Tuesday, August 13, 2013

2013 Big Truck across the Southeast Day 3

Day 2 and Day 3 blended together thanks to a Blackbean Burger from the Mammoth Cave Coffee Shop.  That sentence probably needs a bit more explanation.  Twice during the night I was jarred awake by some strange goings-on, both times it led to Harry Dunn-esque bowl clutching episodes in the Big Truck bathroom.  One such episode was punctuated by me missing my normal foothold getting down from the overhead bunk and nearly swinging through the windshield.  This also caused enough of a ruckus (Could you describe the ruckus, sir?) to startle Kimberly awake, but I had no time to explain.

After all of this worked itself out, we started to pack up and get ready to hit the road.  Jordan was rocking her best CC Deville while she converted her sand toys into wet gravel toys.

 
While we were cleaning up the campsite, a few flying squirrels were apparently battling to the pain above us, dropping walnuts all around us with frightening accuracy.


 
After the normal pre-flight routine, we were just about ready to leave. Yesterday we learned (quick aside - we are not your typical campground family, you have to pretty much barrel into our campsite in order for us to engage, we prefer privacy to community since we are generally transients.)  that our campsite neighbors were also from Michigan, and actually from about 10 miles away from us.  Good luck on your trip, Joe the Mason & family from Robinson township.
 
As we dumped the tanks and made our way out of the park, we bid adieu to Joe & family and got on the road.  At one of our first real roads outside of Mammoth National Park, we ran into more tobacco fields.  I'm sure these are just like cornfields are to us back home, but they were interesting to us.
 
 


 
The backcountry tobacco fields yielded to some good old interstate, and we starting making decent time, working our way toward Bowling Green and seeing signs for the Corvette Museum of America.  Here is brief summary of our time at the museum.


Sorry, I personally don't have a lot against Corvettes, but I am a MOPAR guy first, Ford second, a lot of things in between, and then a Chevy fan.  I asked Kimberly (fully knowing of her hatred for Corvettes) what she thought of the car, and she replied "I just don't like the new ones." Her definition of new ones is anything built in the past 50 years.  All I could think of when driving past the museum was this, a viable candidate for the worst movie & vehicle of all time (unless you count TV shows, in which StreetHawk has the current claim to fame.)



Again we got to cover some beautiful countryside, and our travels brought us 3 hours south rather quickly to this sign.

 
From there things got good in a hurry.  We showed up at the visitors center, nestled in a very picturesque setting.


 

 
Since we had a participant under 21, we could not take the tasting tour (way to go, Jordan) so we took the general free tour.  Our guide was awesome.  I know a lot of people say that on tours, but Ron (more on him later) was genuinely knowledgeable, interesting, and engaged with our group. Here he is kicking things off (no I didn't do anything wrong to earn the point).
 
 
You can't really tell from the photo (or maybe you can, but that would be a frightening level of inference), but Ron was basically a southern combination of John Goodman,

 
Wilford Brimley,

 
and the Dude

 
Having him give the tour made it that much more enjoyable, and he kept everyone into it even though we all knew it was the 5000th time he's told those same jokes.  We were so impressed we asked for a photo afterward.

 
Most of the tour does not allow cameras, but we did get a few shots where appropriate.  After doing a portion of the Bourbon Trail last fall, some of the tour was a recap of the steps to make whiskey, but the charcoal filtering part was new.  Here's a few shots of Jack (in real life he was 5'2") in various forms of tribute.
 

 

 
And a shot of the safe that ultimately led to Jack Daniel's death.  A pretty interesting story if true, look it up sometime.

 
 
When we finished the tour, we took a quick stroll into the town of Lynchburg to check out the souvenirs and grab some lunch. The town is remarkably dependent upon the distillery, and this is the main merchandise outlet for the Jack Daniel's brand.


 
From there it was back on the road toward Chattanooga, and once we arrived at the campground (just after 7pm eastern, long day), of course the first thing we saw was the playground. In this case, it was very different. We've always avoided the KOAs and Jellystones of the world, as they are usually short on site beauty/maintenance/seclusion and long on congestion and Walmart-ness.  That held true in this case, as this was our first KOA due to shortness of stay (12 hours tops) and proximity to destination (<10 min). Here's what we saw.
 

 
Yes, that's Jordan surveying a giant air-filled trampoline, and only after she ran out on it did we realize it had just rained.  She got after it, and after about a half hour of jumping, sliding, and Elaine Benes-like dance routines, she finally had her fill.

 

 
Tomorrow brings the Tennessee Aquarium, and I'm not sure which one of us is more excited. Til then, I present without comment a warning icon that was printed on the side of said air-filled trampoline.
 

 

 

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