Sweet Home Alabama...Or is it?

Late last night we rolled into this Alabama campground...

Ummm, a swampy, kinda creepy, kinda odd, sort of place. I don't want to say it's backwoods but I swear I could hear a banjo warming up. You could practically feel eyes watching us from behind closed blinds!

Gulf Coast, Here We Come!

It's moving day. Time to head for warmer climates! We're done with Nashville for this trip. Next up, Alabama for a couple days then it's Florida for the month of January.

Laundry Day and a New Phone!

Not much happening today. We are changing locations tomorrow so we decided to take care of some housekeeping chores and do laundry today. Also, I decided we need a US cellphone. There’s been times I’ve wanted to make calls down here but it’s too expensive to use my Bell phone. I had inquired on US plans before we left home but my Samsung smartphone isn’t compatible. I’ve been hearing about a carrier called MetroPCS and their prepaid, unlimited phone deals. So I took a drive over to their nearby store. Yup, I scored a great deal! I did go with a prepaid bundle – a Samsung J3 (I do like Samsung) smartphone. For $50 I get 30 days of unlimited talk, text and data. No term. No commitment. No contract. AND that includes the phone. I can deactivate and reactivate whenever I want! Can’t beat that with a stick!

Spending Time With Jack!

Had fun today! Drove to Lynchburg, TN, went on a guided tour of the Jack Daniel's Distillery then walked around historic Lynchburg. Very cool!

Our tour guide was Chad, informative, charming and funny!

The story of the Jack Daniels Distillery is fascinating...
Jack's mother passed away when he was two and a couple years later, his father remarried. Little Jack didn't take it lightly, now with 12 brothers and sisters, he was a neglected child. So he ran away, all the way to a neighbour's farm. Eventually he was taken in by one of the communities leaders, the local preacher Dan Coll. He owned a still and was in need of an apprentice. Not only did Jack find a home, but also a trade. Jack grew up working for Coll and learned all there was to know about the art of distilling whiskey.
In 1863 Coll sold the still to Jack who was a mere 13 years old. In 1866 Jack registered his distillery making it the oldest in the U.S. Sometime later, looking for a reliable source of good water, Jack decided on the Cave Springs area. The Cave spring's water was cool, clear, and free of iron. Jack wanted fresh water with a minimum of undesirable impurities that could ruin whiskey. He found it and relocated his distillery. To this day, Cave Spring still supplies water to the distillery.
Jack passed away at the age of 61 from complications of gangrene. Jack had no wife or children, leaving the distillery to be handed down to his nephew, Lem. Lem continued to operate the distillery in much the same way as Jack did.

Exploring Nashville

Headed into Nashville today and explored downtown...walked Broadway where you have bars and honky tonks as far as the eye can see!

Found the Ryman auditorium, Wildhorse Saloon, BB King's jazz club and other well-known landmarks.

Stopped into Hattie B's to get some of their famous Nashville Hot Chicken for supper! It was delicious and I might add, aptly named...it was hot, and I had only ordered the medium heat!

Christmas Lights Galore!

We spotted a large Christmas light display over at the Gaylord Entertainment complex, so we jumped in the truck and drove over. Ended up spending a couple hours wandering around the grounds of Nashville's magnificent Opryland Hotel. Amazing light display.

We tried to get some pics but the best we could do was capture just a small fraction of the millions of lights that are on display!

Merry Christmas!

We decided this is a good day for some down time.
Merry Christmas everyone!