Fairly big day today. We headed out to Churchill Downs in Louisville,
home of the famous Kentucky Derby (next weekend). It was around 90 minutes away
on the interstate highway, so easy driving. When we arrived at Churchill Downs
to see the Kentucky Derby Museum, we were stopped at the gate by security and
they explained that the facilities were closed for a dedication service. He
told us some guy died and they are dedicating something to him (he was sketchy
on the details) so only family and invited guests were allowed in. Would have
been useful for the website to have said that - yes we looked it up before we drove
the distance!
Nothing else was going on in Louisville, so we headed south
to Bardstown, the Bourbon Capital of the World. We visited the Oscar Getz Whiskey
Museum, in a lovely old building that had many uses, primarily as a boy’s
school, but it was also a hospital during the Civil War.
The museum was interesting,
with the history of bourbon making and lots of rare whiskey artefacts dating
from pre-colonial days to post-Prohibition days. They had displays of unopened
rare bottles from the 1920s and 30s, lots of novelty bottles, moonshine stills,
and relics from the many distilleries that operated in the area from pre-prohibition.
Some counties in Kentucky are still dry.
There was a display dedicated to Carry Nation, a dear old
biddy who believed that God wanted her to take up arms in the fight against the
evil of liquor. She used to burst into taverns singing hymns and wielding a hatchet
to smash the bottles of filthy alcohol. The temperance movement eventually
became prohibition and the local district lost around 6000 jobs from the
distilleries.
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