come whipping through for a little entertainment. I think his exact words were "I want to see some cows flying across the road".
Well, a few hours and a driver change later, Eric got his wish. Well, no flying cows, but we did hit some gnarly thunderstorms that lasted over 40 miles. One after another. At one point it was raining so hard that I felt like I was driving underwater. And the wind was whipping so hard it felt like an invisible giant hand was pushing my car into the next lane. I did have to pull over and stop a couple of times which almost never happens, and I'll admit, my heart was pounding most of the time. Well, at least my part of the drive wasn't so boring. ;-)
The storms ahead...
A nice view of the a BIG thundercloud.
Made it to Boulder Wednesday night around 11pm and went to bed not soon after. I'm pretty much all unpacked and settled in now and I have to say it feels pretty nice!! Next mission - find a good job!!
