We both got up fairly early this morning and got ready for the day. Once we were ready enough, we headed for the hotel breakfast, having agreed that while it had been lackluster on Tuesday, this was going to be the most efficient way to get moving this morning.
Surprisingly, breakfast had an impressive amount of offerings this morning, so we had a pretty hearty breakfast before heading back up to the room to put the finishing touches on the packing. I made a trip out to the car to empty some trash out of the car and bring enough stuff down so that we could bring the rest down in one trip, and then we were ready for the real departure.
Check out was quick, we got the car fully packed up and we hit the road…south. Yes, you read that right. Today we’d be going south to go north.
Today we were headed for Bardstown the “Bourbon Capital of the World”. And given the amount of distilleries here, that seems accurate. Bardstown was less than an hour from our hotel in downtown Louisville, but like a totally different world. Somehow, despite the amount of distilleries in or within 10 miles of Bardstown, this really had a small town feel. Our first stop once we reached Bardstown was the Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History. This museum was a little museum, but VERY well done. It should be on the to-do list for those doing the Bourbon Trail.
After exploring the Oscar Getz Museum, we headed into town. What a cute town! Our next stop was lunch at the Old Talbott Tavern. Old Talbott Tavern boasts of having the oldest bourbon bar in the world. We had a decent meal here. I had a cocktail that involved bourbon, lemonade and honey. Nick had…some cocktail involving bourbon. He had their version of the Hot Brown and I had a pulled pork sandwich. It was a unique place.
After lunch we walked around town a bit. I think if we wanted to do another Bourbon Trail trip in the future, I’d stay in Bardstown. Like I said…really cute little town.
After walking around town, we headed for our next destination, Preservation Distillery. This had been the only distillery in Bardstown that I could get tour tickets for when I started booking tours. Book those distillery tours early. We had a great tour guide here too, and found that this company had more of a unique history than some of the others. The setting was beautiful. I also liked that here, when booking, I could get a designated driver ticket. I’d done MUCH better at sampling all the bourbons than I’d expected, but bourbon really isn’t my drink of choice. And I still had to drive 3+ hours whenever we were done in Bardstown. We enjoyed the tour here, and we enjoyed checking out the longhorn cattle here after the tour. Nick didn’t love the bourbon here, thankfully. Interestingly, the bourbon here was the most expensive of any of the distilleries we’d been to. It was also the most aged, and he’s not big on the older bourbons. They’re too flavorful or something.
Tour completed, we decided since we were in the area, to drive over to Heaven Hill Distillery. We were done with scheduled tours for the trip, but might as well take a look at the gift shop and such. We were blown away by how huge Heaven Hill is driving in.
Once we’d finished in the gift shop, we made one more distillery stop, just down the road from Heaven Hill, at Willet Distillery. We didn’t buy anything here. Their gift shop was pretty minimal. It was a really pretty setting here though.
Now it was really time to get moving. We programmed the GPS for our next hotel, and got on the road. Minus a bit of rain as we got close, it was a pretty uneventful drive to the Hampton Inn in Charleston, WV. We stopped for dinner shortly before there at…Chick-fil-A and had another quick, tasty meal.
It was raining pretty hard when we reached the Hampton Inn, so we unloaded what we needed for the night under the entrance awning and then I parked the car. My Rav-4 has one of those cargo covers, and it is the best thing ever for road trips. Check in was quick and very friendly, and we headed up to our room. We were on a points stay here, but had been upgraded, and we found a fairly recently renovated room. We also found that this Hampton Inn was still using the acute pandemic era room seals on the doors. Needless to say our room was VERY clean and in great condition, despite the hotel itself being an older Hampton Inn.
We both crashed soon after getting to the hotel. I was pleasantly surprised to find that, despite the hotel being literally across the street from the end of the off ramp from the highway, the room was actually fairly quiet, and I think we both got a good night’s sleep.
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