A Weekend in Nashville
During the first weekend in November I traveled to Nashville
with my husband for the Ravens vs. Titans game. I had previously visited
Nashville on several occasions for work, but I never really got a chance to
enjoy the city. The works visits were very short and by the time I was off in
the evening, there weren’t many places to visit and I was tired. When I found
out that we played the Titans away this season, I saw it as a great opportunity
to visit Nashville again. My husband loves football, so it was easy to convince
him to go. I could enjoy the city and we could also cheer on the home team.
We visited Nashville from November 4th – November
6th. We flew in early Saturday morning and arrived at Nashville at
about 9:00 am. I had made arrangements to stay in an Airbnb for the weekend.
Hotels for the weekend cost a little more money than I wanted to spend. I
lucked up with finding an Airbnb, that was about 10 minutes from the stadium. I
got a 2-bedroom apartment for much less than I would have spent for a hotel
room. The hostess was very nice. You can check out the Airbnb here.
We were not able to check into our Airbnb until 3:00 pm so we chose to do a tour of the Jack Daniel distillery to pass the time. I always
enjoy shots of Old Number 7, so I figured this tour should be fun. After
getting our checked bag and grabbing our rental, we headed out to Lynchburg,
TN. This trip took about an hour and twenty minutes. Upon arrival we went to
the visitor center where we were able to purchase tickets for the tour. There
were several tours options that range from 30-minute tours to 3-hour tours. The
tickets were very reasonable in price ranging from $13- $25, which the
exception of the $3-hour tour which cost $75. Me and my husband opted for a
one-and-a-half-hour tour. Basically, you took a tour of the facilities and then
you end the tour in the tasting room, where you sample different Jack Daniel
Whiskeys.
Jack bottles throughout the years
Our tour guide was Ron. He was great and very knowledgeable.
You can tell he takes his job very seriously and he really enjoys what he
does. Our tour started in the Rickyard
where they create charcoal for the whiskey making process. They burn these
maple wood pallets to create the charcoal chips these chips are then used to
mellow the whiskey. The whiskey drips through 10 feet of this charcoal.
pallets burning to make charcoal
Jack on the Rocks
After the Rickyard we visited the natural spring that houses
the water used to make the whiskey. In front of the spring was a statue of Jack
Daniel standing on rocks. The statue is known as “Jack on the Rocks”. We also were able to see the original office
of Jack Daniel that is still on the property. In the office is the safe that
ultimately led to his death. Apparently, he could not get the safe open one day,
so he kicked the safe injuring his toe. The injury was left untreated and turn
into very bad infection that ultimately killed him.
The next stop of the tour was to one of the fermentation
buildings. We got to see the process of how the whiskey was made, but no pictures
were allowed. Towards the end of the
tour, they explained to us that we could actually buy an entire barrel of whiskey.
The process included coming down to the office and tasting the barrels. After
you buy a barrel, your name goes on a little placard on wall of other barrel
purchasers.
After the tour was complete it was time for the tasting. We
were given a sample of Jack Daniel Gold, Sinatra Select, Single Barrel Select,
Single Barrel: Barrel Proof, and Single Barrel Rye. My favorite of all these samples was the Sinatra
Select. It was so smooth. If you were
wondering how Sinatra name ended up on a bottle of whiskey, it’s because he was
big fan of Jack Daniel Whiskey. To commemorate Sinatra, the created a special
blend and named it after him. It is quite expensive too. After the tasting was
over we were brought back to the guest house where we purchased a souvenirs
bottle of whiskey and had our names engraved into it.
Sinatra Select was my fave!!!
After making the ride back to Nashville, we checked into our
Airbnb and rested little before heading to downtown Nashville. We had dinner at
the BB King’s Blues Club. The club is
located on 2nd Ave. It wasn’t
a long wait to get in, but while we waited for our table we decided to explore
nearby. We came across a cowboy boot store a few doors down. Let me just say, I
was terribly misinformed about the price of cowboy boots. Maybe I wasn’t informed
at all. COWBOY BOOTS ARE EXPENSIVE!!! Those boots were like $500 and above, but
they were running a special, buy one get one free. They whole place smelted of
leather and they were good quality, but I will need to save up for my pair. As
soon as we left this store out buzzer went off for the Blue’s Club, so we headed
back there. We had a great time. There was cover band that performed, and they
played all the hits. The most memorable performance was Beyonce’s Crazy in
Love. The music was great and so was the food.
The cowboy boot store
party wagon pulled by a tractor on Broadway
After dinner we enjoy Broadway and 2nd Ave. These
two streets are lined with clubs and many of them had bands that were
performing country music. Nashville is like the country music capitol so that
was to be expected. We only stopped into one or two and had a few drinks. We were more so people watching than anything
else. We did not hang out for too long, because we had a long day the following
day and we needed to be ready for game day. We headed back to our cozy Airbnb
and called it a night.
The following morning, we were up early to get to Nissan
Stadium. I think we arrived at about 9 am and there were already Ravens and Titans
fans setting up for tailgating. We had to go to will call for our tickets and
our field passes. After getting our field passes we were able to go down to the
field and watch the Ravens warm up. It was nice to see the players and be greeted
by them on the way to the field. My husband was really enjoying himself. Like I
said, HE LOVES FOOTBALL. After watching warm ups, we headed to our seats which
were in the front row next to the tunnel. I wish I could have gotten pictures
of the Titan coming out of the tunnel. They had this machine that shot fire each
time a player on the starting line up was announced. It was hot as hell on the front
row. Well the game got underway and …….we
lost. Even though we didn’t get the outcome we wanted, I couldn’t complain
though. I had an awesome day. We headed back to the apartment and Airbnb and we
settled in for the night.
Monday arrived, and we were scheduled to go home, but we couldn’t
leave before I had Kenny try the famous Nashville Hot Chicken. I had tried hot
chicken on my previous visits to Nashville. It is a local favorite and anyone who
comes to Nashville tries it. We went to one location first and it was packed.
The line was out the door and the place had barely opened. We went to a second
location which was a new location and we beat the rush by like 5 minutes. We
enjoyed our lunch before heading back to the airport to fly home.
My stay in Nashville was short, but I would recommend it to
anyone. If you do go, consider the drive Lynchburg and take the Jack Daniels Tour.
You will really enjoy it. If you are considering visiting Nashville and would
like information on things to do, contact me anytime at info@pandstravel.com.
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