Where Are We Sleeping Tonight: 1842 Inn, Macon, Georgia
We headed off nice and early today, excited to visit Lynchburg, the hope of the Jack Daniels Distillery. I was amazed by the free 1 hour tour - not only was it guided by a friendly southern character, but we got to see everything at the distillery, including where the mix ferments and where the whisky is dripped through charcoal. We even went into one of the storage areas where they keep all the barrels of whisky - which you can actually buy! The tour was entertaining and very educational. The tour guide told us about how the staff love the first Friday of every month because they all get a free small bottle of Jack Daniels!
I was amazed to learn that Lynchburg is in a 'dry' county - that's right, you can't actually buy any alcohol, including Jack Daniels! Luckily for everyone there is a slight loophole that states that they can sell special commemorative bottles as collectors items, not as alcohol. Obviously, we had to buy some to commemorate our visit :)
After the tour, we headed in to the townsite where we had burgers at the local diner - the Iron Kettle Restaurant. Clare had traditional "biscuits" and fries, while I had to true the "Dan King" burger. With two 8oz burger patties, it was a huge challenge. It was so big, even the menu says "I can't believe he ate the whole thing"! And yes, I did eat it all!!
Next we headed down to Alabama. It was crazy to see how the road narrowed once we crossed the border - Clare was a little nervous driving on their narrow roads, especially once the thunderstorm unleashed itself on us! She did very well though, a lot better than she thinks she actually did. The storm was that full on that we had to stop on the side of the road and wait for it to pass. There was even a lightning strike in the field next to us!
Back on the road again, we headed over to Georgia on our way to Atlanta. On our way to the famous Chattanooga, we drove past a nuclear power station. While I know they are all over the world, the fact that we technically don't have any in Australia made this one an unexpected surprise and worthy of taking a photo out of the window as we drove by.
We heard on the radio that there had been an accident involving an 18 wheeler truck and a spillage had occurred, but we missed them say where the accident had occurred... we found out the hard way! When we finally inched our way to the accident, we saw that the tanker had taken out several metres of safety rail before it nose dived over the edge of the road, down into a ravine full of trees - the only thing we could actually see was the tail end of the tanker sticking up through the trees above the road. Ouch!
In the northern suburbs of Atlanta (Marietta to be precise) we stumbled on the giant mechanical KFC chicken! Not only did we have to stop at the "home of the big chicken" but we had to compare how KFC compared to back home. Oh my god! I had the best chicken pot pie ever! I would never have guessed that KFC could serve such delicious food. If only we had these back home...
Arriving in Macon after dark, we didn't get to enjoy the exterior of the 1842 Inn, which has the same design as Tara from "Gone With The Wind" - this is the reason I picked this hotel as Clare's mother is a huge fan of the book and film. Kathy, this one is for you :)
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