A week in Tennessee - "playing by ear"

    

I know, wrong state but read on!

   

    Sue and I like to play things by ear.  When we travel just to get away it's often by throwing a dart at the map or picking a direction.   These little jaunts often lead to adventures, such as exploring near by Oil City for example.  However these short jaunts into the unknown only recharge our batteries.  Neither Sue or myself has had a proper vacation in some time.   

    So given the opportunity to visit friends in the Great state of Tennessee, we took full advantage of it, and flew by the seat of our pants southward with no plan in mind.

    Our pants were ripped and torn however and our bums were left flapping in the wind by the end of the trip.

 
    My buddy Tim is an old friend form High School.  We grew apart over time but started to reconnect over the last few years.  He owns eight (8) acres of land outside of Shelbyville, TN.   He owns several horses, a goat, chickens, has a fish pond,etc.

    I wanted to pick his brain about owning a homestead, I wanted to help feed the animals and talk to him about some of the challenges he faced.  Sadly I was unable to do that as a plumbing problem, which started due to an error on his part, ate up one of his days and when we were able to get together, it was only for a couple of hours where the topics were on everything but his experience as a homesteader.  

    We also went to Tennessee to visit friends of ours from Florida that had moved there and to spend time with their three kids, who we considered our grand kids even though their is no blood between us.  The middle one, Brian, got ill on our second day there.  So ill in fact that he required an overnight hospital stay and we knew that his Mom and Dad wanted to spend time with him.  As indeed they should.  

    He was released the next day and went back to making his older sister's life a living hell. 

    Susan got all bit up by some sort of bug, at first we were concerned about bed bugs but we slept in the same bed and I didn't have nay insect bites at all on me.   Sadly she had over a dozen on her body that itched and bothered her for two days straight.   Only now is she feeling better. 

    In a way it seemed like the entire state was acting against us.

    However, as we drove through the Kentucky and Tennessee wilds only one word kept entering my head.  Idyllic 

    How do you describe lush fields that roll on forever?   How the sky reaches down to stroke the curves of tree lined mountains?

    I am not a poet.   I will not try to find the words.  Sadly even every picture that we took really fails to describe the beauty of that land as nearly every photo we took came out blurry, out of focus or somehow "not up to par."  Sadly I am not joking. 

    So I have to resort to stock photo's to make my point about the pure beauty of the land.  Every mile traveled showed us more wonders.

    Not that the trip was a total waste.  We were able to spend some time exploring the Cumberland Caverns, which is a privately owned cave system.  It's unique in that it hosts various concerts in "the Volcano room" during the year as well as other events.  Up to 900 people can easily fit in this natural ballroom which could easily hold three football fields.   It even has a chandelier saved from the wrecking ball in the 1930's.

    While I am sure there are bigger and more beautiful cave systems, this one seemed to have a special charm as stories were told about how each step in one section of the cave (over 1500) was hand carved, or how it managed to stay in private hands for over 100 years.  Even our young tour guide had a enthusiasm for the cave that was sincere.

    Since we were in the area we also visited the Jack Danial's distillery in Lynchburg.  Honestly this was more of a tourist trap than anything.   Perhaps it was due to Covid or other reasons but the tour did little to educate and skipped parts like bottling and how the famous white oak casks were made.  

     For us both, the most interesting part of Lynchburg was the Moore Country Old Jail and Museum.   

    This Museum works on donations only and is currently being renovated, but what interested me about it was  how it was integrated into the sheriff's house.  In the back of the home there were two jail cells, dedicated to women.  On the second floor, which consisted of several inches of concrete floor was the men's section.  These cells supposedly held the famous Jesse James at one time and you can see his name carved into a wall.

    Sue pointed out to me that the living quarters did not have bathrooms, but plumbing was available to the inmates! Now that is a mystery that we should have asked about!

    A trip to the Uncle Nearest Distillery done on a whim proved to be interesting as they concentrated on the contribution of Women and African Americans to whiskey making and the state of Tennessee.  Nathan "Nearest" Green was a former slave who became friends with Jack Danial's and was his first Master Distiller.  Which, given the time and place, was unusual.

    The ironic thing is that neither Sue or myself are whiskey drinkers.   

Mural outside of Nearest Green

    We ate breakfast twice at a wonderful hidden gem called the Cumberland Biscuit Company, which had food so good that they deserve a shout out at least! 
  

    Overall the trip was not a bad one, as we were able to decompress and actually relax.  This was the first time in years where we did not rush back and forth between our old home in Florida and Western PA  This was our first trip in sometime where every hour of the day was not taken up by friends, family and things that had to be done (such as looking to buy a home).. 

    Sue and I are thinking that a trip back to the area might be in order come November.  However this time we have have destinations in mind, for there is a lot to do in the Nashville area.  As we learned on this trip, sometimes playing it by ear can lead to rough notes