Day 23

 Day 23-Thursday, May 13

Woke up to a chilly 51°F inside our van, so we activated the remote starter from our sleeping bags to warm things up. 

We left the campground around 8:30 AM, and headed north along the Tennessee River to the nearby town of Savanah, where Grant located his headquarters when he arrived in the area.  This house still stands, although it is a private residence, and not available for tours.  When the Confederates attacked the Union troops on April 6, Grant was having breakfast at this home.   An interesting piece of trivia, Roots author Alex Haley’s grandparents were slaves at this home, which was owned by William Cherry, who the ferry operator.

 

Savanah was a charming town that was mostly destroyed during the Civil war, however a few charming homes remain. 

After hearing about the gas shortage in the Southeast that was caused by some hackers, we decided to fill up our van in Savanah despite eventhough we still had half a tank remaining.  The gas station where we stopped was sold out of 87 and 89 octane, so we had to fill up with “super”.  Hopefully we won’t have more problems during our last week of traveling, we still have a lot of miles to go.

 Our big destination for today was Lynchburg and the Jack Daniel distillery.  I’m not a big Jack drinker, but having developed an taste for Scotch, and having visited several distilleries in Scotland we thought it would be fun to compare.  The town is small, and has a Disney World feel to it, with every shop and restaurant displaying a Jack Daniel’s theme.  One shop even sold souvenirs with Confederate flags and stickers, but after our two hour “Angels’ Tour” of the distillery we were thoroughly charmed.  The distillery offers three types of tours, but only on the “Angels’ Tour” are you allowed to sample the whiskey.   

 

This is where they make the charcoal used to filter the whiskey.  The stacks of wood, sugar maple,, on the right of this photo are each aged outdoors for a year before burning, and after burned for a while are doused in whiskey to put out the flames!

The cave spring which is the source of the magical water used.

One of the many buildings where 20,000 barrels of Jack are stored for 4-7 years before being bottle.

I just deleted the photo of our tour guide posing next to a statue of Jack Daniel.  In my photo the tour guide was displaying a white supremacy hand sign, a disgusting gesture that I will bring to the attention of the distillery.

Leaving Jack with smiles on our faces, we headed to our campsite for the night at Tims Ford State Park which is located on the Tims Ford reservoir on the Cumberland Plateau in south central Tennessee.  Although the campground was not as new as the one at Pickwick Dam, it was very nice clean and quiet.  

 

Our dinner menu tonight will include hot dogs, baked beans, sweat potato casserole, and probably a little Jack to go along with the Moon pies that we purchased in Lynchburg.