Once in awhile you have to take care of regular stuff when you spend a lot of time on the road.  This weekend we found somewhere to change the oil and get new tires for the van!  55k miles was all the tires were willing to give.  We arrived in Knoxville for the first appointment at Big O and I did laundry while the new tires were being added.  It worked out really well because it was raining really hard in the am but the weather said things would be clearing by noon.  So after we had new tires, clean clothes and a few more groceries we headed towards Nashville.

Dukes favorite part is when we find a nice spot of grass!

Our next destination is Natchez Parkway NP  that goes from south of Nashville all the way to Natchez Mississippi!  But before that we will do a little tasting on The Jack Trail.  We chose two distilleries and both were impressive.

                            George Dickel Distilleries

The only one I really liked was one that is not readily available!  That’s ok, I prefer Vodka.  The tour was very impressive and the hollow the distillery was beautiful.

George Dickel found a beautiful location to Distill his Whisky

On to the big guy!  Jack Daniels.  We didn’t have reservations so we could only get into the tour without samples!  I’m not a whisky lover so i’ll save my sippin for something else.  The whole town of Lynchburg is all about Jack Daniels.  I did find a small tasting room for wine – passed on it to because all they had was sweet wines.  And then I found a spot for whisky tasting for flavored whisky’s.  The bad news was before I paid I got the first sample of lemon and it tasted like cough syrup so the nice girls said “you probably won’t like any of them!”  Saved myself $10 and a bottle of something I really didn’t want!

black residue on all the buildings is from the burning wood that is part of the process in Tennessee Whisky!

Mr. Jack Daniels

It started snowing about 7 am.  It’s beautiful but because the trees still have so many leave they are having so many down trees that they have closed the roads through the Smokie Mountain NP.

I’ve got all the winter clothes I own on!

Happy November 1st!

Ice carving

A demonstration of beginning carvers in downtown Knotsville.  We also enjoyed a couple bluegrass or country rock bands during a lunch concert that was being broadcast live on a public radio station.  Very cool

Dukes

A real live Dukes of Hazard Museum in Gatlinburg!  We didn’t even get out of our car in Gatlinburg!  It was the Friday of Fall Colors and you would have thought we were driving downtown Disneyland!  You couldn’t walk, you couldn’t drive!  This is the entrance to Smokie Mountain NP.  The park was packed also, but nothing like the tiny town!  We finally found a nice trail along the river and took a walk.

It’s FALL!

Everyday it gets more beautiful!

Same picture through my sunglasses!

I have been enjoying the fall colors for 2 weeks with my sunglasses and finally Paul had a look!

Two days later and a small rain storm, but still beautiful colors.  Paul thinks the color here is better than anything he ever experienced in the Northeast.

Throughout Smokie Mountain National Park there are old structures.  We saw a school, several churches, lots of log homes. 

Look at all the leaves that have already fallen!

It was still a bit rainy but oh so beautiful.  You will have to visit yourself in late October.

My favorite memory – It was like driving through a tunnel!

A pipeline or a ditch to CA for some of this water seems like a doable idea to me!  We arrived at Pickwick Landing on Friday afternoon to beautiful sunny skies and I’m looking forward to maybe renting a boat and checking out the Tennessee River and then the sky started weeping! AGAIN!!!!  Saturday was spent relaxing indoors, playing games (there is no TV here!) and baking cookies.  It has been a long time since we had a real rainy day that we didn’t or couldn’t get out.  Finally on Sunday afternoon we  ventured out in the rain to check out the dam, the rest of the resort – this is a Tennessess State Park Resort.  Then it was back home, more relaxing, reading, a little sewing.  Thank goodness for Apple!  My Ipad is my best buddy on these sort of days.

Finally on Monday we decided to take a drive and check out the Tennessee River Museum and learn a little history of this part of Tennessee.  The town of Savannah also has a very nice historic homes tour.  The homes are just a neighborhood within walking distance to the main street.  One of the many homes actually has a history from the Civil War.  The Cherry Mansion.

Cherry Mansion

By todays standards it is a modest home on the banks of the Tennessee river, but during the Civil War, Mr. Cherry offered his home to the Union Army and General Grant was having breakfast there the morning the Union engaged in battle at Shiloh where 23,000 men lost their lives.  The Battle of Shiloh National Park  is a very large park with lots of monuments to the regiments that were there and fighting for freedom.  We took the driving tour.

Monuments to each General that was at this battle

Cherry Mansion

The Northern canons were much larger than those of the South

One of the monuments

Statue with amazing detail

I am always so interested in these types of statues!  The detail is impressive – the gown was so realistic.

Completed in 1952

Distroyed during the battle,  this is a operating church inside the park.  The reason I took the photo is it was started at one time, the ran out of money and continued to build.  The stone work was kept of the original work.

And when we left Tuesday am.  the ground had dried out but the sky was leaking again!

When the weather doesn’t cooperate it is good to have a good pair of sunglasses with a nice filter!  I have been enjoying the colors for about two weeks as long as I leave my sunglasses on!

A start

It seems that the weather is just too nice for those really bright colors.  We are in Tennessee and if it would stop raining we might get to see some color!  The trees look good and ready.

Not being huge Elvis fans we still felt that it would be fun to visit the Graceland Mansion.  As a teenager I listened to his music, watched his movies and even attended his concert in 1976 at the Cow Palace in San Francisco which I remember quite well.

The mansion Elvis bought in Memphis Tennessee, Graceland is not really very large by todays standards.  The property is fairly big and right in the middle of town today.  There are small neighborhood houses right next door. 

We toured the house and found the decor not so lavish, I guess he spent most of the money on costumes, cars, & planes!

The front room of the mansion with the music room

Media room

The grounds were not spectacular either.  I actually felt that it was quite comfortable and would have been easy for a non celebrity to live there.

Backyard and horse pasture

Elvis also owned 2 airplanes which now are part of the museum here in Graceland.  These planes were sold after his death and found again in 1984!  Pretty amazing that someone bought them and kept them the same.

TCB with a lightening bolt stands for “Taking care of business in a flash”  This was Elvis’ motto and something that I never knew before coming here to Graceland.

We finished our day in Memphis with a Pink Cadillac ride to dinner at a local Rib’s place called Marlowe’s.  This was so cool, they come and pick you up at the RV park and take you to the restaurant and then pick you up and return you after dinner.  The Rib dinner came complete with all the fixin’s including, beans, coleslaw, fried corn, fries, and roll!  The fried corn was awesome.  I also ordered some fried dill pickles because since we have been in the midwest I keep hearing about it.  Interesting!  Not sure I need to order it again but it was worth the $6 just to see!

For all my square dance friends I kept hearing “Pink Cadillac, swing your partner, while riding in the back of the Pink Cadillac”!!

P.S.  I almost forgot.  See the man getting into the Limo with us?  He is Pauls newest friend!  This couple, Tom & Brenda pulled into the RV park about 30 minutes before our scheduled arrival of the limo and Paul introduces himself and invites them to dinner with us!  This is something I have feared since getting on the road but it turned out ok!  They were quite friendly and it was fun getting to hear about their adventures during dinner.  They own a home in Kona, HI and live there 6-7 months a year and then return to the states and tour are touring in their RV for a few months.  They are on their way to Branson after Memphis!  It’s a small world after all.