TOURING TENNESSEE || LYNCHBURG

After Saturday morning pancakes this past weekend, we loaded up the family + headed North to Lynchburg, Tennessee. It’s a short 70 miles from Athens – a very easy drive there + back. What’s in Lynchburg? Less than 400 townsfolk + the Jack Daniel’s Distillery. It’s small but still worth the visit.

Brad + I aren’t loyal to Jack Daniel whiskey but getting the opportunity to learn a little more about the process of making whiskey as well as a history lesson on Jack himself was intriguing.

Apparently, Jack Daniel’s whiskey has been distilled + bottled at this location for over 150 years. Production hasn’t moved because of one thing – the cave spring.Even in drought conditions, this spring has never stopped streaming.

Our tour took us through the Rick Yard, Jack’s Office, Cave Spring, Still House, Bottle House + Barrell House. Photography wasn’t allowed in many of the areas we toured, but I did manage to get a few shots.One of the most interesting things I learned while on the tour was how Jack died. The story goes a little something like this. Jack Daniel came into the office early one morning + after a few failed attempts at opening the safe (pictured above), his frustration got the best of him + he gave it a swift kick. Which injured his toe. Which caused an infection. Which killed him. His famous last words on October 10, 1911, “one last drink, please.” He was 62 years old.

Fair warning, folks. The Distillery stinks – literally. At the beginning of the tour, I asked our guide about the stench. In return, he asked if it smelt like a bakery – to which my husband replied, “yeah, if you’re making shit cakes.” The tour guide didn’t laugh. We could hardly contain ourselves.Lucky for them, the whiskey doesn’t taste like the distillery smells.

Lynchburg Square was only a few steps away from the distillery, so we strolled the area for a bit. I think the Moon Pie Shop was my favorite.Who knows where we’ll end up next. I’m just so excited to be back in The South!

Happy Roadtripping, Friends!

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TOURING ALABAMA || MOORESVILLE

Well Folks, we’ve moved our family back to The South and now call Alabama home. We made the move just under two months ago and I would say we are pretty well settled + look forward to putting down roots in our new Hometown of Athens.

Now that the holidays have passed and the children are back in school, I’ve had some free time to do a little exploring in + around our community. Yesterday seemed as good as any to load up the truck with my pup + my camera and hit the road. I drove south down Mooresville Road which led me straight into the 200-year-old Town of Mooresville. That’s right – two hundred years old. There are quite a few historical markers sprinkled around town and the first one I approached noted that this quaint village was the first to be incorporated by the Alabama Territorial Legislature on November 16, 1818.

While fewer than 60 people currently call Mooresville home, according to the marker, it was once “a bustling town with doctors, lawyers, business houses craftsmen and shops, including a tailor shop where a future president, Andrew Johnson, apprenticed for some time.” Also noted was that another future president, James Garfield, preached a sermon at Mooresville Church of Christ, one of two churches in the village.

But it was the other church, Cumberland Presbyterian Church, also known as The Brick Church, that caught my eye.

Check out the photo below. Have you ever – in your entire life – seen a church steeple with a spire that had a wood-carved hand with a finger pointed to the heavens?!

It’s not just the steeple that makes The Brick Church unique. During the 1870s, Constantine Blackmon Sanders ministered at the church and was known for possessing special abilities. These abilities were recorded in a book titled X + Y = Z; or The Sleeping Preacher of Alabama. In a letter to the reader, the author states that the book is “mainly a statement of facts, furnished by a large number of living witnesses—gentlemen and ladies of intelligence and unimpeachable veracity, presenting the most remarkable, preternatural, mental phenomena that have come to light, (so far as is known,) since the days of Jesus Christ and his Apostles.”

The entire book is available to read for free online, and I intend to read it, but until then, let’s have a look at the historical church at which The Sleeping Preacher ministered.

The Brick Church was locked when I visited but it saw that the City of Mooresville will rent it out as a venue for events such as weddings. Maybe there will be a vow renewal in my future. =) But if that doesn’t happen, I can at least bring the kids back for a photo shoot.

Mooresville is also home to an 1840s Post Office, the oldest in continual use in the State of Alabama. Y’all, the town was just ate-up with history + charm. Here are a few other photos from around town that I just had to share.

I think the four-legged friend that followed us around may have been as old as the town itself. Bless him (or her).

Oh! I forgot to mention that Disney’s Tom and Huck was filmed here too! If you were a young girl in the early 1990s, you probably had a crush on Jonathan Taylor Thomas and probably loved this movie.

It feels great to get back to blogging! I hope to have tons more Adventures, Experiences + Southern Scenes to share of life here in the Tennessee Valley.

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