Curious Caves, Watery Wonders, and a Shot of Jack.
I have been in two different states, two different time zones, and gone through daylight savings time in the last four days. I've finally readjusted to central time and I apologize in advance for the slightly long post but I promise it's worth it. After Chattanooga I had an extra two nights before my tour at Mammoth Cave National Park and I decided to go back and spend them with some amazing hosts. My cousins welcomed me in without even really knowing me and visa versa; I was so comfortable there. Bill and Christie - thank you for the fun times, the red wine, the exploring, and the hospitality. I truly had the best time staying in Nashville with you.
My body still achey from caving, I decided to spend a few hours with one of my favorite men - Jack Daniels. Lynchburg, Tennessee is a small, dry (no alcohol), historic town that also just so happens to be the home of the Historic Jack Daniels Distillery. A perk of traveling alone is getting on the good tours. It was packed when I got there and I was so nervous I was either going to be stuck on the dry tour or waiting for hours to get in. What fun would it be to tour a whiskey distillery without trying any whiskey? I stepped up to the counter and said I'll take whatever tour you have next for one person. I was on the next Flight of Jack Distillery Tour, the one I wanted, thirty minutes later. My tour guide, Ron, a large, southern gentlemen with a ripped Jack Daniels hat, white beard and overalls, really knew his whiskey. Each time he specified "Tennessee Whiskey" he make it a big deal by taking his hat off and standing up straighter. He made the other men in the group tip their hats as well. It was overcast Saturday which was a cool backdrop for the brick buildings, black trees, and charred silos. Jack Daniels is not only the oldest distillery in America, it is also the only distillery in the world that still propagates their own wheat, the only whiskey distillery that makes their own barrels, without glue and nails I might add, and they go so far as to even make their own charcoal. Literally everything they do is done right there in Lynchburg, Tennessee. The water even comes from the natural spring nearby. Fun fact, they don't reuse their barrels. After one use they sell them to patrons or other companies. Tabasco hot sauce is actually aged three years in their used barrels. In one of the buildings, the oldest on the property, there is an old iron safe. It's been there since the distillery opened. As the story goes, Jack came in early to work one day, couldn't get it open, and in his frustration kicked it. Well, he ended up breaking a toe and never told anyone about it. It became infected and years later it ended up killing him at the age of 61. Moral of the story; don't get to work early. True or not, I'm using this as my excuse from now on, feel free to do the same. With so much history in one place, I can see why the distillery is recognized as a National Historic Landmark.
Slightly buzzed and a very happy camper, I headed to Bill and Christie's. Originally, my plan was only to stay in Nashville with them Saturday night and head to Kentucky the next day to camp at Mammoth Cave National Park. Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas for me. Camping in below freezing temperatures, no thank you. I happily stayed another night and Bill and I decided to make the most of Sunday and go exploring at Harpeth River State Park. Only thirty minutes away, we got to the park and first hiked to the top of the bluff. The narrow path was moss covered and reminiscent of a Japanese garden at times. Looking up, you could see the flat rocks creating stairs all the way to the top. Hay barrels and the river's end far off in the distance, the view was definitely worth the hike. The overlook was actually a nice surprise since the reason why we chose this park in the first place was to see the Montgomery Bell Tunnel. The tunnel is the first successful water diversion tunnel in America. Made by slave labor and gunpowder, it is 200' long, 8' high, 15' wide, and sits in the limestone bluff at a point called "the narrows". Back in the 1800s, Mr. Bell realized that the elevation change would prove helpful to the Pattison iron forge and using an axel, pulley, and lever system the water would create enough force for the log hammer lever to do what blacksmiths could not. Coming down from the bluff overlook, the path continued maybe a mile more to the tunnel. We headed in that direction and were rewarded with what looked like a small waterfall. Walking around to face it head on, light shone through from the other side and you could see the elevation change that Montgomery Bell had capitalized on. Although a short excursion, it was very scenic and well worth the trip.
After saying goodbye early Monday morning, I headed for Mammoth Cave National Park. What a great way to spend my two month roadtrip-iversary! As I mentioned in my last post, the only way to see the caves is by signing up for a Ranger-led tour and their spring season started on Saturday. The tour I wanted to do, the Grand Avenue Tour, included two others along with it. I wanted to get as much bang for my buck as possible and I definitely chose well. Since this particular tour is only Monday to Friday, we were the first group in for the year. The four hour, four mile hike, was the exact opposite of my last caving experience. Mammoth Cave is the longest cave in the world with a cave system of about 400 miles. In case you're wondering, only about 10-12 miles of that is accessible to rangers and tourists passing through. To be considered connected to Mammoth Cave you have to be able to start from that point and make it back, underground, to the historic cave entrance by the visitor center. A big part of how the cave is so long has to do with the fact that it is a dry cave. Unlike the wet cave in Chattanooga, the temperature is always right around 55 degrees. The ceiling is sandstone which keeps moisture out and also means that instead of stalactites and stalagmites, there is a lot of gypsum. It was unlike any of the other caves I'd seen so far. We started in a breakdown canyon passageway, a huge, and I do mean huge, tunnel. You could fit a small suburban home in there, for example. It did get smaller as we walked through Cleveland Avenue and what's known as a phreatic passageway. It is a smaller tunnel with a curved, gypsum covered ceiling. If you laid an egg on its side and cut it in half, that's the shape this part of the cave would be. The last type of cave we walked through was a vados passageway. Requiring a bit more attention and a few smaller spaces, the canyon shaped cave had been formed by faster flowing water. The smooth trail curved and wound around huge formations, like a winding road with giant curved boulders creating walls. It's interesting how secure these caves are and how sure the rangers are of that fact. I was in the back of the 75 person tour, taking my time, and the couple in front of me asked Ranger Rick (seriously, that's his name) what happens if any of the rocks fall. Ranger Rick responded promptly and confidently, "they don't." It's true though, these caves are millions of years old, back before dinosaurs even existed, they are certainly not going anywhere. There are tons of cave tours to go on at the park, ranging from easy to very difficult. If you can only spend one day here, I'd recommend this tour. It really shows off the complexity and uniqueness of Mammoth Cave.
Exiting the park and heading for Bowling Green, Kentucky, I drove through Cave City. I love abandoned places, they're fun to photograph, always interesting, and Cave City is chock-full of them. I found an old abandoned mini golf and go kart place, a barn for a jamboree on the side of a hill, and I discovered Dinosaur World. In case you didn't know, I love dinosaurs. And no, not just because of Jurassic Park, although that movie is amazing. Anyway, now that I have the theme song stuck in my head, I'll continue. Seemingly abandoned and surprisingly not, ten dollars will get you into what I'm going to call a theme park and not an amusement park. There are no rides, but there is a playground made of dinosaur bones, a boneyard for digging up fossils, and a small museum inside Dinosaur World. The majority of the park is a roped off pathway with giant, life-size, ceramic dinosaurs on each side. Each species has it's own write up and if you go farther into the park you will see more and more obscure dinosaurs everywhere you look. You can even take a picture with their roadside dinosaur, a made up species used for attracting customers that is obnoxiously bright and stands forty feet tall next to the highway. I really liked the brachiosaurus and the brontosaurus, the giant, long tailed omnivores, sticking out in-between the trees. If you didn't look closely enough you would have thought they were just another tree. Kitschy? Hell yes. Worth stopping for? I think so. It was just like taking a walk through the woods, 65 million years ago.
I've spent the last two nights in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Yes, that Bowling Green. Unless you count the eight beautiful old corvettes ruined in the sinkhole in 2014 at the National Corvette Museum, I saw no evidence of a massacre. A small town with not too much to do, I did go to that museum and learned that the first corvette was released in 1953, only came in white, and there were only 300 made. Get there early enough and you can see their production line in action. It's the only place in the world where corvettes are built. I also saw where the sinkhole occurred. It's filled in now and there is a yellow line outlining the cave below and another red line where the sinkhole was. Most of the cars were mangled beyond repair and their corpses now sit, still covered in dirt, on display exactly where they were before the sinkhole. After the museum, I wandered around downtown, saw Fountain Square, went in a few shops and overall had a relaxing time in Bowling Green. My couch surfing host, Heath, and fellow couch surfer, Allen, made my time here a lot more fun. We exchanged surfing and travel stories over dinner and it was the perfect downtime before what is going to be an awesome and jam packed visit to Memphis.
My mom is coming to meet me in Memphis today and I am beyond excited! I can't wait to see her and spend a night at Graceland!
- G.
The Photo:
The Montgomery Bell Tunnel.
Harpeth River State Park, Kingston Springs, TN.
3/12/17.
