Just because we were leaving Louisville, doesn’t mean we’re leaving Bourbon country!
C’mon! Join us!Hey! We know them!Tempted but we have a reservation elsewhere!Former Rickhouse? Or just cool marketing material?Willett! Our home for the next few hours!Now that’s a clearer sign!The building on the left is the visitor center! Tasting room downstairs and restaurant upstairs! The building on the right is their distilling facility! You can see the grain storage on the left side (corn in silver and other grains in red), even if the yellow tower dominates the landscape!The distillery from a prettier angle! The grounds at Willett were exquisite!Remember the Willett bottle we saw yesterday? The bartender told us to keep the shape in mind as we toured the facility! There it is! The pot still! Clever!One of our favorites!Another of our favorites! We also enjoyed the small batch rye but forgot to get a picture! D’oh!Reluctantly we had to press on from Willett! But the good news is that we found State #15! Our morning tomorrow! We didn’t know that the Great Smoky Mountains is the most visited national park in the country! Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg are on the north side of the park and are resting spots for weary travelers before they journey into the park. The only thing we knew about Pigeon Forge is that it was home to Dollywood (Dolly Parton’s theme park) and various other of her entrepreneurial activities! But boy did we mis-underestimate the size of Pigeon Forge. It’s a cross between Las Vegas, Coney Island and Disneyland! All you can eat buffets! Every chain restaurant you can imagine! And menagerie of activities for young families – including a Titanic Museum, a Jurassic Park theme ride, batting cages, racetracks, etc! It’s a stunning eye full to drive past! And we thought we were stopping in a quiet little town!One example of the eye full!Another! Yes, that’s King Kong climbing the Empire State Building! And right next to a Mount Rushmore style mountain of Hollywood celebs – John Wayne, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe and Charlie Chaplin!
We met in San Francisco in December 2013 and were married on Valentine's Day 2016. After two years of marriage, we've decided to trade in corporate life for a global travel adventure and our continued commitment to making a positive difference in the world. Follow our adventure.
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