Playing Cards - KENTUCKY

Bluegrass, bourbon, horses and, well, fried chicken come to mind when I think of Kentucky. Kentucky is known as the "Bluegrass State", a nickname based on the bluegrass found in many of its pastures due to the fertile soil. One of the major regions in Kentucky is the Bluegrass Region in central Kentucky, which houses two of its major cities, Louisville and Lexington. It is a land with diverse environments and abundant resources, including the world's longest cave system, Mammoth Cave National Park, the greatest length of navigable waterways and streams in the contiguous United States, and the two largest man-made lakes east of the Mississippi River. Kentucky has more navigable miles of water than any other state in the union, other than Alaska. Kentucky produces 95% of the world's supply of bourbon whiskey, and the number of barrels of bourbon being aged in Kentucky (more than 5.7 million) exceeds the state's population. Bourbon has been a growing market – with production of Kentucky bourbon rising 170 percent between 1999 and 2015. The biggest day in American horse racing, the Kentucky Derby, is preceded by the two-week Derby Festival in Louisville. KFC was founded by Colonel Harland Sanders, an entrepreneur who began selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky, during the Great Depression. Sanders identified the potential of the restaurant franchising concept, and the first "Kentucky Fried Chicken" franchise opened in (surprisingly) Utah in 1952. Though technically a Commonwealth, Kentucky was the 15th state to join the union. This design pays homage to this spectacular state. The state outline is filled with the lovely yellow florets of the Goldenrod, the Kentucky State Flower. This is layered with the deep "bluegrass" "Kentucky". This delightful deck of cards is an excellent way of remembering that spectacular Kentucky vacation.