Northern New Mexico, Part 2

The morning of Day Two held a wonderful walk with my dear brother-in-law and friend, with a yummy lunch afterwards! ❤️ 

After lunch, I hiked from downtown Los Alamos through Graduation Canyon to the Pueblo Canyon Rim Trail, where I headed west and came out at Canyon Road, then back to where I had parked Poppy. About 3 miles all told.

It was lovely! See for yourself:

Nothing like the smell of a Ponderosa Pine. Vanilla or Chocolate?

A view of my childhood playground. You can barely make out where "LA" was once painted.

Thunder was rumblin' and I did not want to end up like this tree!

Wild onion

Another view of LA Mountain, where I romped as a child. It's also known as Burnt Mountain, and since 2000, Twice Burnt Mountain!

You can kinda sorta see where "LA" was painted on the rocks in years of old.

That evening, I enjoyed tacos and beer with three of my four siblings, plus other loved ones! Afterwards, I walked over to Ashley Pond, passing The Lodge...

 

...and heading to Ashley Pond, where I met my BIL for the free Concert in the Park. Ashley Pond's geese greeted the crowd.

We listened to Nik Parr and the Selfless Lovers, from Austin, Texas.

And then – exhausted – I retired to Poppy, who was parked in the Bathtub Row Brewing Co-op's (AKA The Tub) Harvest Host spot. Woke up to sunflowers!

What a fan-frickin'-tastic day!

Part 9. Goodbye, Kentucky

We left the alpaca farm and did a little grocery shopping before we went to Cheney's Dairy Barn for some ice cream. Our host of the previous night recommended it highly. Ice cream? Yes please!

It was a lively place! Lots of families were enjoying ice cream, and some of the kids were playing on the playground on site.  

Bourbon crunch. Yum!

Then we headed to South Union Shaker Village in Auburn, Kentucky. Shakers lived here from 1807 to 1922. Do you know much about the Shakers? I did not. Such an interesting, forward-looking sect! They were progressive, giving women and men equal power and, though complicated, were generally anti-slavery. They welcomed Black individuals into the community.

Much of the village was torn down by the buyer after the remaining members left in 1922, but there were a few buildings standing, and they had many wonderful pieces of furniture and other artifacts.

There are two remaining Shakers still alive, both in their 80s, living in a village in Maine. 

A demonstration of the pigments. The Shakers liked color!

School room desks. Though the Shakers were celibate, families would often join, or they would welcome orphans.

Peg boards were in every room and hallway

We drove the short distance to our last distillery, which was also our Harvest Host for the night.m, Dueling Grounds Distillery. A tasting (two bourbons) and a Manhattan. Plus pizza!

Bye-bye Kentucky! Next stop: Nashville!

Part 7: Bardstown, Day 2

It was a full day! Bardstown is small, but mighty! There is a lot to do in this one-light town. 

We got up early on Wednesday to cram it all in!

Civil War Museum and Women’s Civil War Museum

Wow! The Civil War Museum was impressive. They had a ton of artifacts, exhibited well. Plus a lot of explanations. We took our time, and we still could've spent a lot more time there.

I decided that my memories of the museum would be of the hats. So, here for your viewing pleasure, are Civil War hats. And below that, a few other artifacts and interesting things.

Note the original hat box, too!

Note the surgeon's tools

Not hats.

Two brothers fought on different sides. Growing up and learning about the Civil War, I never understood how that could happen. Living in these times, I understand now.

Little drummer boys. The youngest enlisted "man" in the Union Army: 9½ years old!

A video played of a reunion of the last living soldiers in 1915

The Women's Civil War Museum 

Great collection here, too! 

The walk from the main Civil War Museum to the Women's museum was lovely.

More hats.

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We learned about many courageous women who helped the war effort, from doctors and nurses to spies and soldiers. There were many spies, some of whom dressed like men to infiltrate the other side. And more than one woman dressed like a man in order to go to battle.

The caption reads:

Elizabeth Von Lew spied for the Union Army from a magnificent mansion on Grace Street in Richmond, the Confederate capital. The daughter of a successful hardware merchant, Van Lew was educated in Philadelphia, where she required strong antislavery views. When her father died, she and her mother freed all the family slaves. So uncommon was her behavior that her neighbors called her Crazy Betsy. 

Van Lew reported to the Union generals on conditions in the Confederate capital, and turned her home into a hideout for escapees from Confederate prisons. She had a secret room in her house, reachable only by a hidden staircase. She once kept 100 men there after they dug their way out of Richmond's Libby Prison. She also visited prisons, with the excuse of donated food, and collected valuable information from the inmates.

Van Lew relied on help from hired black servants to carry coded messages out of town, and she sometimes hid notes inside an empty eggshell in a basket of produce. In one of her bolder moves, she managed to install one of her former slaves as a servant in the home of Jefferson Davis to spy on the Confederate president. After the war, General Ulysses S Grant rewarded Van Lew for her services by appointing her post mistress of the Richmond. Although she was shunned by all her neighbors, she remained in Richmond until she died in 1900.

More great women:

The woman who pointed me to Bardstown? Her mother likely made this dress for the Stephen Foster production the town puts on every summer.

We enjoyed some lunch at the oldest continuously operating Tavern in the US, the Talbott Tavern, opened in 1779 (see date on sign above our heads).

Just a pretty house in town.

After lunch, we made our way to the Preservation Distillery. This time, Trish joined me for a tour and tasting, even though she's not a fan of bourbon. What a trooper!

                 

Char, the supervising cat

About to get a taste of the alcohol that is comes out of the distiller and before it goes into charred oak barrels. Otherwise known as moonshine.

While Trish went to a meeting in the van, I enjoyed an Old Fashioned.

We had time for a late-afternoon drive out to Barnheim forest for a walk among the giants. You may remember while I was in Austin, Anne took me to visit Malin the troll. Thomas Danbo, the artist, installed a troll family (Little Elina, Little Nis, and Momma Loumari) in the beautiful park just outside Bardstown. 

Little Nis

Momma Loumari

Little Elina

                 

The redbuds were blooming all through the South. Stunning!

I luv cute critters!

Finally took Poppy back to the RR Museum for the night. I took this picture after walking to the gas station to buy some ice. The refrigerator had stopped working! Weirdly, the next day it suddenly started up again and has been fine since. Whew!