I plugged in the coordinates to our first destination which was Old Stone Fort State Archaeological Park near Manchester. We got onto I-24 and headed south. It was a work day so there was a lot of traffic on the interstates, highways and side roads. I had Erika and mom put in some searches on their phones for food or grocery stores. Erika wanted some coffee so we stopped at a McDonald's in Murfreesboro. Since we were there we just ordered breakfast. We all got sausage biscuits, a hash brown and oj's or coffee. Erika found a store just down the street called Publix. We found the Publix and ate our breakfast in the parking lot. When we were done we made our way into the store.
It reminded us of an IGA or a Thriftway from back home. We all had never heard of a Publix. I guess it is a southern store chain with its headquarters out of Lakeland, Florida. It is employee-owned and operates out of seven states. We decided to get a few things to tie us over for our upcoming breakfasts and lunches (mostly so we don't have to go to a restaurant and spend a lot of money) until we can make it to dinner. We grabbed some doughnuts, cheese, bread, PBJ, deli turkey, chips, a cooler bag, ice, water, soda, fizzy water and other miscellaneous stuff we thought we'd need. We went up to the register and it was a nice little southern lady. She heard us talk and asked where we were from. We told her Washington State and she said her daughter lives in Everett. We had a conversation about how Tennessee was so green and most of Washington State was on fire. We told her about all the places we were going to go see and she told us to have fun.
We packed our stuff in the cooler and headed back onto I-24 to Manchester. I followed Nuvi's directions and it lead us right to the state park. Tennessee doesn't require anyone to pay for a recreation fee, which was nice, because Washington State does. I made sure we didn't need a pass when I was doing my state park research.
Old Stone Fort State Archaeological Park is a prehistoric Native American structure located in Coffee County Tennessee in the southeastern part of the United States. The structure was most likely built between 80 and 550 AD during the Middle Woodland Period. It is the most complex hilltop structure found in the south and was likely used for ceremonial purposes rather than for defense. The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
We parked in the lot and walked to the information building. On the way there we heard these really weird sounds we've never heard before. I looked it up. It turns out they were Cicada's. I've heard of them before but have never heard one in real life. You couldn't really see them but you could hear them singing all over the trees. We walked into the building and a really nice college-aged student greeted us very friendly. She asked where we were from and we said Washington State. We talked a little about our state parks and whatnot. We wandered around the building learning about this state park and what makes it cool.
Mom basically just came for the waterfall. The girl gave us a map of the area and some of the notable spots to go see. We thanked her and headed down the trail.
This state park is located on the Duck River. The Duck River, is 284 miles long, is the longest river located entirely within the state of Tennessee. Our first stop along the trail was at the Blue Hole Falls. It did not disappoint. It was probably hands down my favorite waterfall I've ever been to. It was so magical and I don't mean that to sound silly. I climbed on down because I wanted a better view and it was amazing.
I just stood there in awe of how gorgeous this waterfall was. Erika didn't want to come down but mom did. I had to go back to where I went down and help her down because she didn't trust her balance and didn't want to fall on the rocks.
We got down there and she was just as in awe. It was a really cool waterfall and we spent a lot of time here.
We walked further down the trail to learn about the interior of the park to check out the structure. We tried to figure out how they moved the rocks and how they decided on where to put and orient the rocks. It was pretty detailed. We got a few pictures and decided to move on since we still had a lot of driving a head of us. Our next stop was the Jack Daniels distillery tour in Lynchburg.
We got onto Hwy 55 and headed west towards Tullahoma. We followed Nuvi's directions and saw that Hwy 55 took us right to Lynchburg if we stayed on that road. It took us less than twenty minutes to get into the small town of Lynchburg, We followed the Jack Daniels tour signs and parked in a lot across the highway from the distillery. I can't believe we were actually here. I've known of Jack Daniels whiskey since I was little kid. It's black label was very well known all over the world.
We took the small shuttle to the front doors of the distillery and got in line to do one of the five tours. We chose The Flight of Jack Daniel's Tour, which was $20 and lasted and hour and a half. We also got to taste some of the whiskey's at the end of our tour. While we waited for our tour, we walked around the building and looked at some of the history of the whiskey, Jack Daniels and the distillery.
I walked across the street and looked for Jack Daniels Cache (GC2771P) which eluded me at first. The hint wasn't very helpful nor were the logs really. I thought to myself, could it really be under the bridge? I made my way down there and yep, it was under the bridge underneath some rocks. Someone had also stuck a trackable sticker on the bridge. I discovered that too.
By the time I walked back it was almost time for our tour. I met up with mom and Erika and found our tour group. Our tour guide spent some time telling us the rules and how the tour was going to go. I was excited to learn some history and how they make their whiskey. We took a shuttle up to the Rickyard. There, they showed us the process in which they get their coal that they filter their whiskey through.
Then we headed up the road by foot to see the limestone spring that they get their water from. They've been doing that since 1866. It was nice being near the cave because the cool air that came out of it since it was pretty warm outside.
We walked up the stairs to the mash house. A special mixture of barley, rye and corn. It smelled like sour/spoiled chicken feed that got wet and rotted. I couldn't wait to get out of that building. We then went to the mellowing building. There, it is a 3-5 day process of the whiskey filtering through the 10 feet of charcoal. Watching the whiskey filter through the charcoal was pretty cool.
We saw one of the barrel houses followed by our whiskey flight taste. We were in a glass room with a flight of shots in front of us. We had a card with an explanation of what each whiskey was. We were given 6 different whiskeys to try and I decided not to try the cinnamon one because I wasn't a fan of cinnamon.
I really enjoyed the honey one though so much I went and bought a bottle of it from the gift shop. This was the only place in Moore county that is allowed to sell alcohol. We got a complimentary shot glass from our tour which was pretty awesome. The tour guide said if we headed to the Jack Daniels gift shop just down the road you could get another shot glass for free. Of course we went. We thanked him and headed towards down town.
We stopped at a shop first for some post cards and dad had asked us to find a Confederate flag because he wanted one to bother Doug with it. We actually found a flag here. Erika bought a few things as well before we headed to the other gift shop. We walked over and ended up wandering around inside that shop for about a half hour. I got a few things as did mom. We did get that other free shot glass before we headed back to the car.
Before we left Lynchburg for good I stopped at one more cache, JTGT - Moore - Welcome to Lynchburg (GC59VQ5). It was a quick park and grab. I saw it immediately when I got out of the car. It was a cute little bird house. I got a picture of the Welcome to Lynchburg sign as well.
The Jack Daniels tour was definitely worth it. I would recommend it for anyone visiting Tennessee.
We were getting hungry so we stopped in Tullahoma at an old Coke a Cola factory that was transformed into little shops. We parked in the lot and got out our food we bought that morning from the grocery store. We had some cheese, crackers and some fruit. I looked for the cache, JTGT - Tullahoma - Historic Cokers (GC57615), while mom and Erika went inside to check out the little stores. We were there for maybe an hour. Erika bought some mittens.
Before we left town and got back onto the freeway, we had to find a Dairy Queen because Erika wanted some ice cream. I used the restroom while we waited for her ice cream.
We drove the remainder 80 miles down I-24 towards Chattanooga. I plugged the coordinates to Ruby Falls into Nuvi. Along the way we saw a ton of billboards and a lot of them told you to go see Lookout Mountain or Ruby Falls or the Rock City Gardens. At one point we saw several buildings that sold fireworks year round and we weren't even near an Indian reservation.
As we got closer to Chattanooga we saw that this part of I-24 was very unique. You have to enter Georgia and then enter back into Tennessee before you got to Chattanooga. It was pretty cool. Mom was mad because she missed getting the Georgia sign. I'm sure we will be back through here. I followed the directions to Lookout Mountain for Ruby Falls. We found a parking spot and walked into the building to pay for our admission ticket. As we stood in line, we got to know some of the people who were standing near us. There was a couple from Georgia who came here to celebrate her 40th birthday and an older couple from Alabama who were here on vacation. He would say stuff to us and I didn't know if he was joking or going senile. I just went along with it.
We finally got to go down to the cave. It took a few trips up and down to gather the group. We took a photo of us before the tour as a keepsake for coming to Ruby Falls.
Our tour guide told us some of the rules and we would be stopping a lot to talk about the formations and whatnot. We were suppose to stay to the right for people coming back from the falls. This cave definitely reminded me of the one we did about 6 years ago in Manitou Springs, Colorado at Cave of the Winds. Again, here to preserve the tites and mites, she told us not to touch them unless the signs said we could. We followed the group as they talked about the formations.
Ruby Falls Earthcache (GC20DRH) was the first non-event cache I've ever had to pay for to find. I tried remembering what the questions were as we moved through the cave. When we got to the falls I was in awe. We were 26 stories down looking at a underground waterfall. They knew where the waterfall ended (into the Tennessee River) but had no idea where it began. There were colored LED lights that were pointed at it so we could see it. It was awesome.
We walked back with our group and she showed us some of the other formations just before we got back to the elevator. When we got back to the main floor, we used the restroom and browsed the gift shop. I got a few postcards, a magnet and bought the photo of us for a keepsake. We walked up to the top of the building to check out the view of Chattanooga. It was a pretty nice view.
It was slowly getting dark and we needed to find some dinner. I had suggested at some point visiting a Cracker Barrel because I kept hearing about these. The closest one was in Idaho and I didn't see that happening anytime soon. I did a search for one and there was one nearby Lookout Mountain. Score! We didn't have to drive all over creation.
The Cracker Barrel was founded in Tennessee in 1969. It's menu is based on your traditional southern cuisine. We were there to try it and see what all the fuss was about. We were seated and then ignored for a while. Our waitress seemed to either be a really giant airhead or she was new and was being trained. Eventually we got our drinks, our food and our check. Mom and I ordered the fried chicken and mashed potato dinner and Erika ordered the shrimp. The food was exceptionally good but we couldn't eat it all. I ate all of my potatoes and green beans and one of my chickens and saved the other chicken for tomorrow.
I needed to find a Georgia cache before we went to our hotel. I looked for one on the map that was an easy park and grab. I found one we could get really fast, Quick Gas-N-Go (GC393JD) was at a small gas station of of I-24. I parked about 30 feet from it, made the find, got my photo and headed back to the car. I plugged the hotel address into Nuvi and we made our way to the hotel. We had gone back and forth into central and eastern time zone.
The rain started falling and as we drove through Chattanooga the thunder and lightening pummeled the sky. I seriously thought we were going to have a tornado. It was so hot and humid at 8:00 at night anything was possible. We found our hotel, which was in the East Ridge part of Chattanooga. We were less than a mile from the Georgia border. Mom checked us in and we were in a room up on the second floor. We all shared a king sized bed.
I got cleaned up before it was time for bed. We were exhausted with all the time zone changes. Plus, we had to get up early if we wanted to get all of the things on our list done.
Next Adventure: South Pittsburg, First Alabama Cache, Great Smoky Mountains, First North Carolina Cache and Gatlinburg
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