Well as promised I am going to add a few tails of the most recent trip to the world famous Jack Daniel's distillery! The distillery is located in Lynchburg and that would be the seat of Moore County, the smallest county in Tennessee. They do one thing in this town and that is make old number 7!
They have an entire town centered around making this stuff, it is very impressive if you have the time to go look at it! We rolled into town on Friday morning after a very long drive through what felt like a freaking monsoon! After a quick stop for lunch in Chattanooga Nick(aka Blueberry) and I arrived in the last thing that resembled a town on the outskirts of Lynchburg. We met up with Hampton(aka Hamperton) and went to do the shopping for the trip. Now I must mention that we, and by we I should say I, had shirts made to really bring our group together, something that would just say we are here, we are camping and we are drinking for 3 day straight! It should be noted that while in the store, three guys in matching shirts with a cart full of meat, bread, and beer that Blueberry was ask multiple times by many little old women "are you boys on a softball team?" to which at first I heard Blueberry say no mama, we are just here on vacation.
For some reason the entire trip people kept talking to him, none of the rest of us got ask questions about it, people just looked at the image on the shirt and walked on past but Nick or Blueberry as he is known was always ask no matter where we were! We finished up the shopping and headed out to meet the 4th member of our merry little gang Steve Pace(aka The Pacemaker) which by the way he lived up to his name in all its splendor! Pace had already set up camp and was waiting on us at the one and only, world famous Davy Crockett's Roadhouse! Now don't confuse this with the one other location because that one closed down about 6 months ago, something about a Coconut Bay Cafe coming in and taking all the business away, them bastards! Well I seem to be going backward at this point, I will continue, we met up with Pace and he was having
a beer there at the wonderful place, we saw many sights, a bartender that didn't know what a 7 and 7 was, made reference to Nick being just like R kelley because he liked to pee on people, and a roach crawling out of the peanut bowl. We had drinks and decided to head back to camp, which so happened to be when the one and only downpour of rain started. The camp was on a hill, not the top of said hill, no on the hill, the ground had been flattened just enough to put a camper on it and then straight down hill out the door! We get to this hill and I am just not so sure that my car is going to make it up the hill but I am game to try something new so up I go, two trucks and my little car going up a dirt road with 6 to 7 inch ruts in it and that monsoon that we drove through coming up in full effect! Much to my surprise the little car made it up the hill and we made it to the camp site.
Pace decides we need to put out the awning for the camper so that we don't all get soaked. I see him jump out of his truck and Hamperton soon follows so I get out to see if I can help in any way, Blueberry who was riding with me stayed in the car to make sure nothing happened to our stuff, god bless him because who knows what could have happened with all that rain, and an empty campground we could have lost everything had he not watched us put that thing up! From what I was told we looked like a silent movie in action up there, three guys sliding down a hill trying to figure out exactly how to put this thing out, Hamperton ever the planner had the umbrella with him, the mini one that is for one person but he was doing his best to share it with Pace and I. We finally got the thing out, not before being soaked to the bone, it was now raining but much less and Nick though that our stuff would be safe so he went ahead and joined the rest of us.
Once all were accounted for and the rain had all but stopped we set out getting things ready for a weekend of camping. First things first we pulled out all the coolers and iced down the beer, we know the important parts of camping! We then unloaded the rest of the cars, clothing, things of that nature and got ready for an afternoon of sitting, drinking, and doing really nothing at all! This is also the point at which the sun came back out and being me I decided it was picture time! We all posed for the camera, all photos taken by me aside from the single shots of me which Hamperton graciously stepped up and shot for me!
We drank the afternoon and night away, stopping only for a short dinner break and some desert (what would camping be without homemade brownies and blueberry lemon squares). As I mentioned earlier the campsite was on a hill, nothing flat around us at all, so we did what any group of guys would do and starting making bets on who would be the first to fall! The early front runner was Nick, I am not really why everyone was so sure that Nick was going to fall out of the chair but he was the leader on the betting board, everyone agreeing aside from Nick who thought it would be me(why he thought that the one person who doesn't drink was going to be the first to fall is beyond me but he made his predictions and stuck with them by god)! Well we were all wrong, very quickly, probably right after dinner we had our first and only victum, Hampton took a turn and went rolling out of the chair! In hind sigh we really should have seen it coming, Hamperton, the name just sounds like someone that is going to take a slide down a hill(which he did a couple of times, the other times he stayed on his feet and didn't hit the ground, it was very impressive). As the night got later the guitars came out and again I did what I do, took some pictures! It was a grand first night of camping, we all went to sleep, me and Hamperton in the big bed, Nick on the sofa, and Pace on a table(really a table that turned into a bed but I am going to call it a table!). Hamp only tried to cuddle with me a couple of times, at one point he was rubbing my back, I started to stop him but figured what the hell, we are in the woods in Tennessee, just roll with the local culture!
We all got up early on Saturday and cooked some breakfast. Eggs, sausage, grits, it was great! After breakfast and showers we headed out to the first of the distillery tours! First stop was the George Dickel distillery, the bastard cousin of Jack Daniel's!
It was a long and winding road to get there but we did, and it was worth the drive. We messed about it a bit before the tour, then took that there tour. It was fun time to see how they make the whiskey, how it is distilled and to hear all the stories about how they didn't copy Jack, they just make it better! LOL WE stopped and ask someone to take a photo for us, it was getting time for a group photo. A nice gentleman with a mullet and a smile stopped and I quickly showed him the button to push on the camera. Now as you can see the picture came out just fine, but as soon as he snapped the shot his wife or what i assumed was his wife came out the doors yelling "you take that camera way from him, that boy dont need to be takin no photograph he is always messin them up"! I told her that he had done a fine job to which she said "well I aint got no fancy camera like that one, must be that camera that took a good picture not him!" not one to argue I just stopped and didn't rock the boat which I think that the man appriciated so he ask us where we came from.
We all said Atlanta, because it is just easier, his wife ask what subburb we were in to which I proudly told her that I live in the city and seh said wow she didnt think no people really lived in the city. She task if we had ever lived in the country and we all said no, it was about the end of that conversation, it was about time before Nick or I said something to get us in trouble!
For some reason the entire trip people kept talking to him, none of the rest of us got ask questions about it, people just looked at the image on the shirt and walked on past but Nick or Blueberry as he is known was always ask no matter where we were! We finished up the shopping and headed out to meet the 4th member of our merry little gang Steve Pace(aka The Pacemaker) which by the way he lived up to his name in all its splendor! Pace had already set up camp and was waiting on us at the one and only, world famous Davy Crockett's Roadhouse! Now don't confuse this with the one other location because that one closed down about 6 months ago, something about a Coconut Bay Cafe coming in and taking all the business away, them bastards! Well I seem to be going backward at this point, I will continue, we met up with Pace and he was having 
a beer there at the wonderful place, we saw many sights, a bartender that didn't know what a 7 and 7 was, made reference to Nick being just like R kelley because he liked to pee on people, and a roach crawling out of the peanut bowl. We had drinks and decided to head back to camp, which so happened to be when the one and only downpour of rain started. The camp was on a hill, not the top of said hill, no on the hill, the ground had been flattened just enough to put a camper on it and then straight down hill out the door! We get to this hill and I am just not so sure that my car is going to make it up the hill but I am game to try something new so up I go, two trucks and my little car going up a dirt road with 6 to 7 inch ruts in it and that monsoon that we drove through coming up in full effect! Much to my surprise the little car made it up the hill and we made it to the camp site.
Pace decides we need to put out the awning for the camper so that we don't all get soaked. I see him jump out of his truck and Hamperton soon follows so I get out to see if I can help in any way, Blueberry who was riding with me stayed in the car to make sure nothing happened to our stuff, god bless him because who knows what could have happened with all that rain, and an empty campground we could have lost everything had he not watched us put that thing up! From what I was told we looked like a silent movie in action up there, three guys sliding down a hill trying to figure out exactly how to put this thing out, Hamperton ever the planner had the umbrella with him, the mini one that is for one person but he was doing his best to share it with Pace and I. We finally got the thing out, not before being soaked to the bone, it was now raining but much less and Nick though that our stuff would be safe so he went ahead and joined the rest of us. 
We all said Atlanta, because it is just easier, his wife ask what subburb we were in to which I proudly told her that I live in the city and seh said wow she didnt think no people really lived in the city. She task if we had ever lived in the country and we all said no, it was about the end of that conversation, it was about time before Nick or I said something to get us in trouble! 
