The Hills of Tennessee!

Yes, another BLOG - what can we say...we've been busy!
Apr 15 - Apr 17.…YES another BLOG - what can we say...we've been busy!.....Two days in Middle Tennessee -- We stayed at a campground in Lebenon, TN which is about 30 miles east of Nashville. Since we have been to Nashville before and seen the sites we decided to venture south into the ‘hills of TN’. Our first stop was Murfressboro where we went to Stone River Battlefield. This battle took place Dec 31-Jan 2 1862 and was one of the bloodiest encounters of the Civil War. There were 81,000 troops and over 23,500 lost their lives. This battle was a much-needed boost to the northern morale following the disastrous Union defeat at Fredericksburg, VA, just 3 weeks before. From the battlefield we went by the Oaklands Historic House (a Mansion that was used by both armies during the Civil War) and Rutherford County Courthouse (built in 1859 & one of six pre-Civil War courthouses still used in TN). Ok, that’s your Civil War lesson for the day - on to other things. We continued our drive through the beautiful hills of TN (and I do mean beautiful). Everything was ’green’ and we saw many beautiful homes and ranches! Our next stop was Lynchburg and the Jack Daniel Distillery. We went on a 75 min. tour where we learned how to make Tennessee Mash (ie ’whiskey’.) This is the oldest registered distillery. The county Jack Daniel’s is made in happens to be a ‘dry’ country so there was no sampling or purchasing! Ya, it’s pretty amazing - they had to get special permission after prohibition to make & ship the whiskey to their distributors. After all that we went to Nashville to attend the AAA baseball game of the ‘Nashville Sound’ (farm team for Milwaukee Brewers). It wasn’t ‘Minute Maid Park’ in Houston but the play was very close to major league quality (the beer costs the same!) Whew - what a day!!!! Our Easter Sunday consisted of a Sunrise Service at the local Lutheran Church (630a), breakfast at Cracker Barrel and a our drive to Pigeon Forge, TN…. More from the Great Smokey Mountains later in the week!