Bourbon Trail: Frankfort, Distilleries

We started today with another pleasant drive, this time to the Capitol City of Frankfort.  With a total population of around 28,000 people which makes Frankfort smaller than our hometown by about 13,000.  Aside from being one of the smaller State Capitols that we have visited, it is also one of the prettiest.  The Capitol Building looks magnificent even though the dome was surrounded by scaffolding while being refurbished.  The building itself is in a beautiful wooded setting.  

Capitol Building

Huge Hanging Planters

More Landscaping

The Governor's Mansion

Daniel Boone spent much of his life in Kentucky.  He did eventually move on to Missouri, where he died at the age of 85.  That is when his life really got exciting.  He was buried right after death outside the home of his son.  As time passed, Kentucky felt that they had better claim to his (and Rebecca's) bones.  Finally, after a twenty-five year fight, Kentucky gained the right to remove their bodies and re-intere them in Kentucky.  So in 1845 he and Rebecca were buried in Frankfort Cemetery, lying now under an impressive monument at a site that looks across the Kentucky River valley.  The story is over.  There are those in Missouri who claim that the Kentuckians took the wrong earthly remains.  So what we
know is that there is a great historical monument sitting atop the graves of two people who were once buried in Missouri.  Daniel Boone, a man of few words, has remained silent on the subject.

We visited two distilleries today.  Buffalo Trace and Glenn's Creek.  The premises of these distilleries could not be more different.  Buffalo Trace is on track to be the largest Bourbon producing operation in the world.  It is designed to be both a producer of bourbon and an important stop for bourbon tourists.  Glenn's Creek is a much smaller operation with tourism as an afterthought.  Both produce very good bourbons.  

Buffalo Trace

Buffalo Trace

Buffalo Trace (right out of the barrel)

Once stored the barrels are not moved until ready to bottle

Glenn's Creek, less glitzy

Glenn's Creek

In between the distilleries we had lunch at Staxx BBQ, self proclaimed as the Capitol's favorite.

Bourbon Trail: Trip to Lexington, Electric Vehicle

Today we begin our week long visit to some of the bourbon producers of Kentucky.  We are doing this in our electric vehicle, the "Bolt".  This is our first extended trip with our all electric car.  Perhaps I am more enthused about the challenge than is Sandy.  While I fully charged the car in our garage before we left, the plan is that we will do the rest of the trip using "free" electricity.

We started the trip with the car predicting that we had 248 miles of electricity in the batteries and CarPlay predicting that we only had to drive 191 miles.  Easy Peazy!  Well, as the drive progressed, battery mileage kept going down and the mileage to the hotel recalibrated upward.  Still, we pulled in the hotel, plugged into the free destination charger and still had fifteen battery-miles to spare.  No sweat.

CarPlay says 191 miles to hotel 

The fully charged car says 203-248 battery-miles available

Arrived at the hotel with 15-19 battery-miles left

Bolt plugged in and guzzling the electricity.

While we did not do any real site-seeing today, we did drive though some beautiful country in Ohio and Kentucky.  Driving into Lexington we passed many elegant horse farms.  Kentuckians are proud of their state, stating that they make the best bourbon and raise the fastest horses.

 

Lancaster, Ohio: The Navajo Nation and General Sherman

 Sherman House Museum 

On April 14 the "Dineh Tah Navajo Dancers" came to Lancaster and the Sherman House Museum to bless the house in which Sherman spent the first nine years of his life.  Why?

Most know of Sherman the warrior.  Not as many know of Sherman the peace maker.  But, the Navajo do. Shawn Price, is a Navajo who has studied the treaty of 1868 between two nations, the Navajo and the United States of America.  General William Tecumseh Sherman, then the General of the Missouri Division of the U.S. Army and a representative of the "Indian Peace Commission" and the Navajo Chief Barboncito signed a treaty (nation to nation, later consented to by Congress and signed by President Andrew Johnson) that restored as an independent reservation a portion of the traditional Navajo homelands to the Navajos.  That treaty is still honored to this day.  

After the house blessing, which I was privileged to participate in, Shawn who is somewhat of a scholar on Sherman's relationship with the Navajo and other Plains Indian Nations and appreciative of the work that Sherman and Barboncito put into reaching an agreement, gave a lecture on the treaty in the Garret of the Lancaster library.

Later in the evening four young Navajo who are traveling the country with him performed some traditional tribal dances at the Crossroads.  It was a good day, nation to nation, and people to people. 

The Dineh Tah Navajo Dancers

Shawn Price

Dingle Peninsula, Ireland: Final Post of our North Sea Encirclement

The weather today was pretty wild.  We enjoyed sideways rain mostly until about two in the afternoon.  That was OK with us since this is the final day of the trip other than the two-day effort to return home.  So we had already planned on using the day to do a last load of laundry, prepare our bags for the trip home and to just sit, relax, and reminisce.  As this was a long trip, we have lots of reminiscing available.

Tomorrow we drive to Dublin, which will take about 5 hours.  On Tuesday we travel to London via Aerlingus, then from London to New York (JFK) via Virgin Atlantic and from New York to Columbus via United.  From the airport we will Uber to where we parked our car, and then drive home, where for the first time in about three months we will sleep in our own beds.  

It has been an outstanding trip full of history, interesting people and astonishing scenery but now it will be nice to be home again.

One last sunset out the window of our AirBnB

MJ and a treat that we bought her

And, a last goodbye to our AirBnB co-host, M.J.

Dingle Peninsula, Ireland; Ring of Kerry Daytrip

 We drove from our cottage on the tip of the Dingle Peninsula south to the Iveragh Peninsula.  A series of roads circle this peninsula and collectively they are known as the ring of Kerry.  Ireland promotes this "ring" heavily as a tourist destination.  This mountainous outcropping off Ireland's western coast is brimming with lakes and breathtaking scenery.  There are several quaint (made especially so for us tourists) towns and the highest peak in Ireland.  Really the ring is deserving of two days, however, I would not swap a day on the Dingle peninsula for two days on the Ring of Kerry.  The Ring has a reputation to be crowded with tourists and bus tourists, however, driving it as late in the season as this we ran into no crowds.  The day was sunny and the colors were magnificent...it was the perfect way to enjoy this corner of Ireland.

Driving the Ring in one day we certainly didn't explore it as thoroughly as we did Dingle Peninsula but we did enjoy the views and take in a few historical sights.  

Iveragh Peninsula has several large beaches, incomprehensibly, there were swimmers.

  The temperature did not reach 60^oF today.

There was a wild colonial boy

Jack Duggan was his name

He was born and raised in Ireland

In a place called Castlemaine

He was his father's only son, his mother's pride and joy

And dearly did his parents love the wild colonial boy

At the early age of sixteen years, he left his native home

And to Australia's sunny shores he was inclined to roam

He robbed the rich, he helped the poor

he shot James McAvoy

A terror to Australia was the wild colonial boy

One morning on the prairie as Jack he rode along

A listening to the mockingbird

a singing a cheerful song

Out stepped a band of troopers

Kelly, Davis and Fitzroy

They all set out to capture him, the wild colonial boy

"Surrender now Jack Duggan for you see we're three to one

Surrender in the Queen's high name for you're a plundering son"

Jack pulled two pislols from his belt and he proudly waived them high

"I'll fight, but not surrender" said the wild colonial boy

He fired a shot at Kelly, which brought him to the ground

And turning 'round to Davis, he received a fatal wound

A bullet pierced his proud heart from the pistol of Fitzroy 
And that was how they captured him, the wild colonial boy

In every small town there is a pub named Murphy's

Ireland is littered with ancient ring forts.  Fittingly, Kerry has three of the best examples.  We visited Staigue Fort, thought to be the most impressive.  It is well off the "traffic ring" and beyond the reach of tour buses.  (So far).  This defensive fort was built sometime between 500BC and 300AD and reflects the wealth that had come to this area because of its copper mines.

A stone ring in a farmer's field.  There seems to be nothing 

the ancient celts liked to do more than stand huge, flat stones on their ends

Cliffs on the tip of Iveragh Peninsula

Dingle Peninsula, Ireland

 Still waking up enjoying our AirBnB on the tip of the Dingle Peninsula.  What a good (lucky) choice we made.  Two "Star Wars" movies had scenes filmed on the tip of the peninsula, Episode VII, The Force Awakens, and Episode VIII, The Last Jedi.  Today we started at Dunmore Head, which also claims to be the westernmost point in Europe.  This is the epicenter for the Star Wars movie tourist.  I was worried that I'd see tourists dressed like stormtroopers and Jedi Knights.  Instead just beautiful, powerful, dramatic scenery; certainly the reason this site was chosen by the filmmakers.  we hiked down to the beach and then I hiked up to the summit of Dunmore Head.  The views from the bottom and the top were equally breathtaking.

Dunmore Head, pointing the way to Great Blasket Island

Following the road that clings to the edge of the peninsula we stopped at Clogher Head.  This site is not as accessible as was Dunmore Head.  It was a about a 20 minute hike to the summit over soggy, boggy ground and loose rocks, but the view was worth it.  From the top I could have been taking pictures for Ireland's travel posters.  It was worth the hike even though I was caught in a serious downpour of rain on the way back down.

Skellig Micheal appearing from the mists

The three sisters

It is easy to see why the Irish Tourist board calls this island the "Sleeping Giant".  The locals call it "Dead Man in the Water".

View of the Atlantic from the summit of Clogher Head

Further inland we visited the ruins of Reasc  Monastery.  All that remains is the footprint of the monastery that once stood here.  The monastery was started in the sixth century and occupied until the twelfth.  It was composed of a number of beehive houses (the round foundations) an oratory (church) and the buildings to support what would have been the infrastructure of the day.

A Maltese styled cross (Christian) carved over a pre-existing Celtic (pagan) scrollwork

From the Reasc Monastery we drove to the Gallarus Oratory.  This is not a reconstructed site. Somehow this Oratory has stood for 1,300 years.  I stood there and imagined the hands of the monks painstakingly placing each stone to make their church.  Could they have dreamt that in 2022 we could still admire their work?

Galllarus Oratory

Finally we stopped by two interesting church ruins, almost side by side.  The oldest dating from the Norman takeover after 1066.  

The newer church, also a ruins, dates from the 12th century and is surrounded by one of the spookiest cemeteries I can imagine.  The cemetery has resin noticeably, possibly because of all the displaced soil from layer upon layer of the dead.  Some crypts have their lids jarred aside as if the occupant was wanting a little fresh air.  Others had huge boulders placed on top of them, I think to keep who was in there, in there.  The church itself was interesting with a romanesque arch and a weathered stone cross.  

Note the stone leaning against the crypt.  Anything to hold these guys in.

Note the hole in the stone pillar in the foreground.  For hundreds of years if you wanted to construct a deal with someone both parties would show up at this stone, touch thumbs through the hole and swear to the deal.  Zip!  Zop!  Zap!  The deal is done, so who needs a lawyer when you have a thumb?

This castle ruins is about a three minute drive from where we are staying, 

just out in a sheep pasture.