Had to be done. Lynchburg, somewhat unbelievably in the dry county of Moore, was just too close to ignore. Well that and the extortionate price of hotels in Nashville!
So a night out in Shelbyville, TN and an afternoon visiting the Jack Daniel's distillery were called for.
Jack (or as it turns out, Jasper) was very welcoming and interesting - especially as represented by our slightly insane guide, Kyle. Don't let him have your phone!
They distil, bottle and ship all the JD made all over the world from here. And it is a mighty amount of whiskey they make. Absolutely no idea how much but the only pertinent fact I remember is that they have about 100 barrel houses, each holding thousands of barrels! So quite a lot. A small Scottish, single malt distillery it isn't! Of course they make it with corn, rye and barley - which is why it tastes like s***. 😉
And he really was called Jasper Daniel. Doesn't have the same ring does it. Apparently he hated the name so just changed it to Jack. And the rest as they say is history. Jasper and Coke just doesn't really work!
Oh, and he died from gangrene after kicking his safe he couldn't open, breaking his toe and failing to seek medical attention. Lesson there for us men!
As with all whisk(e)y, it's all in the water, and Jack still gets it's from the Cave Spring as it always has. To overcome the lack of peat, that flavours the best Scotch, they pass it through charcoal. They call that "developing the nose" here. We call it cheating 😉🤣
Amazing what you can learn in one afternoon. It was a great visit, but Lynchburg is basically a distillery with a town square.
There was no accommodation so we had to head back up the road half an hour to find cheap lodgings in the unremarkable Shelbyville. Unremarkable other than having the largest laundrette in the known world!
And a place where a complete eejet can queue for a drive through coffee - on foot!
Oh, and in last night's bar we got ID'd! I thought she was kidding but she was serious! Then she recorded Nareesa's age as 67! Did she look at her? Made my night!
Well, that's all for now. Tonight we will be in Nashville, exploring the country music scene and paying homage to Johnny Cash. We have booked for the Grand Ole Opry for our last night tomorrow. There will be a report on Nashville and our personal meeting with Dolly Parton on Monday sometime. Then we will be on our way home.
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