From Rock'n'Roll to Creole Sept 17: Day 8: Jack Daniel Distillery Lynchburg and Skulls Nashville

[WileyCoyote]

Yesterday was , Civil Rights museum Memphis and arriving in Nashville

Sunday 17 September

The original plan for today had been sightseeing around Nashville and spend tomorrow at the Jack Daniel Distillery.

We decided that it was perhaps not the best idea to do the 160 mile round trip tomorrow and put ourselves under pressure to be back in time for our flight to New Orleans

Unfortunately, that meant no trip to see a local church service followed by brunch and also meant that the distillery wouldn’t be “working” but we could still take a tour.

The day didn’t get off to a great start when Andy checked our FairFX account to find that the hotel in Little Rock had taken an additional $320 charge from our card - which was a complete mystery as had paid on departure and had our receipt.

We could not see what the charge would be for and I immediately panicked that I had forgotten to make a room cancellation when we changed our days around – but after numerous checks, I couldn’t see that we had any un-cancelled bookings.

Being a Sunday, of course there was no one who could help us:angry: but the reception team promised us they would pass the details on and that someone would call us back the next day – we made the point that we now had $300 we couldn’t access during our holiday so it was more than just a bit inconvenient .

Stay tuned, it was a longer running saga than EastEnders

All this kerfuffle meant that we were quite late getting to breakfast – but we did meet a couple from Newcastle who had just left the Smokies and were on their way to Memphis so we swopped a few stories – they were the first British holidaymakers that we had come across in any of the hotels so far

Breakfast was fine at the hotel, a range of hot items, warm cinnamon rolls and usual cereals and pastries

We were on our way to Lynchburg around 0930 – its an 80 mile trip from Nashville

At the entrance to the car park we were handed a leaflet which helpfully reminded me you cant take large bags in

Which meant my bag and ipad stayed in the car and I spent the tour wondering if it would be well fried when I returned.

There are some lockers in the reception building but they are not huge and I didn’t know they were there .. so tip tips for here – take ID ( no ID, no drinking tour) and don’t take a bag !

We were soon parked up and walking across the road to the visitor centre where we spent so long dithering about which tour to take that we just missed a slot on the 1130 and had to wait till 12 for the next Flight of Jack Tour.

Which re inforced what a good idea it had been to come today and not be stressing about how long it all takes.

We spent some time looking at the exhibits

There were lots of helpful explanation boards which meant we had read a bit before the tour and it made a lot more sense

We still had about 10 minutes before the tour start time so sat outside in the rocking chairs

and got chatting to a chap who was a coach driver , always interesting to get the locals view on life , politics and the best JD to try ! He was a lovely chap and we enjoyed a natter with him.

By now it was really busy with coach parties arriving and we were glad that we had already got ourselves booked on a tour as they are limited to around 25 people per session

After the obligatory green screen photo we boarded a mini bus and were on our way out to start the tour.

With it being a Sunday, there was no actual work going on today which was a shame but did mean it was quieter looking around.

First stop was where the stacks were normally burned

We learned about how the storage is all up in the hills and the barrel houses are a good distance away from each other so that in the event of a forest fire as much could be preserved as possible - I cant recall how many millions of dollars of booze was stored per barrel house but it was shed loads !

Then we headed down to the spring, which is the reason the Distillery is here , the spring water - it was chosen specifically for this spring and is why its never moved.

It was right around here that I got bitten on the hand by some nasty beastie - you could see loads of midge like insects around the spring and one of them damn well gnashed me !

The next stop was a cottage where they talked about the Daniel family history and the story that JD learned his skill from the pastor's slave .

Also that he himself never had a family and the business passed on to one of his closest business associates but that even today they very much see themselves as all part of an extended "family".

And the final story that JD himself died of blood poisoning from kicking the door to his safe and cutting his foot ... the moral here being write down the code and don't get in to work so early that there is no one there to help you. Who knows if its true but it made for an entertaining yarn

Then we were off to see the stills – it was limited where you could take pics inside the building but we saw one of the enormous copper stills that had been brought out for cleaning on the way in

The smell inside the distilling buildings is so intense - the fermenting vats are so huge and there are rows and rows of them, it was quite an incredible sight

After getting nose drunk on the vat fumes we then ended up in the bottling room - we learned all about how the position of the barrels and where they are stored in the big sheds determined what flavour they would be - basically how much light or warmth they got from the sunlight.

[WileyCoyote]

And then we were in the Barrel House for our tasting

In the tasting room there is a flight of various JDs to try out and the guide talked us through them all

The guide sheet tells you about each one and then on the back you get to make your own notes

Not being a JD drinker most of my notes had a face like this

Andy did actually take some deeply unflattering photos of me trying these drinks out, I'm surprised he didn't choke on his own drink he was laughing so much at me

I did like the Cinnamon one though so we bought a bottle of that at the airport on the way home.

Of course no trip to any establishment is complete without finishing up in the gift shop

We bought a bottle of White Rabbit

I'm sure they said this one is only for sale within the state of Tennessee which is why we chose it.

A few pics outside and then we drove to Lynchburg for a quick wander in the stores

The Dixie Outfitters was a certainly an “interesting” store if you wanted to buy confederate items ..

We bought a few things in the JD store, some of the items made out of the old barrels were fantastic but far too heavy and big for us to bring back. Just had to make do with a magnet and shot glasses !

Lunch was at the BBQ Caboose Café . We were seated in the VIP booth

We shared a Smokin sampler platter. It had pulled pork, ribs, smoked sausage and jambalaya. We had baked beans and red beans and rice as sides. Drinks were a Pepsi and a water.

It was delicious. The sausages were spicy little blighters that had us reaching for the iced water !

I had the fudge pie for dessert .. Like a warm mississippi mud pie.

It was a pay at the counter place so no receipt. I know it was less than $30 but can't remember the exact total.

Bellies full, we set off back to the hotel, taking in the local scenery

We were back in Nashville around 3pm.

It had definitely been a good idea to do this today, we would have put ourselves under all sorts of pressure if we had left it to tomorrow. It was certainly a much longer outing than we had expected .

We had a look at the local sights, including the Dukes of Hazard General Lee car, and the Troubadour Theatre ( see CrispyA ‘s trippy for their trip to a church service there )

The hotel had a great shuttle service into the centre of the city – it was $10 pp and you simply had to book yourself on at the hotel and then just be at the designated pick up point at whatever return time you wanted .

We had a reservation for 7pm at Skulls so booked ourselves onto the 6pm bus and had a couple of hours chilling out – which of course meant I did more re shuffling of the packing cubes before making use of the Bath and Body Works goodies !

The bus was prompt and dropped us off at the convention centre near the Ryman by 6.20 so we had a wander round Broadway – we were hoping to pop into one of the bars but again they were heaving and really loud so in the end we just wandered around for a bit and decided to arrive early at Skulls

We had a reservation at Skulls Rainbow Room at Printers Alley

Really busy place, definitely needed to book in advance

Cool interior

I had a rainbow room cocktail

And the menu

We shared the crab cakes to start

Andy went for Prime Rib with Mash

I had the Beef en Croute with mash

We had a glass of wine each. I had the cake in a jar for dessert

It was like a deconstructed almond and strawberry shortcake

And it was complimentary for my birthday

$142 bill which we felt was pretty good given it included the cocktail and wines. That may be why this pic is out of focus.

The food was fabulous and the service excellent. Super cool place.

We were full and a bit tired.

During dinner I had been keeping an eye out for our OLCI slot to open up for our flight tomorrow and even with pressing the check in button milliseconds after our slot opened, we managed to end up being in one of the last boarding slots – I guess everyone else paid the $8 fee to get early boarding access … didn’t feel worth it to us.
So we will just have to see if its better than Delta or not !

Rainbows is famous for its burlesque show but it was a while until that was due to start and we weren’t feeling any great desire to go back out onto Broadway so we decided to have a last look around and head back to pick up the 8.30 shuttle to the hotel.

I know, feeble lightweights.

The " just turn up" for the return bus was great in theory but as no pre booking, we did wonder how they knew how many people would be at the stop and it was one of those dodgy queues where you have to work out who arrived after you in order to form an orderly queue, you know when everyone just starts edging forward a bit when they see the bus appear – except those late people who then just barge in and cause a bit of a rumpus ...

We did get on and were back at the hotel before 9. We finished up the packing in readiness for the last day and move on the New Orleans – which we were very much looking forward to by now.

Miles travelled today : 175

Tomorrow is Downtown Nashville and Hello to New Orleans

[Pussycat Doll]

Lovely day, you packed loads in! Food looks lovely as always!

[Goldia]

It does seem like it was a good idea to rearrange the itinerary. The tour of the Jack Daniels distillery sounds really interesting. You must have been worn out by now though, I wonder if/when you are going to have a 'rest day'!

[yellowrose78]

Another brilliant day

[Redrach1903]

JD distillery looks really good!

Your meal at Skulls looked lovely!

Aww shame you didn’t give Broadway a go! You’d have had so much fun! Xx

[neilhd]

I cant recall how many millions of dollars of booze was stored per barrel house but it was shed loads

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I see what you did there

I like the picture of both of you on the big chair, Andy looks like your ventriloquist's dummy!

The tour looks great. Both my kids have the initials "JD". Another place to add to my "copy Amanda's holiday one day" plan.

[Melbatb]

Another interesting day! Your food looks fab too!

I hope you managed to sort out the charge on your card - that would have bugged the heck out of me

[CrispyA]

Another busy day and Skulls sounds great. Glad you enjoyed your trip to Lynchburg - we have a 'giant chair' picture too!

[i love jack]

Sounds like a really interesting day, did they not offer a bit of coke or lemonade to try the jd with
That prime rib looks immense, I might go for that tonight