Our plan was to take the Natchez Trace Parkway south from Tennessee. First, though, Dick wanted to tour the Jack Daniel’s Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee, so we made reservations at David Crockett State Park near Lawrenceburg, Tennessee for a few nights. Then, we could pick up the Natchez Trace Parkway from that area of the State.
We got a slow start on Monday, July 28th, and it was very stressful getting out of the campground and to the interstate on narrow, winding roads – but we only had to travel about 100 miles. We took a lunch break just up the road from Lynchburg and the Jack Daniel’s Distillery , which we planned to visit the following day.
After our lunch break, we traveled about 60 miles further to the David Crockett State Park (David Crockett State Park), which was a beautiful park with a lot of history and, again, since Davy Crockett was at the Alamo, we thought it would be interesting to visit the park and museum – plus the park was near the Natchez Trace Parkway. We were disappointed that the sites were not as clean as we were accustomed to as park hosts in Texas state parks. Also, we were told that we could combine 30 AMP and 20 AMP to make 50 AMP, but that was not the case – so we could only run 1 AC at a time, which would not cool as we were accustomed to. The area was beautiful, plus the park had an Olympic-size swimming pool, the David Crockett Museum and the David Crockett Falls. When we found out that the pool was closed on Monday and Tuesday, we extended our stay through Wednesday night to visit the pool and museum.
Once set up in our site, we had homemade pizzas for dinner!
The following morning, we made the drive to Lynchburg, Tennessee, with our first stop being lunch (since we missed breakfast) at Southern Perks Café & Bistro in the historic downtown area.
Following lunch, we walked around the downtown area, browsing, shopping and taking a few pictures.
Another old courthouse in a unique town!
Logan with Jack Daniel!
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| Grampa and Logan |
Following our walk around downtown Lynchburg, we headed a few blocks over to the Jack Daniel’s Distillery to sign up for our tour. Tours are free of charge and the wait was not too long, plus the visitor center has lots of interesting exhibits detailing the history of Jack Daniel’s whiskey. Logan is obviously not drinking age and I am allergic to alcohol, but the tour was very informative and interesting. For those who would like to sample the whiskey, there is a tour for a nominal fee, but you must be at least 21 years of age. Another interesting fact about this area is that the county is dry and, therefore, you cannot buy any alcoholic products (so we had to drive to another county to buy souvenir bottles of Jack Daniel’s to bring home). For more information, check out http://www.jackdaniels.com/ and, to see more pictures of our visit, check out the album below.
When driving through this area on our way to the park and while looking at the map, I realize that my third cousin, Chris Ogden, and his wife Dianna lived about 20 miles from Lynchburg. After contacting Chris through Facebook and talking on the phone, we made arrangements to visit their home in nearby Winchester, Tennessee. After a slow, but beautiful, drive through the country, we met Chris and Dianna and had an awesome visit. How we had never met Chris on trips my family made to visit Dad’s family in Lexington, Kentucky when I was younger and that Dick and I made after we were married will always be a mystery to us. My paternal grandmother was an Ogden (Nora Ogden Tolin), and Chris and I have the same Great Grandfather, George Washington Ogden, Sr. Chris brought out an old Ogden family album, and some of my Dad’s family were in it – and so was I at about 1-1/2 years old! Thank you, Chris and Dianna, for an enjoyable afternoon, and thank you, Chris, for sharing your genealogy research with me – and I promise to get you the information on my family in the near future. Hope to see y'all again someday soon!
Also, Chris, thank you for the dinner recommendation at Marvin’s Family Restaurant in Fayetteville, Tennessee. Fortunately, we did not have very far to drive back to the park after dinner. Can you believe that this buffet was $6.95 per person for dinner – plus desserts?!
As promised, on Wednesday, July 30th, Logan went swimming in the park’s Olympic-size swimming pool, while I read and went for a dip and Dick took a few pictures in the park. The pool was very nice, plus cool and refreshing!
After Dick picked us up, we drove over to the David Crockett Museum, which was not as great as I had expected, but we did get some pictures and a bit of a history lesson – and I loved Logan’s poses!
What a busy few days in this area of Tennessee! Thanks for stopping by and please let us hear from you.
~judy~
Good tours-I always enjoy visiting JD's place:)
ReplyDeleteThanks and we really enjoyed it, too - and thanks for your comment!
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