We left Nashville on Sunday, Oct 1, after worship and headed toward the small tourist town of Cave City, Kentucky, home of the Mammoth Cave National Park.
But Mammoth Cave just had to wait until the next day, for we had a second goal for this area. After parking our trailer, we took off to go a little farther up the road to tour the Maker’s Mark Distillery in the teeny tiny town of Loretto, Kentucky.
Maker’s Mark is a well known bourbon whisky distillery in this remote area of Kentucky that is surrounded by limestone that filters a spring to purify the water. The grounds are beautiful and the tour was very informative. We even learned that this area in Kentucky used to be within Virginia in 1785 – Bourbon County – best known for its bourbon whiskey. The state lines were reestablished in 1792 to make this section part of the newly formed Commonwealth of Kentucky.
It was fun to learn how Maker’s Mark produced their whisky (note that Maker’s Mark dropped the ‘e’ on purpose as a part of their original marketing campaign) and we were delighted to sample 
five of their different types of whisky: white whisky, regular Maker’s Mark, their 46 brand, the cask strength, and a private selection. Only the regular Maker’s Mark and the 46 brand are generally available outside of their distillery.
At the end of the tour we had the opportunity to buy bottles of any of the five kinds, and we enjoyed dipping our chosen bottles into Maker’s Mark trademark red wax to seal the top onto the bottle.
We were so grateful to get on the last tour of the day. We had to drive 90 minutes and arrived at 3:28 for the last tour of the day – 3:30.
The next morning we relished time at Mammoth Cave National Park. Mammoth has 400 miles of cave pathways in this unique area of Kentucky limestone that was created millions of years ago when the great sea covered much of the lower U.S. plains.
This is the largest cave system in the world, and it is a World Heritage Site! The picture above is of Ted looking up inside the Historic Entrance of the cave.
When it was time to leave Cave City, we received a warning light in our Ford 150 truck indicating that there was a wiring problem affecting the trailer brakes. This required a drive to the Ford dealer in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The problem was quickly diagnosed but a trailer brake controller had to be shipped overnight, so we enjoyed a night at a motel in Bowling Green. The next afternoon we were on our way west toward Memphis.