Bourbon Trail: Lexington, Mary Todd Lincoln House, Woodford Reserve, Claudia Sanders Dinner House

Mary Todd was born in Lexington, Kentucky.  At twenty she went to live with her older married sister in Springfield, Illinois.  It was there, at a dance, that she met a lawyer ten years her senior whose career as an attorney and politician was on the ascendant.  The Lexington house that the future first lady lived in from the age fourteen until her departure for Springfield is now the Mary Todd Lincoln House museum. 

It is a two-story brick structure with rooms now furnished with pieces from the period that she lived in the house.  There are also a number of Todd family artifacts, well-marked throughout the house.  It is a self guided tour but it is well posted with written information about the time Mary lived in the house and about the rest of her tumultuous life.  This was a good museum.  I learned a lot about Mary Todd Lincoln, things that I did not already know, and to some extent it reshaped my perception of her. 

The well-to-do home that Mary lived in from ages 14 to 20

The grounds around the house

Family Dining Room

Mary as First Lady

We drove on to Woodford Reserve distillery which has to be the most picturesque distillery in Kentucky.  We walked around the grounds, bought a small batch bottle of bourbon, and had afternoon cocktails on the  porch.  I'm not sure, but I kinda think this is what heaven is all about.

Woodford Reserve

So much bourbon, so little time.

One of the first patented recipes

Barrels on their way to be filled with the ambrosia of Kentucky

Heaven

Perhaps the most famous food in this state is Kentucky Fried Chicken, re-branded in 1991 to KFC.  After the Colonel sold the company he used that money to build his dream home.  After a while his wife (considerably younger than him) wanted to develop her own business.  So behind their dream home, he built the very large "Claudia Sanders Dinner House".  Sandy and I stopped there for a simple chicken dinner.  Chicken-Fried-Chicken, mashed potatoes, baked apples.  Probably what many Kentuckians have for dinner every Sunday afternoon.

The original Colonel

Kentucky's First Lady of Fried Chicken

The Sanders' dream house.

Still following the plan of having an all "free" electricity trip.  We moved from Frankfort to Louisville for another hotel with a free destination charger.  When we arrived we found that the hotel's standard charger was not working, at least not on our Bolt.  Fortunately, there were two Tesla chargers and I have a converter that allows me to charge the Bolt using the Tesla chargers.  So far, it is all working.

The white device is what allows me to use a charger with a Tesla Plug