Driving south from big city Nashville, Julie and I were on a mission. Having stopped at a few places on the Kentucky bourbon trail we wanted to see what Tennessee had to offer. So we were off to Tennessee’s most famous distillery, Jack Daniels. As it was a beautiful day we decided to forgo the highway and take the back roads. We passed by rolling hills, farms big and small as well as a few small towns that dotted the landscape. As we had not yet been to any Tennessee BBQ spots we stopped in the small town of Shelbyville at Uncle Sonny’s Bar-B-Que. When I think about BBQ, Uncle Sonny’s is exactly what I picture: small town, locally owned and only one in existence. We walked in looking like quite the outsiders compared to most of the other patrons wearing overalls and looking like they had just come in from a morning on their tractors in the fields. Besides a few looks we were asked the same “What are ya’ll havin?” and sat down to a great lunch.
From Shelbyville it wasn’t a long drive to the home of Jack Daniels in Lynchburg. Having already been to 4 of the larger bourbon distilleries in Kentucky we felt like the Jack Daniels distillery wasn’t going to be much different. We were wrong. Driving up to the distillery it seemed like it was almost Disneyfied. Trees, grass and the entire landscape were manicured perfectly. We parked in their large parking lot and walked across the street through their small forest to the visitor’s center. Going into this we knew that the distillery was located in a dry county but thought that this law probably didn’t apply to the state’s largest distillery. We were right and wrong on this. We found out that they had multiple tours that you could take with only a few of them (aka the more expensive ones) having tastings on the tours. As it was getting later on in the day and the tasting tours were sold out for hours Julie and I decided to walk around what we could of the property ourselves then walk around the town.
We walked through the small forest on the property that led to the town. Lynchburg reminded us of a few of the small towns in the Black Hills in South Dakota. The town was made up of 1 square with shops on the inside and outside of the square with a boardwalk for the most part as the sidewalk. We were not sure if it was built to resemble a western style town or if this is just how it was here. Half the stores it seemed were owned by Jack Daniels themselves with the rest selling tourist souvenirs as well as motorcycle clothing. While the town was quaint in its own way it really was not what we were expecting after touring the bourbon areas in Kentucky. After buying a small trinket to remember our time we were off to Tennessee’s fourth largest town of Chattanooga.
The drive into the Chattanooga area was beautiful. We went from the rolling hills on the western edge of the Appalachian Mountains into the mountain chain itself. While there were no tall mountain peeks the hills were large enough that you could not see past the one directly in front of you. Our campground was actually located in Georgia as Chattanooga is almost directly on the TN/GA border. We checked in, set up camp and made a delicious dinner.
The next morning we woke up ready to go explore the city. After breakfast we hit the road, driving into the city and finding parking. Chattanooga was immediately prettier than we had imagined. The city was very hilly with small mountains surrounding and the Tennessee River running through it. Walking around we could tell that people loved their city. Buildings were beautiful with everything nicely maintained. After doing a little research we found out that revitalization projects had been going on from the early 1990’s with today over 5 billion being invested into the downtown area.
From our parking spot we walked cross the pedestrian bridge to the North Shore neighborhood and had a great lunch at Basecamp Bar & Restaurant. We then walked around the neighborhood stopping in a few of the funky shops browsing and having fun. We then walked back across the bridge to the Bluff View Art District and checked out their sculpture garden. This was pretty neat as it was located on a bluff, which overlooked the river far below. It was quite peaceful. We then walked next door to Rembrandt’s Coffee House, where we sipped on a coffee and watched the river down below. It turned out to be a great day in a small city.
Getting back to our campground we were in for a bit of a surprise. Even though it was a few days before Halloween, this KOA was celebrating it early. Almost every RV had decorated their spot and entire families were dressed up. We were totally unprepared. As I set up camp Julie walked down to the camp store to see what kind of candy that we could buy for the kids trick or treating. Julie was able to buy a few bags of assorted candy and the campground owner also gave us a few on the house as they didn’t want us to run out. We thought this was very thoughtful and just one of the reasons why we love staying at KOA’s.
While I grilled up dinner Julie sat outside Bubbles while we played “Monster Mash” as kids came up for some candy. As we talked to different families who had dressed up we found out that this campground had put this on for years and most of the people involved came back year after year to partake. It was a seemingly random event and we had tons of fun with it.
The next day we packed up and we were off. Tennessee was a bit chilly for us and we needed to go south. We hopped on I-75 south and drove through Atlanta, Macon and across the Florida border eventually reaching Ocala for the night. It was nice to be back with the palm trees in the Sunshine State!
Next up….Best of Lists, Our Winter in Tampa and a Surprise for the Summer of 2019!
