Our First Kentucky Road Trip - Part 1

Those of you who regularly read the blog can probably guess that travel is one of our main pasttimes.  Given this, we knew that one of our top priorities in the new house would be to find a reliable boarding solution for the girls, and when the spot down the road had availability for the weekend of June 8-9th, we decided our first road trip was in order!  

Enjoying the Beer Cheese Festival in nearby Winchester, KY

One of the neatest things about living back on this side of the country is how close everything is to one another.  In Phoenix, you're just two hours away from Tucson and Flagstaff, and five to six from Los Angeles, San Diego, and Las Vegas; however, in between, there's often a whole lot of nothingness (no offense to the bustling "census designated place" of Wikieup, Arizona and other spots like it). Here in Richmond, we're just 30 minutes from Lexington, and we can easily be in Louisville, Knoxville, or Cincinnati within roughly another hour's worth of driving; along the way, you pass all sorts of fun stuff - cute little towns, distilleries, and the like.  We'd heard good things about Cincinnati, so we figured that should be our premier road trip destination; while it was far enough away to feel like a proper trip, we could also be home in just two hours, should something crazy occur with the doggos.

It just so happened that this weekend coincided with an event we'd heard about a few months ago, back when we were staying in the Airbnb outside of Lexington, after making it across the country with the travel trailer.  During the week we stayed in that Airbnb, we had the chance to explore Winchester, Kentucky, a city complete with an adorable downtown area filled with coffee shops, local wares, and some great food options.  While there, we learned that Winchester is the heart of Beer Cheese Country in Kentucky, and June 8th would be their annual beer cheese festival.  We couldn't let that pass us by!

After dropping off the girls at their lodging for the night, we did the short drive into Winchester, found a spot to park, and opened the Festival's app, using the convenient QR code to redeem our virtual tickets for cheese tasting samples.  We noshed up and down Main Street, filling ourselves with enough dairy to ensure I met all of my calcium goals for the next week; after a quick stop at Dirty South Pottery to acquire some additions to our serving ware collection, it was back to the car and on the road again.

Sadly, Main Street is not Beer Cheese Blvd all the time

At least, not officially

Lots of local vendors came out for the day, including a spot where we bought some great balsamic vinegar

Chris has been missing spicy food since we left Phoenix,

so he made sure to try every "extra hot/barn burner/ghost pepper" cheese variation on offer

Crowds mingle and sample in front of the city's courthouse

We hit the festival early - around 10:15 - and it was already getting crowded when we left

In planning this excursion, I scouted a lunch spot on the northern side of Lexington, figuring we'd want to get up the road a bit after eating all that beer cheese.  We hadn't yet visited that side of the city, so this would also be a good opportunity to try something new (even though the other spots we've eaten in Lexington so far have been exceptional).  The Barn Door Grill, inside the Blue Grass Regional Marketplace, fit the bill - the center was right off the 75 freeway, and the grill offered a good selection of fast casual options, from burgers to salads to other sandwiches (Chris' club sandwich was just okay, but my burger was killer - they raise a lot of amazing beef around here).  The Blue Grass Stockyards even hold livestock auctions in the same building, although sadly, none were occurring that day (we could raise goats on our acreage, right?).

It also has many educational displays!  Here's my round!

Meandering the halls, post-lunch, to find local art

The livestock auction ring and seating

As we sat waiting for lunch, we realized we were running quite a bit ahead of schedule (our life story, truly); while I offered to text our Airbnb host to see if we could do an early check-in, Chris suggested looking at the Kentucky Bourbon Trail website, to see if there were any distilleries nearby and open.  Since we were new to this part of the state, we hadn't yet visited this set of bourbon-based options, and we headed first to the Boone County Distilling Company.  We weren't interested in a tour (at some point, when you've been on one distillery tour, you've been on them all), but the folks behind the counter offered to pour us a few small samples and tell us about their offerings, so we could determine if we should bring a bottle home with us (well, we'd first take it to Cincinnati, and then it would come home with us).  After tasting a few options, we picked up a bottle of the Toasted Cask Finish bourbon, which we found works excellently in an Old Fashioned and with some Sprite!

The next stop on the "we still need to kill some time" tour was the city of Newport, Kentucky, just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.  Three newer distilleries have moved into historic buildings in the city center, and we decided that Pensive Distilling would be our pick (they had a kitchen, so we could have snacks as well).  Chris had a flight of their options, while I had a Kentucky Mule made from their standard bourbon, and we enjoyed both as well as our food options.  Pensive's building dates, like many in Newport, from the late 1800s, and it even has an original speakeasy on the property.

Someone wanted a picture with the distillation column

Chris' flight

All of the dots you see in the pictures above are corks decorated by patrons.

I made one for us as well!

Check out the vintage glass windows in the facade

After we finished up at Pensive, we wandered Newport a bit, enjoying the weather (overcast but pleasant, with a light breeze) and looking at the neat architecture.

Art deco loveliness on a local bank

Check out that stained glass!

The metal facade first caught my eye, and then I noticed the door decorations were oars -

it's the local rowing club!

Before too long, it was time to hop back in the car and head across the river to our true destination, the Queen City!  Saturday was my driving day, so I asked Chris to take some shots en route, so I had content for the blog:

Excellent work, dear

Okay, that's a bit better - behold, Cincy!

On the next blog, we check into our Airbnb in the Over-the-Rhine (OTR) section of the city, enjoy more amazing food and drink, and visit the famous Cincinnati Zoo!

Later!

Amy