For my summer vacation this year I decided to head east and visit Coco in Kentucky. I wanted to spend some time with her and Nick since they just got engaged, and it's the best time of year to visit there. Instead of flying directly to Lexington I decided to make a detour in Tennessee to mark a huge item off my bucket list, the Jack Daniels Distillery.
My flight took me from John Wayne to Nashville which was perfect because I have always wanted to see Nashville and it was conveniently about 80 miles away from the JD Distillery. I was going to spend the first night solo since Coco would be driving from Lexington to Nashville the following day. This was my chance to explore the city and find out the best places to eat and have fun. I struck gold the first night because there was a free festival being held until midnight in front of the downtown city hall, hundreds (if not a thousand or more) of people were at this event. They had really good food, great craft beers, and tons of bands playing. After drinking a few beers I decided to venture elsewhere and get some food. Nashville is known for their Hot Chicken. It's like fried chicken but with a coating of sauce that you determine the intensity of heat. From mild to scorching. Hattie B's was one of the places that the Internet was buzzing about on multiple site's so I decided to check it out. I ordered the 2nd to the hottest hot chicken, and what a mistake that was. It was pretty hot. So hot that I enjoyed it and ended up getting the same thing again 24hrs later. Addiction. Anyways, Nashville is a great city. You have the downtown touristy area thats about 4 blocks long filled with 3 to 4 story bars, all packed with live music all night long (last call is 3:00AM). Then there's the Vanderbilt college area that is also filled with bars and clubs but has more of a college scene.
After a few hours of sleep I jumped out of bed and started day 2 by renting a car and heading south to Lynchburg. Talk about back country. wow. The back roads to get to Lynchburg were hillbilly as hillbilly gets.
Upon arriving I was shocked to see how muted and hidden the distillery was. There was little or no signage letting you know you have arrived to the great Jack Danilels Headquarters. Just a simple black 2ft by 2ft sign saying Welcome to the Jack Daniels Distillery. They really have not changed much in over a century of being there. The actual distillery was huge, covering a large area throughout the hills of the small town.
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They even have dozens of full time firemen onsite just in case of a fire. This was one of the original trucks from way back when. Only about half of my tour throughout the distillery was documented with photos due to alcohol fumes being in the air. I guess any type of flash can possibly ignite the fumes and cause a huge fire, which is not a good thing for a whiskey distillery. A lot of the cool parts like fermenting, distilling, charcoal filtering were those particular areas so unfortunately I do not have any pictures of those areas.
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Jack Daniels makes a blend called Single Barrel. Even though it's their finest blend, I enjoy Gentlemen Jack which is less superior (and cheaper but I still like it more). Single Barrel is exactly like it sounds, it comes from 1 barrel. All other JD whiskeys are blended with multiple barrels. You can buy a bottle of Single Barrel anywhere whiskey is sold, but for $12,000 you can have your own Jack Daniels Single Barrel delivered to you. Barrel and all. The picture below shows you exactly how many single bottles come out of one barrel (around 250). The number of bottles varies from barrel to barrel because of the amount of evaporation during the barreling proccess. On average each barrel has nearly 5 gallons disappear into thin air during this process. Upon ordering a single barrel you have the option to fly to Lynchburg and pick your barrel out of a 3 samples. You even get your name on a small plaque in their Single Barrel room. They will even ship you the actual barrel.
Now I know what I want for Christmas next year.
The town of Lynchburg is small. I'm talking tiny. Downtown consists of a courthouse with shops on all 4 sides. It was walking distance from the distillery. In town you could find really good BBQ as well as any type of JD souvenir ever made, from bikinis to cookbooks. They had it all and I could have spent a fortune on souvenirs (and whiskey fudge).
I raced back from Lynchburg to meet Coco in Nashville to have one more night out on the town. We got hot chicken and went out and partied a bit. Last call in Nashville is 3AM which can be quite taxing. The heat was not too bad, it was around 85 everyday but the humidity was absolutely horrible. The next day we took off and headed north to Lexington Kentucky.
Coco and Nick had picked up some fresh apple pie moonshine which I had just about everyday. We had a lot of fun catching up since I only get to see her about once a year. If I had not known any better I would have thought I had checked into a 5 star bed and breakfast. I woke up every morning to a huge breakfast, had all I could drink whiskey and moonshine, my own room, and all you can eat pie. It was awesome!
The day I arrived into town was the last Saturday of the Kentucky State Fair. It was quite an interesting event, lots of hillbillies and tons to eat and see. The main thing they had that was different than our fair was the awards area. They had multiple large rooms in their convention center dedicated to the states biggest corn stalk, or the healthiest tobacco plant. You name it. If it grew in Kentucky there was an award for it at the fair. That was just the plant area. The livestock area had it's own huge hall. It was pretty cool walking around and checking everything out.
Day 2 in Lexington was one I was really looking forward to. Nick was going to take us out to his friends land in the middle of nowhere and shoot guns. We had quite an arsenal at our fingertips from an AR-15 to an AK47. Nick had about a half dozen handguns to choose from as well. My favorite was probably his .45
On my last day in Kentucky Coco really wanted me to ride with her so we took her horse Dream and Nick's horse Bill out for a stroll. Bill is stubborn son of a bitch, that's all I have to say. With the exception of riding in Costa Rica back in 2010 I have not been on a horse since the 90's in Mammoth on family vacation. It was like riding a bike though, I got right on and the only issue I had was getting Bill to go over 2mph. He was testing me at every corner.
It was hard to leave the next day. Coco and Nick were great hosts and other than the weather I really love it in Kentucky. People are very nice and polite, going out is super cheap, and I love shooting guns, drinking whiskey, and staying at the Coco & Nick B&B (lol). Look them up on Travel Zoo! haha.
My flight took me from John Wayne to Nashville which was perfect because I have always wanted to see Nashville and it was conveniently about 80 miles away from the JD Distillery. I was going to spend the first night solo since Coco would be driving from Lexington to Nashville the following day. This was my chance to explore the city and find out the best places to eat and have fun. I struck gold the first night because there was a free festival being held until midnight in front of the downtown city hall, hundreds (if not a thousand or more) of people were at this event. They had really good food, great craft beers, and tons of bands playing. After drinking a few beers I decided to venture elsewhere and get some food. Nashville is known for their Hot Chicken. It's like fried chicken but with a coating of sauce that you determine the intensity of heat. From mild to scorching. Hattie B's was one of the places that the Internet was buzzing about on multiple site's so I decided to check it out. I ordered the 2nd to the hottest hot chicken, and what a mistake that was. It was pretty hot. So hot that I enjoyed it and ended up getting the same thing again 24hrs later. Addiction. Anyways, Nashville is a great city. You have the downtown touristy area thats about 4 blocks long filled with 3 to 4 story bars, all packed with live music all night long (last call is 3:00AM). Then there's the Vanderbilt college area that is also filled with bars and clubs but has more of a college scene.
It was easy to find a boot store in Nashville. Coco got some fancy ones for her wedding and I bought my first ever pair of shit kickers. They are actually quite comfortable.
Jack has their own take on Fireball in 3 selected states called Tennessee Fire. It was pretty good. I could not resist taking a selfie with Jack himself.
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At the sawmill they take fresh cut trees and cut them into planks.
From there the planks are taken to the rickyard and stacked really high, then are torched using pure 140 proof JD. The end result is a homemade charcoal, something Jack Daniels has been doing since they started in 1875.
They even have dozens of full time firemen onsite just in case of a fire. This was one of the original trucks from way back when. Only about half of my tour throughout the distillery was documented with photos due to alcohol fumes being in the air. I guess any type of flash can possibly ignite the fumes and cause a huge fire, which is not a good thing for a whiskey distillery. A lot of the cool parts like fermenting, distilling, charcoal filtering were those particular areas so unfortunately I do not have any pictures of those areas.
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This is the original safe and desk of Jack Daniel. We got to go inside the office in which he worked out of, it was a small little untouched 3 bedroom house that was in the middle of the distillery. This safe was particularly interesting because it was the cause of Jack's death back in 1911. The story went that he arrived one day to work early and could not open the safe. His brother was the only one who could open it time and time again and he did not want to wait for him to show up. He got so frustrated that he kicked the safe and ended up breaking his toe. Being stubborn he did not tell anyone and walked with a cane until the broken toe was infected. He ended up having to remove the toe, then his foot, then his leg, and died of blood poisioning a few years later.
Jack Daniels makes a blend called Single Barrel. Even though it's their finest blend, I enjoy Gentlemen Jack which is less superior (and cheaper but I still like it more). Single Barrel is exactly like it sounds, it comes from 1 barrel. All other JD whiskeys are blended with multiple barrels. You can buy a bottle of Single Barrel anywhere whiskey is sold, but for $12,000 you can have your own Jack Daniels Single Barrel delivered to you. Barrel and all. The picture below shows you exactly how many single bottles come out of one barrel (around 250). The number of bottles varies from barrel to barrel because of the amount of evaporation during the barreling proccess. On average each barrel has nearly 5 gallons disappear into thin air during this process. Upon ordering a single barrel you have the option to fly to Lynchburg and pick your barrel out of a 3 samples. You even get your name on a small plaque in their Single Barrel room. They will even ship you the actual barrel.
Now I know what I want for Christmas next year.
If this flag is raised that means that there is a customer coming in that day to taste and pick their Single Barrel.
Our tour guide had been doing tours for over 30 years at JD. He has some pretty good one liners. Below we are at the final stage of the 2hr tour in the tasting room. My favorite part. I asked so many questions during the tour that I'm guessing that everyone wanted to kill me, but I had so much to find out!
The town of Lynchburg is small. I'm talking tiny. Downtown consists of a courthouse with shops on all 4 sides. It was walking distance from the distillery. In town you could find really good BBQ as well as any type of JD souvenir ever made, from bikinis to cookbooks. They had it all and I could have spent a fortune on souvenirs (and whiskey fudge).
I raced back from Lynchburg to meet Coco in Nashville to have one more night out on the town. We got hot chicken and went out and partied a bit. Last call in Nashville is 3AM which can be quite taxing. The heat was not too bad, it was around 85 everyday but the humidity was absolutely horrible. The next day we took off and headed north to Lexington Kentucky.
The day I arrived into town was the last Saturday of the Kentucky State Fair. It was quite an interesting event, lots of hillbillies and tons to eat and see. The main thing they had that was different than our fair was the awards area. They had multiple large rooms in their convention center dedicated to the states biggest corn stalk, or the healthiest tobacco plant. You name it. If it grew in Kentucky there was an award for it at the fair. That was just the plant area. The livestock area had it's own huge hall. It was pretty cool walking around and checking everything out.
Day 2 in Lexington was one I was really looking forward to. Nick was going to take us out to his friends land in the middle of nowhere and shoot guns. We had quite an arsenal at our fingertips from an AR-15 to an AK47. Nick had about a half dozen handguns to choose from as well. My favorite was probably his .45
After eating nothing but fried food and peanut butter pie (so damn good, thank you again Coco for getting that) I had to at least hit one Crossfit box in Lexington. I have no idea how people workout in this humidity. It makes it twice as bad, even at a 5:30AM workout.
Ok, back to eating whatever I want and drinking all day long. A true vacation. Day 3 we decided to go to the Woodford Reserve Distillery. Woodford is a not so common whiskey right in Coco's backyard (like 2 miles away). It was pretty neat to see the differences in scale compared to Jack Daniels. Woodford is quite smaller but makes a fine whiskey.
They allowed us to get really close to the mash that was fermenting. It smelled like microwaved cereal.
I decided to do the ice bucket challenge but I switched it around and did it Kentucky style as the tractor bucket challenge
My attempt at a pistol squat on the Lanes End fence in Coco's back yard
It was hard to leave the next day. Coco and Nick were great hosts and other than the weather I really love it in Kentucky. People are very nice and polite, going out is super cheap, and I love shooting guns, drinking whiskey, and staying at the Coco & Nick B&B (lol). Look them up on Travel Zoo! haha.
Till next time Kentucky
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