Dranuary

 Also known as Dry January has been a thing for several years now. I have never been one to make New Years Resolutions, if there was a goal I wanted to accomplish the date does not matter I just set the goal. Sometimes I am successful and sometimes I am not. Did you know that 62% of the population feel pressure to make a resolution, probably by a nagging spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend. 30% of the population actually makes one. Only 1% make it a whole year still committed to their resolution. Talk about setting yourself up for failure!

But Dry January is not really a resolution, it is more like a short-term goal. 31 days. I thought about it, and thought about it some more. Certainly, I could do it. But what about all those people in the liquor industry? If everyone stopped drinking in January how could those in the liquor industry afford to live? How would they afford their house payments, feed their children? The more I thought about it, the more I felt it was my responsibility to help these families out, that is just the kind of person I am, always looking out for others. It is my responsibility to not only drink during the month of January, but to make up for those who are selfish enough to not drink alcohol and put these poor families in the local food lines.  I am committed to keeping those poor families who work in the liquor industry well fed and clothed.

Now, those of you who read our blog on a regular basis may think we are lushes who drink from sunrise to sunset. In fact, a friend called me after reading our last post saying he was worried about our livers as that is the main organ that processes alcohol through our bodies. I would argue that our livers are healthier than the average persons as they are getting a lot of exercise, and exercise if good for you right?

All kidding aside, when we have our tours and tastings, they limit the amount of alcohol they give you. I doubt an entire tasting 3-5 glasses is more than ounce. They certainly are not going to serve you enough to get you drunk and let you drive out of there. Think of that liability!

But alas, we are done with the major distillery tour portion of our trip, we will still hit one every week or two as we travel and visit friends of family. Besides, I think we have purchased enough bottles already to keep many in the industry fed and clothed well into February at the very least. There are several bottles that have been eluding us for several years now. Three that are top of mind are Stagg, Eagle Rare and Elmer T. Lee. We look for them everywhere we go and had yet to find them. Until recently, we finally crossed on off of our list. 

All three of those are offered by Buffalo Trace and every once in a while, they offer them for sale at the distillery. We have been to that distillery 7 times in the past couple of years and have missed them every time. We missed them again this year! Well, we were driving through Cumberland Gap Tennesse and randomly decided to stop by the Kroger's Liquor store and see if they had any rare bottles. We were looking at the display when the clerk asks if we were looking for anything in particular. I just said, "Anything rare, unusual or hard to get" She said "I have some Eagle Rare in the back". Now, the next question is the most important. I have seen each of these bottles in liquor stores, but they would be marked up 3, 4, 5 times their value. I have seen them as high as $250, I am not paying over $100 for a bottle. Trying not to act too excited, I asked her, "What are you getting for that?". "$44" she says. ""Yeah, I'll take one of those".

She goes in the back room and brings one out when I asked her "I don't suppose my wife could get one too". Finally! I have Eagle Rare crossed off my list! I'll open one up and keep the other for my collection. 

As you may have guessed, we were on the move again having dodged the snow and ice that covered much of Kentucky. Our move down to London was a smart one, although we got some snow and ice, it was minimal. After spending two nights at The Farm RV Resort (highly recommend that park by the way) in London we headed south, east and then started making our way north. 

We stopped by The Axe Handle distillery along the way, a very small yet cool place. They thought we were Harvest Hosts for the night, we did not even know they were members. We thought about staying there, but it was too early in the day, so we carried on. We landed in Wytheville, Viginia for the night before continuing north on I81. Trucks, so many semi-trucks, the is obviously the main north/south travel corridor. 

Question for those who live or have traveled in this area. Is the Skyline drive through the Shenandoah National Park worth driving? How long would it take? Can we do it in late January? We are thinking of driving it when we leave Pennsylvania on our way to Florida. I have read a few blogs where people have driven it, I just cannot remember who that was at the moment. 

Thursday afternoon we landed at our daughter's house outside of Greencastle Pennsylvania where we will be for the next couple of weeks. 

We have been here almost a week now and hit the ground running with a list of projects to work on while we are here. As you may recall, we remodeled their main living room last year. They kept the Christmas theme going until we could exchange gifts, the tree looked great next to their new fireplace. 

 This year we are going to remodel their other living room and the half bath on the lower level. You may also recall this this house was originally built in the 1860's bringing some remodeling challenges, there is absolutely nothing square in this house. But we are making progress. We have gutted the bathroom inside and out and have started some wall and ceiling work in the living room. 

The picture above is a "before" picture of the bathroom. The picture below is after we have all the paneling and trim removed from inside the bathroom.

Then there is the outside of the bathroom which again was covered by paneling painted several times over the years. 

     

Friday night they took us out to a German restaurant in Hagerstown. The Schmankerl Stube offers very authentic food, most of which I cannot pronounce, but it was very good! After supper walked to a bar next door where the girls played games while Shane and I sat at the bar. 

After that we were headed off for dessert at a donut shop called Krumpe's. I questioned whether they would even be open at 8:30 at night, Jessica informed me that they are only open at night!

And they were packed! We had to wait in line to park, then wait in line at the store. Crazy. 

Other than that one outing, we have just been working. In addition to the living room and bathroom, we are tacking two other projects. We gutted the pantry and replaced some rotting wood in the summer kitchen. What is a summer kitchen you ask? It is where the wives cooked for all the farm hands back in the day. It is now used for as a project and storage room but there was one piece of plywood that was so rotten your foot would go through it. 

After opening it up we discovered the problem. Not only was the plywood rotten but many of the 2x8 stringers below it were totally rotted through. 

I sistered (put a new board alongside the rotted ones) each of the boards, put a new piece of plywood on top and it is as good as new, well almost.

I don't think we have any before pictures of the pantry, but I do have one "in progress" picture. 

All this seems like a lot to have going on at once, but we only have two weeks here and have to make the most of it. It also gives each of us something to work on as only one person can work on an area at a time. 

Will we get it all done in the next 10 days? I think so barring any unforeseen issues, but in a house like this that could come at any time!

Chapter 3

It has been months since I posted Chapter 2 of this tale so you might want to go back and read it and perhaps Chapter 1 again. The suspense of what happens next must have been killing most of you as I have been receiving countless cards, letters, texts and fan mail asking when the next chapter will be coming out. Well, here it is! ....Don't worry readers, there are only two chapters left before this story is put to bed. But you will not want to miss them as each chapter is filled with unexpected plot twists that will leave you on the edge of your seat wanting more! 

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Detective Olivieri awoke laying on the garage floor amongst the garbage. Where am I? How long had I been out? As she looks around it all comes back to her; the bottle caps at the crime scenes, the bottle cap shooting guns. Somehow The Hater has lured Dino into his life of crime. The promise of free beer probably, the weak-minded are always susceptible.

But the real question is what does she do? Now that she knows her own husband, the man that she mostly loves and sometimes hates has become part of an organized terror plot against dogs in their community. Without thinking it fully through she picks up the packaging from the bottle cap guns and burns them in the fireplace.  

She has to find Dino, find out what's going on, talk some sense into him. She rushes through the house calling his name but receives no answer. Same thing in the garage. The fallout shelter she thinks. That is where he has to be. Several years ago, Dino had insisted that they install an underground fallout shelter for the impending zombie apocalypse. Olivieri had been against it but finally relented when Dino just would not let it go. 

She opened the trap door leading to the underground shelter and was immediately taken aback by the stench that wafted up. She cautiously went down the ladder. What the heck? Is someone living down here? She looks around to see a sleeping bag so stained that it looked like a homeless man had been sleeping it for year, empty bags of chips and the ugliest straw hat ever known to man. Then it hits her, there is only one person that would wear a hat that ugly; The Hater! He has been living within feet of her house while she, herself, has been searching for him throughout the community, he has been living right under her feet....literally, under her feet!

I've got to call this in. She reaches for her phone. No service down here. As she turns to climb up the stairs, the trap door suddenly slams shut, everything goes black, and she hears the distinct sound of the latch being thrown on the door.

Across town Chief Roche is quickly packing for an upcoming marathon. "I'll only be gone for the weekend he tells his wife Leslie who is preparing and labeling his meals for the weekend. "I've got all your clothes ready", she says, "I even ironed your socks and underwear. I used the ultrasoft fabric softener so you will not have any chaffing". Roche thinks back to his last marathon. He had to drop out after only a few miles because Leslie had used too much starch spray while ironing his underwear. 

Leslie looks out the window to see the neighbor's puppy in a tangled chain, its food and water just out of its reach. Leslie is the opposite of a dog hater; she is a dog lover. She cannot help but feel sorry for the poor little guy chained to this house all day with no one paying any attention to it.  She has plans, not necessarily legal plans, but she had to save that puppy. You see, she has been practicing her ninja moves and plans on ninja'ing over there after dark. Tonight, I am going to save that puppy.

After two days, Dino has run out of beer and chips and wonders where his wife is. Wiping his orange Cheeto stained hands on his wife beater t-shirt, he picks up the phone and calls her BFF Barbie. Just as Barbie answers Dino lets out a belch that she could smell on the other end of the phone. "Where's my wife? I have not seen her in two 30 packs." Dino asks. Barbie, knowing how much Dino drinks, knows "Two-thirty packs" means two days. 

"I'll be right over!", she says as she hangs up the phone. Dino, thinking she is coming over to spend some quality time with him has to act quickly. "I've got clean myself up!" With no time for a shower and all his clothes dirty, he does the only thing he can think of. Taking off his wifebeater, shakes it, turns it inside out and puts it back on. Good as new he thinks to himself. 

Barbie arrives skidding in the driveway minutes later. "When is the last time you saw her?" she asks Dino upon getting out of her car. "Seen who?" he asks. "Your wife, you orange stained neanderthal!". It was then that Barbie hears banging coming from trap door on the fallout shelter. Unlatching and pulling open the door, both Barbie and Dino are bewildered to see Detective Olivieri staring back at them wearing a ridiculous straw hat! She jumps out of the shelter, kicks Dino in the groin and runs to her squad car taking off down the driveway, gravel and dirt flying everywhere. "I wonder what's got her underwear in a bundle?" he asks as he limps back into the house for an ice packet.

The following morning Leslie is just waking up with she hears the door open and Chief Roche enters the house. "I thought you were gone for the weekend", Leslie inquires. "Pulled a hammy in first hundred yards and had to drop out, besides that, The Hater has struck again and kidnapped the neighbor's dog". "Can you believe it? I leave for one night and he strikes right next door!" "Colibaba is reviewing the footage from their security camera right now"

Just then his phone rings. Leslie can only hear half of the conversation as Roche asks, "Colibaba, what do you have from the footage?". After a brief conversation Roche hangs up the phone and turns to Leslie. "Did you see or hear anything last night?", he asks. "No dear, why?". "Well, apparently The Hater has an accomplice as the security footage shows a small-framed figure dressed all in black swinging in from the trees, doing a roll on the ground, kidnapping the puppy and vaulting the fence with said puppy in less than 10 seconds". "There is no way The Hater could have done that himself; he cannot even tie his own shoes without falling over", "I am going into the station to see the footage myself" he says as he leaves the bedroom and heads out the door. 

Leslie listens to her husband drive away before she tosses the covers aside to reveal that she, is entirely dressed in black with a puppy curled up at her feet, sound asleep.....

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That concludes Chapter 3 of this saga. Only two more chapters left in this story with so many unanswered questions. Will Leslie get caught for stealing the neighbor's dog? Will The Hater strike again? And where was Detective Olivieri speeding off to in such a hurry?!!!!!

Stay tuned my friends, those answers and many more will come in the following episodes! But first, some photograpic evidence that these tales are not entirely tales, they are inspired by true events. Those of you who know the characters know exactly how close to the truth they really are!

First up is The Hater and the ugliest straw hat known to man. 

Then there is the apocalypse fallout shelter....

And last, but not least, is Leslie in full ninja mode!

The Bourbon Trail

 "Why?" I ask myself that question as I huddle under the covers at 3am in the morning. It is 52° inside the camper, I have two blankets on with just my head exposed above the covers. I do not want to get up, but get up I must. The "why" question is not the one most of you are probably thinking of, which is, "why are we cold camping in northern Kentucky when it is only 26° out?". A logical question, but we enjoy winter camping, in fact, our thermostat is only set to 56° at night and 60° during the day. 

We enjoy the cold, enjoy the fact that there are not a lot of tourists around while we continue Kentucky's infamous Bourbon Trail. The "why" I am referring to "Why do we always run out of propane at 3am in the morning?". We actually probably ran out at 2am, but it took until now for my senses to realize it. 

I begrudgingly get out of bed and get dressed. Dakota of course sees this and wants to go outside. We both go out, her to do her business, me to turn the valves on the propane tanks getting a fresh supply to feed our heater. We are both done at the same time and head back into the camper and under the covers. 

This is year two of our Bourbon Trail adventure. There are several maps detailing the number of distilleries in the state, but this one is pretty decent. So far, in the past two years we have hit 14 of the 44 listed (Numbers 2,7,8,10,13,14,17,18,23,27,30,42,43,44 (bolded ones were this week)) 

Even in the off season, it is amazing how popular these tours are. Some we had to set months in advance waiting for the tour schedule to open up and get online right away to book one. Others, you could book the day of. 

Bourbon is actually pretty straight forward, mix corn, rye and barley, heat it, add yeast, let it ferment, distill it, barrel it and bottle it. But everyone tries to differentiate themselves by tweaking the recipe just a little bit. The percentages of each grain may vary, the water they use, the yeast, the distillation process, the barrels they use, how they store them. Each saying the way they do it makes their bourbon better than everyone else's. 

100% of bourbon's color and much of the flavor comes from the barrels. Some use a char level 3, some a 4, some toast their barrels, some use a climate controlled rickhouse, some rotate their barrels, others sit in the same spot for years. Some are bottled after 4 years, some as long as 20 or more. The sweet spot seems to be that 6–10-year mark keeping it tasty yet affordable. The cheapest bottle we have bought so far was $19.99, the most expensive for us, topped out at $100, but there are bottles out there that get up into the thousands.

The chart below shows various woods used and the color by time in the barrel. 

While a lot of the tours a similar, we do still find them interesting. Buffalo Trace is steeped with history going back into the 1700's while Bardstown Bourbon Co is less than 10 years old with state-of-the-art equipment. Bardstown fermenters were stainless steel with cooling pipes throughout while others use the same wooden fermenters that they have used for over 100 years. 

We find the stills themselves very interesting. Those of you familiar with Willett will recognize this second still as their famous bottle is shaped after it. 

Of course there are the tastings. Two days in a row our tours started at 9am, nothing like drinking bourbon at 9am to get the old circulation going!

The rickhouses where they store the barrels are typically not climate controlled, at least not in Kentucky. The varying temperatures and humidity levels draw the bourbon into and out of the barrel wood throughout the year giving it color and taste. Some areas within the rickhouses historically produce the best tasting bourbons and are used for single barrel releases, while most other barrels are blended together in batches to produce a more consistent overall flavor profile. 

If you have a spare $20,000 or so you can buy one of these barrels which will give you anywhere from 160-180 bottles. The labeling on the barrels may vary from place to place for many are common. This one below for example was put in the barrel on July 31, 2019 (19G31)

Another thing that was cool about Bardstown Bourbon Co. was that they let us get a taste directly from a barrel. A first for us!

Our favorite continues to be Buffalo Trace, not only for their history, but we also like their bourbons the best. They are sweet, smooth and to our liking. We stood in line one morning in 10° weather waiting for them to open. Scoring a couple bottles of Blanton's, E.H. Taylor and a bottle of a wheated Single Oak Project! Exciting, right?!?! 

But alas, we had to cut our bourbon tour short canceling our last four tours. I am not sure if you heard, there is a system moving through the central part of the country. I jest of course as that is about the only thing they are talking about on the news. Well, we were right in the middle of it, so we decided to head south a couple hours and at least get out of the worst of it. 

The biggest bummer of having to do this was that we had to cancel two visits we had later this week as well. One with friends and former neighbors Jim and Brenda who now live outside Hillsboro and a visit with fellow blogger Granny Sue, who many of you know. We were going to be passing somewhat close to her house and had arranged to meet up. Hopefully it works out next time. 

Fuel prices have been all over the board. Back home when we left, diesel was $3.19. One the road, we have seen as low as $2.78 and as high as $4.59. I think the highest we have paid is $3.49.

In the meantime, we are hunkered down outside of London Kentucky. It is still snowing, but I think we are south of the heaviest band. At least I hope we are!

2024 The Year in Review

 2024, a year we will not soon forget. Northeast, Southeast, Midwest to about as far to the Northwest as one can get. 21 States, 4 Canadian Provinces, God only knows how many breweries and distilleries!

We started off the year at our daughters in Pennsylvania where we spent several weeks remodeling their living room. Then we headed south to Savahanna where we visited Forrest and family. 

Barb and Somer in Savannah

From there, it was along the east coast of Florida, a first for us, where we met up with friends Dan and Jeannie in St. Augustine doing some sightseeing and fishing. We continued our way south to the Everglades and Keys where we visited friends Shawn and Kim as well as Dan and Mary. Of course, there was more fishing along the way. 

Dan, Jeannie and Barb walking the beaches of St. Augustine

Barb, Kim, Shawn and me

Barb (Dan in the background) with a shark-eaten Yellowtail

Then it was up the west coast of Florida where we visited my sister Judy, good friends Mike and Liz, Shirley and Al and Dan and Jeannie again. So many good times and memories.

Sister Judy and Mike

Mike and Liz

Shirley and Al

Amidst all this fun, we lost two good friends and a sister in 2024. Greg, Russ and sister Beth will be missed, but never forgotten

These are a couple of well-traveled dogs going from coast to coast and beyond. Zoey got her picture taken on the Florida and Alaska coast, both met lots of friends along the way and Dakota got to go hunting in North Dakota!

Leaving Florida, we headed north stopping in Alabama to meet friends Vicki and Merrell, and Guy and Sue, then it was off to Nashville, another first, and back to Kentucky for more distilleries before heading home to South Dakota. 

Vicki and Merrell

Guy and Sue

2024 also brought our 10-year retire-iversary. In some ways it feels like it has just been a few short years, on others, it seems like it has been decades since we have worked at our career jobs. 

Then it was off to North Dakota for spring planting! After 4 weeks, it was back home before we started our Great Alaskan Adventure! We started the adventure off by heading towards Edmonton to see friends Dave and Leslie. This is also where we got our biggest surprise of the year when Steve and Dianne surprised us!

What can I say about our summer to accurately describe it? Rich and Susan's hospitality, meeting up with Steve and Deb, the fishing! All of those would take too many paragraphs, I will just let the pictures do the talking....

Steve and Deb

After that world wind tour, it was back to the farm for fall harvest and hunting with my son, Forrest, good friend Bob and my long-lost nephew John. 

Then coming home to have Jessica and family fly out and having all of our kids here at the same time was just the icing on the cake for an incredible year!

The best thing out of 2024? Well, the pictures above photographically were my favorites, but the best thing was to get through the entire year without having to see Dino face-to-face! I don't know if I will be as lucky in 2025, but one can hope!

But enough of last year, let's talk about 2025! We rang in the New Year in Louisville Kentucky, the home of oh so many distilleries. 

We spent our first night on the road in Lexington, Nebraska at....wait for it...... a winery!

So far, we have been on the road for four days, three of which were travel days meaning our wheels were rolling over 6 hours each of those. Day one found us landing in Lexington Nebraska at a Harvest Host; Mac's Creek Winery.  It was 5:30 when we arrived, there was one person working and we were the only customers. We each ordered 5 wines to try. Soon a couple more customers arrived, and the place was a little livelier.  All good, but nothing we would buy. Way too sweet and fruity for my liking and Barb, well, she just does not like wine. She did like these a little more than others though as she said it was like drinking grape juice. 

We spent the night in their parking lot, nice and quiet. The next day we drove to Arcadian Moon Winery in Higginsville, Missouri. Also, a Harvest Host, they have a full restaurant and an event center. We ordered a couple of appetizers and watched the Vikings beat the Packers! I tried two wines there, the cabernet and merlot. Both were very good. Barb had a Coor Light which she said tasted like a Coors Light. It is so nice that these businesses allow RV'ers to stay in their parking lots. It is also a good draw for the business as well. While we were the only campers on this night, they said on other nights they have had up to 22 campers! We spent a little over $70 there so it is a nice little boost for the business as well. 

Of course it is "dry camping", meaning there is no power, sewer or water, but being fully self-contained in our camper we do not need them every day. We are also what we call "cold camping", meaning we have no water in our camper at the moment as everything would freeze. We use bottled water for the dogs, brushing our teeth and such. We have enough antifreeze in each of the waste tanks from winterizing to keep anything we pour down the drain from freezing. Wet wipes keep us fresh as daisy's each day. But after a few days, even daisy's start to wilt and it is time to find a campground with electric and showers. 

Day 3 (the last of our long driving days) found us passing through St. Louis. Not the cleanest city in the country. 

We landed for the day in Leavenworth Indiana, a nice but small town on the border of Indiana and Kentucky. It was also my birthday! Barb took me to supper at The Overlook, I think it is the only restaurant in the area, but very good food! On a bluff overlooking the river, the views are incredible.

That is Kentucky on the other side. This Harvest Host was a little different than the others as it had no business associated with it. Just a couple who had 150 acres and allowed RV'ers to stop and spend the night. They must had bought a subdivision before it was developed as there were roads and street signs, but it was well grown over and no houses. Interesting. 

Overnight the wind picked up and it rained hard and then gentle. Nothing like the sound of a gentle rain on the roof of the camper to help you sleep in in the morning. Well, the only reason we sleep in is because we moved two time zones over. If we were at home, we still would have woken up at 4:20am. As it was, we woke up at 6:20am eastern time. 

This day (Tuesday) was to be the start of our Booze Tour! Over the next week we have 11+ distillery tours scheduled as we continue to check off our goal to visit as many as we can. 

First up was Evan Williams in downtown Louisville. 

The tour was good and gave a history lesson on Evan Williams himself as well as the distillery. 

A few hours later we were at Peerless Distilling just down the road. It is hard to compare the two tours as they were both so different. I liked the facility of Peerless best, but maybe the tour at Evan Willams was a little better. 

Either way, I would recommend both. Of course, we have bought way too much alcohol already and we are just two tours in! I think we have 6, no wait, 7 bottles already and so many more tours to go. Louisville is a really cool town. Between the distilleries, baseball memorabilia and horse facilities, there is a lot to see!

We rung in the new year in the Cabela's parking lot in Louisville. I think we made it to 9:00, but were awaken by fireworks at midnight so technically we were awake for new year's! Today, everything is closed for the holiday. We are at a campground getting everything charged up, using their Wi-Fi to post this blog and most important of all....Showers! 

Tomorrow the tours continue, 10+ tours in the next 5 days, I better get a hold of our credit card company and see if I can increase our credit limit!