Lynchburg and Nashville
We got up, checked out, and started driving further north. Our first stop was just a few miles away, in Lynchburg, Tennessee: The Jack Daniel’s Distillery. Selma is not a drinker, and her whiskey loving girlfriend is not too happy about JD, but Louis drinks anything with alcohol in it, so we had to stop by now that we were in the neighborhood.
The main entrance of the Jack Daniel’s Distillery
The tours at the distillery are really well organized. The visitors are arranged into numbered tour groups and taken around the lot. First we got to see a movie about the history of the Tennessee whiskey. Then we got on a trolley bus, and after having our tour photo taken, we were led into the compound of the distillery. We were guided from building to building, and our tour guide (William?) told us about the process from spring water to the finished product.
To those of you planning to visit the distillery for a free buzz; you will not get one. The only thing served was a lemonade at the end of the tour. But you will be able to take a deep whiff at one of the stills, near the end of the process (or several whiffs, like some of our tour mates) - and that might make you feel dizzy for a few minutes.
Sniff, sniff..
After checking out the JD Nascar copy they have at the distillery, we drove two blocks down to the JD store right next to the factory. Louis was looking for a shirt he’d seen several other places, and figured he’d find it at the one true Jack Daniel’s store - but no such luck. So he bought a wallet instead (which pleased Selma, who’s been worried that he’d loose his plastic bus card holder that has served as a wallet thus far).
Then we continued towards Nashville. And we hadn’t been long on the road before the rain started pouring down. It wasn’t much to see along the road, and Selma took the opportunity to take a nap - as Louis drove her safely into town (with some help and company from Kitty, that is).
We’ve had so little rain on this trip, that it was worth taking a picture of it
As we got into Nashville, we stopped by a Best Buy store. It was time to erase some photos from the Mac, but paranoid Selma wanted to make sure nothing got lost, and bought a new external hard drive (in addition to, and just like, the one Louis got in Boston).
Then we drove the last miles to our hotel for the night, The Days Inn stadium. It was located ten minutes outside of downtown Nashville, but our seventh floor room had panorama windows with a clear view of the Nashville skyline. We quickly settled in and hailed a cab down to Broadway, where many of the bars and souvenir shops are located. We sat down at Rippy’s, right next to an open window, and as the food got on the table, the rain outside turned from bad to worse. But it was still nice and warm by the window, and we got a few really cool shots of the wet streets of Nashville.
The best thing about the rain: It makes for great reflection shots!
The rain kept us from walking too much around, and probably made the streets emptier than usual. But we got to check out a few of the bars down on Broadway. At The Stage, the band on stage kept the crowd stomping their feet and singing along, and it was fun to observe how the cowboys and cowgals let loose on a Friday night! The singer cracked a few good jokes as well, which made us stay longer than our country tolerance level would normally accept.
But then Louis got hungry for some blues, so we walked a few blocks (in the rain) to check out the B.B. King’s Blues Bar. But what was played in there was nothing like blues, so we didn’t bother to pay the cover charge to enter. Instead, we walked back to Broadway and into a karaoke bar called the Wanna-B’s. Louis figured he had to give the young country-lovin’ punks a history lesson, and got up and sang Sympathy for the Devil by the Rolling Stones. So now he’s been on stage in Nashville - which should compensate for the rehearsal time he’s missed while on this trip.
After setting Nashville straight, our job was done. We got a cab back to our hotel, and jumped to bed.
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