New England quaintness...

I know its been a while since my last post! We've been so busy and I've been a little lazy about posting. So tonight I threw together some of my favorite pics from the last week and the places we visited.  Connecticut and Cape Cod (known by locals as The Cape). Yes, I was corrected, so in retaliation I call it The Cod! 😆 And if you are headed to Martha's Vineyard, please just say The Vineyard!!! (Not Martha's!!)

Seriously, New England has the cutest and most tidy towns I've ever seen. As I've said before pictures don't do justice to the beauty we experienced!  The Cod was a little commercialized and traffic was horrendous! But I'm absolutely glad we came. I wouldn't have left out a thing! Rocky could have done without it, but it's a give and take--right?

Hope you get some pleasure from the pics! We are in Maine now and WOW! A different beauty and lobster to die for!! I'll post more on Maine later!

Absolutely Love That New England vibe!

Asheville, North Carolina

Its been a few days since I posted but we are doing lots of traveling trying to get to Maine and have some of that succulent lobster we have heard about.
We loved the trip to Asheville! It was the prettiest scenery we have seen yet on our drive. The mountains were all around us and were lush with vegetation.
 Our accommodations in Asheville were really great! We stayed at a Homewood Suites for the first time and were pleasantly surprised. Our room was very well-kept and was more than comfortable. It had a full kitchen and separate living area and bedroom area. We had dinner at a local restaurant called CornerStone that was just ok. I guess you can't have great food every day.
 The next day we decided to explore downtown Asheville.  As we cruised around we found it to be a very vibrant, eclectic area.  It is very neat and well-maintained. There were dozens of restaurants and shops including an abundance of book stores. 
One of the videos below shows my favorite of the book stores. It was called Book Exchange and Champagne and had live local music. I absolutely LOVE THAT! A book store and champagne in the same place! What could be better? On the sidewalk outside the store local vendors sell their handmade goods. Candles, artwork, bottle openers and other goods made from horseshoes and files. All Interesting!

Our 2nd day we decided to travel a small part of the Blue Ridge Parkway. This quote from the site explains it perfectly, "A Blue Ridge Parkway experience is unlike any other: a slow-paced and relaxing drive revealing stunning long-range vistas and close-up views of the rugged mountains and pastoral landscapes of the Appalachian Highlands. The Parkway meanders for 469 miles, protecting a diversity of plants and animals, and providing opportunities for enjoying all that makes this region of the country so special." 
I'm posting pictures and video we took but they just don't do justice to the breathtaking views we saw. Rocky loved the drive as it rained on us for most of it.  He loves that rain!! 

We decided not to go to the Biltmore. I think maybe it's become quite a tourist trap and we weren't sure it would keep our attention that long to be worth the price of tickets. $70 each to self-guide!Add-ons at $25 and up for each additional thing you want to see or do. 😲

Rolling into Lynchburg- Jack Daniel's Territory

1st Jack Daniel's Bottle

Today's Bottle

Thursday we decided to go to the Jack Daniel's Distillery. I'm not a whiskey drinker but 1/2 of our group is a big fan! The pleasant and scenic drive  takes about 1 1/2 hours  from Nashville.








Rocky was excited to get his mileage on the new truck up to 26.2 miles per gallon! Woohoo!
Lynchburg is a small town of 500 people and it consists of the distillery, town square (where you can get all things Jack Daniel's) and one stop light.  The parking area about a block from the distillery is very large and has a commercial feel. No purses! Only fanny packs! Not something we happened to have in our possession. Since that's where the secret is kept, security is very high.  There are  a couple of photo ops in the area waiting to catch the shuttle to the distillery.

There are a number of tours to select from, our selection was the Angels Share tour. According to my traveling partner the Angels Share is the whiskey vapors that escape the barrels and float into the atmosphere. Our tour guide, Jason, was extremely knowledgeable of all things distillery and the history of the entire brand. He was local born and raised in Lynchburg and deeply dedicated to the company. The tour took us through the entire process from barrel making to charcoal making, distilling, and bottling. The entire process is done on site with the exception of sourcing the sugar maple wood for their charcoal filtering from 2 adjacent communities.

The tour culminated in a live barrel-aging warehouse which had an air-conditioned all glass-enclosed sitting area to taste 5 of the Jack Daniel's offerings. Half of this couple enjoyed this part of the tour a lot more than the other half! And that led to a trip to the bottle shop for a bottle of Old No27 Gold which I presume was Rocky's favorite .

During the tour there were 3 elements that stood out to me:

1. All Jack Daniel's brands are made right there on the distillery property in Lynchburg and shipped out to 174 countries around the world. 
2. Jack Daniel's brands are all made from varying percentages of corn, rye and malted barley and water and ABSOLUTELY nothing else. 
3. The water used comes from a natural constant 56 degree cave-spring on the distillery property. Every bottle since it's inception has been distilled using this water source. 

Cave-Springs

Tastings!

Another interesting note is that the Jack Daniel's distillery team is very proud of their 99% recycling achievement--everything is recycled!

One nice perk of the new ride is a dedicated wifi hotspot which allows me to use my MacBook on the road! yay! If the level of detail on today's post seems enhanced a little birdie chimed in as I typed. 😘

Stay tuned for more as we RollTimers head to Asheville, NC!

2nd Stop on the road to Maine: Nashville

We arrived in Nashville this afternoon around 2:00. We only have 2 nights here and were trying to decide what to see! We have been to the Grand Ole Opry, The Ryman, and many other places on Music Row. I found an article in US News and World Report on the top 10 things to see in Nashville and number 3 on the list was the Parthenon. It's a full size replica of the original Parthenon in Athens, Greece.It was built years ago because Nashville was called the Athens of the South. The re-creation of the 42-foot statue Athena is the focus of the Parthenon just as it was in ancient Greece. The building and the Athena statue are both full-scale replicas of the Athenian original. I've posted pictures and of course the massive size is much more impressive in person. 

We had a quick dinner at Liberty Burger this evening and then to Bar Louie for a night-cap! Perfect Day!
Looking forward to tomorrow! Here's a hint at where we will visit! Enjoy one of my all-time favorite music videos!

1st stop on the Road to Maine

Well, we had to stop somewhere and Memphis was a good place after 7 hours of driving. We had dinner at Rendezvous, which is a Memphis BBQ tradition since 1948! I know this because it says it right on the sign! 😀
Rocky said the ribs here were definitely "Love that" worthy!

On to Nashville tomorrow!

So excited to be starting this journey! Between Rocky( husband of 38 years) and me, we’ve worked for close to 80 years! We finally found retirement and it’s the best job ever! We downsized from a large home and built a cozy place across the street from Lake Ray Hubbard that fits us perfectly . We already know all of our neighbors and they are the most kind and thoughtful people you would ever meet! WE absolutely Love That!

So our plan was to travel and we are starting out with a trip to Maine with quite a few stops along the way. We will let you know about all  the things that make us say "Love That" along the way!