The Party’s Over

We ended our caravan at the RC Cola/Moonpie Festival in Bell Buckle, TN.

To get us in the mood for the festival, we were honored to have a poetry reading by Tennessee’s Poet Laureate Maggie Vaughn.

She lives in Bell Buckle and her door is open to all. In describing her writing she said, “Country music gave me my voice.” Returning the favor, she wrote songs for such greats as Loretta Lynn. She earned a Mark Twain Fellowship and enjoyed sitting on his porch in Elmira, NY having a “conversation” with him.

Proud of her simple voice, her poems are delightful and thoughtful. We found a bit of ourselves in her poetry and have copies of her work to share with any of you who would like to read them.

The RC Cola/Moonpie Festival was right outside our door.

We wandered around the small town peeking in shops. We watched the end of the ten-mile race. Then we settled into our folding canvass chairs and watched the parade with the king and queen, Mrs. Tennessee, Mrs. America (from TN), moonpie children, antique cars and veterans including one who is an escaped POW from WWII.

We proudly waved at members of our own caravan who rode in the parade as honored vets.

Booths were filled with local food products, hand crafts and several lunch choices. The chuck wagon caught the eye of some of us. Happy (He) and Grumpy (She) serve hot dogs, chicken, chicken pot pie and stew along with their great corn bread.

Rolling thunder and pelting rain drove us to shelter in the afternoon but did not dampen our mood to celebrate the end of a great caravan. Our grand finale dinner was wonderful as has become the standard of this trip. George conducted an excellent auction selling off fans and left over liquid refreshments with bid raises of a quarter and fifty cents.

Art and Ellen had five “F” goals for our caravan, “Fantastic Food, Fabulous Fun and Friendship.” We all agree that these goals were surpassed. Farewells were more “‘til we meet again” than “good-bye” as we hugged and kissed, no longer acquaintances and strangers, but now good friends who share great memories of a trip well done. We all toast the tremendous effort Ellen and Art and Maxine and George put into providing so much fun for all of us.

And for those who want camping details:

Elkhorn Campground, Frankfort, KY
White Acres Campground, Bardstown, KY
KOA Bowling Green, KY
Bell Buckle, TN

The Railroad Comes through the Middle of the House

Yes, it does.

Half of our caravan is camped alongside the tracks in Bell Buckle, Tennessee. The rest opted for the same old usual campground. Our rewards are long trains in the middle of the night and a brief walk to the banquet hall where we gather for libations and dinner each evening.

Art and Ellen keep taking our meals to a higher and higher level. And in Lynchburg, they may have reached the pinnacle. Miss Mary Bobo’s Boardinghouse presents luscious food in a distinctive manner. The building started in 1817 as a hotel. In 1908, Mary and Jack Bobo turned it into a boardinghouse. There are now eight dining rooms where platters and bowls of food are served family style.

First the menu: Fried chicken (three platters at our table), pork, green beans, fried (creamed) corn, fried okra, squash casserole, rolls, cole slaw, and apples with bourbon sauce. Chess pie was for dessert. All of this was fabulous.

A hostess sits at the head of each table and shares the history of Lynchburg, Mary Bobo and Jack Daniels. Our hostess Mary Lou Hoge, explained that the location for the original two-room log cabin hotel was based upon an underground spring of limestone filtered water. Additions to the hotel were made of brick.

Mary Lou told us about two boarders who never got along. Tom Moltow was a nephew of Jack Daniels (more about him to follow). Tom wanted to head to the northeast after college but was told by his brother, who was running the distillery, to come home to Lynchburg and head the bank. Because Tom believed lending money to buy a car was irresponsible, he was in a constant state of feuding with Mr. Parks who ran the automobile dealership. The last boarder died in 1967 and later the restaurant opened. At the age of 100, Miss Mary was featured in an ad for Jack Daniels Distillery. She died in 1983 just shy of her 102nd birthday.

Our hostess also explained why Moore County, where Jack Daniels is located, is a dry county. The answer is not religious but political. After 1934 when Prohibition ended, states and their counties chose to be wet or dry. In Tennessee it took 1200 signatures on the petition to request a vote. More county barely had 1200 people,let alone 1200 voters who would favor going wet. To this day they still do not have enough voters to end local prohibition.

Happily sated, we went to Jack Daniels for our tour led by David, an overhaul-wearing, bearded, sixty something who could have made a living doing standup comedy.

Along with his patter and the stories we had heard at Mary Bobo’s, we learned of the man who made Tennessee Whiskey famous.

Jack left home at the age of six and moved in with Reverend Call. Call knew Jack was smart and taught him to operate a still. When the Reverend was forced to choose between his pulpit and his still, he sold the still to 13-year-old Jack for $25. Jack and his brother loaded a wagon with spirits and sold them to Union and Confederate soldiers as a pain killer. At sixteen, Jack built a distillery and at seventeen he rode to Washington, D.C. to register his still. Around this time Jack became known for his gentlemanly attire and fondness for women. This statue of Jack is almost life-size.

Eventually he turned over operations to his seventeen-year-old nephew Lem Motlow who was the one to expand the distillery. In 1956 the distillery was bought by Brown - Forman of Nashville.

Jack died a painful death. Known for his temper, he got mad, kicked his safe and contracted gangrene. Here is the actual safe.

Over a period of two years, he lost his toe, foot, and leg before succumbing. He was sixty-one. It is said that so many women mourned his loss, that the cemetery placed chairs next to his stone for them to sit and weep.

Several things distinguish Jack Daniels from other whiskeys. The water comes from Cave Spring Hollow and is naturally filtered through limestone. They make their own barrels. They mix 80% corn, 12% rye, and 8% barley. There is a six-day fermentation period. Then they mellow the distillate drop by drop through ten feet of crushed sugar maple charcoal before barreling. Gentlemen Jack is filtered twice. By a 1941 law, Tennessee Whiskey must be mellowed in charcoal. Jack is aged for at least four years but no date is put upon the label.
They bottle one barrel at a time. They also allow no photographs inside the plant.

Four hundred happy employees work at the distillery. They are happy because on the first Friday of each month they get a free bottle of Jack Daniels.

This white wood building was Jack’s original office.

Now That’s Horse Power

Our alarm clock the day we left Bardstown was the flash of lightning, crack of thunder and pelt of raindrops. After enjoying the race horses, we left in search of some major horse power. We found it on our tour of the Corvette Museum.

This museum is dedicated to the men and women with a deep passion for America’s best muscle car. Displays detail its history, development and manufacture. Repeatedly, the connection between the car and its owner and among owners is shown.

The name corvette comes from the French for an anti-sub ship and refers to being fast, maneuverable and able to dart in and out–all characteristics of this car.

Under the strong leadership of Harley J. Earl and engineering and focus of Zora Arkus-Dunter, a 1953 white Corvette with red interior was displayed in NYC. It was a three-page single-spaced letter from Arkus-Dunter that set Chevrolet on the road to “super-car-dom.”

The Hall of Fame in the spire honors those cars and those people who put Corvette at the top of American automobile culture. Featured is the 1,500,000th ‘Vette, a 2009. The final display is a tribute to other muscle cars.

The next morning we got to see the Corvette Assembly Plant in Bowling Green. The plant moved from St. Louis to Bowling Green in 1981. The one million square foot plant produces eight cars in up to four models per hour. From start to finish, it takes about a week to complete the assembly. We followed along the line watching fenders and end caps fit in place, seats lifted in, doors attached, and the windshield and top placed. The “marriage” of car and engine is a smooth performance.

Our guide lost his mike to Joe Spielberg, a retired engineer and author of All Corvettes Are Red. He was responsible for the C5 generation of ‘Vettes. His advice to us was to fulfill our dream and get a ‘Vette.

Among the cars we saw on the line were the 2012 sky blue ZR1 and a 100th anniversary of Chevrolet black ZR1. These cars base price at about $110,000.

The assembled car goes through several stages of final testing including 800 tests in four minutes in the Dynamic Testing Booth, a water test, a 0 - 60 test for squeaks, and a shaking test. Each day three cars are put through their paces for twenty miles.

Because no cameras are allowed, all the photos of the plant are in our head except this one of our Honda parked between to red beauties.

We have been eating so many wonderful catered dinners, that our refrigerators overflowed with leftovers. After we polished them off, we had our last trivia contest with the women winning naturally (or unnaturally). (Check the score carefully)

We have shared our group shots but many of us travel with companions. Here they pose for you

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Barrels and Bourbon

At Independent Stave Company they are “all fired up about bourbon.” They make the barrels for Maker’s Mark and other area bourbons.

We learned about the ancient but modernized art of cooperage through a series of videos and visits to various work stations. Since 1912, using Missouri white oak, they have sawn, steamed, and squeezed staves into the barrels where, over several years aging, bourbon will pick up its color and sweetness.

Each eight-hour shift creates 1600-1800 53-gallon barrels. Narrow and wide staves alternate in the sides of the barrels. Reusable hoops hold each barrel together until it is banded. Each barrel is charred according to the requirements of the individual distilleries.

We watched cooper Chris, using skills that go back centuries, replace a stave that had worm holes with a new stave. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed in the cooperage but we did get a group picture before lunch.

Barrels’ purpose in life is to hold bourbon and our purpose on this trip is to visit distilleries, so we went to Maker’s Mark where first we had lunch. Started by T. W. Samuels in 1840, the family has made bourbon ever since (with a brief break during WWII when they made industrial alcohol). T. William Samuels, Jr. took over the business and changed the recipe to make a high end small batch whiskey. His wife Margie came up with the name, bottle shape, and brand-identifying red melted wax seal.

As our tour leader led us along the grounds, we passed a yellow building which was a package store for people to bring their jugs for filling during the depression. As we walked, a gentle breeze brought the light, sweet aroma of the yeast and corn fermenting. The 130-year-old wooden fermenters are listed in the National Historical Registry. We dipped our fingers in to taste the sour mash, (yuck).

Maker’s Mark has several distinctions from its competitors. It produces only one million cases a year. Each batch is small, only 1000 gallons. Their whiskey is 70% corn from Kentucky, 16% wheat from Kentucky and 14% barley from North Dakota. The wheat gives the whiskey a sweeter taste.

They use both a column still and copper pot still. They rotate their barrels from top, middle to bottom.

For the new 46 label, they put French oak staves into the barrels and age longer.

The bottle labels are die cut using old printing presses from the early 1900s. The labels are applied and each bottle is hand dipped in their signature red wax

After our tasting of both Maker’s Mark and 46, we enjoyed a bourbon ball. Then we had a “surprise.” Each couple got a bottle of Maker’s Mark and hand dipped it as a souvenir of a great tour.

The next day we went to Four Roses Warehouse where it takes them 45-50 minutes to unload each of the two tankers that come from the distillery each day. The arrival weight of the tanker is 50,000 pounds. Because water is added to the barrels to get the 120-proof distillate, years later its departure weight will be 61,000, even after evaporation. Jeff, our guide, explained the precise timing of rolling the barrels to their resting spot so that the bung is up on top.

We got to watch barrel dumping which entails removing the bung, putting in a whiskey thief, rolling it to pour out the distillate, removing the thief, adding water to get out more distillate, replacing the bung, and rolling out the barrel.

The decibel level of our voices rose as Jeff gave us “time at the trough,” tasting right from the barrel. Some of us wanted to hire on for the job, or maybe just volunteer.

As a small distillery, Four Roses has only sixteen employees. They hand bottle and label their Single Barrel, Small Batch and Yellow whiskeys at a rate of twelve bottles a minute. They were deemed Distillery of the Year for 2011.

Under light drops of rain, we ate a delicious catered lunch in the lovely Bernheim Park.

Then we went to the final bourbon distillery on our tour of Kentucky Bourbon. Jim Beam is more than 200 years old and was run by the Beam family until prohibition. It restarted in 1934 and now bottles eight million a year. A video told the story of Jim Beam and the seven generations that have run it.

In The Old Still house, we learned that they have been using the same recipe and yeast strain since the beginning.

They have their staves charred to #4, the highest level, which they believe releases the most flavor. They barrel 800 - 1000 a day and store 1.8 million barrels in warehouses.

The warehouses are built of cypress on the inside and aluminum out. Warehouse D is the oldest. Our tour guide described the warehouses as “ultimate man caves,” lacking only TV, lounge chairs and pizza.

Our final Kentucky whiskey tasting was of Jim Beam’s Basil Hayden and Knob Creek topped off with a bourbon ball.

Our caravan is not all play, sometimes we have to work. Jobs include bartending, salad makings, table setting and clean up. Our most important assignment was to get our Bourbon Trail Passport book stamped and we have now earned the coveted six-distillery tee shirt which we will all be happy to model.

We spent our last evening in the land of bourbon savoring a Parmesan chicken dinner and holding an auction. Auctioneer George raised thousands of cents on such items as a fan, a bottle of bourbon beer, gin, and Jim Beam souvenirs

Stephen Foster

Sunday morning is a perfect time for brunch and our American/Jewish brunch was excellent. Chef Mitch prepared eggs and pancakes. His pancakes were topped with his not-so-secret bourbon maple syrup, yum. Chef Jerry made matzoh brei, which is a fried matzoh and egg pancake. Throw in fruit salad, bagels, and lox and it was a fabulous brunch.

The rest of the day was for personal leisure, including trying to put together evil Rich’s
scroll saw cut puzzle. Even he thinks it’s so hard that the man who made it should be skinned alive.


Instead of the usual cocktail hour, we gathered for bourbon tasting then enjoyed a catered turkey and all the fixings dinner. The highlight of the evening was a presentation of The Stephen Foster Story at the outdoor theater in Stephen Foster State Park. His music is used to tell his own story from youth to adult. It centers upon his love of Jane (Jeannie to him), his friendship with barmaids, drunks, and slaves, and his being conned out of rights for the songs he wrote. The setting was lovely and the costumes colorful.

An excellent cast told his story with enthusiasm and empathy.