Souvenirs From The Road: My Old Kentucky Home With A First Glance At Our New Volunteer Home!

Apparently it’s been raining in Kentucky everyday for a very long time! So, we traveled in the rain to our next destination – Taylorsville Lake State Park, fairly close to Bardston, Kentucky. I have fallen in love with this state! The back roads are beautiful. Yards are very tastefully landscaped, you can tell the folks have pride in their homes. Tuesday, the rain gods said enough and we had a beautiful day, just right for exploring! First up was to go to tour the Jim Beam Distillery in Clermont. What a beautiful campus they have here! We opted not to do the distillery tour, but just the self-guided with a tasting or bar drink at the end. It was a good choice for us! (This visit happened before their sad fire.)

Ron and Jim!

The Master Distiller home

I had a great cocktail while Ron chose the samples! Not telling you what time of day it is either lol.

Next up was lunch in Bardston at Mammy’s near the square. I had a delicious Kentucky BLT, which consisted of pimento cheese, bacon and a fried green tomato with lettuce. So good! Ron went with the pulled pork sandwich, which he said was good, but wasn’t what he expected.

So good! But a little messy!

We also did a self guided tour at the My Old Kentucky Home State Park, located here. Stephen Foster wrote the state song, “My Old Kentucky Home” (along with many other ballads we learned in elementary school) and had ties to the plantation here. The grounds are beautiful!

Beautiful old house

Lots of flower beds here.

And a formal garden

Hydrangeas everywhere.

From there we traveled to the Makers Mark Distillery in Loretto. Again, what a beautiful campus they have! The flowers are beautiful! Our tour guide was fun! A great way to spend the eve of Ron’s 60^th birthday! My how time has flown!

So many similarities to my sourdough bread starter! What a smell!

The tour guide lets you stick your finger in it! And it gets really warm!

Got to stop and watch the bottling process!

I wonder if they ever get tired of dipping the bottles into the red wax?

Finished product!

Ron and our tour guide.

We traveled cross state with our main focus on touring the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. As a young kid I was always fascinated with the stories of Daniel Boone, so it was great to be here! His is the name that is the most associated with the Cumberland Gap. We took a hike up the Tri-State Trail, which is where you can stand in 3 states all at once! Mid-18^th century explorers following well-worn bison and American Indian trails found their way through at Cumberland Gap. It was an awesome moment when we crossed The Historic Cumberland Gap Pass (1600 ft) and reflect upon all the previous people that have passed this way over the years. Less than a decade after the end of the Revolutionary War, Kentucky became the 15^th state. Though other routes were used, the Wilderness Road, established by Boone, was the primary route to the West until 1810.

This sign says it all!

See the next picture.....

It was a great feeling to step in Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky all at the same time!

X (rather O) marks the spot of 3 states!

We drove on down the road to the Pinnacle Overlook. This overlook allows you to see the states of Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee. Beautiful, winding road!

Can you only imagine the view from Daniel Boone's day?

Another beautiful park we visited was Cumberland Falls State Park.

Happy 60th birthday!!!

How can I forget that we went to the original Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant?

There’s some pretty beautiful and amazing scenery in Kentucky, but it’s time to head down the road to Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge, where we will be volunteers for the next 3 months! The refuge is located on the Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula in Hyde County and was established in 1934. It has around 50,000 acres of open water. There’s lots of marshes and timber. The main feature here is the shallow 44,000 acre Lake Mattamuskeet, the largest natural lake in North Carolina. The biggest draw is in the winter for the thousands of wintering waterfowl that it attracts each year. Too bad we will miss that!

Sunset over Lake Mattamuskeet

In 1914, area farmers and developers were intrigued with the idea of draining the shallow lake. Patterned after similar projects in Holland, they built the world’s largest pumping plant (at that time) and the lake was drained. Hence the name of the town, New Holland. Eventually they decided it was impractical and too expensive and it was abandoned. In 1934 the land was acquired by the US Government and the refuge was established. The CCC converted the former pumping plant into a hunting lodge which was operated until 1974. In 2007 the lodge and 6.25 acres was transferred to the North Caroline Wildlife Resources Commission. When we first saw the Lodge, we thought it was a lighthouse. It’s a beauty!