Maybe it was the tour guide at the last cave. Maybe it was the heat. Maybe it was seeing one too many rolling hill and farm. Whatever the reason, we were getting tired of Kentucky. We decided to visit the Makers Mark Distillery for no other reason than we couldn’t think of anything else to do to round out the afternoon.
We knew that the last tour started at 3:30, so we drove fairly quickly to get there. More rolling hills, more farms, and signs indicating that we had entered Kentucky Bourbon and Bluegrass country lined our way. We pulled into the parking area of the distillery at 3:15, just in time. As we went in and I inquired about the tour, we discoverd that we had crossed back into Eastern time, and that it was actually 4:15.
Beat and dejected, we drove back the nearest large town, Bardtown, to find lodging. Along the way, we passed several large buildings that looked like barracks or Communist-era apartment blocks. These were large buildings for storing bourbon, as we found out later.
A quick dinner, and it was time to collapse. The distillery tours don’t start until 10:30, but I’m thinking we’re going to be well on our way to another state long before then.