TheSouth2011

Day 7

Thursday, 2 June 2011
Shelbyville, TN to Winchester, TN
38.5 miles, 3h13m, 11.9 mph
Elapsed Time: 6h13m, Max speed: 35.7mph
Total Climbing: 1483ft, Max elevation: 1135ft
Total mileage: 461.4

I cut today's ride down from about 80 miles to about 40 miles. This allowed me to spend some time in Lynchburg touring Mr. Daniel's distillery. And really, this is how bicycle touring is supposed to be. Not poundiung out the miles to get from point A to point B. It's a journey, not a destination. Unless the stuff you want to see happens to be at the destination. Like the other day in Nashville. But today was not one of those days. It was a journey because the stuff I wanted to see was along the way.

Typical Tennescenery.

There was one big climb on the way to Lynchburg, and then a nice coast down to the distillery. I could smell it before I could see it.

A guy in a truck saw me taking a picture of the sign. He jumped out and said, "Give me your camera."

The tour took about an hour. Afterwards we had lemonade. They don't give out free samples anymore.
This is the sugar maple they burn to make the charcoal that they drip-filter the whiskey
through before they age it.

This is the spring where the water comes from.

This is the safe that Jack Daniel kicked, breaking his toe and eventually
resulting in his death.

This is an Adirondack chair made from barrel staves. I covet it.

After the tour I walked in to town and grabbed lunch.

Then it was back to the beautiful Tennessee countryside. And another big climb.

And soon I was in Winchester, with its Stalin-era courthouse (ruined by
the glass enclusure--if you ask me).

I had dinner at a fantastic Mexican restaurant. And I had a very large beer.
The phone is there for scale, but you can see that it's badly injured. A little duct
tape is all that's holding that bad boy together. This is its last ride, for sure.

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