M – I - Crooked Letter – Crooked Letter…

Don’t worry, we didn’t go to Mississippi.  We got our first glimpse of the mighty Mississippi in Memphis, but as we headed to St. Louis, we decided we had to find a Mark Twain– esque trip to the river. 

The Gateway Arch as seen from the Mississippi River. 

Before we get to that part of our trip, we have our Saturday night.  We tried desperately to find something to do on Saturday night in St. Louis with few results.  Every show we wanted to see started the next week, and dinner cruises on the Mississippi started in April.  Sigh.

There was Disney on Ice: Dare to Dream.  K refused.  I think mostly because he knew it would end up in the blog. 

So I happened to find a mystery murder dinner theater at the Bissell Mansion.  Now, we lived about ten minutes from two of these places for three and a half years in Williamsburg and never went, despite K’s regular requests.  Now here we are in St. Louis and K finally gets his wish!

It was a classic whodunit.  We were out to solve the murder of Norma Lee, the leader of the Dapper Flappers,  a female bootlegging gang.  I was Rita the Rat, a former WWI spy who was fourth in succession for the Dapper Flappers.  K was Wynn Stun, don of the Stun Family mob.  Sadly, I cannot report that we were dressed in costume as we would normally do for such an event.  But hey, it was last minute.

Anyway, it was mediocre acting and mediocre food but it was fantastic.  So silly that it was fun.  K refused to get out of character all night, even to talk to the other people at our table.  Who is surprised?? 

We all thought it was actually Wynn Stun who killed Norma because he was sweet on her.  Turns out that it was one of this other girlfriends who found out he was trying to woo her.  Jerk. 

The only downside was that this place was in the ghetto.  The serious ghetto.  As someone who has lived outside DC and in Savannah, I can honestly tell you that this was ghetto like we had never seen.  So we had a cab waiting for us before we would walk out of the building at the end of the night!

Luckily, I just so happened to remember that one of the folks at our table recommended a BBQ place called Pappy’s.  We decided to drive by at 10:30 on Sunday morning, even though they didn’t open until 11, just to check it out.  The smokers smelled absolutely amazing, and the parking lot was actually getting a little full so we decided to stay.  It’s a good thing we did, because they let us go in early.  We walked in and there was a line all the way through the place.  

The smokers at Pappy's. I wish you could smell how amazing it was!

Note the Adam Bomb, named after Adam Richman. 

Pappy’s is one of St. Louis’ best known BBQ places, visited by the likes of Iron Chef Mike Symon and Adam Richman of Man v. Food fame.  We got beef brisket and pulled pork to split accompanied by fried corn on the cob and green beans. 

It was delicious.  Kansas City better bring it to beat this BBQ. 

So after BBQ, we got our wish and went on a riverboat cruise on the Mississippi aboard the Tom Sawyer.  At this point, I will mention that St. Louis was amazingly crowded over the weekend.  Turns out the NCAA tourney games were also in town, so every hotel was booked and the riverboat and Gateway Arch were both crazy busy. 

As we were waiting to depart for our riverboat cruise, we saw the North Carolina Tarheels all walk up to the river and take turns spitting in it.  A tradition for good luck, maybe? 

Didn’t work for them, I hear.  Also totally busting whatever was left of K’s bracket!

Anyway, we cruised up and down the Mississippi and heard a surprising amount of information about different docks, barges and the cargo they carry.  The quaint riverfront that we were imagining was a smidge more industrial than we expected. 

Lewis and Clark Statue in the river.  The river was actually up twelve or thirteen feet while we were there.  The week before, none of those cars could have been where you see them! 

 

The old electric company.  

Next it was off to Journey to the Top, a tram ride to the top of the 630 foot Gateway Arch.  (By the way, I know you must be thinking, wow, this sounds like a lot of touristy action for the Macs.  But I will mention that the Arch is a memorial to Thomas Jefferson.  Enough said.)

My favorite picture that I took of the Arch.  From underneath looking straight up. 

K and his homeboy, TJ.  He really wanted to put the UVA hat he is holding on TJ's head, but there was a park ranger standing right there.  Sigh. 

There was a lot of waiting in line inside the Arch.  I will spare you a rant on that (but seriously, what is the point of a reservation??) and just say eventually we made it into the  tram car, a tiny little capsule. 

Then we realized that going to the top of the Arch meant being inside of the Arch.  At 630 feet.  Inside what essentially felt like a metal coffin FULL of tourists. 

We didn’t last too long.  Long enough for me to snap some pictures out of the windows while K stood still in the middle of the thing.  (He is afraid of heights… I am not, and being up here made me a little nervous.  Imagine how he felt!) 

So back down we go.  Enough of the touristy stuff… off to see the Hunger Games finally!  We found a theater in a really cool district of St. Louis, the West End.  The cinema was inside a gorgeous hotel and there were tons of nice restaurants.  We wanted to spend the night relaxing with Banger, so we popped into a cute market, bought a bottle of wine and headed back to our hotel.  (Which, by the way, had free popcorn.  Any hotel with free popcorn is one I like!)

Fun fact about St. Louis: It was home to the Saint Louis Bread Company, whom Au Bon Pain bought and used for its inspiration.  The name Panera Bread came a bit later.  It has the same menu, but the stores in St. Louis got to keep their name. 

And that was St. Louis.  

Walking with Our Feet 10 Feet Off of Beale...

Morning!  Sorry about the lack of posts.  I had the Nashville one written, but the internet in our Memphis hotel was dreadfully slow so it didn't get posted.  And I just didn't feel like writing yesterday!

But now I'm back.  So Memphis.  

Again, not surprisingly to those who know us well, we didn't do much typical sightseeing in Memphis.  And by this I mean that K didn't want to go to Graceland with me.  All the way to Memphis and we don't even go see the King's home?  Shameful.

But we did see Beale Street.  Oh boy, did we see Beale Street!

I was totally suckered in by the Cinderella themed horse drawn carriages, so we went on a half hour ride and saw places where Elvis worked, etc.  But mostly we played with the puppy that rode on the carriage with her owner... a nine month old lab - pitt bull mix.  She was so sweet.  

The night didn't last too long after a run in (or several run ins, if we are being honest...) with Fireball, a cinnamon whiskey.  

If you have ever gone out with us, this pattern will be familiar.  We went out, drank, I was asleep by the cab ride home and K ate tons of Chinese food. 

The Macs do Memphis.

We will be back soon with a multi-day post about St. Louis.  Yep, we finally decided to stay in a city for more than one night!  I promise it will be more respectable, Mom. 

Miles traveled: 1000.  

Days on the road: 5

Goals and Gloria

Morning!  Kentucky was good to us, but it was time for us to move along.  If we stayed in Bardstown much longer, we would have been too tempted not to leave.

So it was off to Nashville, the country music capital, for the first time for both of us.

We made the most amazing discovery on route to Nashville… In Cave City, Kentucky, lies one of Kentucky’s best kept secrets…. Dinosaur World!  In fact, I just happened to look up and see a billboard and say, Dinosaur World at the next exit.  Huh. 

It took K about five seconds to pull into the right lane and prepare to exit!

When we went in the store to check it out, we made another awesome discovery… it was an outdoor walk through the woods that was pet friendly!  Banger would get to enjoy the glory that is Dinosaur World as well!

So off into the woods we went.  We were greeted by velociraptors, Tyrannasauras Rex, stegasauras, triceratops and the like.  And, if you know us at all, you know we had to ignore the signs that said do not cross the ropes to have some interaction with these awesome bright, plastic creatures.

We also discovered the real reason that dinosaurs are extinct. 

Banger got to them.

Then it was on to Nashville for a less than typical visit.  We didn’t go see the Grand Ole Opry, the Country Music Hall of Fame, or any of the more typical sites.  We did, however, eat Indian food at a resataurant across the street from the hotel and go see the U.S. Men’s Olympic qualifier game against Cuba. 

Oh yeah, I dyed my hair in Nashville too.  In fact, we did temporary dye and it was bright blue.  For about 2 minutes.  I sort of felt like I had a blue helmet on because it was more like paint than dye.  

Spoiler alert if you care about soccer and haven’t seen the score:  The U.S. STOMPED Cuba.  6-0.  It was incredible.  Also incredible was the somewhat small but amazingly enthusiastic crowd that was America’s version of soccer hooligans.  Including a man dressed in revolutionary garb beating a drum.  Apparently they are called Sam’s Army.

It was a little sad that there were only a couple thousand people attending and it was in the Tennessee Titans stadium, so it looked pathetic.  But where we were lacking in numbers, we made up in singing and cheering.  Loudly.

We did do the typical tour through some of the bars in the District, and after seeing the District at night, the nickname of NashVegas made sense to us.  It was an awesome stretch of honky tonk bars… plenty of neon cowboys, cowboy boots, and guitars.  The bar of choice for us (keep in mind, this was before the soccer match, so about 6:00) was Paradise Park Trailer Resort.  Yep, a trailer park themed bar complete with light fixtures made from tires and bathtubs behind the bar full of ice in which they kept the liquor.  Amazing.  Also amazing was the band playing, essentially just for us as we were the only patrons.  It is Nashville, after all… if that is the band playing to an almost empty bar on a Thursday at 6, we would love to see the acts playing to bigger bars on the weekend! 

Oh, in case you were wondering, I switched from Kentucky bourbon whiskey to Tennessee whiskey (Gentleman Jack, courtesy of Allie!) to fit in with the locals. 

All in all, we thought Nashville was pretty awesome.  Let’s see how it compares with Memphis tomorrow! 

Miles Travelled: 790

Days on the Road: 4

K’s Korner.

So I’ve decided to add my perspective to these stories from time to time.

DinoLand.  This place is basically exactly like the park in Jurassic Park, except it’s just off exit 45, all the dinosaurs are plastic, and Jeff Goldblum is Gloria, a 180 year old fossil working the admissions desk who easily clears out a packet of Pall Mall’s every hour.  The coup de gras was a tin shack with a “Museum” sign hanging over it that turned out to be a series of posters telling us about ‘terrible lizards’ that was about one step above an elementary school science fair.  It was the best kind of awful.

A Girl and Her Bourbon

Cheers! 

I am a very happy girl.  Maker’s Mark Distillery did not disappoint. 

In case any of you are considering going to the distillery (and I highly recommend that you do!), you should know that you have to be pretty commited to getting there.  It is in the absolute middle of nowhere.  The closest hotel we could find was about thirty minutes from the place. (Don’t worry, K drove so I could enjoy the bourbon.)  I had to put my qualms about the hotel aside because choices for pet friendly places were pretty limited. 

So we make it to Maker’s Mark in the afternoon and a tour was starting in about thrity minutes.  We used that time to wander the grounds, pop into the gift shop, and then explore the Samuels’ home.  Fun fact: Bill Samuels, the founder and former president of Maker’s Mark, was the godson of Jim Beam.

Also in the house was the below plaque and revolver… slightly perplexing why it is not in the Smithsonian if it really was the revolver present at the surrender ending the Civil War.  But cool nonetheless. 

      

There are way too many cool things from our visit, so I will spare you a lesson on bourbon.  A big take away from the tour is that it is a shockingly small operation.  All Maker’s Mark bourbon whiskey is made right in the very rooms we were in and you can see below.  They have kept a lot of tradition, keeping the antique press used to crush their grains, using one hundred year old cypress tanks for the fermentation, and using the same still as when it all started. 

One of the 2 copper distillers.

Tanks of fermenting bourbon.  Yes, I considered diving in.  Until they let us taste it. 

We got to dip our fingers into the fermenting bourbon, too! 

The aging process is done in nondescript black buildings for five years, nine months and some change.  In fact, we passed some of these buildings on the way in and were pretty sure there was some kind of NSA or CIA complex right there in Loretto, KY.  Turns out its barrels of bourbon.  Way better.

Now for one of the coolest parts… Maker’s Mark’s signature look is the red wax in which each bottle is dipped.  When we were in the bottling room, we got to see the dippers at work.  Yep, every bottle that you see in the liquor store is hand dipped by one of eight workers on the line who has to dip a bottle about every two seconds.  Crazy. 

And then I got to dip my own bottle of Maker’s Mark in the trademark red wax!!!  Totally awesome.  Of course, it was in the gift shop, not on the bottling line, but still pretty amazing.  The guy working there will pretty much dip anything else that you want dipped, so K had a mug dipped and I had a Maker’s Mark Ambassador rock glass dipped.  (Yes, I am a Maker’s Mark Ambassador.  You had no idea I was that cool, did you??)

After the tour, you get to do the tasting.  Yum!  For the first time ever, they have been bottling some of the white whiskey before aging.  Basically corn liquor.  White dog.  We got the chance to taste some if we chose.  Of course I did!  I’m only here once, right?

Ew.  Horrific.  How that stuff becomes wonderful Maker’s is a mystery to me.

Later that night, we decided to go to dinner in Bardstown, where we were staying.  Known as the Bourbon Capital of the World because it is pretty central to a lot of the distilleries on the Bourbon Trail.

Folks, welcome to Perfect Town, USA.  Seriously.  It was so idyllic we felt like we were on the Truman Show or something.  Or in a fairy tale.  And of course, we eat that kind of stuff up with a spoon.

We popped into the Bourbon Bar at Old Talbott Tavern, a building from 1779, to grab a drink.  We ended up grabbing a bourbon sampler of five amazing bourbons.  Poor K, who doesn’t exactly enjoy bourbon the way I do, was a good sport about tasting them all.  I was in heaven.  The best?  Elijah Craig Single Barrel 18 year.  Yum.

While sipping our bourbon whiskey, we ended up talking football with a local Steelers fan.  Steeler Nation runs deep!

We then walked to Rickhouse Restaurant, which is literally in the cellar of the bourbon history museum right there in town.  Awesome.  If you ever do the Bourbon Trail, stay in Bardstown and eat at Rickhouse.  We had an amazing meal with wine for fifty bucks. 

Don’t be surprised if one day, we buy an old Victorian house in Bardstown with a swing and ceiling fan on the porch.  Don’t worry, you can come visit.  I’ll have a mint julep waiting for you.

Since we are so ahead of schedule, we have added a serious detour to the trip.  Tomorrow, we are off to Nashville, then will hit up Memphis! 

Total Miles Travelled: 620

Days on the Road: 3

Miles to go: who knows.  We keep changing the route.  We’ll get there eventually.

The Loneliest Road

 Greetings from Kentucky!  Yes, Kentucky.  You may recall that we planned on stopping in Charleston, WV.  Turns out we didn’t.

Wild and Wonderful West Virginia is a beautiful drive through the mountains.  Sort of.  There are lots of things that are beautiful… we took a little side trip up to the New River Gorge and got to see the New River Bridge.  Beautiful!  And Banger made it down the 162 wooden steps to the look out point for the bridge and back up again!  Pretty impressive when you are about 10 inches tall. 

But the thing about West Virginia is that you go through these strings of industrial towns… mostly coal mining towns, but some other stuff, like the DuPont plant.  It’s a little peculiar because there are a lot of supposedly distinct towns, but really its just clusters of residential areas every couple of miles.  Anyway… not so beautiful. 

We did, however, stop to get some scratch off lottery tickets because who doesn’t love a good scratch ticket?  As you can see, they had a pretty awesome one… Git-R-Won with Larry the Cable Guy.  And I did, in fact, git-r-won!  So we immediately bought another ticket and lost that three bucks. 

Guess we succumbed to Larry’s temptation. 

So we make it to Charleston and there is a shocking dearth of pet friendly hotels.  And, to be honest, not that many things that looked super interesting.  So Banger gave Charleston the bird and off we went.

As we were leaving West Virginia, we (finally) looked up a website about cross country trips.  Turns out the path we had chosen, 64 West, its called “the Loneliest Road,” and the loneliest part of the road is West Virginia.  Procrastination bites us in the butt again.

K then got it in his head that if we had made it that far, he didn’t want to stay in West Virginia.  On to Kentucky!

Kentucky is a pretty charming little state!  Except for its hotels.  They leave a little to be desired.  And here is our first go round with my hesitation with some less costly hotels.  (K calls me a hotel snob.  I just think I have doubts about places that look like they could be cooking meth next door.  Just saying.)  We pulled off to look at a couple of places and got right back onto the highway.  Sorry, but I’d really hate to be murdered in my sleep.  In the end, after looking at a couple of places , we found a decent room.  And yes, we are those people that occasionally ask to see a hotel room before booking it.  And by we, I mean me. 

Part of Kentucky’s charm?  A vending machine selling Kentucky’s own soda, Ale 8, for 50 cents.  (I actually just had to look to see if there was still a cent sign on the keyboard.  Guess not.)  And not only is Ale 8 a yummy ginger ale… it came in a glass bottle!  Pretty great. 

Since we drove so far unexpectedly, we were pretty tired, so just wanted to get dinner and watch some TV in the hotel.  We went to Lee’s Famous Fried Chicken and uncovered a family rift of epic proportion.  Epic like the split bwetween the brothers that began Adidas and Puma.  Lee and his uncle, Sanders, developed a chicken recipe together, including pressure cooking the chicken.  Yep, appparecntly good ole Colonel Sanders has some skeletons in the closet!  You see, Colonel Sanders wanted to sell off the company and Lee didn’t want to sell out to corporate vultures.  So he went off on his own, modified his recipe a little bit, and created (a much less successful) rival.  How did we learn all of this?  The history was framed on the wall.  And on the bag.  A little nicer terms, but the undertones were there. 

Our last little bit of Kentucky charm was right there in that Lee’s Famous Chicken restaurant.  You see, they have a dinner buffet.  (Like some KFC’s, but hey, who is keeping score?)  One of the patrons, a more portly gentleman who appeared to be a regular, seemed pretty serious about his fried chicken. 

While we were fumbling at the counter deciding what chicken to get (Famous? Crispy ‘n Spicy?  Its not a decision to be taken lightly), the man came up.  He seemed a bit frustrated, but retained his southern graces as he reminded the girl that they were out of chicken on the buffet. 

Moments later, as the girl behind the counter, who looked like she enjoyed some fried chicken herself and not so much the green beans that she was recommending to us, was taking our order, up he came again.  Here is things get a little bit fuzzy.  We couldn’t necessarily make out the disgruntled mumblings of a man who hadn’t had fried chicken in a couple of minutes, but the message was clear.  He wasn’t’ messing about anymore. 

The poor man finally got his chicken and I watched as he loaded another four pieces to his plate.  I happened to glance at his table, where he had four empty plates.  You do the math.  Charming, no?

Ok, its at least impressive.  You have to admit that.

Tomorrow, I am on the search for my own Holy Grail.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen… WE ARE GOING TO THE MAKER’S MARK DISTILLERY!

Total miles traveled: 460

Days on the road: 2

Miles left to go: 1340 ish