Tuesday, 5/21 Town Branch, Kentucky Horse Farm Park

One more distillery, one more time for Dottie and I to be left in the RV because we're too young. By the way, friends of Nana and Poppa's had an RV and rather logically called it "Harvey". You know, "RV", "Harvey"? Well, since they sold "Harvey", Nana and Poppa are thinking about calling our RV "Harvey". So we might try it out for a while to see if we like it and to make sure R&B don't have a copyright on "Harvey".

Anyway, Dottie and I have played all of Nana and Poppa's games - cribbage, scrabble, rummikub. Dottie found a game on the internet called "Strip Poker" so we decided to try it. We shuffled the cards, dealt them, and saw who had the better hand... then the game didn't seem to make any sense.



Maybe this game doesn't work for Tiggers and Dotties (or for Poppa on weekends).

Nana and Poppa had a good time at the Town Branch Distillery in Lexington. I'll let him tell you about it.

OK, here's a sign from the Town Branch Distillery that shows how the government works:




In Pennsylvania we have the Johnstown Flood Tax.
This is a 10% temporary tax on all alcohol sales in Pennsylvania, enacted in 1936 to pay for cleanup, repair, and assistance to the victims of the Johnstown Flood. It was never repealed, and was raised to 15% in 1963 and to 18% in 1968, were it still stands. The government has taken in over $16 BILLION since 1936, ostensibly to cover the $40 MILLION in flood damages.

(Climbing off the soapbox now.)

The Town Branch distillery is small and new. It uses two beautiful copper pot stills imported from Scotland:


We thought we had found a very low-tech labeling department:


Actually, they were taking labels OFF because the labeling machine had malfunctioned.

Here are the eight steps at the distillery:

























Poppa bought more samples to take home and share with friends. Now we're on the road again, headed for the Kentucky Horse Farm Park.

Kentucky is really pretty - very green, rolling hills, limestone outcroppings. We're in horse country with beautiful houses and stables, acres of grass, miles of wooden fences, and ... HORSES!

Poppa was looking at the names of some of the horse farms:
Ardmore Stud
Wainscote Stud
Snootynose Stud
Oldemunny Stud
and finally said "WoW! That's got to be even better than owning a Corvette - having your name on a horse farm with 'Stud' after it:
Coatsworth Stud

Uh-oh - Nana just fell down and is rolling around on the floor laughing.

Our next stop was the Kentucky Horse Farm Park. Man o' War was one of the most famous horses of all time:









We got to see four other famous horses up close:



Be A Bono is a famous quarter horse - they specialize in runing a quarter-mile race.




Funny Cide won the Kentucky Derby in 2003.



Da Hoss won the Breeders' Cup in 1996, and after suffering several injuries came from behind to win it again in 1998.



Cigar is the leading money winner of all time, having won just $115 shy of $10,000,000.

We thought Siggie had followed us to Kentucky:




Dottie and I got a ride on a REALLY big horse:




Now we're off to The Castle Post! It started raining really hard when we got there, so I'll write about it tomorrow.

- Tigger and Dottie seeing the country with Nana and Poppa