Kicking It Up In Kentucky

En route to Frankfort, Kentucky, we were thrilled to see Spring has just sprung and the blossoms have just bloomed on the shrubs and trees in April.  As we travelled the Interstate 65 north east of Nashville, Tennessee we were amazed at the weather as we had monitored the Weather Channel in the recent weeks before our journey only to be concerned that the temps in the north were still very cool compared with what we have had in Florida.  But we are not deterred as we wish to venture into more Capital Cities and do our touring for educational and interest purposes.  We are however very surprised that the temps are in the high 70s.

Also en route, we learned that the Motto of Kentucky is "United We Stand, Divided We Fall" - that may have something to do with the State's conflict in the Civil War where they were divided and didn't like it.  Then there is the nickname of the State as "The Bluegrass State" which is evident from the bluish colour of the grass; the State Flower is Goldenrod and the State Bird is the Red Cardinal; the State Mineral is Coal, and of course, the State Song is "My Old Kentucky Home".  The name Kentucky comes from the Iroquoian Indian word Ken-take, which means "meadow lands".

We have chosen the Elkhorn Campground in the Forks of the Elkhorn Creek River which is about 5 miles from downtown but not far from here is a Covered Bridge that is totally amazing. 

This is the Switzer Covered Bridge and the first in Franklin County, Frankfort, Kentucky and the only remaining covered bridge in the county.  Volunteers keep it from crumbling but it's not used today although it does go over the Elkhorn Creek River. It is too bad that graffiti has coloured it but it's still amazing.

Our touring started at the Kentucky Horse Park because when you think of Kentucky you think of horses, the Kentucky Derby which is raced on the first weekend in May, the rolling hills, Kentucky Bourbon and, of course, Kentucky Fried Chicken.  So we decided on visiting horses, the countryside, a distillery, and of course, the Capitol in Frankfort.  We'll leave the chicken for another time!!

The Horse Park was amazing, breathtaking and quite educational because we didn't know too much about horse-racing but boy did we learn.  We learned about the Triple Crown - the Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes and we met Champion Horses such as Cigar who made almost 10 million dollars in his career as a Thoroughbred.
 

He is beautiful and sturdy with lots of character.  We watched eight Champions come to parade before us and loved them all. 

There was lots more to see at the Horse Park and we travelled on a huge trolley cart pulled by two large horses around the vast acres.  We found these huge chairs that were used at the sides of steeplechase jumps - it took quite some hard work for us to get up there!!

There was a Horses of the World complex in which we watched numerous horses perform.  We so enjoyed these horses from Australia in the photo below as their trainer had them doing lots of controlled circling and jumping as well as standing still which is a good fete for a horse when other activity is taking place around them.

And we were thrilled to learn about the various horses of the world as shown on this poster.

We spent the whole day at the Kentucky Horse Park and loved it.  As we were in Lexington, we drove around the downtown and came across the Thoroughbred Park filled with bronze statues of horses and jockeys.  There was also a trail to walk where plaques were displayed.

This plaque caught our eyes given all the Hollywood stars that owned Thoroughbreds.

Our next day of touring was in the Capital City starting at the Kentucky Capitol State Building which sits on Capitol Avenue, a beautiful avenue leading right up to the building and the Governor's Mansion.



This is the full view of the Kentucky State Capitol which has lovely gardens although the famous Clock Garden in the west-wing has not be flowered as yet but we enjoyed the beautiful tulip gardens up front.

Just before we approached the steps of the Capitol Building, we saw this beautiful Red Cardinal fly into this gorgeous bush.  Remember, the Red Cardinal is the State Bird here in Kentucky.

Here's Tony standing on the steps of the Capitol Building with beautiful tulips out front.
The weather is amazing today as it is 79 F but we have lots of clouds so expect some rain.

Here is Tony inside of the beautiful Capitol with marble from Italy, from Vermont and limestone marble from Indiana.

Our tour guide at the State Capitol told us some unknown funny tales about the Governor and his staff as well as important information about the building, its design and how this was the third building as two others had burned down.  This one, however, has amazing marble that's the real thing - we've been to a few that have faux marble that was cheap compared to this.  Lin made sure to rub the foot of the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the rotunda for good luck!!

We found the bust of Colonel Sanders whose chicken became quite famous.  Apparently when he died in 1985, he was laid in State here and is buried in a private cemetery.




 

After we completed our tour of the State Capitol which was very enjoyable, we made our way to the famous Rebecca Ruth Candy Factory just around the corner.  This business came into being in 1919 when two entrepreneurs , Rebecca Gooch and Ruth Hanley, who were school teachers decided they could make candy much better than teach and their confections were received very well in and around Frankfort.  They cooked up the famous "Bourbon Balls Candy" and made history with their candy factory especially through Prohibition in 1920 to 1933.  They ship their candy throughout the world.  We toured the factory and bought a box of the expensive Bourbon Balls (16 for $16.00) but they are delicious.

 

Here's Lin by the plaque that explains Ruth's involvement as she became the sole owner of the Candy Store when Rebecca married and moved away.  We met Ruth's great-grandson, Alex, who is 14 years of age and will inherit this business in his future and has already started thinking of the celebrations when this company will be 100 years old.

Our next tour was of the Governor's Mansion which Lin phoned ahead to ask if the Mansion was open for touring.  She received word that 135 children were currently visiting and if we wanted to we could join them.  Instead, Lin suggested we wait one hour and embark upon the Mansion.  We arrived at ten o'clock and were told a group of ten artists would be arriving so could we wait to join them - no problem so we waited until ten after ten then no group arrived so the tour guide said he would give us a private tour.  We were thrilled and got to go into many rooms of the 25 room Mansion and enjoyed a one hour tour of the Governor's Mansion. 

There is a part-time florist that provides and designs bouquets and vases of beautiful flowers such as this one in the drawing room. 

The house is architecturally fashioned after Marie Antoinette's home in France so here we have a french antique table and dresser.  The portrait is of Madame Breckenridge who was a suffragette and instrumental is getting the vote for Women in 1925.

This is the foyer that leads into the Ballroom which had been used yesterday when the Governor and the First Lady hosted a group of dignitaries involved with the Kentucky Derby  that takes place in less than two weeks time.

Here is the "small" dining room that the Governor and First Lady use for their own dining.  Today, however, the First Lady is having three friends for lunch and we are not two of them!!

Here is the "large" dining room for visiting States persons and others (but again not including us!!).  

There's lots of art on the walls including paintings of all previous Governors and their First Ladies with the exception of the only female Governor whose husband was known as the "First Dude", ha!!.      

This scene shows the Kentucky River and the State Capitol Building from the high ridge as Frankfort is in a valley.

We proceeded from downtown Frankfort up to where we are staying and stopped at the cemetery that overlooks the downtown.  The above photo shows the extent of Spring in this part of Kentucky - we've got some way to go yet!!

 

Our next touring took us to the Buffalo Trace Distillery  given that Kentucky is the place for Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey and is one of many distilleries along the Whiskey Trail but is one of only four distilleries that were allowed to continue to operate during the Prohibition for medicinal purposes.  The population in Kentucky at that time was 600,000 and more than 750,000 prescriptions were filled per year during the prohibition, hmm!!

 

The Building behind Lin is where the barrels of bourbon whiskey are aged anywhere from four to 25 years
 and up to 160% proof.

Here is our tour guide, Dave, who took us through numerous buildings explaining the whole process of producing Buffalo Trace bourbon.  We got two drinks each at the end of the tour and bought ourselves a 750ml bottle of the good stuff!! 

 

 

So that's all our touring in and around Frankfort, Kentucky.  We so enjoyed ourselves and now it is time to move on to Indianapolis, Indiana.  Will continue our blog then.