The Mountains Are Calling... Part 1

Well, howdy there, friends and blog readers!  It's been a pretty quiet summer at Casa de Olsen, so there hasn't been too much to blog about over the past few months - we were just staying at home (in the AC, parked directly under the ceiling fan), adventuring out every now and then for some great dinners and small gatherings with friends.

I've mentioned this on the blog before, but early fall is really rough for us here in the Valley of the Sun; the rest of the country is starting to cool off, either in earnest or just a bit overnight, but we're still hitting above 110 most days.  You can only see so many "Buy some tweed clothes!" emails in your Inbox while it's sweltering outside before you completely lose your damn mind.  In our case, we find that this is a great time to travel - the summer rush is over, and most places are more temperate than Phoenix (not that this is hard).  UoPX also replenishes my vacation time every year on 9/1, and I'm normally itching to start using it again.  

Last year, around this time, we sojourned in a southerly direction, and spent an amazing week in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  For 2022, we decided to head east to my ancestral stomping grounds and spend some time in Kentucky and Tennessee.

We obviously hit ALL of the highlights

We planned to spend the majority of our time in a cabin near Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but we actually ended up flying through Louisville, Kentucky.  Knoxville, Tennessee is the closest city to the Smokys with a large-ish airport, but Southwest doesn't fly there, so flights from the western US can be annoying.  We also looked at flying through Nashville, but over the past ten years, it's become way too cool for school, and prices there are on the high side.  Since Louisville was only a 5-6 hour drive from the cabin, and we'd never visited there before, we figured this would be a good chance to check it out (and taste some bourbon, of course) while saving some coin.

The adventure started on Saturday, September 3rd with an uneventful, direct, mid-morning flight from Phoenix Sky Harbor to Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport.  Landing in Louisville around 4pm, we grabbed our suitcases and rental car and started the short, easy drive to nearby Lexington, Kentucky.  We planned to stay a few nights in Louisville at the end of the trip, so I figured heading to Lexington immediately after landing would give us one evening there to wander around and check things out, as well as get a bit further down the road to our eventual destination in the mountains.

Check in to our cute Airbnb went well; it was located in a quiet historic neighborhood within easy walking distance of all sorts of restaurants, breweries, and the like.  After unpacking a little bit and grabbing our raincoats (rain!  What is that?!?!?!), we strolled to West Sixth Brewing to try their wares (verdict - very good).  

The taproom blackboard at West Sixth

My flight

The brewery was located in an old warehouse space, which it shared with a few other vendors, including our dinner destination, Smithtown Seafood.  Using the QR code on the flyer on the table, we ordered online, and the Smithtown folks brought our food to us inside the brewery - everything was delicious, including our buffalo catfish bites, Chris' catfish and grits, and my fried cod sandwich.

We made a serious dent in both the food

and drink offerings

Finishing up there, we strolled back toward, and then a few blocks past, our Airbnb, to another local spot, Blue Stallion Brewing Company. While West Sixth did a bit of everything, Blue Stallion focused on German-inspired styles; I ordered a flight of their standard options (a pilsner, a helles lager, a hef, and a dunkel), while Chris went with a stein of their seasonal, an Oktoberfest (unsurprising, given the time of year).

My flight, with the University of Kentucky

football game on in the background.

We were wondering why all of these hot spots

were pretty empty on a Saturday night,

and once we got here and saw the big screen,

we realized why.

Most folks were in that stadium,

cheering the Wildcats to victory

in their first home game of the season.

After drinking our beers and listening to the alternative rock stylings of the in-house band that evening (comprised of the kids of the owners - they were...young...and loud), we were starting to fade from our day of travel, so we headed back to the Airbnb for the evening.  While we lounged in bed, we caught a bit more of the game before we sacked out for good.

Hooray, football's back!

Sunday, September 4th found us waking up pretty tired, as neither of us slept well the night before.  The Airbnb was quiet and the temperature was fine, but the bed wasn't great - it had that thing where a dip forms in the middle of the mattress, and as the lighter weight person of the two of us, I kept rolling into the dip and getting stuck there.  Additionally, the bottom, fitted sheet wasn't deep enough to really secure itself around the mattress, so it kept popping off in the middle of the night.  It was not a great evening, but we figured we'd take advantage of our early rise to get moving and grab some breakfast (and caffeine!) before we got on the road.

First things first - we had plans to see family near Knoxville the next day, including my great-aunt who is currently undergoing treatment for breast cancer.  Wanting to make sure we didn't bring her any unnecessary germies, we each took a rapid COVID test; thankfully, they both came back negative (the ones on Monday morning did as well)!

Mmm...nose swabs.

We strolled to Doodles Breakfast and Lunch for our morning noms, where we both had outstanding options (and Chris was gently teased for wearing his Auburn shirt - yup, this is SEC country).  I grabbed an almond milk chai tea latte at Third Street Stuff & Coffee, just across the street, which was also great.

The names of Third Street's fancy latte options - 

welcome to the land of horses!

Heading back to the Airbnb, we grabbed a few shots of the surrounding areas - what a pretty part of town!

Just one of the lovely, large homes on this street

This area is for Wildcat fans, you nut!

Chris made a quick run to Jefferson Street Coffee to grab a bag to use while we were in the cabin, and before too long, we were packed up and heading out of Lexington, south toward Tennessee.  Although we didn't spend too much time in Lexington, we found it to be a cute, welcoming place - we'd love to come back again some day!

In the next post - we make it to our cabin in the Smokys, with a quick stop at an important landmark and a brief national park foray.

Later!

Amy