Saturday Travels with Us

Today has been a pretty good day. We have been finding more and more things open, and more to do. The day was a little rainy at times, mostly early this morning, a little misty and overcast, but temperate weather.

We began this morning in Decatur, Alabama. We didn't discover anymore to do in the daylight than we thought we had found in the dark last night, but I did get to eat at a Waffle House for the first time. When we were in Atlanta last year, we saw Waffle Houses all over the place, but never ate at one. This morning I got to have a chocolate chip/pecan waffle at a Waffle House. That started the day out great.

We got in the car and started traveling back up to the north, through small towns, every now and again stopping at something that might have an interesting prospective antique store. Our desired destination was Lynchburg, Tennessee, where, you guessed it, Jack Daniel's Distillery is located.

Here is a photo of the man himself, Mr. Jack Daniels. I have a few more photos that I took of things that I found interesting, such as the three floors of barrels! My goodness!! They never reuse a whiskey barrel, they always make new ones for their whiskey. The used barrels, they sell to different companies, even in Ireland, to make other alcohols, or they sell them to people for planters and such, and they use them to make other craft items, etc. I thought that was kind of interesting.

Then, of course, here is Mr. Bruce sitting at the front of the visitor's center, holding a Jack Daniel's box. No, there is nothing in it...it is empty! Those who know Bruce would know that he would prefer it to be full! :)

Here is a little video that Bruce had me take of the visitor's center, and teased me that he wanted to see it on my 'log'...so here it is! :)

When we finished at the distillery, we went and walked around the little community of Lynchburg. It has capitalized well on the tourist crowd from Jack Daniel's, and there are several cute little quaint touristy souvenier shops along the way.

Upon leaving there, we continued north to a town called Shelbyville, and stopped at a couple of antique shops there. We then went on to a little bity burg called Bell Buckle. It reminded me a little bit of Paxico in Kansas. It is this tiny little hole with a strip of old shops that have been made to capitalize on quaint charm. We ate at the Bell Buckle Cafe, which had downhome cozy cooking (i.e., ham and beans, grits, collards, etc.) It was very good. Below is a picture of Bruce (sorry that it's sideways here) with the backdrop of the ceiling of the restaurant. The ceiling tiles are advertisements for different businesses. What a great way to make some dollars, huh? On the menu, there was an advertisement for a live AM radio show there are the restaurant on Saturdays from 1-3, and we got there at 3:15, so we just missed it (bummer...that would have been very fun for us).

When we finished at the cafe, we just walked around and looked in and stopped in several of the little shops. It was fun. By the time we were ready to leave it was getting dark already, so time to head to Nashville.

We drove on through/past Murfreesboro...it was dark, and we needed to head on into Nashville. We did actually hotel reservations tonight here. Not sure if we will try to go back and see Murfreesboro or not. Will have to do more study on what is there, I guess.

Bruce is taking a swim in the hotel pool while I type this. When he gets back, we are going to probably cab it, and head down to the downtown area. We are going to try to see some type of nightlife, and I think we will try the Wildhorse Saloon first. I was there several years ago when my friend Jamie and I traveled here to Nashville. The Zac Brown Band ("Chicken Fried") is supposed to play sometime tonight, but we couldn't find any place that said what time, so we'll see if we see them or not.