Little Sister Adventures: 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!

Thursday we got up early to go to Abraham Lincoln's birthplace and his childhood home at the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park.

We learned a lot about Lincoln's childhood. Yes, he was born in a log cabin, but not in poverty. For the times and the area, the family was middle class.

The family settled in near present-day Hodgenville, Kentucky. They first lived in Sinking Spring, Kentucky, but a land rights conflict arose and they moved to a home at Knob Creek. Again, there was a land dispute (they were common for this time and place due to lack of land surveys), and when Abe was still quite young, they moved to Indiana and then on to Illinois.

A few views of the monument to Lincoln, which contained a replica birthplace log cabin.

A walk down steps, past early spring flowers, took us to Sinking Spring, where the Lincolns got their water.

We walked around the woods a bit. It was nice to walk there, thinking about young Abraham playing among those trees.

This guy was lucky to have found a nut that was missed last fall!

Nancy Hanks Lincoln, holding a baby Abe, father Thomas, and older sister Sarah.

Father was a carpenter and made this small table

Knob Creek, just near the Lincolns' home.

A field near their home

Replica log cabin. Log cabins were commonplace as a temporary home until the time a family could build something bigger and more permanent. Because the Lincoln Family was never in one place for long enough, they never got to build a family home in Kentucky.

The grave marker of Abraham's infant brother, Thomas, who lived only a few days

We drove back to Bardstown for one more sip of bourbon before heading out. First we stopped by the former apartment building of the person who pointed us there.