Another Fun Filled Day

It was a beautiful day yesterday - low humidity, sunshine, and mid 80's. It was too nice to stay home so we went to  Bardstown, KY to see My Old Kentucky Home:

 The home was owned by a John Rowan who was a noted defense attorney of the early 1800's and was a cousin to Stephen Foster, who visited the home often. It became the inspiration for his song "My Old Kentucky Home" which became the state song for Kentucky and is sung each year at the Kentucky Derby. There was a statue of Stephen Foster on the beautifully manicured grounds:

The tour of the home was very good, although we were not allowed to take any pictures of the inside (?). The home was part of the State Park system in Kentucky and our research showed that it had a campground and also a very nice picnic area. Since it was such a beautiful day, we packed a picnic lunch and took advantage of the picnic area:

Our research also showed that there was another Bourbon Distillery nearby - 1/2 mile away. Of course, we had to get another stamp in our Bourbon Trail Passport, so we went.

The Heaven Hill Distillery:

was much larger than the Makers Mark Distillery we visited the day before. They produce many more products for worldwide distribution.

Our tour was also very different as we never went into the production facility. It was conducted by a very knowledgeable person (Joan) who took us through one of their many warehouses (below) to explain the process:

It seems that 95 % of the world's bourbon is produced here in Kentucky. The (stated)  reason for Kentucky being the top producer is the fact that Kentucky sits on a Limestone shelf that naturally filters out the iron content from spring water used in the process, and replaces it with other minerals. Anyway, following our walk through one of the many warehouses storing the products, we went to the tasting room and tasted 2 of their products:

The tasting room was adjacent to the gift shop, which was well stocked with their products and other logo items:

The most interesting item to us was a bottle of bourbon that you can buy for $500:

This bourbon was aged 27 years - as opposed to the normal 3-5 years - and is 126 proof - as opposed to the normal 90 proof. It obviously would provide a nice "kick" for anybody willing to pay that much for a bottle. We were also told that bourbon (or any whiskey) doesn't continue to age like wine does. Once it is bottled, the age is set. Shucks, that means that my 18 year old scotch I bought in 1975 isn't any better now than the day I bought it, so I may as well open it.

Today is the day we expect to hear from Amazon regarding our drug test results and orientation schedule. For that reason, we will stay close to home and do our other chores...

Fun Filled day

Even though it was a dreary, damp day, we decided to take a trip to a place that would keep us indoors. We chose the Makers Mark Distillery, one of 6 bourbon distilleries along what is known as the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.

It wasn't that far away (about 30 miles) so it made sense to give it a try. Besides, we love to drink Manhattans occasionally, and they are made with bourbon, so it had a special attraction for us.

We were immediately impressed with the well manicured grounds and the very clean looking buildings:

The tour was very interesting to us, since we have been to wineries in the past, and we were anxious to see the differences. There were several more steps - and ingredients - in whiskey making than in wine making. Without going into all the steps (they can be seen in the link above), we went through several buildings where our tour guide explained the whole process:

One of the unique characteristics of their product is the red wax that is present on each and every product produced by them. The process was being done on glasses yesterday, but all of their bottles are hand-dipped in this red wax before going to market:

Just like the wineries, we were given the opportunity at the end of the tour to "taste" the product. We were given a tiny sample (really just a taste) of their main product - Makers Mark Bourbon - and their newest product which is called Makers Mark 46, - another bourbon which is aged longer, producing a different flavor. The tasting area was also part of their gift store which is how they make their money from the tour guests:

It was a fascinating experience and ended with our getting a stamp in our Kentucky Bourbon Trail Passport that is used like the National Park Passport so you can keep track of the bourbon distilleries you've visited. Whether or not we get to the other 5 distilleries remains to be seen.

As we left the distillery and started home, we came across the sign for Abraham Lincoln's boyhood home which was in the area. Why not?

This was the home where he spent most of his early years - until age 7 - before his family moved on to Indiana, and eventually Illinois. It is amazing that a family of 4 could live in such close quarters.:

It was a 1 room home, with only 1 window. I commented to Josie that, if the kids misbehaved, they weren't told to "go to their room" as we did with our kids.

It turned out that Lincoln's family had to live here as a result of a title dispute over the home and property where he was actually born - about 10 miles south of this home. We also paid a visit to his birthplace:

which was (a replica) enclosed in a beautiful memorial that was erected on the exact location of the home:

As you can see from the pictures above, the sun eventually came out and it was a great day to visit these historical locations. The fact that we basically "stumbled" onto these Lincoln landmarks is a testimony to the fact that Kentucky is loaded with interesting, historical attractions. There will be more of these excursions and, maybe, another visit to one today...

Taking Care of Business

The highest priority yesterday was to find out how soon we could get the drug test out of the way at Amazon. It didn't take long, as they responded to my message right away that we were here and they invited us over to the complex to take the drug test. This year, they administer the test on site, as opposed to going to a laboratory for a blood test as we did last year. The new procedure is just taking a swab sample of saliva and sending it off to the lab for testing, which takes up to 72 hours to provide results. Our target to begin working is the end of the week - July 1. We also discovered that there will only be around 30 couples working this pilot program this year, and we should be able to get our desired schedule.

Our second priority was to finalize our campground choice for the rest of the year. There were 5 other locations that are used by Amazon for workampers. One of them was the State Park we used last year which was very nice, but only had 30 amp electric hookups (vs the 50 amp we have here), and there were no sewer hookups - remember the "honey wagon" scenario? We pretty much eliminated that one right away. One of the others was a very quiet, and nice campground that was about 5 miles from Amazon and very close to the State Park. The only problem with that one was that it is also a horse stable where folks come to board their horses and ride them during their stay. We didn't know if that would create an offensive odor while there or not. Even though it had nice, large sites, it wasn't as new and clean as Heartland, where we are now. The others were eliminated for various other reasons - small spaces, too far away or too expensive. We will be glad we have the convenience of being across the street from work and also being so close to downtown where we will do all our shopping. So it is here where we will stay.

There are many day trips we can take to some nice places we missed the last time we were here. Two of them are in Louisville - the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory and the Churchill Downs race track that recently was damaged by a tornado. Both of those places are high on our list of places to go. Some of the others are; Mammoth Cave National Park, National Corvette Museum, Kentucky Horse Park, Maker's Mark Distillery and, of course, Nashville. We hope to get to as many of those as we can while here.

So far, we have had lousy weather - rain. It is still damp and dreary this morning, so we will figure out some place for us to go where it doesn't matter. Too bad there are no casinos nearby...

Arrival in Campbellsville, KY

As indicated yesterday, we left Barboursville, WV early to try to get a head start performing our departure duties (dumping our holding tanks) and getting through the narrow and winding 10 mile trip from the campground to the Interstate. Since there were no Wi-Fi and cell services where we were, the post from yesterday was also delayed. Anyway, it was 8 AM when we hit the road and, except for driving through some off-and-on rain, made it to Campbellsville after several stops, at 1:30 PM.

Of course we remembered everything about the town since it has been only a little over 6 months since we were last here.  It was very cold when we left here in December. The campground we are starting out with is named Heartland Campground, and it is very new- built to accommodate the Amazon.com workampers and is located directly across the street from the Amazon complex. We remembered that people that we worked with last year that stayed here, walked to work before it got really cold. It is not the most beautiful campground we've stayed in, but it has full hookups and free Wi-Fi, and, of course, is the most convenient. Right now it looks like a ghost town:

The only people here are other workers that arrived (so far) for the summer pilot program that we will be working. We had our choice of sites and chose one along the back where there would be nobody behind us and has a decent view out over the hills in the back:

We have almost everything set up, but we want to check out all of the other campgrounds that are available to the Amazon workampers before deciding to stay at this one until late December. There may be a better place to stay that isn't too far away and still has full hookups with free Wi-Fi and has more pleasant surroundings - like some grass, picnic tables, fire rings, etc. Since Amazon will be footing the bill, why not check them out? The State Park we stayed in last year was beautiful, but if you recall, we had to have the "honey wagon" come in once a week to pump out our holding tanks and invariably, they showed up when we were sleeping during the day. Plus, our pipes froze as a result of their negligence in closing off the valves in the proper order. Even though Amazon payed for that service, it's still nice to have all the hookups. Solidifying our campground location will be a very high priority.

After setting up we took a drive to the local Kroger market and got some groceries using the gift cards that we won last year in several of the employee drawings. We hope that Amazon still offers those perks as it is a nice, extra benefit.

We expect to go over to the facility - hopefully today - to get our drug tests completed so we can begin work by the 1st of July. We spoke to one of the pilot program workers yesterday as we were setting up and he indicated that Amazon is already considering offering overtime to the workers. We're sure that there will be plenty of hours and we look forward to earning some good wages while here...

Barboursville, WV

It was an earlier start yesterday because we knew we had lots of mountains to go through. The trip through West Virginia was very pretty, but probably the worse roads we have traveled in 3 years. The Interstate between Beckley and Charleston was rough, to say the least, and the kicker was that it was a toll road. It was about a 100 mile stretch that is called the West Virginia Turnpike and they had a lot of nerve charging people to use it. We bounced and wobbled the whole way on that stretch.

We made it to our campground – the Beech Fork State Park – in Barboursville, WV around 2 PM. The park is about 10 miles south of the Interestate, and it was an even worse road than the one we traveled earlier. There were hairpin curves, and barely enough room to drive without pushing the oncoming vehicles off the road. Once we arrived though, we discovered a beautiful Park. There were only electric hookup sites available, but that's fine for one night.

The site we took was right on the lake and very large:

We took a walk around the park after we got settled and took these shots, starting with a view of our site from the bridge leading to our area:

And the main part of the park:

And finally, our view from the back of our rig:

Our goal is to leave by 8:00 this morning in order to get through the bad stretch of road leading to the Interstate before the traffic.  We also need to empty our holding tanks since we only had an electric hookup while here. It will only be 222 miles to Campbellsville, but we leave the Interstate in Lexington, and the rest is state highway which is about 60 miles. It will be nice to get to our destination and get settled in. Also, we don’t have Wi-Fi or cell service here, so I’m writing this entry in Word and will transfer it to the blog when we arrive in Campbellsville. That’s why it is a late post. (Just arrived). Until Tomorrow...

Travel to Clifton Forge, VA

We left nearly on time yesterday -  9:45 AM - for our 210 mile trip to Clifton Forge, VA. It is located 27 miles from the West Virginia border and the drive took us about 5 hours with several stops along the way and some construction which held us up for 1/2 hour. It was a trip that took us past the southern entrance to the Skyline Drive and into the Blue Ridge Mountains which were the first mountains we've seen in over 6 months:

I only averaged 7.7 MPG with the truck/fifth wheel combination which was expected with the mountain driving.

We enjoyed a relaxing evening after setting up in a very nice space in the Buckhorne Campground:

Just to the right of our space above (out of the picture) is the famous - for this area - Buckhorne Country Store. When we arrived, and for most of the rest of the afternoon, a radio was blasting music all over the campground. At first, we thought it might be the normal activity here, but it stopped around dinner time.

Today is another 200 mile journey through the mountains to Barboursville, WV, almost into KY. Our departure will be a little earlier today as we have to gas up along the way and the mountains almost always take more time. The weather was great yesterday, and we expect the same today. Until tomorrow...

Yorktown

The trip to Yorktown was a lot shorter - only 20 miles - than the other 2 places we visited the previous 2 days. For that reason, we took a direct route instead of using the Colonial Parkway. It was also a little earlier for us since we wanted to make sure we returned earlier in the afternoon to begin our preparations for our departure today.

We arrived at the Victory Center - as opposed to the Visitor Center, which is located at the actual battlefield site - at around 9:30 AM:

The Center was actually a museum that chronicled the struggle through the years leading up to and including the Revolution. There were flags in front representing each of the original Colonies:

Following our tour of the galleries and the displays of all the artifacts from that period, we went outside to witness a firearms demonstration:

The outside tour was very similar to the one we took at Jamestown the day before. Instead of an Indian village, there was a recreation of a 1780's farm. There were small plots of vegetables and several buildings:

There was a sizable patch of tobacco, which was a main product of early Virginia. There was also a turkey walking around that looked like he was about ready for someones table:

Following our walk through the outside displays, we boarded a trolley:

 that would take us to the Visitor Center at the battlefield, while driving through the town of Yorktown. There was a nice memorial near the battlefield:

The visitor center was much like the Victory Center with a museum and galleries of Colonial folklore. The final activity for us was a tour of the battlefield that was well done by a young volunteer (below) that was French, and knew many of the fine details of the final battle of the Revolution:

There were flags (British, French and American) that marked the location of the troops and he described the battle of Yorktown, which lasted for 10 days, and resulted in the British surrender to George Washington on Oct 19, 1781.

We returned home in mid afternoon and began our chores for our departure today. We will stay in Clifton Forge, VA, tonight, which is about 30 miles from the West Virginia border. We thoroughly enjoyed our time at the 3 cities we visited and are very glad we took the extra time to see them.

Now, it's off to another chapter...

Jamestown

There was so much to see and do at Jamestown that the whole day was spent in that area, which means that Yorktown will be done today. The trip to Jamestown - from about the Williamsburg area - was taken on the Colonial Parkway:

The Parkway is a unique road that connects all 3 of the historical sites - Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown - on one, scenic roadway:

There are no lines in the road and it meanders through some beautiful scenery along the James River, where deer graze undisturbed:

Near the end of the Parkway, we came to the entrance for the Jamestown Settlement:

We had already purchased our tickets online for both Jamestown and Yorktown, so all we had to do was go to the counter and pick up the literature for the complex. It begins in the Visitor Center building - nice and cool - that contains many galleries containing  descriptions of the trials, adventures and history of the first successful English settlement in America in 1607. You then go outside - hot and humid - and walk through re-creations of a Powhatan Indian Village:

and further along where you reach the shore of the James River and replicas of the 3 ships that carried the original settlers (104). The first ship was the largest - Susan Constant:

on which 70 of the settlers sailed. It's hard to imagine spending 4 1/2 months in such close quarters while sailing from England. The other 2 ships (Godspeed and Discovery) were smaller, but provided the same close quarters as the first ship:

We took a picture of the map that showed the route that was taken from England to Jamestown which helps to show why the voyage took so long:

There was also a replica of Ft Smith which was built to defend against the Indians during the early part of the settlement:

We then returned to our car and drove a mile or so to the actual location of the settlement:

The original settlement was on the Jamestown Island and occupied a very small portion of the land. There was a memorial constructed next to the actual site:

We saw the remnants of foundations from some of the homes that were built and discovered that the entire area of the settlement was being excavated for items from that period. Here is a statue of Capt John Smith, who led the expedition, and was placed inside the fences of the settlement:

The excavation areas can be seen behind the statue.

We spent most of the day at these locations and realized that our Yorktown visit would have to be moved to today. The day was fun and very educational, but we felt a little disappointed following the day at Williamsburg. Maybe because of the significance of Williamsburg being the original capital of Virginia and the  role it played during the Revolution. It was also a much larger town and provided much more to see of a physical community. They both have been worth the visits.

We drove the Colonial Parkway again to start our trip home, and once again, we spotted a deer on the side of the road:

It was a great ending to a great day...