Day Two

Chattanooga, Day 2

This was the day of the Jack Daniels Tour. An escorted ride to Lynchburg, TN to tour the Jack Daniels Distillery.

We left the Pavillion between 9:30AM and 10AM and headed out for Lynchburg by way of Lookout and Raccoon mountains. West on U.S.72 to U.S.41 to TN50. On winding roads through beautiful green farmland. After a stop of 45 minutes to an hour in Tracy City at a one hole, three pump, no-card-reader gas station, 150+ Harley-Davidson motorcycles rolled into Lynchburg sometime between 12:30PM and 1PM. We then had the pleasure (?) of parking our HOGs in Jack Daniels' gravel parking lot!

Most everyone enjoyed the tour of the distillery. We all were surprised to find out it is in a dry county! Though buying a bottle there would prove not too difficult. They had a VERY small package store where two special bottles were available for purchase. I picked up the Gold Medal Bottle made for the Brits in 1999. Other souvenirs of the distillery (not booze) were available at the Jack Daniels Gift Shop in Lynchburg. As I said, dry county. They could make it there but, they couldn't sell it there! Weird.

After touring the distillery most of us headed to Warren Park in Lynchburg for a catered lunch of Pork Sanwiches and picnic salads. Then everyone was on there own to get back to Chattanooga.

Since the weather forecast was for Thuderstorms in the late afternoon, it was between 3:30PM and 4PM when I started back to Chattanooga, I opted to take TN55 north through Tullahoma to I-24 east and blast back to Chattanooga on the Interstate.

During this ride I became a film star. A couple headed in the same direction on the Interstate, in their car, had their camcorder handy and spent a good half hour filming me and my ride from the front, the back and both sides. Too bad I don't know who they are. No way for me to get a copy of the tape.

Anyway, my option turned out to be the best one for getting back to Chattanooga dry. I got only a very light shower right at the Chattanooga city limit sign. Barely got damp. Had time to stop at the Dealership for a quart of oil, get some dinner and get my scooter locked down before the heavy rain started around 8PM.

Others who opted for more scenic routes back to Chattanooga were not so lucky. Many of them spent as much as four hours fighting their way back to Chattanooga in a driving rain in the mountains. Some of my motel mates did not get back until well after 10PM. I was glad I had chosen the Interstate.