It’s State Fair time!  What better way to learn more about our state than while representatives are all gathered together?  Off we go, and our daughter Lauren came too.

We headed out bright and early today, to miss the traffic and the massive crowds. It was overcast, and the forecast called for rain all day.  While it wasn’t raining, we saw the outdoor sites.  One of the most visited is Freddy Farm Bureau.  We all had to get our photo with him!

We were not hungry until we smelled the air of the fair.  Those grilled peppers and onions will have you hungry in a flash.  Lauren started with a corndog, and we all split a funnel cake.  Poor nutrition choices, but oh so yummy!

 

Next, we wanted to see the prize winning animals.  Cows, goats and poultry were on display. The goats are so cute!  And they love attention!  Some were even wearing clothes. Rob also captured some horse training.

The Fair has something for everyone.  We strolled through the entries.  The decorated cakes were amazing!  The themed category displayed cakes that looked like fish and fishing baskets, flowers, and a bourbon barrel.  The bourbon barrel cake was made by Plehn’s bakery here in Louisville.   It was a beautiful tribute to Kentucky, and included a special tribute to Muhammad Ali.  So sweet!

We learned about bees and honey.  I had no idea that flavored honey was being made.  So many interesting facts about honey.

We walked through the quilt entries.  So much detail!  The winning quilt was a Harry Potter quilt. This was amazing.  The quilter had written a letter to explain her recent found talent in quilting and the dedication of the quilt to her daughter, who shared the Harry Potter excitement with her.  A very emotional dedication letter!  It was easy to see why that was the chosen winner.

The photography entries are always a hit with us.  Rob is our resident photographer.  He had a photo entry in the travel and tourism category this year.  His photos are awesome to us!  He did not win at the fair, but we love his pictures no matter what!

 

Many counties have a booth in the ‘Pride of Kentucky’ section.  We were able to gather much information about our state and things we must see in our travels.  We can call it ‘research’! We gathered pamphlets and festival schedules for so many counties.  Time to work on plans to see where we will head next! For certain it will include Renfro Valley in October to see The Steele Drivers.

Can’t wait for the next adventure!

 

 

 

Kentucky has many wineries now, and more are opening every year.  The winery boom has gone from 15 to 65  in the past 5 years.  We have done the Bourbon trail and now started the Kentucky Wine Trail.  We have been to several already, but now we have the KY Wine Trail app, so we are starting over. Yay!

We had a Groupon for McIntyre’s winery.  We had not been there so we were up for the adventure!  We headed out Bardstown Rd to Bardstown, KY to visit.

McIntyre’s is a small winery that focuses on fruit wines.  We all sat around the table and were given the list and a glass.  Our hostess, Debbie, brought us many choices to try. She gave us the history of each of the batches.  The Rose Petal wine story started us off: a couple came home from a visit to Germany and they had Rose Petal wine there.  They asked McIntyre’s to create a wine using the rose petals.  Well, they did! It was an interesting wine.

Some of the wines did not appeal to us due to their unique aromas; but we tried them anyway.  Many great tastes for such combinations including dandelion, daylily, mango, strawberry and even watermelon.  Such a variety!

And then there was the slushy!  They had watermelon and mango as samples today.  Rob and I had watermelon.  Yum!  Best new way to have wine.  They even sell the mix to create the slushy at home.  We bought 2 packages, and a watermelon wine!  Can’t wait to mix this up at home!

By far, this was one of the most fun wine tastings which we have ever been!

We left to head to Talon winery in Shelbyville.  We drove out KY-55 through Bloomfield to get there.  The road is a motorcyclist dream: winding through beautiful countryside.  There was even a gorgeous farm called Walnut Grove, reminding us of Little House on the Prairie.  Such a beautiful day for nice ride.

Talon winery has more standard grape wines. We were all lined up at the bar and given a list and a glass.  The tastes are $1 each or you can pick 6 tastes for $5.   Of course we both chose 6 tastings.  Blackberry is still our favorite!

Talon has live music on many Saturday afternoons. There was a band playing on the back porch.  The Winery was crowded and everyone was having a great time!

 

Our eventful day left us hungry.  We drove over to Cattleman’s across the street to enjoy dinner.  The salad bar was a big hit!  We all had eyes bigger than our stomachs – or the portions were really large – hard to tell. But we all left with containers of leftovers.  More good food for lunch tomorrow.  Awesome!

 

 

 

The children have given Rob an exciting Father’s Day gift: 4 laps around the track in a Ferrari! This is all happening at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green.  Therefore, we will be exploring Warren County today!  As we head south on Interstate 65, the sky is blue and the weather is warm.  Another fun adventure lies ahead!

We arrived hungry and we enjoy eating at local establishments; however, the closest semi-local restaurant was Jerry’s.  We had a wonderful pancake breakfast. For reference, most of the Jerry’s were bought by Denny’s and have similar menus.

National Corvette Museum

Next stop, the National Corvette Museum.  Upon arrival, we sat in the new corvette in the lobby.  I must say that this car is not for me.  I had a hard time getting in and out of the car 😦     Such a beauty though!  And that car looks good on us!

 

We toured the museum. So many beautiful cars.  The early years are our favorites.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Seeing the sink hole remains was an incredible site!  The media had shown photos, but it did not do it justice. The cars that were swallowed were on display.  The mangled mess that left behind was massive.  Such a pity!

 

Ferrari Course

We headed over to the driving course.  It was set up by Exotic Cars in the parking lot of the National Corvette Museum Motorsport track. The line seemed short, but it did not move fast at all.  It was so hot on that blacktop waiting under no cover. Rob was so amped that none of that mattered.  When they called his name after the two hour wait, he jumped over to that $300,000 high performance vehicle so fast.  He raced through the laps so quickly.  After that he was so excited, it reminded me of his youth.

 

Scenic Drive

We went for a drive around the city to see additional sites. We went to the park at the river. There was a rescue team practicing.  Glad to know they practice to get proficient  in saving lives on the river.

 

Driving, we headed out to the county to see what else we could admire.  We saw many barns and family farms. Such pretty land!

 

The White Squirrel

We were having such a great time that we decided to spend the night.  The Holiday Inn seemed like a welcome place.  We checked in and the front desk clerk helped us choose a great local restaurant: the White Squirrel.  She did not steer us wrong!  The White Squirrel is a local brewery with great food!  We had beer cheese with pretzel bread to start. Rob had an amazing burger. I had chicken and waffles.  All were delicious! Yum!!

 

We enjoyed a stroll through downtown.  Listening to live music.  Goofing off.  Enjoying the city!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Western Kentucky University

What visit  to Bowling Green would be complete without a trip to WKU?  Our boys are graduates from WKU, so needless to say, we have spent many trips here.  It is always nice to return and see the updates to campus. The sunset over campus made a picturesque end to a gorgeous day!

 

What an adventurous day!

 

 

 

As Louisville prepares for the Kentucky Derby, we both have off for Oaks day.  As we do not have tickets for this fun event, we will take the opportunity to visit the Capitol of our great state.  We are ready for our first Kentucky 120 Travels adventure!

SWITZER COVERED BRIDGE

We headed into Franklin county, east on Highway 60.  We are going to see the Switzer covered bridge.  This happens to be our cover picture. It was built in 1855 and it was renovated in 1906. It was placed on the National Historic Register of Historical Places on September 6, 1974. In 1997 a flood washed it off of its supports and was restored in 1998. It is 120 ft. long and 11 ft. wide and spans the N. Elkhorn creek on KY. Hwy. 1262. It no longer allows traffic to cross, except on foot.

FISH HATCHERY

Heading north for more sights in Franklin County, we went to the Frankfort Peter Pfeiffer Fish Hatchery.  There are 140 acres of land associated to the hatchery, with several homes on-site for the conservation officers and their families to live.  We were in luck as the Conservation team was working on draining a pond to re-grade the silt.  There were 10,000 fish that needed to be netted and moved to other areas.  This was quite an interesting watch.  One of the officers came over to explain the process and provide information on the land – so nice!

This area was built in the 1950’s as a federal fishery, but was changed in the 80’s to become the Kentucky Fish Hatchery.  No federal funds are used to maintain the hatchery; all monies come from the sale of fishing and hunting licenses and fines.  Rob has certainly helped pay for this acreage then!

There were lots of blue herons flying about and watching the team work.  The officer said they lose 20% of their fish to the birds.

 

BUFFALO TRACE

We left there and headed over to Buffalo Trace distillery – a great day for a bourbon tasting.  The smell of bourbon greets you when you arrive; what a great welcome!  There were so many excited people milling about the gift shop learning about one of our amazing commodities.  As we had many visitors to our state for derby, several were dressed smartly!  We toured the grounds and had to buy a bottle of that amazing Bourbon Cream – Yum!

JIMS SEAFOOD

We moved on to Jim’s Seafood for lunch. It is a local restaurant that sits right on the water.  The food is awesome!  And the view rivals the food.

DOWNTOWN

We needed a walk after that big lunch, so we moved to historic downtown are and walked the streets.  They were setting up for the governor’s Derby breakfast.  All the tables were getting decked out with fun horse head and tails!  The train was parked and ready for the morning trip.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

REBECCA RUTH CANDIES

What trip would not be complete without a trip to the candy store? We stopped by Rebecca Ruth for some of their famous bourbon balls.  The best value is the goofs.  These are the ones that are not perfect, but the taste is still wonderful!

 

We finished our trip with a tour of the Capitol building. The building has so much history and charm.  How all that marble was carried in and used, just makes the building so fabulous.  The floral clock was not in full bloom, but ready for spring.  We drove across to see Daniel Boone’s grave and the view of the Capitol from the hillside; so majestic!

ROADSIDE SIGHTS

Driving around in Franklin County backroads saw many amazing sights!

What a day!  So proud of our history and state.  So much to still see.  Until then…

 

 

Welcome to our Kentucky 120 Travels!

We are Rob and Karen Gividen. We are proud of our great state of Kentucky. We have been taking day trips around Kentucky for several years to see specific places and take pictures along the way of sights, buildings, and all of the court houses. This year we set a goal to travel to all 120 counties of Kentucky. We want to see as much of our state as possible. We are looking to spend a day in each county and enjoy as much local culture as possible. We want to travel the back roads and find those items that are off the beaten path that make those counties wonderful!

We live in Louisville, which Kentucky’s largest city and part of Jefferson county. As we live and work there daily, we will have more information and posts to share for Jefferson county. We hope you will love our city as much as we do!

As we drive these dusty roads, we invite you to share our travels. We will post information about each county we visit and share photos of our discoveries along the way. If you feel we need to see or know more about your county, feel free to contact us!

Get ready Kentucky, here we come!!