Fascinating baseball history and a cool look at how bats are made at the Louisville Slugger Museum and factory.

A walk on the riverfront plaza overlooking the Ohio and the Belle of Louisville.

APH  American Printing House for the Blind

Our tour guide obviously loves her job.  She is an historian and manages their museum.  In an hour I learned more about the creation and development of Braille and other tactile alphabets and teaching tools for the blind than I even knew there was to learn.  Book printing and recording of books is all going to electronic processes so the factory tour part was a bit anticlimactic.  Still, it was an interesting couple hours.

Other people might head for hot browns and derby pie as Louisville signature foods but we had to find Ollie’s Trolley.  It is a fast food burger joint with special seasonings on the fries and in the burger.  It was about like I remembered it.  We sampled from food truck fare too.  Louisville gets about a C- in that category.    There were only three trucks at the “food truck invasion” downtown: a fried cheese truck, a steak sandwich truck, and the most adventurous, a French Canadian sandwich truck.  We went for unique and tried a pulled pork with some pretty funky veggies and sauces.  I am not sure I would doit again but it was a bit of adventure.

The Derby clock on 4^th street. It is sort of like a huge cuckoo clock only on the hour five figures race; Thomas Jefferson, King Louis, Clark, Daniel Boone and a mermaid representing the paddleboat Belle of Louisville.   It didn’t run at 3 O’clock like it was supposed to.  Bummers.

More bourbon chocolates…better than a mint julep as far as I am concerned.  We came across a boutique chocolate shop that makes absolutely fantastic bourbon truffles with an uncanny knack for matching bourbon and chocolate types.  Yum.

There are 14 Distilleries on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.  That would be a lot of tasting!  We checked out two stops, Makers Mark (so smooth) and Heaven Hill (better than I anticipated).   Just like Tennessee sipping whisky, these folks all start with sour mash, ferment it, distill the beer, and age in charred oak.  It is amazing how different the final products taste.

Both distilleries gave samples of bourbon chocolates too.   They were wonderful.

My “have to” Louisville food

Moby Dick fried fish.  We stopped on our way home from bourbon tasting and I got my fix.  We checked out Bernhiem Forest too.  It is a beautiful green space.  Dark clouds were heading our way so we didn’t get far from the car.

Barkley and Kentucky lakes are very high and flooding many trails.  It is limiting our exploration but we headed up to the North end of the park today to check things out.  We saw lots of turkey.  I was pleased to note that a fair number seem to have survived the Spring hunt that ended last Sunday.  There are white tailed deer too.  A fair number of turtles and snakes were taking their chances crossing the road.  The high water has everything on the move.

The first snake was fascinating to watch.  It moved so gracefully across the lake water barely disturbing the surface.  When the sun shines on it is a beautiful rich brown pattern.

The second one was still pretty cool, it moved with large smooth curves out in open water and smaller barely visible curves as it tried to blend in among foliage and clutter.

The third snake even cooler, but more than a little creepy.  It transitioned from that streamline swimmer to an expert climber without a moment’s hesitation.  Once it intertwined with the branches it was nearly invisible.  Hmmmm.

Ok, not this is not cool.  We stopped to admire an orchid-like wildflower vine that climbs on lakeside bushes.  Surprise, at least two snakes were also using those bushes.  They were so well camouflaged that we didn’t see them at all until one retreated (thankfully) back the branch and another just plopped about 5 feet into the lake (not into the boat even more thankfully).  Those critters are everywhere along the lake shore.

We watched the sun slide beyond the horizon and a solitary loon let go a short warbling call.  Four times he called.  There was no answer.

The day is sunny and warm.  The fish are biting just enough to keep it interesting.

Every floating log provides refuge for heaps of turtles.  Splop, splop, splop;  the log empties at our approach.  I wonder how many times a day those guys crawl out into the sun?

A brown moss covered rock on shore at the water’s edge actually turns out to be an adult beaver.  I suppose he is the one we saw yesterday.  He’s taking a nap and rouses very slowly.  Eyes blink.  He watches us.  The head comes up, he uncurls and we see that big ole tail.  Calmly he slips into the water and disappears.  Just a bit further into the bay we find the beaver lodge and watch a young beaver devouring leaves from fresh tender shoots that had been placed nearby.

It was fun to watch at first.  Within hours of arriving we began to see a robin sort of fluttering outside the side window.  After a few appearances we realized that he/she was carrying nesting materials and was feverishly building, on the passenger’s side mirror of the motorhome.  He brought sticks, bits of plastic, some masking tape, and mud.  We had to discourage it, we won’t be here long enough to raise a family.  Kent knocked the nest down.  The robin built again.  I knocked it down.  He built again.  This has gone on for about two days and the bird just won’t give up.  There is mud splattered all down the side of the cab and a fair sized pile of debris scattered on the running board and fuel tank.  What a mess.

I jammed a bottle into the perfect little alcove above the mirror and that seemed to do the trick.  We were gone so I am not sure how long the robin might have worried at trying to build around it but it seems he has given it up and sought another location.  He is bit-by-bit hauling his pieces of rubbish and twigs onto a graceful maple limb not far away.  I sure hope that homebuilding goes more smoothly.

The air was thick and damp.  We waited until 9AM or so until there was just enough visibility to get the boat out onto the lake.  We puttered around slowly from the ramp to a sheltered bay and watched treed islands occasionally peek out of the fog.  The sun warmed.  The breeze pushed.  Our bay cleared and in a matter of minutes the entire lake was bathed in dazzling sun.  Beautiful. We spent the day viewing the Land Between the Lakes from the waterside.

We watched osprey and heron fish much as we have seen before but they also made many a trip to collect branches to refurbish their nests or build anew.  They picked them up off the surface of the lake or slammed into dead branches of standing trees and broke off pieces and carried them home.  Gar are rolling in the shallows.  Some geese already have goslings.   A beaver swims by and gives us a couple tail slaps as we float near shore.

Is that a rock?  Just light off a puddle?  Trash?  No, it’s moving!  An all white skunk emerged from the fog just 20 feet or so in front of me.  Fortunately he was pretty calm about it.  He slowly turned and waddled away.  I immediately crossed the street and kept on walking…just a bit faster.