Tyler Park, where we'd spent the night, turned out to be a really lovely park to explore the following morning, with people up early to go jogging, running or taking their dogs for a walk. Sheila loved exploring the park as soon as she'd had breakfast, sniffing the grass, kid's playground, and other new smells.
We met Martynas and went straight back to the Seelbach Hotel to see the Bavarian-style Rathskeller Room, which opened at 9am (it was closed when we got there yesterday). It's the only surviving room in the world completely encrusted in Rookwood pottery, making for a very ornate but also rather moody aesthetic (it helps that this room doesn't get direct sunlight). The decorations were drawn by hand on the clay before firing, with a portion of the ceiling made of leather and including intricate designs, such as the the 12 signs of the zodiac). A life-sized cardboard cutout of Al Capone appears here again (we saw him in the Oakroom yesterday), as he also had secret tunnels in the Rathskeller Room, while the author F. Scott Fitzgerald was inspired by this room to write parts of his classic novel, "The Great Gatsby."
After being wowed by the Rathskeller Room, we made a quick stop at the Catholic church, the Cathedral of the Assumption, which unfortunately was still closed and didn't open until 11am. Martynas headed to the airport to fly directly to Nashville for a conference, having already checked out from the Brown Hotel where he stayed (we mention this because it's home to the "Hot Brown", an open-faced sandwich that has turkey, bacon and is topped with a cheesy Mornay sauce and broiled until it's bubbly and browned. Apparently this was absolutely delicious, so worth trying. We saw photos and the bread is buried by the other ingredients, but it's there!). We'd be driving south and would meet him in Nashville the following afternoon.
Horses and Bourbon
After parting ways with Martynas, we briefly checked out Churchill Downs, the famous horse racing track that opened in 1875, which hosts the Kentucky Derby each year. There are several other stadiums in the vicinity, perfect for the sporting fan. At Churchill Downs there's a big sculpture of Barbaro, a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 2006 Kentucky Derby, and there's a museum within the lot as well.
We thought we'd wrapped up our visits to bourbon distilleries after doing the Kentucky Bourbon Trail before Louisville, but we saw that the James B. Beam Distilling Co. was on our way, so we drove to the makers of Jim Beam whiskey. It's now owned by Suntory, a Japanese brewing and distilling company group. Like Wild Turkey and Bulleit, the distillery is a huge complex, with a large tasting bar with a mini museum next to it, showing old bottles of bourbon from different brands that trace the history of it in Kentucky. There's a separate restaurant, the original home of Jim Beam, and a statue of one of the distillers, a descendant of Jim's, sitting next to his beloved dog.
Trolls, Edible and Sensory Gardens
The Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest sits on 16,346 acres in Clermont in rural Kentucky. There are plenty of sights to observe in this nature preserve; it's a donation-based entry. We went there to see a few things, including several troll sculptures by Danish artist Thomas Dambo, adding to the trolls that we'd already seen by him in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and in Austin, Texas.
There are 3 different troll sculptures in Bernheim that have been there since 2019, so we both got on one e-bike (Lisette's battery is still not charging, we need to order a new charger at some point), to explore them all. The first one we saw was "Little Nis", a troll gazing into the waters of Holly Pond in front of it. There's a charming little footbridge as well to get across to see this troll, and stare into the same pond, wondering what the troll is looking at and thinking of.
The second troll is called "Momma Loumari", a pregnant troll that's lying down against a redwood tree. She's apparently also the mother of the other 2 trolls in the forest. Near where she rests is an altar also made of wood, that includes a unicorn's horn and dragon's head sculpture, which are items found in Scandinavian troll folklore. The third and final troll we saw is called "Little Elina", the daughter of Momma Loumari, who is sitting upright, but has her legs to the side of her and relaxing. These trolls are all over the world with many of them in the US, and it's been awesome to see them, given how unique and intricate they are, with so much detail applied to their features and expressions.
Besides the trolls, there's also an "edible garden," which grows a lot of crops that are used in the nearby cafe. When we were there, it was squash season, as there were so many varieties (such as spaghetti squash and zucchini) that were being cultivated, in addition to kale, sunflowers, chives, and other plants. We had a garden in our house before going on this trip, and we'd also be so excited to see our food growing before our eyes, ahead of picking and eating them! We're looking forward to growing our own food again one day.
We had also parked close to a "sensory garden" at Bernheim, a small but cool spot that encourages visitors to focus on each sense in different parts of the garden. Sight was an area with vibrant and colorful plants, smell was an area with strong and distinct-smelling plants like rosemary and lavender, touch was the different tactile qualities of plants, hearing focused on water, and the sounds of nature, while taste was some edible plants. The garden was created in close collaboration with the Autism Spectrum Disorder as a space of inclusion for everyone, and it's also a wonderful spot to simply take the time to be in the present, and isolate each sense to appreciate the experience more deeply.
Stones, Caves, and a Bar
In the rural town of Mumfordville in Kentucky, there's a curious site called Kentucky Stonehenge, a family-built site that has a Stonehenge-style stone replica. It's in an open yard for visitors to easily walk up to, a lovely stop that's been created for anyone to see.
Kentucky is home to several notable caves, most famously Mammoth Cave National Park, the world's longest known cave system, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with over 643 kilometers (400 miles) of passages. While we haven't been to a national park for a while and used our pass, Michael isn't a fan of caves, so we skipped this--but we did a brief stop at the Hidden River Cave, which is an underground cave right beneath the town of Horse Cave in Kentucky (it is literally right next to the road)! You can do a tour to explore the cave, however it's free to walk right up to the entrance, via the museum. The cave gets its name from a subterranean river that flows through it that was both a water source and powered electricity to the town. The cave was so cool and large enough that it even had a tennis court built into it at one point!
For visitors who want to stay near the caves, we passed a Wigwam Village No. 2, where guests can stay in concrete teepees. In the small town of Cave City in Kentucky (population: about 2,000 people), we stopped at a bar called The Dive, which opened a few years ago as the first bar in the area for about 75 years (we're not sure why they didn't have a bar up until this point. We chatted to the mother and daughter who run the bar, and it's a very much like a local bar, where, like the 80's sitcom Cheer's, "Everybody knows your name." There were a few people drinking in there, and in front of the seats by the bar there are gold nameplates with the names of regulars, a wall with photos of patrons who have passed away, another wall with signed $1 bills taped to them, and even a patron's ashes resting in an urn on a shelf. If a watering hole isn't your thing, or it's just a bit too early for a drink, next door is a coffee shop run by the sister.
Our final stop in Kentucky was the National Corvette Museum in the city of Bowling Green, near General Motors' Bowling Green Assembly Plant, where Corvettes are manufactured. The museum showcases the Chevrolet Corvette, an American sports car that has been in production since 1953. It's $25 admission to enter the museum, but we skipped it and toured the grounds, which are a bit of an ode to Corvette fans (the parking lot alone had lots of visitors who drive Corvettes). There's a paved path where people have inscribed their names on the individual bricks, and benches that are also dedicated to Corvette enthusiasts and fan clubs.
(Re)entering Tennessee
Before long, we had reentered Tennessee, about a month since we'd first visited on this trip, when we went to Graceland, and spent a few days in Memphis (posts also here and here). We stopped at the a Love's Travel Stop across the state border. We're used to sleeping at truck stops, which tend to be fine but can get busy throughout the night. We were fairly close to where folks needed to refuel, and at about 10pm, a couple pulled up in a car that was blasting music at the highest volume, but all we could hear was a thumping sound, which shook the RV at intervals. Naturally everyone turned to see who was responsible for the sound, and it was two people who were high as kites, looking like zombies, and barely able to function. They eventually (because it took them triple the time to refuel) left, but we hope that they drove off to where they needed to be without incident...!
Route Map
