May 11, 2013

Well, with the trailer down and having missed the NGCC, I am really bummed. But I'm taking my vacation by golly. The question is, what are we going to do?

Plan B

As we debated this last Friday, we thought “If we can't take the Gulf Coast Cruise in our sailboat, maybe we can find a cheap “last minute” rate for a regular cruise. Maybe out of Galveston.” But Gloria pointed out that we would need our passports. Unfortunately, they expired several months ago. We decided right then that one of the first things we're doing is getting the paperwork done and renewing them. We did that on Friday, but obviously there's no way they'll be back in time for us to take a cruise this week.

Plan C

Several years ago, my brother-in-law was stationed in Scotland with a major oil company. We took a family vacation and went there. Although the kids were just in their early teens and couldn't sample the wares, we went on a quest to visit several of the Scotch distilleries. What we learned about single-malt scotch and blended scotch was fascinating. Why not do something similar in Tennessee or Kentucky?

A quick check of the Internet shows that Kentucky has organized the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, roughly centered on Lexington, KY, involving 8 major distilleries, as well as a Craft Distillery Trail, with a number of small distilleries. We decided that we will have time to drive there on Monday, spend Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday on the large distillery Trail and drive home Friday.

Hot dog! We have a plan!