Days 16, 17, 18, 19, 20: Headin’ South

Following a 3:40am, 10 hour bus trip (don’t do it folks) out of Pittsburgh, I arrived in Louisville sleepless and hungry.
My host picked me up at the Greyhound station and said “We’re getting you some pizza and putting you to bed”. Works for me.
After grabbing a BBQ Ranch chicken pizza we headed home and were vegging in front of the TV when she turns to me and says “Hey, you like LCD Soundsystem?”
“Yeah, they’re pretty good.” I respond. “Wanna go see them tonight, I can get tickets!”
So that’s the story of how I went to see LCD Soundsystem on zero sleep in a city I’d never been to because why not!
We went along to the Forecastle Festival along the waterfront of Louisville, getting there in time to see Vince Staples kick off a high-energy set before shifting over and catching a bit of Phantogram and then eventually catching a mesmerising set from LCD Soundsystem. Having not listened extensively to any of those three acts, we both just bopped along and enjoyed the show. Certainly not a bad welcome to Kentucky!
The next morning we got up with a game plan that eventually just kind of fizzled out. We went and grabbed a southern breakfast at 1pm at a place called the Silver Dollar. This was a breakfast of corn chips, egg, tomatillo sauce and chicken. Could not complain.
Lounging around again for another couple of hours, we went and grabbed dinner at Merle’s Whiskey Room along Whiskey Row in Louisville and I tucked into some fried chicken in Kentucky that wasn’t made by a colonel along with some mac n cheese and bourbon while country music blasted out over the restaurant. Yep, I was headin’ south. From there we headed on in to Forecastle again with less bands in mind, but ones we knew a little more.
We get there in time to catch Spoon who were a surprise package in terms of their performance. Although, again, I haven’t listened to them extensively, they were absolute performers who drew you in and put on a show! The real highlight that we were both aching for, however, was Weezer. The fun-loving alt rock hit machine took to the main stage at about 9pm and owned Louisville for the next hour and a half.
I was loving every second of it from when they played their own classics to when they threw a couple of Leftfield covers in there (Hey Ya and Took A Pill In Ibiza) and honestly could not ask for a better concert experience. Absolute entertainers and if you get a chance to catch them, even if you don’t know their stuff, do it.
The next day we didn’t have a plan at all. After cooking up a breakfast, we went and crossed the border into Indiana on the other side of the Ohio river and went to check out the Ohio Falls State Park. Once a hotbed for prehistoric life, this was now a quiet, rocky nature trail along the river. After hiking along this and absolutely sweating bullets in the hot Kentucky sun, we headed for a quick exploration of the park information centre (AIR CONDITIONED!) and then went to grab ice cream.
After a delicious ice cream stop, we headed back and my host decided I wasn’t in America unless I’d shot a gun. She grabbed her handgun and a bag of ammo and told me we were going to a shooting range.
After the first one we tried was shut, we headed along to a second one and were ready to go with my uber-American experience, when the wet blanket of not having a US ID prevented me from being able to handle a gun on their premise.
This meant we needed a new plan for the afternoon, so we headed off to a small area in the Highlands and walked up and down a popular shopping street, just to do some browsing.
We headed off to grab dinner at P.F. Chang’s and absolutely stuffed our faces with Chinese food before we got a message that there was a bar with a ping pong table set up around the corner that we should come check out. We headed back that way via another walking trail that we quickly hiked and headed in to this bar. Not only was there ping pong tables, but also great beer and video game consoles set up all around the room from N64s to PS4s.
We had a couple of rallies with some friends there before calling it a night and heading off home again absolutely exhausted.
On Tuesday I spent the morning/early afternoon lounging once again (once I sit on a couch, you’re going to need to give me time to extract myself) before we headed off and grabbed another southern dinner. We popped into a place called Doc Crow’s Southern Smokehouse and grabbed fried chicken for the second time of my Kentucky stay. Delightful!
From here we headed to the second baseball game of my trip and this time one that I was sober enough to take in. The Louisville Bats were taking on the Syracuse Chiefs in what seemed one of the more one-sided affairs I’d seen recently. It was during the bottom of the first that my host turned to me and said, “Hey, didn’t that guy in Left Field for Louisville play for Adelaide a few years back?” Sure enough, standing out in left field was Brandon Dixon, a former Dodgers prospect now with the Reds organisation who had played for the Adelaide Bite the season that my host was an intern with the club.
Dixon put on a good display hitting 3–4, 2B, SB, RBI, R, K2, which for the non-baseball-literate is a good day of hitting.
When we left the game after the 8th inning, it was 5–1 Louisville and didn’t look like it was going to change one iota. The best thing about all of this is Minor League Baseball is great fun with amazing facilities that’s something you can just decide to go to on a Tuesday night. Spectacular. I might have to hit up a few more along the way.
We headed home and called in a night with the knowledge that tomorrow was my last day in one of my new favourite cities in the world.
On Wednesday, we tried to squeeze as much of Louisville that was left in before I had to get on my bus in the evening, so we headed straight downtown to the Louisville Slugger factory and museum where they make the most famous baseball bats in the world.
After touring through and seeing one guy hand-lathing bats for a Major Leaguer (imagine the pressure not to slip your hand…) right through to CNC-crafted bats for other MLB player and seeing the finishing process on these marvelous pieces of lumber, we got our souvenir bats and headed on to the next stop.
On the way to the factory, we had spotted a “Bourbon Experience” in a shopfront along the way. This was a must-do.
We popped our heads in to the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience store where we discovered that they had an hour-long exhibit describing the history, process and all other important details of bourbon, particularly in Louisville, KY. This is an absolute must, folks. If you find yourself in Louisville (which, for your sake I hope you do), get to this tour and do it. We were told everything from the history of Louisville itself to the specific regulations of calling a bourbon a bourbon and seeing the distilling process occurring right before our eyes. The tour ended with a sampling of three of the Evan Williams bourbons, from the black label right through to the 12-year red label (only available in the gift shop and Japan, apparently) before we were handed some phenomenal Bourbon Chocolate Balls that are absolutely indescribable.
With not much time left before my bus, my host told me I’m not allowed to leave until she’d treated me to her favourite fast-food in the world, Chick Fil-A. She’s a Georgia-native and this was a Georgia institution, so I just had to. Fast food here is cheap. And good. And worryingly addictive. Needless to say, Chick Fil-A is a hit in my books and it rounded out my fried chicken experience in Kentucky (that’s right, I didn’t have Kentucky Fried Chicken in Kentucky, what’s wrong with me?!).
We dashed back to downtown, said our goodbyes and I hopped on my bus off to Nashville.
Music City, here we come!
Matty Abroad