Working for the Weekend

My boyfriend and I have been dating for a little over a year and with him living in Cincinnati and me in Lexington, we switch off visiting each other on the weekends. With only having a weekend together, we try our best to fit in as much as possible and this weekend was no exception. The only thing I was told was not to plan anything between 4:30 - 7:30 on Saturday because the Bengals were playing the Texans in the Wild Card game. Unfortunately for the Bengals, the game did not end well. Overall they had a great season and I was just excited to see them in a playoff game!

When we first started dating, we talked about visiting local bourbon distilleries and completing the Bourbon Trail. Despite being from Central KY I had never visited any of the distilleries so we decided on his first trip to Lexington that we would tour one of them. In order to complete the Bourbon Trail, you need to visit six distilleries (Makers Mark, Wild Turkey, Heaven Hill, Jim Beam, Four Roses, and Woodford Reserve.) You are given a Bourbon Passport at the first distillery you visit and need to make sure it gets stamped at each place you visit. When you complete trail you can mail in your passport and in return you get a t-shirt, Last year we made it to Woodford Reserve and Wild Turkey and this year we've made it a goal to visit the rest.

Our plan was to go to Makers Mark and while we started out using a map to get us there, we decided to rely on the GPS which eventually led us astray. When the GPS said that we only had 10 minutes left in our trip, we both noticed a sign that said we were entering Louisville metro (a good 45 minutes away from where we needed to be.) We pulled off into a neighborhood and looked at the map to see what we could do. We were both so frustrated that our first thought was to turn around and drive back to Lexington but we figured out Jim Beam was about a 25 minute drive away so we headed there.

I'm glad we were still able to tour a distillery. Our guide was very knowledgable and personable and we had group members who asked some great questions. Now we have three left ... We can definitely finish this up in 2012!