Kentucky & Indiana: Follow-up

I can finally say that my body and my brain are both back in the same time zone. And it's given me the opportunity to do a little more reflection on my trip.

Kentucky is really green, even though they're in the middle of a drought. It's also warm, and humid. For a girl from the west coast, humidity is not a completely pleasant thing. I saw more brick houses than I've ever seen in my life. They have a little problem with termites, and one of the few woods those pesky bugs don't like is yellow poplar. See, I learned lots of interesting things. For instance:

• It takes 30 seconds to shape a wooden bat at the Louisville Slugger fact0ry.
• Many of the old buildings in downtown Louisville are cast iron, not brick, wood or cement.
• Bourbo whiskey, to earn the bourbon label, must be aged at least 2 years in a virgin, charred, white oak barrel.
• Each barrel of bourbon will lose about 46% of it's volume in 7 years of aging.
• Only four distilleries in the United States stayed open during Prohibition. They produced medicinal alcohol. The maximum prescribed amount was 1 pint every 10 days.
• Two school teachers in Frankfort are credited with creating the first bourbon ball candy in 1919. The company, Rebecca-Ruth, still makes them, turning out 100,000 pounds of candy each year.
• Most people think about Thoroughbreds in Kentucky, but Shelby Co. produces a great number of Saddlebreds as well.
• Much of Kentucky draws it's water from a limestone aquifer, giving the water a higher percentage of calcium.
• The Ohio River has a cascades rapids, dropping the river level 26 feet over 2.5 miles. It proved to be a challenge to riverboat travel during the 19th century.

We didn't spend as much time in Indiana. It struck me as a more open landscape. The most interesting thing we learned there is that the land on which the the Lincoln Boyhood Home National Monument was once owned, in part, by one of my ancestors. That's pretty cool. :)

Kentucky & Indiana

A week ago my parents and headed to Louisville, Kentucky for a family reunion. This reunion is an annual event that moves around the country, and includes descendents from a common ancestor who lived during the Revolutionary War. It's a lot of fun, and I really enjoy the relatives. Now I just need to rest up from my vacation!

For anyone who hasn't been to Kentuckiana (yes, they call it that down there), there's so much to do. A brief list of things we saw and experienced include: The Louisville Slugger Museum, the Frazier International History Museum, Bardstown, My Old Kentucky Home State Park, The Bourbon Heritage Center at Heaven Hill Distillery, Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby Museum, Locust Grove, Abraham Lincoln Birthplace, Abraham Lincoln Boyhood home, The Ohio River, Buffalo Trace Distilley, Bluegrass Country, Frankfort, Jim Beam Distillery, and a few other things. It feels like I haven't stopped moving in the last week. And all of this was in addition to the time spent with our cousins who came from ten other states for this reunion. It really was remarkable.