During our recent vacation in Charleston, South Carolina, we had one of this moments.
It all started with a Striped Pig.
A Striped Pig Distillery, that is.
Distilleries are popping up all over the country, it would seem. So, I was interested in seeing what Charleston had to offer. Two years ago, we had visited a moonshine distillery in Asheville, North Carolina and I wanted to compare and contrast.
Moonshine, for those outside our country, is basically an unaged whiskey, usually made from corn but sometimes rye and barley can be used in addition to the corn. I am not a fan of legal moonshine, but my spouse will drink it.
(Incidentally, moonshine is perfectly legal to distill, with the proper licenses. I am NOT discussing the homemade, illicit moonshine that most people think of - although that would be an interesting blog post if I did know more about it. )
This distillery offered moonshine, vodka, and rum. A distillery making rum is a bit unusual in our area of the country, so we wanted to check this out. We did, liked what we tasted, and decided to buy a bottle of rum.
We approached the end of our vacation, the bottle of rum riding comfortably in the trunk of our car, or so we thought.
We started to pack the car and - let's put this gently, the trunk of our car smelled like a distillery. The smell was so strong, it almost knocked us over. Even in the part of the car where we ride, the smell was quite obvious.
More to the point, it smelled like the Striped Pig Distillery.
We discovered that the bottle of rum had not been riding comfortably in the car trunk. Unlike large commercial rum bottles, this had been corked, with a tiny tape. And it hadn't been sealed.
The cork had popped in the Charleston 80 degree heat and almost the entire bottle of rum had soaked the trunk of our car, and the contents that had been left in the trunk.
We left Charleston hoping a policeman didn't need to pull us over for some reason. But a couple of our friends may be getting - well, fragrant, gifts. I do think we will be laughing at this one day, and not just because we were breathing in all those rum fumes for hours.
The distillery, by the way, was interesting and I plan to blog about it at a future date.
Do you have a story of a vacation situation that wasn't funny at the time?
Yes, i got a lot of memories, Sometimes i do laugh on those moments when i got home..
ReplyDeleteWe'll laugh about it too, I'm sure.
DeleteOh no! Sorry to hear about the spilled rum. I'm sure you will laugh about it in the future. It would take me a while to get over that, especially if it was a rum that I really loved the taste of at the distillery and was looking forward to when getting home.
ReplyDeleteI was looking forward to this rum. At the bottom of the bottle was enough for one drink - which my husband made and we shared. But the rum can't be replaced without going back to South Carolina, as apparently this isn't sold outside the state. Oh well!
DeleteWe had a suitcase fly off the roof rack of our car once in the South of England. It landed in the middle of the highway and several trucks ran over it, causing the contents to be strewn all over the place. It definitely wasn't funny at the time to see my clothes (including my favorite undies) decorating the road but we laugh about it now.
ReplyDeleteI've had some travel mishaps, but nothing like that. I wouldn't have been laughing with my undies all over the road, either! Thank you for sharing.
DeleteI'm curious how (and if) you got rid of the smell of rum. Smelling it all the time would make me want to go to the Caribbean or someplace tropical!
ReplyDelete:)
As of right now, we were able to get the smell out of the items we were able to remove, but it is in the lining of the trunk now. When the weather improves, we'll have to figure something out.
DeleteI always try to create memories and laughter. That's what these events are all about. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting. I know we'll be laughing about this once we can get all of the rum odor out of the trunk!
DeleteMaybe you could rent a rug cleaning machine with a hose. Some shop vacs can pick up fluids. Good luck and keep those windows open.
ReplyDeleteI would cry over spilled rum! :-(
ReplyDeleteThe distillery sounds awesome. ;-)