Vacation ideas

[Octaneforce]

I have an rv that me and the woman go away with a few times a year, and the other trips are me and a few buddies at nascar or motocross tracks.

Anyway, we are thinking about going to louisville kentucky for the next trip. Our last trip was virginia beach/cape charles and it was fuckin outstanding.
Has anyone been to or lives near louisville? I love whiskey so i know theres tons of tours and tastings to do. Ive heard some of the surrounding areas can be “unsafe” but i live 20 miles outside of nyc so its not like i dont see that every day.

That being said, ky is about 12 hours away from me. What other destination would you suggest to hit within 12 hours of ny? I have a pretty open mind. I definitely need more ideas.

[Beetlegeuse]

#1, repeat after me: Loo-uh-vul. Loo-uh-vul. With the stress, if any, on the first syllable.

Say it quickly and run the sounds together so the "uh" almost disappears and they won't know you from a local.

NOT Lew-ee-ville. Loo-uh-vul.


There's Old Louisville, home to the largest surviving conglomeration of Victorian homes in the US, and there's NuLu (new Louisville), home to dozens of trendy hipster restaurants. Four of them were reviewed by Andrew Zimmern in the fifth episode of his Travel Channel TV show, The Zimmern List.

Louisville is about four counties over from Bourbon County, from whence the beverage takes its name, but I think most liquor is distilled either in or around Lexington.



They just closed Churchill Downs for the winter but they start racing again regularly in late April. Plus they have museum tours sometimes even when there's no racing going on.

The Hillerich & Bradsby (Louisville Slugger) baseball bat factory is ... guess where? They also have a museum. There's also a museum for the Louisville Lip, Muhammad Ali.

The Speed Art Museum is a respectable effort for a city that size. I went there some years back for an Ansel Adams show.

Col. Harlan Sanders, founder of KFC is buried in the Cave Hill cemetery. So is George Rogers Clark of Lewis & Clark fame. And Muhammad Ali. Lots of interesting "artwork." One tombstone looks like the Sphinx.

After fried chicken, Louiville's most significant gastronomic gift to the world is the Hot Brown, an open-faced roast turkey, bacon & cheese sammich served with Mornay sauce. Invented and still a specialty at the Brown Hotel in downtown.

Louisville has the world's largest bat. What kind of bat, you ask? Why ... both kinds. The giant baseball bat is at the H&B factory. The giant (model of a) vampire bat is two blocks from there at corner of 10th & Main.

Fort Knox is about half an hour from Louisville. You can drive past the gold depository (clearly visible from the Interstate) and the George S. Patton Museum is on post. Lots of old clanky old tanky stuff there but what I found most memorable were personal items owned by Gen. Patton himself (including the car he crashed in, leading to his death) and the mock-up of the gold depository used as a prop in the Bond film "Goldfinger." Which I find a little weird because Miami was as close as any of the filming got to Ft Knox.

In Bardstown (about 40 miles from Louisville), The Oscar Getz museum of whiskey history.

Mammoth Cave is about 75 miles fom Louisville, the longest known cave system in the world. More than 400 miles mapped so far. All tours are electrically lighted (except the opnes labeled "wild"), the temperature is ~55F year round. There are restaurants and "relief facilities" in the cave. Some of the rooms are so big (and there was relief from summer heat) they historically were used for entertainment facilities. There's one natural amphitheater that was used for stage performances. Edwin Booth, brother to John Wilkes Booth, once performed there.

The Chevy Corvette is built in Bowling Green, about 120 miles from Louisville. There's also a Corvette museum there.


But I've spent more than too much time at Ft Knox. If it were me, I'd look to visit DC first, if you've never been. The Smithsonians, Mt Rushmore [edit: I meant Mt Vernon], Monticello, the Mall, Lincoln and Jefferson memorials, Washington monument, Arlington cemetery. If you're into airplanes, there's nowhere on earth like the Air & Space Museum and it's annex at Dulles, the Udvar-Hazy Center. Everything from a Wright Flyer to Lindbergh's actual Spirit of St Louis to the actual Enola Gay (dropped "the bomb" on Hiroshima).

And it's a short jaunt from there to several major War Between the States battlefields; Gettysburg, Bull Run, Chancellorsville, and others. And the Appomattox courthouse. Stonewall Jackson was shot at Chancellorsville, had his wounded arm amputated but died anyway, is buried in Lexington, Va., but his arm is buried on the grounds of Ellwood Manor, near Fredericksburg.

[bethdoth]

Leave the RV and go to Telico plaines TN just south of Knoxville and rent a huge cabin on top of a mountain. check out mountain view cabins Mountain View Cabin Rentals There are whiskey distilleries Jack Daniels and Makers Mark kinda close. Gatlinburg or just fishing and exploring the mountains. There is a nice campground up the Cheraholla skyway https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/232215

[Capebuffalo]

Leave the RV and go to Telico plaines TN just south of Knoxville and rent a huge cabin on top of a mountain. check out mountain view cabins Mountain View Cabin Rentals There are whiskey distilleries Jack Daniels and Makers Mark kinda close. Gatlinburg or just fishing and exploring the mountains. There is a nice campground up the Cheraholla skyway https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/232215

Good damn old man. You are putting on some size.

[Mooseman33]

get out of the backwoods and take a cruise.

best way to vacation.

[Charlie67]

#1, repeat after me: Loo-uh-vul. Loo-uh-vul. With the stress, if any, on the first syllable.

Say it quickly and run the sounds together so the "uh" almost disappears and they won't know you from a local.

NOT Lew-ee-ville. Loo-uh-vul.


There's Old Louisville, home to the largest surviving conglomeration of Victorian homes in the US, and there's NuLu (new Louisville), home to dozens of trendy hipster restaurants. Four of them were reviewed by Andrew Zimmern in the fifth episode of his Travel Channel TV show, The Zimmern List.

Louisville is about four counties over from Bourbon County, from whence the beverage takes its name, but I think most liquor is distilled either in or around Lexington.



They just closed Churchill Downs for the winter but they start racing again regularly in late April. Plus they have museum tours sometimes even when there's no racing going on.

The Hillerich & Bradsby (Louisville Slugger) baseball bat factory is ... guess where? They also have a museum. There's also a museum for the Louisville Lip, Muhammad Ali.

The Speed Art Museum is a respectable effort for a city that size. I went there some years back for an Ansel Adams show.

Col. Harlan Sanders, founder of KFC is buried in the Cave Hill cemetery. So is George Rogers Clark of Lewis & Clark fame. And Muhammad Ali. Lots of interesting "artwork." One tombstone looks like the Sphinx.

After fried chicken, Louiville's most significant gastronomic gift to the world is the Hot Brown, an open-faced roast turkey, bacon & cheese sammich served with Mornay sauce. Invented and still a specialty at the Brown Hotel in downtown.

Louisville has the world's largest bat. What kind of bat, you ask? Why ... both kinds. The giant baseball bat is at the H&B factory. The giant (model of a) vampire bat is two blocks from there at corner of 10th & Main.

Fort Knox is about half an hour from Louisville. You can drive past the gold depository (clearly visible from the Interstate) and the George S. Patton Museum is on post. Lots of old clanky old tanky stuff there but what I found most memorable were personal items owned by Gen. Patton himself (including the car he crashed in, leading to his death) and the mock-up of the gold depository used as a prop in the Bond film "Goldfinger." Which I find a little weird because Miami was as close as any of the filming got to Ft Knox.

In Bardstown (about 40 miles from Louisville), The Oscar Getz museum of whiskey history.

Mammoth Cave is about 75 miles fom Louisville, the longest known cave system in the world. More than 400 miles mapped so far. All tours are electrically lighted (except the opnes labeled "wild"), the temperature is ~55F year round. There are restaurants and "relief facilities" in the cave. Some of the rooms are so big (and there was relief from summer heat) they historically were used for entertainment facilities. There's one natural amphitheater that was used for stage performances. Edwin Booth, brother to John Wilkes Booth, once performed there.

The Chevy Corvette is built in Bowling Green, about 120 miles from Louisville. There's also a Corvette museum there.


But I've spent more than too much time at Ft Knox. If it were me, I'd look to visit DC first, if you've never been. The Smithsonians, Mt Rushmore, Monticello, the Mall, Lincoln and Jefferson memorials, Washington monument, Arlington cemetery. If you're into airplanes, there's nowhere on earth like the Air & Space Museum and it's annex at Dulles, the Udvar-Hazy Center. Everything from a Wright Flyer to Lindbergh's actual Spirit of St Louis to the actual Enola Gay (dropped "the bomb" on Hiroshima).

And it's a short jaunt from there to several major War Between the States battlefields; Gettysburg, Bull Run, Chancellorsville, and others. And the Appomattox courthouse. Stonewall Jackson was shot at Chancellorsville, had his wounded arm amputated but died anyway, is buried in Lexington, Va., but his arm is buried on the grounds of Ellwood Manor, near Fredericksburg.

Don't forget "Homemade Ice Cream & Pie Kitchen".

[Beetlegeuse]

You can buy it online now but Louisville was the point of origin for Henry Bain sauce. It's an all-purpose food sauce created by the maître d' at a Louisville country club that has a small (compared to A-1 or Worcestershire) but fiercely loyal following. It rocketed to national fame when it was mentioned by bad guy Boyd Crowder (played by Walton Goggins) in the FX TV series "Justified." Same thing happened when another character on Justified mentioned Nashville's Prince's Hot Fried Chicken. It spawned a national hot fried chicken craze. Such was the power of that TV series.

HBS was created to conceal the "gaminess" of wild game but it's also a credible accompaniment to steak. Boyd used it as a dipping sauce for fried chicken. Pick some up to carry home and start your own food craze, but there are imitators, so make sure it says 'Pendennis Club' on the label.

As for junk food, I can't visit Louisville without stopping to have a fish sandwich at a regional fast food chain called Moby Dick's. It's the fish version of a "gut bomb" (White Castle or Krystal's) and I could eat them -- drowning in tartar sauce -- until I'm ready to pop. After which the very thought of one makes me want to projectile vomit for the next six weeks. And six and a half weeks later I'd do it all over again.

About 220 miles down the Ohio River is Paducah, which is across the river from Metropolis, Illinois, where they have riverboat gambling, if you're into that sort of thing. There was a pattern of bible thumpers outlawing casinos on land but there was a loophole allowing them to exist on waterways forming state boundaries, where the states have limited jurisdiction. So originally they'd dock to pick up passengers, then sail down the river while gambling was in progress. Then they nibbled at the law so they could gamble while tied up at the dock. And the law kept changing (as the tax revenues they produced grew) until after a while the boat wasn't a boat at all but a permanent structure built over the water. Same thing happened in Tunica, Miss. and elsewhere on the Big Muddy and its tributaries.

I remember once seeing a Metropolis stern paddlewheel riverboat casino sailing down the Ohio and approaching a low bridge. I actually stopped to watch what happened next, because its smokestacks were obviously higher than the bridge. I was disappointed when they folded the smokestacks back so they wouldn't hit the bridge. The boat is actually diesel-powered so the smokestacks -- like the paddlewheel -- are purely cosmetic anyway.

[Octaneforce]

This is awesome info! You guys are really well rounded indviduals. Beetle, im literally copying and pasting your posts into my notes.
We may rent a car while we are there. Usually i bring my motorcycle on a rack behind the coach but its such a hassle. And i dont have a car that id be willing to abuse as a tow behind toad.

[clarky.]

Fishing,

[Octaneforce]

Very nice!

Oh and that looks like a cool RV too.

Heh heh

[Octaneforce]

im actually supposed to go to nashville for a friends bachelor party in the spring. Didnt even realize how close it is to ky