Departing the Trace and Visiting Jack Daniel's Distillery

This entry is for Saturday, 21 May 2011:

Paul commented today that he thought we were a little light visiting Dairy Queens on this trip. We agree and decided to do something about it as you can see in the first photo.

Today's ride was 375 miles in total. We finished riding the Natchez Trace in the morning taking it from Tupelo to Route 412 in Gordonsburg. This point of departure was about 13o miles north of Tupelo but about 52 miles before its end point near Nashville. The stops we made today on the trace were a bust in that there was nothing really to see. For example, we stopped at the Napier Open Pit Mine stop and found a hole in the ground with large trees growing withing...not much to see. We departed at Rt. 412 to make a loop to the south and east to go to the Jack Daniel's Distillery located in Lynchburg, TN. After the JDD tour, we looped back up to the north and west on different secondary routes to end up in Clarksville, TN adjacent to the Cumberland River for the night. Clarksville is located to the north and west of Nashville.

Highlights for the day included the following:

The Jack Daniel's Distillery tour. See photos of facility and Gerry and I at Jack's statue.

Enjoyed local cuisine at both lunch and dinner today. Had lunch at Stan's Restaurant in Columbia, TN on route to the distillery. Enjoyed a great grilled chicken (southern style) salad with my favorite red french dressing. This was followed by some outstanding home made banana pudding. Dinner was at the Catfish House in Clarksville. Had the combo of grilled catfish and fried shrimp. Very good. Finished this off with a stop at DQ as noted above.

Tomorrow's ride will take us over the "Trace Road" that goes through the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area located a short distance west and north of Clarksville. Thereafter, we plan to visit the Maker's Mark Distillery in Loretto, TN.