Details Matter…keeping your cool matters even more

VIP Penny Pritzker at Makers Mark sampling

By Col. Bob White

Details. They can make or break a day traveling Kentucky’s Bourbon Country.

Surprises can make for an interesting day, but they can also wreck an itinerary, leaving even the best drivers and guides look like they've fallen to pieces.

A smiling face can only hide so much.

I've been dealt a dozen or more outings that could have gone better.

An entire day can go south by not asking the right questions when discussing plans with a client.

Here's one example that started off with the driver and myself making jokes about the assignment, only to learn of details that truly mattered a little too late.

About a week before the tour the driver and I received the schedule for what seemed like a typical day on the bourbon trail. Pick guests up at a hotel. Make a few stops and try to teach a bit along the way.

Typical - apart from three letters at the top of the itinerary – “V.I.P.”

Curious, the driver and I both questioned the planner.

She stumbled briefly when we asked who the V.I.P. was, then answered, “oh yeah, it's a birthday outing for the client's husband.”

So, the birthday boy was the V.I.P.?

That was a first. Not that someone would celebrate a birthday on the Bourbon Trail, but that the planner would describe the person of honor as a V.I.P.

The planner, Debbie, went on to inform us that balloons, banners and streamers would be in the bus for us to decorate with prior to departure.

Day of, I was already decorating the bus when the driver, John, arrived.

“Bob, did you put the V.I.P. ice in the V.I.P. cooler with the V.I.P. waters?” He asked with a grin.

We joked because we always treat each guest as a V.I.P. We wondered what could be special about this fella.

It was raining cats and dogs that day – messy and chilly. Not ideal conditions for anything.
Definitely not a good day for a walking tour at Maker’s Mark.

Our nice and clean, crepe paper-adorned bus would soon suffer from wet passengers, but like real troopers, John and I loaded them at the hotel and began our hour-plus drive to Makers Mark in the heavy rain.

The windy, hilly route to Makers went a bit slower with the rain, so as the guide, I  babbled about Kentucky and whiskey, I had plenty of time to dig deeper into details.

Nuggets about government declarations and defining moments relating to bourbon sparked interest from one middle-aged lady in the group who sat within an arm's reach of where I stood.

Remember the rain? She was dressed in all white denim, including her jacket. Only things not white were the single crutch resting against her seat and the black air cast on her left leg.

As I swayed with the curves and braced for the ride to Loretto, the lady peppered me with question upon question about stuff that most guests could care less about. She wanted details.
She'd plug away at her phone, apparently fact-checking my babble, with every other statement I made.
She wasn't the typical bourbon nerd. I wondered why these simple little bits of info sparked her interest and so much doubt. Hmm…
I offered my arm to her as we unloaded the bus at Makers. She moved along just fine though, so I wasn't concerned about her navigating the tour. She was fine, healthy and ambulatory.
 
The rain continued to meow and bark.

Entering the lobby, Birthday Boy closed in on my ear.
“Bob, you know what you got to do, don't you?” He asked quietly, not drawing attention.

The dumb look on my face answered before my mouth could.
Birthday boy could see the ignorance on my face. 

“You need to get a golf cart for Miss Penny and drive her around while we’re here,” he clarified. “You do know who she is, don't you?”

Uh, Miss Penny...
No, I didn't know who she was.
My dumb look continued to answer for me. 

Penny Sue Pritzker, I soon learned, is an American billionaire who, before our tour, was confirmed in a 97-1 Senate vote to be Obama's Secretary of Commerce. She was of the Illinois Pritzkers – of whom one is now Governor of that state to our north.

“She's 9th to the President,” he explained.
Oh. I suppose that makes a V.I.P. 

Within seconds, the Makers team and my driver were up to speed on the situation.

Jacquelyn, Maker’s manager that busy and rainy Saturday, put all pieces together in an instant. 

This was NOT her first rodeo with “important people.”
Because of that, we maneuvered Miss Penny around the distillery property as though we’d planned it.
Then-boss, Sydina, best described the situation to someone a year later.

“So, it was pouring down rain, and there's Bob and Jacquelyn in this mold-covered golf cart driving this lady in white around for a tour,” Sydina told the story with authority.

Distiller's mold is what she’d referred to. It blankets everything in proximity of distilleries and rickhouses. The scientific name is … well, who cares? Back to the story.

The rest of Penny's group watched as Jacquelyn and I used plastic sheeting to cover the cart, and our passenger as best as we could. My driver, watching from a dry and warm bus, was busting with laughter as he watched our charade from afar.

But a mere 50 yards and less than 10 minutes later, Jacquelyn was pulling samples from the spirits safe for Penny to taste from a stainless steel mug she'd picked along the way.

I suddenly became a photographer, along with my tour guide and golf cart duties.

With great help from Jacquelyn, Sydina and the fungus-covered golf cart, we made it all work.

Yes, it could've went smoother had we known Birthday Boy was not our V.I.P., but then we wouldn't have this story about the importance of detail to entertain us all.

I grin just typing this…

The important part of this story is that no person involved ever lost their composure.

No one even acted as though it had reached the level of being classified a “situation.”

Yes, details are important, but more so is the big-picture mindset that none of our jobs as planners, drivers, guides or hospitality workers was, nor is today, a matter of life or death.
We're not repairing cars, pulling teeth or fixing plumbing out on Bourbon tours.

It's meant to be fun so the real winners out there you'll see keeping it light-hearted.

Cheers!
And don’t take things too seriously.