Lynchburg, TN is known for the Jack Daniel's Whisky that has been made there FOREVER. And, the folks in Lynchburg are darn proud of it. Lynchburg is a very tiny town....the signs say the population is 361, but one of the townfolk told us it's more like 500. I guess there's been a big population increase since those signs were made.
We spent the day in Lynchburg with the Riordan/Rices of Tennessee fame. Carol and Melissa, Michael, Colleen, Jack and Nicholas & Corey, Cherie and Emily. Carol's friend, Jerry, joined us as well. Unfortunately, Thomas (Melissa's fiancee) was not able to join us. We had a lot of fun looking at some of the little stores and seeing the variety of products that are flavored with their local product....Jack bought some of their honey and whisky flavored beef jerky (which may sound kind of odd....but tastes quite good....if'n you like beef jerky).
Cherie had arranged for all of us to have lunch at Miss Mary Bobo's Boarding House. Meals are served family style and you get what has been made for the day....no menu ordering here. We had country fried chicken, meatloaf, macaroni & cheese, fried okra (one of Mom W's personal favorites), green beans, corn bread, creamed corn, cole slaw, "special" apples made with the town's "special" ingredient, and a brownie dessert that also had that "special" ingredient (just for flavoring, of course). It was a whole lot of good food and a whole lot of good company. The boarding house has been in existence since 1908, but has been a restaurant only for quite awhile. Miss Bobo's was lots of fun.
After our lunch, we headed out for THE distillery. In Lynchburg, there is only one and they get visitors from all over the world. Corey & Cherie took all the young'uns home and the rest of us adults went on the tour. The outside of the distillery has some gorgeous flowers. We saw the whole process that makes Jack Daniels Whisky the best in the world (our tour guide, Jesse James, told us and therefore it is God's honest truth that this is the best whisky in the world.) I know for sure that my Jack definitely likes Lynchburg's Jack. (And, so does his brother, Dick!)
When we started the tour, Mom W and Dad R were sitting in the front row of the little theatre. At 86 and 82 years of age, they were the senior members of our tour group, as you can imagine. Mom was certain that Jesse was looking right at her when he was talking about the 3/4 mile tour route and the 100 steps that were on the tour. She felt that he didn't think she could make it all the way without some sort of rescue operation.....but, she and Dad showed us all that they are pretty tough. The 100 steps were both up and down and were spaced out over the length of the tour.....so, we all did just fine......except for the one room that was really, really warm with high humidity....the tour almost lost me in that room!
In particular, Mom really liked the part of the tour when the vat lids were lifted and we got to smell the whisky when it was going thru the charcoal filtering process. She also really liked the part where you got to smell the fermenting process. (If you know Mom....you know that I am greatly exaggerating....the truth is that she thought the distillery tour was probably the worst thing she's ever done in her whole life. And, with 8 children, you can imagine that she's probably done some really disgusting things in her life.....anyway, this was definitely not her thing and she has a hard time understanding why the rest of us really enjoyed it so much!) We really did enjoy the tour and to make it even more memorable, there was a tornado alert at the end of the tour in our honor....well, not in our honor, but there was definitely a tornado alert.
The tornado alert siren sounded just as we were getting ready to head to our cars. So, instead of leaving, we were ushered into the little theatre where we sat out the storm until the "all clear" was given. We spent the time texting and chatting....I guess we could have been stuck at some less interesting spot, and we were quite hopeful, but the Jack Daniels folks didn't even offer to open up one of their barrels or bottles to calm our nerves (even though Dad did suggest that to them at least twice!). All kidding aside, some folks did lose their lives in the heavy storms that this region has been experiencing over the last week or so. We heard the tornado siren in Tupelo, MS, then in Lynchburg, TN and again that same day when we arrived at Cherie and Corey's home in Tullahoma, TN. We experienced nothing but very heavy rain and some wind....and for that we are very thankful.
Speaking of Corey and Cherie's house....it is a very nice house in a nice area and has a large lush backyard. We really enjoyed the opportunity to see where they live. Emily's room has lots of horse decor....I think Mary and her daughter, Danielle, in Gilbert, AZ would enjoy chatting with Emily. They definitely all share the same passion for horses.
2 comments:
Was the last photo from when you were waiting out the tornado? If so, why weren't you under the bench? lol
I loved Miss Bobo's too, when we were there years ago. Funny how you filled up the whole table.
Yes...the last picture was taken at the Jack Daniel's Theatre during the tornado warning. No one was nervous, but we did take shelter with the workers who were on the premises...we were almost the last tour group of the day, so not many visitors around then.
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