From April 27th to May 4th 2017 Jim & Diane took a road trip to Nashville & Lynchburg Tennessee, Bowling Green & Newport Kentucky and Cincinnati, Dayton & Canton, Ohio. wholesale nfl jerseys cheap china jerseys

Our First stop was Music City, Nashville, TN. We arrived on Friday and it was very crowded in town in part due to the Music City Marathon being run the next day. They were expecting 39,000 runners. There was also a lot of drinking going on as you can see from the pictures below.

They even drink while moving on these vehicles called Pedal Taverns. Six people sit on each side and pedal to propel the vehicle. A person up front guides the vehicle and a person in back serves the refreshments.

Later that day we went to the Gaylord at Opryland which was next to out hotel. It has over 3100 rooms and over a half million square feet of exhibit space and two huge atriums.

Because of the expected crowds and street closures on Saturday morning we decided to get out of town and visit friend, Jack Daniels, in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Lynchburg got it's name from the Lynching Tree in town and is oddly a dry town. Over 200,000 people come from all around the world to visit Jack each year. 

These long pieces of maple are made from local maple trees and stacked in these "Ricks". They are burned to make the charcoal that the water is filtered through to make Jack Daniels. Jack Daniels is the top selling American Whiskey in the World.

These huge buildings are used to store Jack Daniels during the aging process. They have many of them but because of the flammability of the product are spread around throughout Moore County.

This is the cave spring where the water comes from to make all Jack Daniel's products.

Jim & Diane pictured with Jack. The statue is a little bit of an exaggeration since he was only 5'2".

On the way from the visitors parking lot to the distillery you pass this unique house. I'm thinking the some of the Jack must have seeped into their well??

On the way back to Nashville, we stopped at Darrell Waltrip Automotive to surprise nephew, Blaine Lash.

Since we were in the neighborhood (Franklin, TN) we stopped by Faith Hill's house to say Hi but she wasn't home.

That night we went to the Grand Ole Opry, a 4400 seat venue.

Sunday we went to the Hermitage outside Nashville, home of the seventh president, Andrew Jackson.

That night Blaine and his girl friend, Madison, took us to dinner at one of the Hot Spots in Nashville, the Whiskey Kitchen. Food, company & service were great.

We neglected to get a picture of our group but I was able to lift one of Blaine & Madison off Facebook.

The next morning it was off to Bowling Green, KY home of the National Corvette Museum and the Corvette Assembly Plant. The plant was absolutely fascinating!!

The National Corvette Museum is right across the road from the assembly plant. Some of the cars on display were the priceless Corvettes that were swallowed in the sink hole below the museum floor in 2014.

Our route took us by Cincinnati, Ohio so we stopped at the World Headquarters of Dotloop. A tech/software company that we work with at Re/Max Advantage. Their headquarters is in a building just like the warehouse at Camden Yards. 

While there we actually stayed just across the river in Newport, KY. We could see the Reds stadium from our hotel window and like in Baltimore the Bengal's stadium is close by.

Our next stop was Dayton, Ohio and the National Museum of the United State Air Force. Very impressive place to visit. It consists of four very large hangers filled with every imaginable plane.

They even had some missile stuff there. Pictured below are several missiles from the Minuteman and Titan families. Below that is a mockup of a Minuteman Launch Control Room, a picture of an actual one and a picture of the Launch Control of the Atlas E that I worked on in the Air Force.

Next stop Canton, Ohio and the Football Hall of Fame.

John Unitas