CerebralDebris

This past weekend, Charlotte and I visited Kentucky with our friends Gabe and Brett. Kentucky is not actually my home, old or otherwise … in fact I’ve never been in the state before, but Gabe went to high school there, and Brett grew up there, and they both went to UK, so they acted as tour guides for the weekend. We stayed in a Super 8 motel, right down the street from the Hustler store … as you can imagine, it was luxurious.

Lexington’s a pretty town, not too huge but big enough to feel like a city. There’s a nice touch of Southern Hospitality without it being grating or overbearing. The presence of the UK campus right in the center of things helps keep a fairly youthful, modern feel to the populace. It’s also currently responsible for a LOT of construction … apparently UK hasn’t heard that we’re in a recession, because they’re putting up new buildings like crazy. Also, there is plenty of sausage gravy to be had which, from my point of view, is a definite plus.

On Friday night we stopped by a local UK pizza joint and had some dinner before retiring to the aforementioned deluxe accommodations to crash for the night. The next morning we got up, ate breakfast, and headed out to the Woodford Reserve Distillery, where they make some of the most delicious bourbon ever to grace this green earth. They are a small batch distillery, working with only 140 barrels at a time and storing only about 5000 barrels at once. Each barrel holds about 120 liters of bourbon, or about 160 standard-sized bottles, so each batch is about 22.4 thousand standard bottles. To give an idea of why that’s “Small Batch,” the largest bourbon producer in Kentucky stores about 1.8 million barrels at any given time. 5000 is damn near artisan level by comparison.

We toured the mixing and fermentation building, the distilling building, the aging warehouse (aka: the best-smelling place on earth), and the bottling facility. Then we went up for a free tasting and a bourbon ball. Delicious! We bought some bourbon-chocolate-cherry candies in the gift shop, and headed for our next stop: Keeneland, a gigantic horse-racing track.

We arrived and, after looking for a free parking spot for about twenty years, finally managed to get inside the building. Two things needed to be accomplished before the fifth race began. One: Charlotte and I needed to put some money down so we could say that we’d officially bet on a horse race. Two: we needed to get some food up in us, because we were all starving. I put ten bucks on horse #6, “Artisan” to win, and Charlotte told me to put ten bucks on Horse #3 to show … but I got flustered at the betting window and accidentally put it on horse #2, “Irish Ridge” to show. Oops. Next we went upstairs and acquired stew, a brat, a burger, and a couple of beers. After wandering around trying to find a place to eat them AND see the race at the same time, we finally managed to procure a bench just minutes before the race started.

And they’re off! The horses go running as we shout encouragement in between bites of food and sips of Bud Light (it was all they had). #6 – Artisan – My horse immediately falls into second to last place and never contends. Sonuva … fortunately #2 – Irish Ridge- the horse we accidentally put ten bucks on to show, ends up winning the entire thing. We make $12 on that $10 bet, so we’re  down $8 for the day at the end of race five. We decide to stick around for race six even though it’s freezing out, and head off to place one more bet. This time, Charlotte sees horse #7 – CS Silk – nuzzling one of the others as they’re walking on to the track, and decides she wants to bet on him because “he’s nice!” … seems as good a reason as any other, so we put five bucks on him to show.

Race number six goes off, and our horse manages to win it in a fairly thrilling victory, holding off a few last-minute pushes from other horses. Gabe and Brett are also happy, as their bet moved up from dead last to #3 right at the end. Charlotte and I end up winning $14.50 on our $5, putting us at a grand total of $26.50 won for $25 spent, or a net profit of $1.50. Woohoo! Judging by this sample, I am prepared to declare her a gambling genius. Our future wealth will no doubt be prodigious.

After watching some more horses wander around, we decide that it’s simply too cold out (okay, I actually wuss out first and beg everyone else to leave). It’s late afternoon and we decide we need to be someplace warm, with beer. This leads us to an irish pub in downtown Lexington, where we hang out for about an hour, nursing our beers / ciders and watching a college football game whose outcome we don’t really care about. We then split to go back to the hotel, relax for a bit, and meet up again for dinner.

Gabe and Brett take us to a favorite hangout of theirs in college, Ramsey’s.They promise us good food, lots of it, and spectacular pies. We are not disappointed on any of those counts. I get a broiled pork sandwich with pinto beans, Charlotte gets a plate of fried chicken livers with corn oysters, fried green tomatoes, and summer squash. Brett gets a “hot brown” and Gabe gets a country-fried steak with macaroni & cheese, potatoes & gravy, and fried green tomatoes. The entrees are delicious, but the pie is definitely the star. I get a chocolate brownie / peanut butter cream combo. Charlotte and Brett get slices of the chocolate pecan pie, and Gabe enjoys a coconut cream pie simply because he knows that coconut grosses me out!

Stuffed ridiculously full, we head back to the hotel to crash for the night. Tomorrow: a big drive out to the Maker’s Mark distillery, along which we will encounter the home of Lincoln’s parents, and after which I will nearly kill us all while trying to eat a bourbon cookie and drive at the same time!

» Link: Day One Pictures at My Flickr Page