21 April ‘09 Tuesday
We left Mammoth Cave’s on a bright and sunny morning that we hoped would stay…it didn’t… Driving up I-65 toward Louisville, Louise came up with a stop that we thought we would enjoy the boyhood home of Abe Lincoln. Just outside of Hodgenville, we arrived at The Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site.
It had been a long journey since his birth on February 12, 1809 in a small cabin near a mill that is now Hodgenville, Kentucky. The park is located in a forested setting on what was once Sinking Spring Farm, which had been purchased for $200 in 1808 by Thomas and Nancy Lincoln. Abraham (Abe) was born soon afterwards and spent his first two and a half years here before moving to a farm on Knob Creek about 10 miles to the north. Although it was cool, overcast, and off and on rain, we enjoyed the drive through the brilliant green Kentucky countryside. I must say however, the roads we traveled off of the Interstate were very narrow and kept me on my toes the whole time we were driving to and from the Lincoln sites.
The park consists of a visitors’ center, the birthplace memorial and Sinking Spring. As we have seen all over this part of Kentucky, the forest has been terribly damaged by the ice storm in January and many areas of the park have been closed because of danger from falling branches still hanging above trails and open areas. Unfortunately, the park facility at Knob Creek was closed due to ice storm damage.
We left Mammoth Cave’s on a bright and sunny morning that we hoped would stay…it didn’t… Driving up I-65 toward Louisville, Louise came up with a stop that we thought we would enjoy the boyhood home of Abe Lincoln. Just outside of Hodgenville, we arrived at The Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site.
It had been a long journey since his birth on February 12, 1809 in a small cabin near a mill that is now Hodgenville, Kentucky. The park is located in a forested setting on what was once Sinking Spring Farm, which had been purchased for $200 in 1808 by Thomas and Nancy Lincoln. Abraham (Abe) was born soon afterwards and spent his first two and a half years here before moving to a farm on Knob Creek about 10 miles to the north. Although it was cool, overcast, and off and on rain, we enjoyed the drive through the brilliant green Kentucky countryside. I must say however, the roads we traveled off of the Interstate were very narrow and kept me on my toes the whole time we were driving to and from the Lincoln sites.
The park consists of a visitors’ center, the birthplace memorial and Sinking Spring. As we have seen all over this part of Kentucky, the forest has been terribly damaged by the ice storm in January and many areas of the park have been closed because of danger from falling branches still hanging above trails and open areas. Unfortunately, the park facility at Knob Creek was closed due to ice storm damage.
One more thing, this last March 13th, the US Mint issued a new Lincoln One-Cent coin that has a re-design of the Lincoln cabin. Leaving the Lincoln Historic Site behind we continued on those same narrow roads on our way to Makers Mark in Loretto, Kentucky about 30 miles further off of the main roads. I’m sure they don’t travel many of these roads with motor homes and larger trucks. They are narrow roads and there are NO shoulders
5 miles outside of Loretto and following a long driveway we found ourselves arriving at Maker’s Mark Distillery. Unfortunately for us, they didn’t have a parking area that could handle a motor home with a toad. We tried to make a U-turn but found ourselves caught half in and half out of the parking lot. Fortunately we weren’t in a position of blocking anyone right away, but we still had to un-hook the toad pretty quickly. After getting the car parked we took the coach over to the side of the driveway and finally felt we were set to go in and join a tour.
Maker’s Mark Bourbon Distillery is in a beautiful surrounding of dark green hills, a crystal clear stream, and buildings that date back to the early 1920’s. One of the buildings was called the “first package” store in Kentucky and it just happens to be here at Marker's Mark.
5 miles outside of Loretto and following a long driveway we found ourselves arriving at Maker’s Mark Distillery. Unfortunately for us, they didn’t have a parking area that could handle a motor home with a toad. We tried to make a U-turn but found ourselves caught half in and half out of the parking lot. Fortunately we weren’t in a position of blocking anyone right away, but we still had to un-hook the toad pretty quickly. After getting the car parked we took the coach over to the side of the driveway and finally felt we were set to go in and join a tour.
Maker’s Mark Bourbon Distillery is in a beautiful surrounding of dark green hills, a crystal clear stream, and buildings that date back to the early 1920’s. One of the buildings was called the “first package” store in Kentucky and it just happens to be here at Marker's Mark.
Those that wanted to re-fill their bottles or flasks would pull up to this building and purchase their needs. Something of interest about the distillery, bottling, and warehouse buildings, they are all painted in a dark charcoal coloring with dark red shutters. The dark charcoal color is perfect because of the black mold that all distilleries produce and cover all the buildings and trees within 100 yards of the brewing area. This tour was much quicker than the one we took at Jack Daniel’s but on this one we were awarded with a tasting room that we could actually taste Maker’s Mark Bourbon. One more tasting was offered during the tour…sample the mash…
The first tank of mash had a sweeter taste to it. The second tasted a little like a “stale beer” and the last one was just plain sour. Maker’s Mark also has made it’s self a recognizable mark…the red waxing seal it receives at the end of the bottling process.
I’ll say one thing, I did enjoy the tour here at Maker’s Mark but I still enjoy J/D more….what can I say??? For some reason I had a heck of a day “feeling” the directions we were traveling today. It could have been that the narrow and undulating roads kept me holding the wheel tight and eyes close to the coach. I just felt lost all day. Finally we intercepted with I-65 again and headed the last 20 miles toward Louisville and our next campground.
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