Lynchburg, TN

 Week three here in Huntsville has been pretty much the same as the last two, with a couple of exceptions. The first one was working on a major renovation to the motorhome which should be completed tomorrow, so you'll just have to be left in suspense until next time. Next was a trip to Lynchburg, TN and to tour the Jack Danial's Distillery. Lynchburg is about an hour north of Huntsville and a nice drive through the back roads. Now, I've been to the distillery about 15 years ago and even though I'm not a whisky drinker, I really enjoyed seeing how it was made (still pretty old school) and thought Sheryl would enjoy the tour. We arrived around 11:00 and wow what a surprise, once a cool old place to visit has now become a full blown tourist trap, Visitors Center, tour buses the works!!! Even the once free tours our now highly priced.....we were very disappointed, so much so we decided to forgo the tour and just check out the town. Luckily, the town itself hasn't changed much except maybe a few more shops, but still quite quaint. We enjoyed one of the best lunches we've had in a long while at the bakery/cafe and just walked around taking it all in.

A few shots from around town.

The town, also being the county seat, has an old Jail turned Museum. A very interesting place built in the early 1800s and was still in use until 1990. The only reason the shut it down was due to an attempted break out. Seems a fire was set under the building in hopes the prisoners would be evacuated and thus aid the escape. It was foiled by the Sheriffs little girl when she felt the wood floor getting hot, the fire was discovered and promptly put out. Being it was built so long ago, you could imagine it was not the place you wanted to go for any length of time, only 4 cells (2 men, 2 women's). It even seems Jessy James spent alittle time in the pokey, he sure did get around.

After a couple hours we headed back home, all was not a wash as we really enjoyed our time there. That's been our week, stay tuned for the big reveal in a couple of days. Ok, it's big for us.................so, until then.............................

Grand Ole Opry (Ryman Auditorium)

 Our whole reason for going to Nashville was to take in a show at the original Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium. Sheryl is a big fan of country music and this has been one of her life long dreams. So since we were headed this way, whats better than to make one of my sweethearts dreams come true.

 We started off at the RV Park office which offers a shuttle service to the Ryman. While awaiting the shuttle we just hung out on the front porch in their nice rockers and enjoyed a cold adult beverage.

 The show was better than I could have imagined, there's not a bad seat in the house and the auditorium is in a small intimate setting. Tonight's acts included the Larry Gatlin (tonights Host), Gatlin Brothers, Lori Morgan, Waylon Jennings son, Amy Rose and T.G. Shepard. What a great time!!!

 Of course, Sheryl had to get her picture with Minnie Pearl......lol.

 The next day we took a tour of Nashville, which just happened to include a tour of the Ryman. It was cool to see in the daylight and be able to take your time looking around and soak it all in. During the evening performance you are just rushed in and rushed back out.

 They call the Ryman, the Mother Church of Country Music, as it was originally built to hold church services and still bares the stained glass windows.

  While we were taking the tour, they were shooting a show like nothing else was going on. We learned alot about country music performers during our stay in Tennessee, mainly how laid back most of them are and how humble and connected to their roots they are.

During our tour we also took in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Didn't take any pictures as it was mainly just display after display of performers stuff.

We had a great time and packed in a lot in our two day stay. We are not big city people, but we decided we will be returning sometime to take in all the other sights, mainly the honky tonks along broadway. The downtown is kept very clean and so much to see.

That will wrap up our stay here in Nashville, next we headed south and are now staying in Huntsville Alabama and the Redstone Arsenal RV Park. We will be here for a month just to slow down a bit before stopping in Atlanta for Thanksgiving at our daughters house and the mad dash to Key West.
Ok, so until we see you again...................................

Loretta Lynn's Ranch and RV Park, Tennessee

 As we were getting ready to leave Village Creek State Park, we noticed our friends Mark and Ginger just happened to be overnighting at a nearby rest stop. We were able to get together with them for a couple of hours before they had to leave again. It was good seeing them again and they hooked us up with a great stop over on our way to Nashville.

 That stop over being Loretta Lynn's Ranch and RV Park, about 3 hours in the direction we were heading. We looked them up and made our reservations for 2 nights. Now Sheryl is a country music fan, especially classic country, so she was excited to see Loretta Lynn's place (she still lives here).

 We arrived in the late morning and got all checked in. There are 2 RV areas on the Ranch, one has full hook ups but is pretty tight and crowded and a large water and electric only area. Since we were only going to be there a couple of days, we chose the W/E only area. It was nice as there were only two other RV's in our area and a nice mountain stream about 50 yards behind our rig.

 When checking in, we found out they offer tours of the property, including Loretta Lynn's Mansion, the old Water Mill, her childhood home (replica) and museum. Sheryl was in heaven getting to see it all, we also found out, Loretta moved out of her mansion and built a small home just to the rear of it, said she didn't need to live in such a big house anymore. Funny, all you hear about is the stars wanting bigger and more, it was nice to see, she is still humble at heart.

 The electric mill across from the Mansion. This mill provided the first electric power in the area when it was built.

 Replica of her childhood home in Butcher Holler, KY. 

 Loretta's Mansion

 Pioneer Cabin Display

 Creek behind our RV

It was a great stop and we still thank our friends for turning us on to it. If you happen to be cruising down I-40 through west central Tennessee and are Loretta Lynn fans, it is well worth the stop.

As you can probably tell, I'm playing catch up with the blog. It's hard to believe we have had such poor internet service to no service at all since leaving OKC this trip.  Ok, that's it for this post, next up our trip to Nashville!!! See you then.