West Virginia

I left you thinking no doubt that all we were doing was working on stuff and biding our time, not so.  We have gotten pretty interested in bourbon, sounds better than we're drinking a lot of bourbon, huh?  Anyway, while we are in Kentucky we are not too far from the Bourbon Trail, so it's only appropriate that we visit, and of course, sample some bourbon.  We had gone to Makers Mark a couple times, and decided to visit Four Roses this time which makes one of our favorites, Four Roses Small Batch.  Jan and I were hoping our friends John and Diane were going to be able to join us, but unfortunately they couldn't make it, so off we went.  It is a unique distillery in that it was built with a Spanish Mission Style unusual for Kentucky.

Four Roses

Inside it is much the same as others, which makes perfect sense since all bourbon has to be pretty much the same by definition.

     It has to be made in the USA

     It has to contain at least 51% corn

     It has to be aged in new charred oak barrels that can only be used once

     It has to be bottled at at least 80 proof

But the interesting thing is is that they all taste different, hence the fun and enjoyment of imbibing:-)

The fermenting vats

The distillery

The "doubler" which does exactly that, doubles the
alcohol content

And the best time, the sampling!

We also had heard there was a farm nearby raising all natural bison and we had never gotten there for some reason.  We love bison and eat it often, but other than ground bison it is difficult to find.  Jan looked it up and found Woodland Farm, a 1000 acre historical farm that raises not only all natural bison, but also pork, eggs, and produce.  

We went to visit which was a kick as it was apparent they have a sense of whimsy along with some great product.

Along the entrance

Herds of snails

It was a great find, and we picked up quite a bit, and it was an opportunity for Karen to have bison for the first time, which she enjoyed.  Also we were able to get some eggs which were dynamite!

Multi-colored goodness

And now we are in Summerville, WV, about 300 miles east of Louisville.  Jan and I have spent very little time in this state, so we wanted to give it a visit.  The drive over was non eventful until we got within 50 miles or so when it became narrow, very winding, and  hairpinny, is that a word?  

A bit of a challenge!

We had to take both lanes to get around a couple of turns, but it was worth it, here's the view from our campsite.

Nice, huh?