Day 12,   May 9


 Went to Frankfort this morning, took a tour of the Governor's Mansion. We met in the ballroom, and then took tour, looked into sitting rooms, dining rooms, saw an old Kentucky Derby trophy in one of the rooms. They have two dining rooms, one for the family to use and one formal one for important dinners.

Inside New Capitol

We then walked over to the new Capitol Building, had a tour guide, which talked about the statues in the rotunda, and also told use that they replaced the lights in the rotunda with led bulbs and how they change colors. We had walked into the senate and house chambers and walked up and down the marble staircases.

We were then on our own for lunch, we had gone to Gibby's downtown. Gibby's is a restaurant that a lot of local people come into to eat lunch, it had a line to order, put doesn't take long to get your food, which is very good.



Spiral Staircase in Old Capitol



 After lunch, we all met at the Old Capitol, which is just down the street from Gibby's, we had a tour guide that talked about the building and the spiral staircase. The stairs are free standing and are in a spiral shape, very interesting. We had also toured the library, senate and house chambers. The tour guide had also told us about a shooting outside the building, the shot came from the building next door and no one was ever convicted in the murder.

We then went onto Rebecca Ruth's candies, which was just a few blocks from the Old Capitol. This is the place where they make bourbon balls, and is just a small company. We had bought some seconds called boo boos and mystery boo boos downtown, two doors from Gibby's. After returning to the campground we had another GAM.

Day 13,   May 10

Went to Vietnam Memorial, this memorial was opened on Nov. 1988. It honors the 125,000 Kentuckians who served this nation during the Vietnam War. Each name is precisely located so that the shadow of the gnomon touches his name on the anniversary of his death. Thus, each individual is honored with a personal tribute.

 Onto Daniel Boone's gravesite, the graveyard sits on a hill overlooking Frankfort and the Capitol. Boone's wife is also buried next to him, the headstone is in honor of both of them.

We then went downtown to Kentucky Museum of History, we were on our own to tour on our leisure, which was pretty interesting. Afterwards, we had walked back to Gibby's for lunch, Ken had a hot brown, he said it was the best that he had, out of the three that we ate.

 Off to Buffalo Trace Distillery, tour guide showed us a movie about the company and then took us into one of the ricks to see all the bourbon barrels. The ricks here are mostly brick, where the other place was wood. Told us how the barrels are burnt, how they are stacked and stamped and recorded to keep track of them. We were then taken to the bottling area and the shipping area and then off to the tasting area and store. After returning we had a drivers meeting for the next two days.