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It’s great fun anytime you get so many Minis and Miniacs together, and the Bourbon Run IV was no exception. The day started wet and drizzling, but the rain quit and the sun came out. We had over 40 Minis and 70 Miniacs representing Bluegrass Minis, Queen City Minis, Mini Car Club of Indiana, Southwestern Indiana Mini Motoring Club and one lone Countryman driven by two lovely ladies from Mini of Louisville. After gathering in Frankfort at 8AM Saturday morning for the Bourbon Run IV drives, we divided into four groups. Two groups drove to Buffalo Trace Distillery, Woodford Reserve Distillery, lunch in Versailles and then Four Roses Distillery, while the other two groups started at Woodford Reserve, then to Buffalo Trace, lunch in Versailles and finally the Wild Turkey Distillery. Yours truly led one of the latter groups (Wild Turkey).

From our meeting place in the Aspen Dental parking lot (where we got some neat Bourbon Run t-shirts with all the participating groups on the back), it was a short and simple 20 minute drive to the Woodford Reserve Distillery on McCracken Pike in Versailles, KY. We were a little early for our 9:15AM tour, giving us time to look around the beautiful visitor center and gift shop. The center is full of historical information about the distillery as well as process information about the manufacture of Bourbon. Although it has changed names and ownership over time, Woodford Reserve is the oldest (and smallest) distillery in Kentucky. Needless to say, it has a long and storied history. The tour was very nice and quite complete, starting with a video, walking us through the entire process (fermenting vats, distilling, warehousing and bottling) and ending with the obligatory taste test. Gathering our two groups (Larry led the other group), we set off for Buffalo Trace.

The drive to Buffalo Trace took us back into Frankfort, but since we are driving Minis, we used the back roads. This took us past the crumbling remains of the Old Taylor and Old Crow Distilleries. The Old Taylor Distillery is quite a sight, with its limestone castle structure slowly being re-claimed by nature. Another feature of this short drive was the planned passing of the other two groups as they made their way from Buffalo Trace to Woodford Reserve. Arriving at Buffalo Trace, we were delighted to see another car club, featuring Morgans, was visiting the Bourbon Trail. Unlike Woodford Reserve, Buffalo Trace is a very large distillery and, while Woodford may be older, Buffalo Trace is the oldest “continuously-operating” distillery in the United States. History buffs will recall there was an early 20th Century event known as Prohibition. Buffalo Trace was one of the four distilleries given special Congressional sanction to continue distilling for “medicinal purposes”. The tour at Buffalo Trace was informative, but less complete. We visited a warehouse, saw a video, visited a small bottling process and then returned to the visitor center for the tasting. A big hit in the tasting (I even bought some) seemed to be the Cream Liqueur, the Buffalo Trace answer to Bailey’s Irish Cream. We once again attempted (with less success) to gather our groups and set off for lunch at Ricardo’s Grill and Pub in Versailles.

The drive to lunch was very simple with traffic lights being the biggest obstacle. Our two Wild Turkey groups were the first to arrive, followed closely by the Four Roses groups, coming from Woodford. Larry reserved the space and Ricardo’s set us up in a large room. It was great to see so many Miniacs together. The food was good and the service was fair (considering the size of the crowd). Lunch ran longer than expected.

Some people headed home, but most of the groups hung together for the next adventure. The Four Roses groups got into their cars and headed out first, and then things got dicey for our Wild Turkey plans. Being only 10 miles and less than 15 minutes from the Wild Turkey Distillery, we had planned to take some FUN back roads for a 90 minute tour of the countryside, but it was now after 3PM and the last tour was at 4PM. We thought the options were a) skip the countryside drive b) skip the last tour or c) divide the group between options a and b. Larry then suggested we take the tour and THEN a shortened version of the drive. BRILLIANT!

The drive to Wild Turkey, in Lawrenceburg, was short and mostly un-eventful. Larry’s group was delayed when they thought they had a lost member. She turned out to be a local and had simply taken a slightly different route, arriving at Wild Turkey before the group. The visitor center at Wild Turkey is a fairly small house, but the tour was good. The guide knew we had already heard all of the usual information, so he went out of his way to give us some different information. The Wild Turkey Distillery building itself is very new and modern when compared to the others. We saw the fermenting vats (incredible volume as compared to Woodford), the distilling process and the barreling process. Then we returned to the visitor center for, you guessed it, the tasting. It was fortunate these tastings were spread out over such a long time …. Another hit was the Honey Bourbon Liqueur offered (another purchase).

And now those hardy souls who hung with Larry and me for all this time and chose to go one more lap were rewarded with a one hour lap thru the back roads between Lawrenceburg and Harrodsburg. I took the lead and 13 cars followed KY 127 from Lawrenceburg to the Harrodsburg bypass and then circled back to Lawrenceburg via Bohon Road, KY 53 and KY 62. Bohon Road is a real twisting gem and we enjoyed it, despite getting caught behind a local in a worn out pickup. On KY 53, just a mile or so beyond where it intersects the Martha Layne Collins Expressway, is a series of 15MPH turns which would be very high on POET’s scale (you know the one I’m talking about). We finished the circle to Lawrenceburg and headed North to I-64. Larry took the lead for the rest of the group headed East to Frankfort and Lexington and I headed West to Louisville.

I left my home at 6:30AM (yikes!) and returned at 7:30PM with fond memories. This drive was all about the “rich tradition and proud history of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail”. We met new people and visited interesting places. Larry deserves special kudos for this great day.

Submitted by Richard Ray (aka kymummer).

Let me start this off by saying to those of you who missed this drive, shame on you! Not only was the drive almost perfect, the destination was, indeed, a major highlight of the day. Almost perfect drive you say? How could it not be perfect? The weather was gorgeous (you can tell it is when ALL the convertibles tops are down), there were 17 beautiful cars, and a terrific route to follow. So then how can one say it was not perfect? Well, I’ll get to that in a minute but for now let’s start at the beginning.

As is the norm, Larry aka UNCLE gathered everyone for the pre-flight, I mean pre-drive briefing. And, in what is becoming a new norm, there were several new faces in the crowd and some old ones we haven’t seen in a while. It was good to see you back in the group, Aaron. We departed the Wendy’s lot headed in what I assume was a westerly direction and after several traffic lights we were out in the open countryside. Those of us who were driving behind Jessica and Jimmy were not surprised to see the tail end of Jessica’s car, “Basil”, open and Jimmy sitting back taking pictures of the car behind him. I hope someone managed to get his picture and will post it here. I noticed it looked like after Jimmy took someone’s picture that car would move over to the inside lane and let another car move up and get its picture taken. Not wanting to be left out, I tried to move up as soon as I realized it, but, as luck would have it, I could not get close enough before the 4 lane ran out and I was forced to let another back in front of me. Oh well, I hope Jimmy managed to get at least one of me and will send me a copy. The whole thing brought back memories of last year’s Clifty Falls drive with Jimmy standing up through the sunroof going over the bridge from Kentucky to Indiana.

Okay, back to this drive. I can’t recall the exact route we took; to be honest I was just following the leader and hoping he knew where he was going. As for thrill factor, I would give it about two but clenches and that would be generous. That may also be due to the fact that I was hanging out in the rear of the group. Next time I will be toward the front.

Now for the reason why I say this was almost a perfect drive. At some point when we were not too far from our destination, we turned off the road we were on and turned on to I-65 (I think we were headed north, but I don’t recall for sure). It seems a group of about 6 cars didn’t see us turn off onto the interstate and kept going. Once realizing part of the group had missed the turn, Larry told the rest of us where to turn off and then headed back to see if he could find the stragglers. I know some cell calls were made and before long everyone was back together at the Wendy’s in Cave City where we were scheduled to eat lunch before our tour time of 12:45 CDT. After we ate, it was off to the cave.

Upon arriving at the cave and parking the cars, we headed to the visitors center where we were actually met by a park ranger who asked if we were the Mini group scheduled for the 12:45 tour. We confirmed that we were, indeed, the Mini group and were directed to a shelter to make sure we had our tickets handy. After explaining that we did not yet have tickets and that our leader had all our ticket money, Larry went inside, got our tickets and we met at the designated shelter where we were regaled by the park ranger on a bit of the history of the cave and some does and don’ts while we were inside. After a short walk, we gathered at the entrance to the cave where once again the ranger regaled us with stories and some more does and don’ts. Our group was separated from the rest of the group (I think it was because we smelled bad) and we were guided through the cave by ranger Paul (I think that was his name) who, as it turns out, was a very bad comedian in a previous life. Still there were those among us who managed to fall for his jokes.

It took at least 2+ hours for the tour and I can honestly say it was worth the time. Not just to see something so amazing as Mammoth Cave, but, for the first time in recent memory, everyone stayed together after arriving at the destination. What was even more amazing to me was the fact that, after my daughter finally finished deciding what she wanted to spend her money on in the gift shop and we headed out to the car, I found out I was the last remaining car in the parking lot.

Well, that’s all for this trip. Next up the Bourbon Run, September 24th. Make sure you remember it is an early start time. So get plenty of rest and we will see you there.

Article submitted by POET