Dining

2019-05-02 – Airstream Caravan Travels – Springtime in Kentucky; Louisville and their Slugger! – Day #8

Once again we boarded the bus…

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Soon we found ourselves in Louisville.

Our first stop is at the Louisville Slugger factory. But first, we once again attempted a group photo…

And a selfie..

And the final shot:

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The giant bat does dominate the skyline in this historic section on downtown Louisville…

Inside we reviewed the current major league standings; how ’bout them Dodgers!

The Louisville Slugger is made by Hillerich & and Bradsby & Co. They used to make butter churns, but they found that making bats is a more profitable business…

They have many bats that have been used in MLB games; Lynda tried out the bats of current Dodgers Cory Bellinger and Justin Turner… She also took a photo with Jackie Robinson…

We watched a master bat maker working at his lathe making a bat. It takes him about 30 minutes to make a bat, using the model bat as a template and hand-measuring every aspect of the new bat with a set of calipers to make sure it is an exact replica…

(By the way, it takes 30 seconds for the CNC controlled lathes in the factory to make a bat, which is an exact replica of the specs that are programmed into the computer…)

The museum even has bats in its belfry…

We enjoyed the tour (sorry, no photos…).

They use trees from western New York and eastern Pennsylvania; their trees are in sustainable forests, and most trees selected for bat-making are about 65 years old. Bats are made mostly of maple, but also birch and ash. They maintain 3,000 different bat designs. Pros usually order 80-100 bats per player per season, to the tune of about $80 each. Retail bats, and bats made for minor league baseball are cheaper…

Next on our agenda today is a river cruise up the Ohio River; Indiana is across the river at this point.

We assembled for the lunch buffet on the lower, enclosed deck, out of the rain…

Once underway the rain slowed and we could walk around the boat and see the sights…

The water is quite high this time of the year…

It was a nice boat ride. Who doesn’t like boat rides?

Next we walked around downtown Louisville. We are in the historic downtown, adjacent to the main financial district… Lots of historical storefronts…

Here is an area where the old buildings have been torn down, but the facades have been saved. We also saw this with new, modern buildings built behind the historic facades. Very nice!

There are some Bourbon tasting rooms here, but we didn’t have time…

We spent about an hour in the Frazier Museum…

We returned on the bus, and once again turned in early…

And an enjoyable time was had by all…

And in the spirit of all things baseball, I present the McAnoy children…

May 5, 2019 0

2019-04-28 – Airstream Caravan Travels – Springtime in Kentucky; Traveling from Bowling Green to Bardstown, KY; Jim Beam! – Day #4

Time to move on… The caravan moves to Bardstown, KY, the center of Bourbon production in Kentucky…

But first, we attended services at the Christ United Methodist Church in Bowling Green…

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(I didn’t take this photo – I stole it off the internet…)

It was a remarkable little church and the services was excellent – lots of singing by EVERYONE! ABout 130 people by my estimate. Old People, young people, everyone! Olde time hymns, plus the Gloria Patri and the Doxology… It felt good to sing!

And then we moved on.

We hitched up the Villa and headed to Bardstown, KY. We are staying at the White Acres RV park.

We set up easily and quickly, then we drove about 1/2 hour away to check out the Jim Beam Distillery.

Unfortunately, tours were sold out for the day; we made a reservation for Tuesday.

We walked around a bit and learned something about the Beam family; here is the family tree of Master Distillers for the past 150 years of so…

Booker Noe was not a direct descendant, but was a nephew of T. Jeremiah Beam; his son, Fred Noe is the current leader. Jim Beam is now owned by Beam Suntory, which is owned by Fortune Brands, an Multi-national holding company that owns many brands of wine, beer, and spirits.

We did do a tasting of three premium versions of Jim Beam Bourbons…

Jim Beam Bonded – 100 Proof Bourbon: Just OK

Jim Beam Black – Extra Aged Bourbon: Not bad; nice and toasty, smooth

Jim Beam Double Oak – Aged in a second new oak barrel after 3-5 years in the first new oak barrel: Pretty good. Very smooth…

Jim Beam also makes Knob Creek, Bakers, Basil Hayden’s, and, of course, Bookers. We will have a chance to taste these after our tour on Tuesday…

We returned to the campground and enjoyed a dinner prepared and organized by a team of fellow caravaners…

And an enjoyable time was had by all…

May 1, 2019 0

2019-04-26 – Airstream Caravan Travels – Springtime in Kentucky; Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY – Day #2

After raining all night we awoke to a lovely morning. We carpooled to the National Corvette Museum. Not only were we Airstreamers doing this tour today, but it was the 25th anniversary of the museum and hundreds of Corvette owners were coming to gather as well…

Even our campground was not immune to this invasion of Corvettes…

The museum is located only a quarter mile from the Bowling Green Assembly Plant, where Corvettes have been made since 1981. Unfortunately, the plant is closed for re-tooling; rumor has it that the newest model Corvette will be revealed at this event this weekend…

(Spoiler Alert: Yes, the new C-8 Corvette, with a mid-engine configuration, was revealed at the Museum on 4/27/19!)

This yellow structure is called the “Skydome”. It contains a large exhibit hall inside, as an addition to the main museum. More about the Skydome later…

We gathered in front of the museum for a group photo, then went inside for a tour.

The exhibits started with a display of a 1953 Corvette, showing its innovative framework and chassis design. Note how light the structural framework is. These cars were clearly designed for performance, not for safety…

We proceeded through the exhibits, seeing the Corvette design evolve. The first years were difficult, and very few cars sold in 1953-1955, but the 1956 model caught on and sales sky-rocketed. However, they have never reached the 1,000,000 cars per year that were originally envisioned…

The 1956 – 1962 years (Model C-2, as the aficionados call it) are my favorite Corvettes…

This is the interior of the Skydome:

A particularly interesting exhibit centers around an event that happened a few years ago…

On February 12, 2014, a sinkhole (40-foot-wide and 25-foot-deep) opened under the floor of the Skydome area of the museum. Video from the museum’s security camera shows the collapse occurring at 5:38 AM local time. Since this did not occur during visiting hours no one was injured although much of the Skydome area concrete floor collapsed. Eight rare and one-of-a-kind Corvettes, portions of the display stands and rails, large concrete floor slabs, boulders, and dirt fell into the sinkhole, causing serious damage to all eight of the Corvettes. The Corvettes involved had an estimated value of a million dollars. The remaining 20 cars in the Skydome were immediately removed from that area. All eight of the Corvettes were recovered from the sinkhole.

Exploration in the sinkhole discovered a cave passage 80 feet below the Skydome floor and that this previously unknown cave had an unstable area in its roof that collapsed. Apparently, when the museum was built, a large storm water retention basin was dug adjacent to the Skydome, which altered the flow of ground water under the museum. This change in geologic activity contributed to the cave collapse.

The Skydome reopened after repairs were completed on September 3, 2015. The eight Corvettes are displayed in their original location at the time of the collapse, although only three of them have been repaired/restored. The other five were deemed too damaged to be repaired, so they are displayed is their “as found” condition… It is a remarkable thing to see!

We continued to look at the displayed until lunch happened…

After lunch we visited the Historic Rail Park, located at the historic L & N train depot…

It was great fun…

There were model railroad exhibits that little kids really love…

There were historic exhibits inside the museum; but the best part was the train!

We were able to go through all the cars…

First was the engine (with the engines and generators removed…). We also could go into the cockpit and sit in the engineer’s seat. No steering wheel!

This is the Post Office car…

The dining car…

The kitchen…

We saw a 3rd class Pullman sleeping berths, the 2nd class “roomettes”, and the private bedrooms in 1st class. Finally we saw the private car of the L & N president, with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a dining room and a parlor, plus observation platform at the rear. This car was used by Herbert Hoover during his presidential campaign.

We also saw cars that are not on display; a caboose…

And a hospital car, used to transport injured troops from WWII and the Korean conflict…

We returned to the Villa in time to prepare for the first GAM – Get Acquainted Meeting. As luck would have it, we already knew these four couples…

And an enjoyable time was had by all…

April 29, 2019 0

2019-04-25 – Airstream Caravan Travels – Springtime in Kentucky; Bowling Green, KY – Day #1

Beautiful day in Kentucky! The 2019 Springtime in Kentucky Caravan starts today!

We spent the morning rearranging the supplies and tools in the truck, running errands, and buying groceries… I also spent quite a bit of time planning our return trip home in June…

We turned in our emergency forms to our caravan leader, and we were given our “Drivers’ Manual” in exchange. This is a three-ring binder containing all the information we will need for the next three weeks – schedule, driving directions, names and contact information about all the caravaners, financial data, GAMs, and caravan rules. The first thing I normally do when I get the manual is enter all the contact information into my phone – we do a lot of text messaging on the caravan; it is frustrating to get a text message and having to respond, “Who is this?”…

At 3:00 pm we all gathered for our first meeting. We shared brief introductions – there are five couples from California, only one of which we have previously met. Caravaners are from all over the country – Washington, New York, Florida, Texas, and everywhere in between. (No one from Kentucky… However, the leader who was supposed to be here IS from Kentucky, but he has had health issues and needed time to recover, so we have a non-Kentuckian as our leader…)

We were dismissed from our meeting in time for us all to carpool into downtown Bowling Green for dinner at 440 Main, one of Bowling Green’s best restaurants. We arrived early enough to enjoy some adult beverages before dinner.

Soon we were all gathered for dinner. The service was good, especially considering that the servers had to wrangle requests from 50 people at once. And the food was excellent; I had salmon, Lynda had chicken. Dessert was cheesecake with raspberry sauce. I only had a bite or two, but it was excellent, too.

After dinner we returned to the Villa. It was starting to rain as we hurriedly walked to our campsite. Ir continued to rain lightly all night long…

And an enjoyable time was had by all…

April 28, 2019 0

2019-04-24 – Airstream Caravan Travels – Traveling from Tuscumbia, AL, to Bowling Green, KY;

Today we check in to the RV Park where the Springtime in Kentucky caravan starts. We are one day early, but we like to arrive before the crowds…

Last night we caught a nice sunset in the window of the Villa…

We left Tuscumbia, AL and headed through the countryside to find the 65 north… At about 11:30 we met up with two other caravaners at the Cracker Barrel in Franklin, TN…

After lunch we traveled north into Kentucky!

Lots of green in this neck of the woods!

We pulled into the KOA in Bowling Green, KY, ready to check-in…

We added another state sticker to our map… Number 39!

It’s a nice park, with a lake and a good supply of Canada Geese…

We played a little chess before Happy Hours…

So Happy Hours happened – there are about 10 Airstreams here a day early… And an enjoyable time was had by all…

April 28, 2019 0

2019-04-23 – Airstream Caravan Travels – Traveling from Huntsville to Florence to Tuscumbia, AL, and Frank Lloyd Wright…

We pulled out of the RV park at the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville and drove to Florence, AL. We are here to see the Rosenbaum House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (FLlW)…

First, another bridge; I think this is the one millionth time we have crossed the Tennessee River…

We arrived in Florence and parked the Villa in the office complex across the street from the house, where the Visitor Center is…

We walked across the street for our tour to begin…

The cantilevered carport roof…

They have the same “sprite” in their front yard that I have in mine…

Rosenbaum House:

Terhorst House:

These Sprites are 1/2 size reproductions of similar Sprites (hundreds of them) originally designed and built for the FLlW-designed Midway Gardens complex in Chicago. Midway Gardens was a restaurant, beer-hall and event venue complex; the business failed after prohibition was voted in, and the complex was demolished; all the ruble, including hundreds of Sprites, was bulldozed into Lake Michigan as land-fill…

We were greeted by our tour guide, and we heard the history of the house…

The owner of this house across the street gifted this lot to his son, along with some of the money to build the house.

The son and his wife had three sons at the time, and this was the perfect place to raise a family; the lot (at that time) had a fine view of the Tennessee River, but the trees have now grown up to obscure it…

Frank Lloyd Wright was hired for $1,100 to design the house. It was 1,500 sq. ft., and it included three bedrooms and two bathrooms, Living Room, Dining area with built-in table for five, Study, and a tiny “Workroom” – what we would call a kitchen, if we could conceive of such a tiny space being a kitchen.

The house is a classic “Usonian”, a concept named by FLlW to designate the houses that were simple in design, and suited to middle class Americans.

Usonian houses were characterized by their lack of attics and basements, radiant heat in the exposed concrete floors, and simple wood detailing that can be beautiful yet economical due to the ability to be made by machine. The houses all had tiny “Workrooms”…

The house was built and the family moved in. They soon found the house a bit cramped, especially when a fourth child arrived. So they hired FLlW to design an 1,100 s.f. addition, containing a guest room and bath, a new, much larger “Workroom”, a Laundry-Service room, and a large Playroom-Dormitory for the four boys. Somehow they still managed to get along with the Dining Room table for five…

FLlW designed many pieces of furniture that are still in the house – simple, beautiful, and elegant, using simple materials like plywood. As usual, the chairs were impractical and uncomfortable, but they are beautiful, and that’s all that matters. (A chair similar to these from another house recently sold at auction for $35,000!)

The house was sold to the City of Florence in the late 1990s for $75,000; the City spent several years and over $600,000 restoring the house, which was opened to the public in 2002.

The walls of the house, inside and out, are board and batten, using cypress wood from Louisiana swamps, and pine battens. (We saw cypress trees growing out of the water on our swamp tour…) Cypress is extremely resistant to wood rot and termites – it is an excellent building material! Unfortunately, the walls also contain battens of pine; when the house was sold to the City it was found to be infested with termites. When the termites had destroyed the pine they settled into all the books… But the cypress wood is still intact!

The board and batten walls; on the interior side all shelving, tables, and doors have horizontal lines that match the battens…

The second cantilevered carport…

This tiny balcony in the center of the photo below is off the Master Bedroom…

The Living Room and Study have these beautiful French doors opening onto the terrace… You can see through the house to the narrow clerestory windows on the opposite side of the room…

We thoroughly enjoyed touring this house. It is beautifully restored and maintained, and we were able to see all the rooms, with all the furniture, as if the family were still living there. Furniture not designed by FLlW is mostly designed by Rae and Charles Eames…

After our tour we walked into downtown Florence and walked the four blocks of Court St. Upon the recommendations of the Rosenbaum staff we had a lovely lunch at Odette…

After lunch we walked back to the Rosenbaum house where we had left the Villa. We drove to Tuscumbia, about five miles away, and parked at Heritage Acres RV Park.

This is a very basic, all gravel place, with no trees – good for satellite TV reception. Full hook-ups including cable are all very good. We wanted to refill one of our propane tanks, but when I went to take it off the Villa I found that it had been locked using a cable and a padlock. Could I find the combination to the lock? After tearing apart the trailer and the truck I finally found it, 1 1/2 hours later.

Well-deserved Happy Hours ensued, and an enjoyable time was had by all…

April 27, 2019 0

2019-04-22 – Airstream Caravan Travels – Traveling from Chattanooga, TN to Lynchburg TN, and Jack Daniels, and on to Huntsville, AL…

We prepared to leave for traveling to Lynchburg, TN, this morning. Then we realized that Lynchburg is in the Central Time Zone and we were still in Eastern time in Chattanooga. So we had an extra hour to kill. But we left relatively early, and had a nice drive across Tennessee. (The highway even dipped south for a few miles into Georgia before it turned slightly north back into Tennessee…)

We soon arrived in Lynchburg, and …

This is their fully restored antique truck, from all the way back in 1980…

Signage on this truck shows Jack Daniel’s motto: “All Goods Worth Price Charged.”

The tour began by hearing an explanation of what Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey is:

The law defines Tennessee Whiskey as: a spirit manufactured in Tennessee; made from grain that consists of at least 51% corn; distilled to no more than 160 proof (80% abv); filtered through maple charcoal prior to aging; aged in new charred oak barrels; placed in the barrel at no more than 125 proof (62.5% abv); and, bottled at not less than 80 proof (40% abv).

Except for the filtering through maple charcoal, this defines Bourbon. In other words, Tennessee Whiskey is Bourbon filtered through maple charcoal. Jack Daniels calls this process “Mellowing”.

We started at the Rick House, where they burn the sugar maple; we moved on to the water source, deep inside this cave:

Here is a statue of Jack Daniel standing on a granite boulder; you know, Jack on the Rocks…

This building was the headquarters office used by Jack Daniel’s up until 1958; it was here, in about 1905, that Jack kicked the company safe one morning, broke his toe, and died a few years later from gangrene, at the age of 61.

The owners of the company in 1958 (four brothers who had inherited the business) sold the business to Brown-Foreman for $20,000,000. It is still owned by Brown-Foreman today. Brown-Foreman also owns Early Times, Old Forester, Woodford Reserve, Canadian Mist, GlenDronach, BenRiach, Glenglassaugh, Finlandia, Herradura, Korbel, and Chambord.

This is the Still House; it contains four giant 90′ tall stills, which produce the clear corn whiskey:

The sour mash waste, after it is distilled, is piped over to this facility, where it is sold to local farmers as cattle feed; it still contains 6-8% alcohol. Talk about contented cows!

This is the Mellowing House, where the clear whiskey is dripped, drop by drop, over a 10′ tall stack of charcoal, a process called mellowing…

The bottling lines are always my favorite part of these tours… This is a small line dedicated to their Single Barrel Whiskeys. It dates from 1970 and seemed to me to be very non-automated – there is a lot of work done manually, like putting on labels, hanging tags around the neck, and putting the bottles into the cardboard boxes…

Finally, the tour over, we head to the educational part of the tour: the tasting. This is strictly for educational purposes only, since drinking whiskey in this county is forbidden…

We were given five sample with which to get educated. It totaled about one ounce; we were told about how each type is made and what the differences are. The funny thing was that both Lynda and I found the Rye to be terribly sweet, yet the “honey” version had very little taste at all. Our guide checked it out and found that the two samples were switched! It mattered little – we didn’t like either of them… I found that I liked Gentleman Jack, while Lynda preferred the original…

After the educational portion of the tour we walked through one of the old barrel rooms…

After the tour we could return to the Visitor Center. While you cannot buy whiskey in this county, you can buy souvenir bottles here. The bottles were filled with some sort of brown liquid…

We walked 1/2 mile into downtown Lynchburg, and enjoyed lunch at Bottle House BBQ:

We returned to the Villa and drove to Huntsville, Alabama…

They are building McMansions here, too…

We parked at an RV park at NASA’s Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville…

The RV park is very nice. And cheap! I wish we had RV parks in California like this for $20 per night…

For dinner this night we met up with friends we met on the Nor’ by Nor’ East Caravan; they will also be joining us on the Kentucky caravan in a few days…

Dinner was great! Pork Belly appetizer and Crawfish Fritters, with a nice bottle of an Oregon Pinot Noir!

And an enjoyable time was had by all…

April 26, 2019 0

2019-04-21 – Airstream Caravan Travels – Easter Sunday and moving from Asheville, NC to Chattanooga, TN

We had a leisurely morning. It was cold! 41 degrees! We had a little hitching up to do; at about 9:30 we pulled out of the RV park and drove 5 miles into downtown Asheville. We parked at the Visitor Center (it was closed), and walked towards the First Presbyterian Church. It is Easter!

By the time we were approaching the church we noted that we were over one hour early. And we were cold! So we stopped into Mayfel’s for brunch. The Crab Cakes Benedict was great!

Brunch over, we walked the 3 short blocks to church. We were none too early. This is not a “five minute church”. We always worry when we attend a church as we are traveling that we are sitting in someone’s favorite seat!

FPC Asheville 1 FPC Asheville 2

We didn’t take these photos while we were there – I stole them off the internet…

This was a lovely, VERY traditional Easter Service; organ, orchestra, choir, and the singing of the Hallelujah Chorus at the end. We were invited to join the choir to sing! (Not just us – everyone was invited…). It was very nice…

We slipped out after the final singing and walked back to the Villa. We pointed the truck west and we were off. Quite a late start for us, but the weather was beautiful, and we had no reason to arrive at our destination (Chattanooga, TN) at any particular time…

The freeway out of Asheville; different than all the other southern states we have seen…

It was great to see blue sky again!

We pulled off the 40 Interstate to the 74. No trucks! It was a beautiful freeway for awhile…

And then we entered the Nantahala Gorge… Two lane road, sharp turns, and a raging river!

We stopped to take it all in…

Eventually we reached Murphy, NC, where we stopped to do a little grocery shopping…

Soon we were in Tennessee…

The small roads continued, with views of rivers and lakes…

We reached Chattanooga and the Raccoon Mountain RV Park at about 6:00…

The park is in a canyon, with views of mountains all around…

Time to affix the sticker for the new state!

Happy hours and dinner ensued, and an enjoyable time was had by all…

April 26, 2019 0

2019-04-18 – Airstream Caravan Travels – Columbia, SC…

This morning we met the VanZanens at the zoo… And you know how much I love zoos!

Just a reminder: Flamingos have nothing to do with Airstreams! There is no connection, no tradition, no reason to wear flamingo-emblazoned clothing, no reason to install flamingos around your Airstream!

Feeding the giraffe!

After the zoo we went to downtown Columbia…

First Presbyterian Church:

The church is surrounded by a cemetery, dating back to the early 19th century. Woodrow Wilson’s parents are buried here, as is the wife and four children of a man who went back to Connecticut in 1855 because he was a northerner and was unhappy with the political climate in South Carolina. There are also numerous political figures, ministers, and church families. Very interesting!

We then walked to the capitol building; great story on the plaque about the construction and destruction… Note that one of the broken columns from the capitol was used as a confederate memorial in the Presbyterian church cemetery…

Lynda and Maria with George Washington…

Inside the main lobby, looking up at the rotunda…

Legislative chambers of the SC House of Representatives… when we arrived into the lobby it was packed with men and women in suits; the House had just adjourned; the Senate was still in session…

We exited through the main portico and continued walking through downtown…

Soon lunch happened at the Blue Marlin; very nice! It is located in the old train station…

After enjoying the streets of downtown we drove a short ways to a river-walk; we walked about 1/2 mile down, then back up along the river…

We reconvened at Brent’s house and enjoyed happy hours; more family time…

We returned to the Villa; an enjoyable time was had by all…

April 22, 2019 0

Adventures in the Villa

Category

2019-05-02 – Airstream Caravan Travels – Springtime in Kentucky; Louisville and their Slugger! – Day #8

2019-04-28 – Airstream Caravan Travels – Springtime in Kentucky; Traveling from Bowling Green to Bardstown, KY; Jim Beam! – Day #4

2019-04-26 – Airstream Caravan Travels – Springtime in Kentucky; Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY – Day #2

2019-04-25 – Airstream Caravan Travels – Springtime in Kentucky; Bowling Green, KY – Day #1

2019-04-24 – Airstream Caravan Travels – Traveling from Tuscumbia, AL, to Bowling Green, KY;

2019-04-23 – Airstream Caravan Travels – Traveling from Huntsville to Florence to Tuscumbia, AL, and Frank Lloyd Wright…

2019-04-22 – Airstream Caravan Travels – Traveling from Chattanooga, TN to Lynchburg TN, and Jack Daniels, and on to Huntsville, AL…

2019-04-21 – Airstream Caravan Travels – Easter Sunday and moving from Asheville, NC to Chattanooga, TN

2019-04-18 – Airstream Caravan Travels – Columbia, SC…

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