Over the years, our travels have taken us through Kentucky several times, but we hadn’t really stopped to see any of it until this Spring. We decided to spend few weeks experiencing some of the best things the state has to offer. Despite a minor detour to Alabama to get our RV worked on, we still managed to visit a nice variety of places. As an added bonus, Sue and Dean Hereford joined us in Lexington and Cumberland Falls.
Kentucky in the spring is a lovely place with beautiful drives, terrain, waterways, farms, and vistas. It’s a lot like rural New York but with warmer weather and less development. And they take horses very seriously. The mount of amount of money spent on them is astounding. Gorgeous horse farms seem to be everywhere, especially around Louisville and Lexington. We spent an awesome day at the races at Keenland in Lexington. It was absolute first-class operation with great horses, races, food, and atmosphere. We even managed to not lose much money in our first foray into “betting on the horses.”
In addition to horses, bourbon is huge. There are more than 100 Bourbon distilleries in KY which produce more than 95% of the world’s bourbon. The majority are located around the big cities, but there are many smaller boutique distilleries in rural areas around the state. The tasting experience is much like tasting in a major wine region, where you sample a variety of the distilleries’ products. “In that spirit”, we bought several bottles in after tasting in Bardstown, Louisville, and Lexington.
There is a large network of state parks that are located at natural wonders where we stayed near and visited. This included Cumberland Falls, Red River Gorge, and Big Bone Lick. All of them featured excellent hiking that we thoroughly enjoyed.
To sum up the visit: It’s a beautiful and uncrowded place to visit. We’ve already added it to our “Revisit List”.
