Summer Trip 2019 - Sashay Through the Midwest - My Olde Kentucky Home

Leaving our Air BnB in Frankfort

Horse hats at the home of the original bourbon ball candy

We are scaling down our travels this year, and only doing less than a 2 week trip.  I decided after last summer that I didn't enjoy being gone for so long.

Cleaning off Zoysia's headstone at Jen's house.

So this summer, the girls spent a week with my mom in the Fort Wayne, IN area, and then Bish and I picked the girls up and headed South and eventually West with the girls.  Our trip this summer goes through the central part of the country - IN - KY - MO.

Ice cream cake with Presley for her birthday!

The girls got to hang out with my mom and Aunt Jennie for a week in Indiana for the first time.  They seemed to have a great time, and it was fun to see the pictures and hear about their adventures with my family.  They got to help grandma do some work in her flower bed, celebrated their second cousin Presley's 7th birthday, went to a pickle factory tour, visited Shipshewana (I've never even been there!), and got to visit the Franke Park zoo!  Overall it was a good trip for them, and hopefully for my mom and sister.

Amish country

With Jen and Emily

Bish and I left my mom's place near Ft. Wayne on Friday 6/14 with the girls.  We were headed to the Lexington, KY area to hit the Bourbon Trail and meet up with my high school buddy Troy and his wife Joy.  We got to hit Skyline Chili just across the river from Cincinatti on the way south!

Sayiing hi to the mares and their foals.

Really cool painting in the Spendthrift office of presidents playing poker!

I was lucky enough to make a great connection from an old Farmhouse friend (Kim Totten) for an tour at a thoroughbred horse farm outside of Lexington.  Kim's old friend and roommate, Aimee, is the broodmare manager at Spendthrift Farms.  I know very little about horses, other than what little bit I may have picked up from my sister, or from my uncle Russel years ago while growing up.  Bish and the girls know even less than I do!

$150k/pop - Into Mischief

Breeding room - mares walks up to wall, and you can figure out the rest!

We rolled into Spendthrift around 1 pm, and met up with Autry their marketing manager.  She gave us a quick tour of the office/house, and then we headed over to the stable and breeding barn area.  She gave us the nickel tour, and explained to us various aspects of how their operation works, and info on thier specific farm.  They are the largest thoroughbred breeder in North America (26 stallions), and the price to breed with them ranges from $1k up to $150k per "cover" (the polite way to say "Horse hookup!").  Some people were there looking at stallions to breed their mares with next year, so we got to see the $150k stud, Into Mischief, as well as two others that went down to $30k/pop.  Autry showed us around the breeding barn, and gave us a breif rundown of how things work.

Drape that goes over mare's upper shoulders for stud to bite into.

Padded hoof covers so mare won't hurt stud if she kicks.

Autry had another tour to do at 2 pm, so we then met up with Aimee.  Aimee took us into the breeding barn, and explained a bit more about the breeding process to us.  They typically do breedings at 7 am, 2 pm, and 7 pm daily during breeding season (~2/15 - 6/30) , and multiple ones can occur in two different breeding rooms.  There were big padded walls where a guy in a padded vest and helmet gets behind and twists a small rope loop around the mares upper lip to control her.  They put padded hoof covers on the mares back feet, as well as a leather drape over her shoulders for the stud to bite on during the action.  There is a warm up area where Billy the "teaser" stud was getting the "mares in the mood."  Then some (poor guy) has to clean up the prime area of the mare with soap and water before she goes into the breeding room.  We watched 3 breedings occur from the observation room.  The stud comes in, and he's partially ready if you know what I mean.  Once the mare is against the padded wall, they bring the stud in behind her and he eventually "drops" and will mount the mare.  There are about 5-6 guys helping with the whole process.  Two help to insure the stud stays on top of the mare.  One guy holds the mares tail out of the way.  One guy (with long plastic gloves on) helps to "line things up" on entry, as well as collects a cup full of seamen once he's done!  Danica was pretty embarrassed to watch it all happen, but it was actually quite a fascinating thing to watch occur!

Black mold on buildings at Buffalo Trace

Rick house where bourbon ages

We met up with Troy and Joy a bit later at the Air BnB we were staying in south of Frankfort, and went to The Stave for dinner.  It was fun to hang out with them as we don't get to see them very often.  The next morning we went for a tour of Buffalo Trace Distillery (Blanton's, Pappy Van Winkle, as well as about 15 other bourbons).  All of the buildings have a blackish mold on them due to the distilling process.  It was cool to learn about the distilling process, the aging process, etc.  We then got to taste a few different bourbons and white mash.  We went to Wallace Station, a little hole in the wall deli in the middle of nowhere, for lunch.  We got the Hot Brown, Hot Brown burger, and the Pimento Cheese and Ham sandwich to share.  All were excellent!  DDD had been to this place!  Before Troy & Joy headed home, we stopped by Woodford Reserve for another bourbon tasting.

Buffalo Trace Slackettes

The adults after bourbon tasting

We stayed in Lexington on Saturday night at the same Embassy Suites my sister stays in when she comes down for a horse show annually.  The Something Good mixed drink on the bar was excellent during happy hour!  We went to Red State BBQ (Jen's recommendation) for dinner, and got to write our names on the ceiling!

Posing with the Wildcat at UK

Darby signing her name on the ceiling at Red State BBQ.

We got up Sunday morning and walked around the University of Kentucky campus, and eventually headed towards Louisville.  On our way, we stopped by Wild turkey for another bourbon tasting.  Then stopped to get some food and gas before hopping back on the road.  Of course, I had to pick a gas station that was part gas station, part bank, and part White Castle, and got some sliders for my lunch!  Bish and the girls opted for KFC.  I believe we discovered the epicenter of fast food employee stupidity in this brief stop.  I ordered a fruit smoothie with my sliders, and none of the 5-6 workers behind the counter were smart enough to make the thing while my sliders were being made.  So one of them actually knew how to make it, and she started the process... but then got sidetracked on flipping more burgers.  Eventually I just decided to ask for a refund on my smoothie.  So one of the genius's takes my receipt and stands in front of the cash register for about 2 minutes, obviously not sure how to provide a refund.  The genius that had begin making my smoothie came over to help, anbd just said "give him $3 back since the smoothie was $2.99."  When I asked about the tax that I had paid in addition to the $2.99, their heads started to spin, so I just said "you guys have had a hard enough day so far, I don't want to make it any harder for you" and left.  At KFC, Bish just wanted a biscuit is all (it is KFC, and their biscuits are always good).  So she ordered "just one biscuit."  We get up to the window to pay, and after paying, they tell us "we are out of biscuits and it will be another 10 minutes."  WTF?  how does KFC run out of biscuits?  They are served with EVERY meal!  So we ask for a refund on the biscuits.  The worker was very confused as the girls got meals that included biscuits and she wasn't sure how to refund their biscuits.  We eventually just got oru money bakc on Bish's biscuit and got the hell out of dumbass Kentucky fast food worker hell!

Future Wildcat players

Dunking it!

We went to the Louisville Slugger Museum Sunday afternoon after arriving into Louisville.  It was cool to learn about the bat making process, and the differnt types of wood used, and the specifics of how MLB players pick out their bats.

Horsing around in Louisville

Driving me batty!

The Road Home - Sunday July 22

Finally back home in AZ!

We stayed in La Quinta the last night on the road.  Only a short 3+ hour hop back over to Buckeye.  We stayed at an Embassy Suites, so took advantage of their happy hour, as well as breakfast the next morning.  :-)

Hot again as we got back into AZ!!!

The drive the day before was pretty long, about 9-10 hours after adding all of the stops.  Although they were all fun stops, it made for a long day...at least for the driver!  :-)  So of course, he got grumped up later that evening for no good reason!  :-)

The hole I dug in the back yard prior to leaving and still couldn't find the leak!

I used to spend a lot of time in LQ as we owned a rental condo at PGA West.  I really enjoy the area, and it was kind of fun to drive around the Coachella Valley again.  Although hot like AZ, I always enjoyed spending time over there in the summers, as it is very much a small town atmosphere.

We rolled into home mid afternoon.  Bish got the proverbial pic of the girls on the back of the van, and then we all started to unload our stuff from the van.  We sat and caught up with Tim who spent most of the month at the house with Maori.  Tim got stuck dealing with my irrigation system which spring a leak just before we left, and I wasn't able to find/fix the leak before we hit the road, so it took some effort to actually irrigate our plants while we were gone!  It was nice to finally be back in our own house and get to sleep in our own beds that night!  Maori was very happy to see us (OK, happy to see me!)!

This year we only drove approximately 5000 miles vs. 8000 last summer on our cross country trip.  I think I tasted over 150+ micro brew beers along the way, and we probably visited 15-20 micro breweries!  It was the NW US, so there are a lot more micro breweries in this area than in most parts of the country.

Where the car carrier scraped against our garage door frame.

Our neighbor Jason loaned us his luggage carrier for on top of the van (again) this year.  I have driven approximately 13,000 miles the last 2 summers with this thing on top of the van.  After arriving home and unloading the van this year, I drove the van around the park in front of our house while Tim backed out and headed home... and as I drove into the garage to park, I heard a loud scraping noise!!!!!  After all of that driving, I drove into our garage with the damned thing still on top of the van!!!  No major damage other than a few scratches on our garage door frame, and a few on top of the car carrier!!!  I may owe Jason a few beers now!

Close up of the scrape.

The brown stripe now on top of the car carrier!

It was another epic driving trip with the Slackettes!  I think we all enjoyed ourselves again, just as we did last year.  And (again) surprisingly, no one killed another person while stuck in the car together for so long!.  We've decided we've had enough long driving trips for the time being, and hope to travel with the girls internationally over the next few years!  Stay tuned for those adventures!!!


I almost forgot to add my favorite item from our trip.  Our neighbors, the Malkemuses, dog sat Maori for about a week while Tim was out of town.  Melanie sent me a video of Rick and Maori coming home from a walk from their Ring doorbell that brought a tear to my eye and really made me appreciate having neighbors and friends like them and Tim!

Yosemite - smoked out, so we went down the Eastern side of the Sierra Nevadas

Here are some pics of what we had hoped to see of Yosemite Valley....


  


Instead, this is what the valley looked like due to the fire and smoke nearby....

  


There was a fire burning just SW of Yosemite NP, and it was causing the park to be filled with smoke, and crowds supposedly be worse than normal due to one entrance being closed.  So we just decided to pass on Yosemite for now as it's only a 10 hour drive from home, so hopefully we can do it at some point in the future with the girls.

My favorite type of pop!

So instead of going back through Sac and down to Yosemite, we instead decided to drive along the Eastern side of the Sierras on our way back home.  Highway 395 goes from the Reno, NV area down to the Barstow, CA area.  It is a beautiful drive, and there are a lot of unique things to do.see along the way.  I (think) I took this drive about 10-15 years ago as some of the area I remember, and other parts I have no recollection of.  Our friends Johnny & Eileen suggested the following web site for things to do along 395 - https://californiathroughmylens.com/

South Shore - Darby being a pig, and Betty Boop with her eyes on Boo!

On Friday morning, we got up in decent time, and headed towards the South Shore of Lake Tahoe as the girls had not been to this part of the lake during our visit.  It is a lot busier, and a lot more to do than the north side of the lake, but you also get a lot more people with those options.  We parked and walked around a bit, and got a light snack for lunch as we had a stop we wanted to hit on 395 down near Mono Lake that had been recommended to us.

Slackettes at the Whoa Nellie Deli!

After South Shore, we hopped up and over the Eastern side of the Sierras to the Gardnerville area and hit Hwy 395.  For some reason, our "check engine" light came on as we were heading up the grade.  It doesn't seem to be anything serious, but is also a concern as we still have 500 miles or so to drive, and a big chunk of it in the heat.  Hopefully we can get home without any issues.  We stopped and got cheap gas - ~ $1 less than in Cali, and then headed South.... right into a thunderstorm!!!!  :-)

I was a real "bear" by the time we reached Whoa Nellie Deli!

Another "bear hug!"

We drove in/out of rain all along 395 down to the Mono Lake area.  It was awesome for us desert rats who do not see rain very often!  At times, it was a real "turd floater!"  We pulled off 395 at Hwy 120, which goes into Yosemite NP from the East side, and hit the "Who Nellie Deli" for a snack and a beer!  This is a Mobil gas station, with a popular deli in the building.  We ordered fish tacos and a swordfish sandwich to share, and both were pretty darned good considering we were in BFE!!!

Reminds me of Houston area last summer!

A funny liquid on the window for us desert rats!

If we had really wanted to go to Yosemite NP, we could have went into the back entrance by WND, but we passed on headed on South.  Soon after WND, we hit Manzanar, the home of a WW2 Japanese Internment Camp.  It was a neat place to visit, but very sad to learn that the US took many Japanese Americans and basically put them in prison after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, just due to them being of Japanese decent.

Girls at Manazanar Conctration Camp.

After the internment camp, we went on down to Mammoth Lakes, CA, which is a big ski area for SoCal people.  It was a typical ski town, with a lot of shops and restaurants in a small area.  We lucked out, and a reggae festival was going on that night, so there was a lot going on in the downtown area.  After checking into our room at the Mammoth Lakes Mountain Resort, we took the shuttle into downtown for the night.  Of course, we had to stop by a micro brewery or two that evening!  It was a relatively quite night and then we headed on South the next morning.

Tired of visiting micro breweries!

Some sort of "world famous" bakery in BFE Bishop, CA.  I almost schat myself after eating there!

Fossil Falls

Lake Tahoe

Tram ride up the mountain at Squaw Valley.

After we left Sac, we headed to the North shore of Lake Tahoe.  Our friends Alec and Kristen have a condo up there that we've been wanting to borrow for years, and finally had the opportunity to do so!  Their place is in Tahoe City on the NW corner of the lake.  It is affectionately referred to as the "Ghetto in the Meadow" and was a perfect spot for us to hang out and relax for our time there!

Roller skating at the top of Squaw Valley.

Upon arriving, we unpacked and all took it easy for a bit.  I ran over to see a friend, Mike Tentis, on the West shore that I met years ago in the turf industry, and later learned that he was a Farmhouse alum for U of Minnesota.  On the way home, I ran by the grocery and stocked us up for a few days as well as got something to cook on the grill for dinner that night.  We enjoyed a quiet night hanging on the deck enjoying the cool weather.

Swimming at the top of Squaw Valley!

On Monday, we decided to go to Squaw Valley, the home of the 1960 Winter Olympics.  It seems that the Olympics were much smaller then than now, as there were only about 25 countries that participated in 1960.  Squaw is a big ski resort, so we got passes and rode the aerial tram up to the top of the mountain.  The passes included roller skate rentals for the hockey rink, as well as pool passes.  I went skiing here with my buddy Kipp back in the mid 1990s in late June.  It was over 100 down in San Jose, and we drove up early to Squaw.  Skied in shorts and no shirt; got sun burned; went swimming; and drove back down the hill to 100+ in SJ all in the same day!  That was a neat experience for a kid from Indiana at the time!  After the tram ride, we came down and kicked around in Tahoe City for a bit that afternoon.

Danica getting grumpy because she needs food!

Tuesday was the day we went over to Kings Beach area to rent paddle boards and go onto the lake.  I was feeling kind of light headed (probably elevation I guessed), so dropped off Bish and the girls and went back to the Ghetto and took a nap.  They had a great time paddle boarding and playing in the water!  Danica had paddle boarded at a girl scout camp a few summers back, but it was the first time doing so for Bish and Darby.

Paddle boarding on Tahoe.

That evening we went looking for a spot to eat and see the sun set on the water.  We initially went to a place called Gar Woods near the water, but only had a beer there as it was pretty darned expensive (we thought! - a cheeseburger started at $21!)  The food looked good, but we passed on dinner there.  Instead we went to a local rec called the Bridgetender right near where the Truckee river flowed out of Lake Tahoe.  We sat outside near the river and enjoyed some decent bar food and a beer.

Rafting on the Truckee River.

We had made reservations to raft the Truckee River for Wednesday.  Our trip began around 11 am, and only took 2 hours or so, but was a fun experience!  It was the four of us in a heavy duty blow up raft.  There were some small rapids, but nothing too exciting.  No one fell in/off the raft, and we took some time to stop and chase the geese around near a sand bar once too.  Rafting the river was one of the better experiences we did on this trip IMHO.  We cooked out again that night and hung out on the deck to boot!

Miniature golf at Kings Beach.

We originally were planning to leave Tahoe on Thursday morning and go to Yosemite National Park with the girls.  But the Ferguson Fire had started a week or so ago just Southwest of the park, that was making the park very smokey, and had closed one of the entrances to the park.  We decided to pass on Yosemite on this trip due to the smokey environment.  There was no point in driving into the valley just to look at smoke and not be able to see Half Dome or El Capitan.

Slackettes giving a "bear hug!"

Instead, on Thursday we just kind of took it easy and screwed around in the afternoon.  Everyone slept in and took it easy in the am.  We finally ventured out of the place around 1 pm and headed for Incline Village... but we never really found much to do there!  I thought there was some sort of central area there to walk around and shop, but if there was, we never found it!  So we went back to Kings Beach area to walk around.  We stopped for ice cream at the Log Cabin, and then went across the street to play miniature golf!  We (sadly) determined that the girls inherited their mothers lack of touch putting!!!!  After miniature golf, we headed back to Tahoe City and had dinner at Jake's overlooking the lake/a boat dock for our final night in Tahoe!  It was a nice conclusion to our time in Tahoe City at the Ghetto in the Meadow!

Rafting the Truckee.

I have to say, being a fan of micro brewed beers, I was very disappointed in the micro breweries in the Tahoe area, as well as the limited selection of beers at most local restaurants.  There was a brewery/restaurant in Tahoe City, Tahoe Mountain Brewery that we visited and the beer wasn't that great.  We also drank some beer from Alibi Brewery in Incline Village, and didn't think it was that good either.  Most of the local restaurants were limited in their beer selections - SNPA, Deschutes Fresh Squeezed, the two locals listed above, and Blue Moon was all that most of them carried.

You gotta love a place that serves beer in schooners!  Sargent Preston's for those from FH!!!

We got up Friday morning and started to clean the Ghetto, and headed out midday for South Shore and then down to Mammoth Lakes area....

My future retirement rocking chair.