Alone in the Wilderness

RV park, that is. We're at the Lynchburg Wilderness RV Park. The only other units parked here belong to a couple of the guys working here. They tell us that last weekend it was full because of the barbeque at the distillery. Maybe. The sites are full hookup but my sewer connection is above me so I'd have to dump uphill. I could use about twice the blocks I have for leveling. It rained all day getting here and its rained ever since we got here. But that didn't stop us.

We visited the Jack Daniels Distillery this afternoon. This is a view of a bronze statue of JD standing in front of the spring where they get the water for brewing. It's limestone filtered and has no iron, that's what makes it so good. We had our own tour guide and shuttle bus with lift, just like at Graceland. We were the only ones on our tour and we had a great gal as a guide. She took us through the whole process and most of the buildings. This is a dry county, but a few years back they got an ordinance passed allowing them to sell JD in commemorative decanters. At the bar, you can have all the lemonade you want.

The thing that makes Tennessee whiskey different from regular bourbon is the fact that it is charcoal filtered. They make there own charcoal right here using only hard sugar maple lumber. They also make their own barrels out of white oak, but that's done in St. Louis. Each barrel is used only once, then they are sold to various businesses, mostly wineries. I saw them for sale in the barrel shop for anywhere from $85 up to $175 for a varnished one.

She said that about 60% of the price of a bottle of whiskey is taxes. We contributed. Here, Diane is clutching our bottle.

One of the interesting things about the distillery is that they let the town merchants handle the souvenirs, none are sold at the tour. So, of course, we had to see what they had. Diane got another cookbook and I got a T-shirt. I also got a bottle opener I've been looking for to install in the camper.

They pulled the sidewalks in at about 4:30 so we were left with coming back to camp and cooking hot dogs. I think we're going to pull up stakes tomorrow and move to Chattanooga. We're supposed to get a break in the weather for a couple of days and we want to take the river excursion that the aquarium offers.