In Search Of Fun

Last weekend, Cary and I continued our quest to see some of the sights in North Alabama. We started by having lunch at the All-Steak in Cullman. I had never been and it was delicious. I had the chicken pot pie, lima beans and squash casserole. I will say that the famous orange rolls where a bit greasy for my taste.

 Since it was still really, really hot, we decided to explore another cavern. This time we headed to Rickwood Caverns in Warrior, AL. It was a complete disappointment! The majority of the cave looked like a mine shaft as they had just concreted the walls to create paths after blasting.

The next three pictures are of the living part of the cave. We probably only walked 50 yards out of the mile long cave through this area.

The remainder of the cave looked like the following pictures.

After the cave experience, we decided to look for the famous covered bridges of Blount County. Well, the first one was burned down although the sign was still up. This was the second one, which is smaller than the covered bridge on Green Mountain. The third one we did not find since we had left the directions at home. It is apparently the longest and most picturesque. Maybe one day on the way to Birmingham, we will be able to find it.



Although the sights that we visited were less than impressive, it was still a nice day!

This weekend is the start of the People to People season so my weekend explorations will stop for a few weeks.

A Day With The Jack

Last weekend, Cary and I ventured to the historic Lynchburg, Tennessee which is the home of Jack Daniel's Whiskey. Although, we both had been before, we thought this would be a good outing for two reasons: free and mostly inside!

It was very busy so we had to wait awhile for our tour. Once the tour started, we were entertained by a big, jolly man who was our tour guide. I think he was most excited to tell us about the free pint of whiskey the employees get each month!

This is the spring where all the water comes from that is used at Jack Daniel's when making the whiskey.

Jack was not a very big man as seen in this statue.

 In fact, he wore the same shoe size as I do! 

It is believed that Jack died as a direct result of him kicking his safe. One day, he could not get the safe open so he kicked it and broke his toe. It resulted in an infection that would later kill him.

There are seventy-seven storehouses like the one on the hill on the property. I can't imagine how much money is in all those buildings. Just the tax on the whiskey that leaves each month is many millions of dollars.

We were able to go into one barrel house and it was full to the ceiling with barrels of whiskey!

After our tour, we enjoyed some complimentary lemonade and headed across the creek to downtown Lynchburg.

I thought this sign would be appropriate for my brother's house!

Since we were close to Tim's Ford Dam, we decided to drive over and check it out. It is an earth dam so there was nothing much to see.

Another fun adventure!

My Little Buddy

I got a letter in the mail from Bryson yesterday and I want to remember what it said. Sara wrote what he said and then he signed his name.

"Aunt Aimee,

I love you, Aimee, because sometimes you take me to trips and see horses. And thank you for letting me spend time with my mommy,daddy and Aimee and Pop and Gran and Brayden and Blaine.

         Bryson"

I can't think of a time when we have gone to see horses!

Sequoyah Caverns

Last weekend, Cary and I continued our quest to see places listed on the "Top 200 Places to See In North Alabama". There are lots of interesting places to see within a few hours drive of Huntsville. We decided since the weather was hot, a cavern would be a great place to spend the day so we headed to Sequoyah Caverns in Valley Head, Alabama. Except for the fact that I left the directions at home, it turned out to be a great adventure.

Sequoyah Caverns is a privately owned cavern in someone's backyard. When we arrived, we had about 35 minutes before the next tour, so we explored the grounds. They had a collection of animals, a pond, a log cabin, barn and picnic area along with a store that had a few items.

They warned you about their wild animals, but we found Edward the peacock and Julio the mule to be quite friendly. We didn't find out the duck's name and we never did see the mean swan!

This was the entrance to the cavern.

The cavern was not as large or impressive as many of the other caverns I have visited. What made this cavern unique was the reflective pools throughout the cavern. They gave the illusion that there were deep crevices, but in reality the water was just a few inches deep and just showing the reflection of the ceiling. If you look closely, you can see it in the pictures. It was hard to capture.

This was one of the areas where there was water a few inches deep that was reflecting the ceiling so it appeared much deeper.

We were only about 30 miles from Chattanooga so we drove in to eat lunch at Big River Grille. It was delicious as always! We decided to skip the aquarium since we had just been the week before, but we took time to walk across the pedestrian bridge and down by the river.

Can't wait to see where our next adventure will be!