Kentucky Food

As Ray used to say while cruising Mexico he or we were "eating our way through" whereever.
In this case we ate our way through Kentucky.

And did a fine job.
All of us.
Including Flat passed out Stevie.
Ate things like a heart attack on a plate Kentucky Hot Brown.

Oh yum...

This was Jim's but he was kind enough to not stab me with his fork as I reached over and swiped a few bites share.

Oh my.

Google it.

Something like a piece of bread, slice of ham, slice of turkey, some over the top cheese and sauce, then bacon and tomato.

Wow!

Not something you would want to eat often, but I could go for one of these on a cold rainy night or tonight.

Uh what else?

Fruit Loops?

Eh - hadn't seen them in about a hundred twenty years, so figured what the heck.

Well I think I'm good for another twenty years...

We found some great restaurants in beautiful old historic buildings.

One where President Lincoln had stayed!

Found a Bosnian Restaurant that occupied a renovated old opera house / theatre building ~ way cool!

Good food and cool atmosphere!

Flat Stevie liked it as well.

Excellent company, laughter, great conversation makes for awesome dining experiences!

Bardstown, Kentucky ~ Central to The Trail!

Who would have ever thought I would like Kentucky?
Well, the people are all nice.
They are friendly.
They talk funny are polite.

Every waitress or waiter in every restaurant we went into offered us separate checks.
Which is really nice when you are with two other couples and Mollie and her monkey.

It's beautiful.
It has history.
Cool buildings.
Awesome architecture.
It's clean.
It's charming.

Bardstown was no exception.
Except when Suzie, Mollie and I apparently were crossing into the not so charming section of town and a couple of black guys told us in a much nicer way to take a left... there was nothing we needed to see down where we were headed.
They asked us if we were tourists, to which I asked how could you tell, the cameras hanging around our necks and the geek tourist clothes?
Quite friendly and polite.
Cute town.
And central to The Kentucky Bourbon Trail!

I mentioned clean, right?

And cool architecture?

And I mentioned history right?

And charming?

I think they make Puppy Chow there too!

Not so sure about their taste in trucks however...

Proper Vacation Attire...

First of all, everyone must be comfortable in his or her vacation attire.

No tight clothes ~ very important to leave room for eating your way through wherever you have deemed important enough to go on vacation to.

Proper shoes.
No sky-high feet hurting high heels.
Flip flops or tennis shoes are best.

Pretty jewelery and tiaras for The Queen of Vacation Planning will make everyone feel festive in those crappy flip flops and tennis shoes.

Speaking of the Queen of Vacation planning, make sure she has a comfortable place to lounge at every stop.

Sun protection is important.
In glasses.

In hats.

In bathingsuits.

Make sure all Flat People are dressed and decorated as well.

And if said Flat People pass out, make sure they are
protected from ghosts held and well taken care of.

There should be room for spontaneous Scottish jigs.

Not that that has anything to do with attire...
All in all, plan for your vacation at the dollar store well ahead of time so you too can be properly vacation attired.

Haunted Cemetery...

And house.
But we will come back to the house being haunted.
First this:

A Civil War Cemetery right across the street from the haunted house we were staying in.

The met people filming "ghosts" the first night we meandered around the graves.

Kinda creepy.
Kinda cool.

Kinda in a bit of disarray...

Well more than just a bit of disarray.

And this 1800's school house right there as well!
Probably haunted too...

So anyway...
That house?
Suzie "smelled" a ghost in the middle of the night.
Uh, not really sure what a ghost smells like, but she swore it was a ghost.
Okay... did you know there was an automatic room freshener in the bathroom next to their room?
But on the same night I heard a woman's voice talking and it didn't sound like Mollie or Suzie.
On the next night, Jim woke up and had the willies so incredibly bad and creepy he could not get out of bed to pee.
So he peed in the bed held it until daylight.

Kinda creepy.
Kinda cool.

How Did This Happen Again?

American Express credit card statement pre-dog:

Trader Joes

Delta Airlines

Marriott Hotel

Shell Gas
Fresh & Easy

Kalyra Wine Club

Trader Joes

Milanos

Fresh & Easy

Ventura Wine Company

Toppers Pizza

Trader Joes

Fresh & Easy

Pear Valley Wine Club

American Express statement after mutt dog:

Petco

Fresh & Easy

Petco

Petco

Trader Joes

Petco

Shell Gas

Petco

East Ventura Animal Clinic

Petco

Fresh & Easy

Petco

Petco

Shell Gas twice in a month because I drive to Petco too much

We Interrupt This Vacation Re-Cap For...

Some unconditional love.

Maggie Valley, NC to Kentucky!

Via the armpit of the United States.
PIGEON FORGE.
Good lord, what was Dolly thinking putting Dollywood there?
I mean, really Dolly has such great taste in clothing, hair, makeup and boobs style...
Really.

Really.
Everything was tasteful.
Classy.








And not confusing.

But I am getting ahead of myself here.

First we had to eat.

Because we were eating our way through four states...

So we found a cool place up the hill complete with the mandatory rocking chairs out front.

And signs with no grammar or spelling errors.

We met a puppy.

With the biggest paws ever...

I left him there, because I knew I was going home to the perfect dog with smaller paws in a week!

We saw a flower.

Or two.

Or twelve.

Can't remember exactly.

We drove on the Blueridge Parkway!

And made Kirby honk the horn inside every single tunnel.
Every. Single. Tunnel.

We stopped and took a million pictures.
Until the views blended together...
And we realized we would run out of daylight driving hours if we stopped at every viewpoint.

And we saw this!

A total highlight for me!
I want to do some of this trail!!!
Well maybe just the Sweet Heather Sweat Heifer Creek Trail.
Someday...

In the meantime I did about 100'.

And posed for pictures.

Ok!
Gotta go!
Not enough hours in the day!

Kentucky!

Finally!
Oh crap, we need to go to the other side of Kentucky?
No more stops except to pee.

And arrival!
Our house for the duration:

Haunted and right across the street from a haunted cemetery.

Charleston, SC to Maggie Valley, NC

Loaded up the truck van and RV and headed to Beverly...  Maggie Valley!
Seriously loaded up the van.
Five people's stuff for a week.
A cooler.
A case of wine.
A couple of cases of Sierra Nevada.
Because lord knows what kind of beer and wine they sell in Kentucky.
Um, do they sell beer and wine?
Or just Bourbon?
Flat Stevie.
Cameras and camera gear.
We chose the plush RV ride for day one:



Which came complete with two dogs.

Who have to sit in your laps.

And barf.
Well, just Samie barfed.
And only a couple of times.
Still a plush ride!
And Jim loved it because when you sit in the recliner chairs in the living room you can drink beer!

To the campground in Maggie Valley ~ just lovely!

Where we took a lot of pictures.
And Lucy attempted to find a place to stash her wine glass so she could take pictures...

Yeah, that's going to work...

This worked.

Much better too.

Gave me a chance to sneak a few sips.

Then on to dinner!

Because vacations are all about eating and drinking exploring.

Yum!

We had no children, except for Samie the barfing dog and Skipper her non-barfing brother, so we brought Flat Stevie instead.

Who, really is like a child...

Really.

Just ask Mollie.

Uh what else?

Had a cool little roadside motel with beautiful grounds and an awesome view of the incredible green hillsides.

And fireworks!

Someone down in the gully was shooting off fireworks.

We are sure they were for us.

And had an after dinner hora feliz.

Because it was vacation.