BudgetTravel

Day 1
First, there's drinking. Actually, first there's a tour--and then there's drinking. After flying into Louisville from our respective cities, my friend Cathy and I gun it east to Versailles to visit the Woodford Reserve, one of the distilleries on Kentucky's Bourbon Trail. (Others include Maker's Mark, Jim Beam, and Wild Turkey.)

During the 75-minute tour, our group peers into a 7,500-gallon vat of bubbling gold liquid--a mash of fermenting corn, rye, and barley--and inhales the honeyish aroma in the warehouse where the bourbon is aged in charred white-oak barrels. At the end, everyone gets a half-ounce shot of small-batch bourbon to taste. We're taught how to sip like professionals, alternating sips of bourbon with water to douse the fire on our tongues so we can better taste the flavors of pepper, nuts, and caramel.

A TROT IN THE COUNTRY Just how charming are the horse farms and bourbon distilleries of western Kentucky? These photographs will have you daydreaming about your next road trip. • Launch the slide show

To soak up the alcohol, we go for a gut-buster of a lunch at Melissa's Cottage Café on South Main Street. I can't resist ordering the Hot Brown, a signature Kentucky dish. Found all over the state, it's an open-face roast turkey sandwich that's been smothered with bacon, tomatoes, and a thick layer of cheese sauce, and baked. I'm overwhelmed by the size of the plate--it's the length of a football--and melted cheese is bubbling over the edges.

After lunch, we drive over emerald hills to the 1,200-acre Kentucky Horse Park, just outside Lexington. The park is a bonanza for horse enthusiasts, with two equine museums and various horse shows. It's also a retirement home of sorts for famous racehorses, such as Cigar, who won nearly $10 million in the mid-1990s. Near the grave of legendary Thoroughbred Man o' War, posts are set up 28 feet apart to illustrate how far the horse once leaped. A grade-schooler gamely tries to match the feat.

Too late for the twice-daily parades of more than a dozen breeds, we seek some consolation­ in the gift shop. A shelf of Breyer model horses prompts Cathy to recall Silky Sullivan, her childhood toy horse. Inspecting a soap dish that looks like a saddle, she proclaims, "This is the best gift shop ever!"

We've reserved a pair of rooms at The Inn at Shaker Village in the country's largest restored Shaker settlement. The community was built in Harrodsburg in the 19th century by the idealistic Protestant sect, which practiced celibacy, even after marriage. (It relied on converts to survive, but there are only a handful of Shakers left today.) At dinner in the Trustees' Office Dining Room, piles of Southern fried chicken, pickled watermelon rinds, and lemon pie--baked with slices of lemon in it, peel and all--are served on candle­lit, reproduction Shaker tables. The more than 80 guest rooms and cottages on the grounds are decorated in the simple Shaker style, with added modern amenities like Tempur-Pedic mattresses--a major improvement over the corn-husk mattresses that the Shakers once used.

Lodging

• The Inn at Shaker Village 3501 Lexington Rd., Harrodsburg, 800/734-5611, shakervillageky.org, from $85

Food

• Melissa's Cottage Café 167 S. Main St., Versailles, 859/879-6204, Hot Brown $11
• Trustees' Office Dining Room The Inn at Shaker Village, 3501 Lexington Rd., Harrodsburg, 800/734-5611, chicken $19

Activities