LandCruise episode 6: Ocracoke to Mammoth Cave, KY

Kentucky here we come! Rose, a friend from OT school, grew up in Kentucky and gave us some great tips on what to see.

We started our visit at Cumberland Falls State Resort Park. Currently there are only 2 places on earth that you can see a moonbow – Victoria Falls on the Zambia-Zimbabwe border, and Cumberland Falls in Kentucky! The stars aligned and we were lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time with a full moon, a clear night and a mystic Moonbow over the falls!

Plans to camp at the Red River Gorge on the way to Lexington. After passing through a tunnel that barely looked large enough for us, we entered the Daniel Boone National Forest. The Gorge, formed by the Red River, cuts a curvy scenic path along through the forest.

Lexington. KY is the Horse Capital of the World in part because more money changes hands over the sale of horses in Lexington than any other place. We spent a morning at The Kentucky Horse Park. It is a working horse farm, international equestrian competition venue, and an educational theme park opened in 1978.  On our tour, we saw unique horses like the Harlequin, and toured the Hall of Champions where several past Derby winners and other champs are housed in retirement. If you are a horse lover, don’t miss this facility!

Next stop – The Ark Encounter in Williamson, Kentucky. A life-sized replica of Noah’s Ark, built by Amish artisans familiar with using heavy logs for the timber frame construction, keeping fabrication as true to life as possible. The Ark construction was based on the Genesis flood narrative contained in the Bible – 510 feet long, 85 feet wide, and 51 feet high.

Louisville was our next stop – lots to see there. The birth place of Mohammed Ali, his center included interactive multimedia exhibitions celebrating his life, and educating us on the humanitarian heart Ali shared with the world. We also enjoyed the Louisville slugger museum, and of course no visit would be complete without tasting a Hot Brown! What, you ask, is that? A Hot Brown is an open faced sandwich which originated at the Brown Hotel. The story goes that in the 20’s the Brown Hotel hosted lavish dances and the patrons would be starving after all that energy expenditure so their chef came up with a sandwich which has continued to be popular to this day.

Kentucky and Bourbon come hand in hand. Internet says there are are 95 distilleries in Kentucky, powering a $9 billion dollar industry and producing 95% of the worlds bourbon. We picked one, and toured the Maker’s Mark distillery just outside of Loretto, located here due to the limestone filtered pure lake water used in its distilling process. An added bonus, the distillery has permanent exhibits by Dale Chihuly on the premises. If you buy a bottle of bourbon, you can hand dip your bottle into the signature red wax! (We got a chocolate flavored one).