Chris and April's Excellent Adventure

Cue the air guitars! Ok, enough Bill and Ted. As you should know by now, April had some time off from work so we did some vacationy things this week. Our first trip was to the Jack Daniel's Distillery in Lynchburg, TN. This picture is lifesize of Mr. Jack, only he is about 4 inches off the ground here. Yup, April is the taller (and prettier!) of the two. The picture of the statue I am standing next to that she posted is about 6-7 inches taller than he really is. He was only 5'2".



Legend has it that in a bout of frustration at not being able to open this safe, Mr. Jack gave it a mighty kick (it still didn't open) and broke some toes. He wound up with Gangrene as a result and lost his left leg up to the knee! He actually wound up dying from complications from this injury some years later. Here's Fearless Leader tempting fate with a kick of her own.




On the tour they show you how they make the charcoal they use to filter the whiskey, and here is the raw whiskey dripping out of these tubes and draining down (about 2 stories) through the charcoal. They use 180 proof whiskey (that's 90% alcohol) to light the wood to make the charcoal. They leave it outside to cure, and they say that no matter how wet it gets, that still lights it right off. I'd be inclined to believe that!




This was taken inside of the barrel houses where they store the whiskey while it cures. I believe they said they have something like 70+ of these things spread out around the surrounding countryside. In the 'good ole days' they would actually rent employee's and local farmer's barns to store the whiskey in! There's no way you could get away with something like that these days.



Way up in the background that whiteish building is a barrel house. I bet the view from up there is phenominal. They leave the barrels in there for at least 4 years before they test it to see if it is ready. Also, most of the barrel houses are 7 stories, though no one knows why, and it seems to be co-incidental (BTW, J.D. is known as 'old no. 7, and no one knows why that is either, so maybe that was Mr. Jack's lucky number or something. There are all kinds of theories and rumors, but no one knows the real reason.)



We also saw the official Jack Daniels Fire Trucks. They used to rely on these for all their fire protection needs. There are two trucks here, and the one on the other side is actually an R.E.O. Speedwagon. I had no clue that's where the band got their name from (that is according to the tour guide, that they took their name from the automanufacturer).



Yesterday we went to a local park (Chickasaw Trace) and did a little splashing around in the creek. The water was very low for the most part since we haven't had any rain. There were even a few parts that were a bit stagnant, so we tried to go around them (the water was low enough in some sections that it didn't really flow much, or maybe one side flowed and the other was dammed up).





We had a great time, and Shiloh always likes splashing around. The first few times she really didn't care for it, but yesterday she was gung-ho. She was splashing around and jumping off rocks into the deeper parts. The biggest problem is that she has to stay on a leash, so she and I are tied together. She would navigate a tricky spot, then while I was trying to scramble over moss covered rocks or wade a deep part she would make it to terra firma and take off! She nearly toppled me once or twice.

As she got a little more tired, she took it easier on me, and I was grateful for that. We finally reached a point that was knee deep on me, and that was far enough. Shiloh was already swimming to the next part, and I didn't know how much deeper it was going to get (it was 50 feet or so to the next shallow part that we could see) and I wasn't comfortable trying to swim and hold on to her (the leash is one of those retractable deals, and I was concerned about it getting tangled or her getting into trouble and me having to deal with it without being able to stand). Plus I had car keys and April had her camera, so we didn't really want to go swimming if we could help it!

Unfortunately April isn't feeling well today, she got sick to her stomach last night and didn't get any sleep, and is still feeling pretty poorly now, so the canoe trip we had talked about for today has been cancelled. We weren't sure we were going to go anyhow, since it has been so dry and I didn't feel like carrying a conoe for 5 miles! I have to work tomorrow, so this may be a rather anti-climatic end to her vacation, but I think she had fun. I'm sure she'll blog more later.

Talk to everyone later, be sure to share any summertime adventures you have as well!