Home Again

Sigh.  It's our last post for this trip, our excellent adventure.  We had more fun than we even imagined we would, but I guess all good things must come to an end.


It was really hard to leave Goose Pond Colony.  The weather was nice and warm, shorts and flip flops were on every day, the fishing, running, and biking was great, but it was time to head north.
    

We spent one night at Creekside Campground in Edinburg, VA.  It’s just north of Harrisonburg, and we have such good memories of driving to Harrisonburg taking Beth to school.  This was a nice campground nestled along Stoney Creek.  Yes, there were trout in the creek!


We’ll be here, at the Thomas Campground all summer, but we both are looking forward to going back on the road.  Don’t forget, if you come by this way we’ll give you a tour of the camper and a sip of that Tennessee Honey, if there’s any left!

In the Hills of Tennessee

We weren’t that far from Lynchburg, Tennessee  so off we went for another tour. 


This tour was great fun – The Jack Daniel’s Distillery!

 
That’s Mr. Jack Daniel’s standing there just saying Hey! to all his visitors. 


They have a nice display in the visitor's center explaining the process.  You can also take a tour, either the free one, or the $10.00 tour with samples.


Our tour guide explained things and told us that the pile of wood you see on the right will be burned into charcoal (beside her in the back) for the whiskey to filter through.  How do they that light the fire?  They use Jack Daniel’s, of course!


All the water they turn into whiskey comes from this spring. It flows at 800 gallons per minute at a constant temperature of 56 degrees. They built the distillery here because of the spring.


Here’s Jack again, guarding his spring. The guide told us this is Jack on the Rocks.


We weren’t allowed to take pictures in the buildings, so you’ll just have to trust us when we tell you about the HUGE vats they have in this building.  All that sour mash gets filtered through charcoal very slowly.  When they're finished with the mash in this building the sell the mash to local farmers for cow feed.  I'd say they have some happy cows!


Oh my, it’s the barrel house, and it smelled really good inside!  When we finished the tour our clothes smelled like whiskey!!


We took the free tour and all we got to drink was lemonade.  Bummer.


That’s ok, we bought some of that Jack Daniel’s sippin’ whiskey!


Lynchburg is very small, and because the County is dry, they can’t sell any of that whiskey except the commemorative bottles.  They do sell the used barrels and anything else they can find with Jack Daniel’s name on it. 

On the way back to Alabama we stopped and bought some Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey.  Those Tennessee bees know how to do their stuff!  If you want a sample, just come by to see us. 

Visiting the Huntsville Space and Rocket Center

When Jaime was in the sixth grade she went to Space Camp for a week.  We were never there so, after all these years, we went to be sure it was a safe place to send our little girl.


The pictures of the rockets just pulled Bob right in.


There was special exhibit, which we really enjoyed:  100 Years of Von Braun:  His American Journey. 


Bob read all the details of everything.


He liked the Skylab exhibit where you could walk inside and see what it was all about.


We could see Space Camp in this building.  They have a mockup of the shuttle for the campers to use.


These kids are Space Campers monitoring their "launch".


There were rockets outside.


Lots and lots of rockets.


Inside they had a Saturn V laying on it’s side.


The engines are huge!


It was hard to get a picture of the entire rocket.


Bob looks really, really small next to the engine.  One engine!


All these wires are the brain of the rocket.


They the Saturn V hanging from the ceiling, broken down into sections.  It’s amazing!


Here’s the capsule itself. 


You could crawl into one and try it out.  My side of the dials and switches lit up! Bob’s laughing, but I bet I made him nervous!  


Remember when the astronauts landed they had to go into a trailer and be quarantined for who knows how long?  This is the inside of that trailer.


Can you imagine?  First they stayed inside that little space capsule, and then they had to stay inside this little camper.  It’s not as roomy as ours!


And the dream goes on.  This is what the next space capsule will look like, they said.


Outside again, the Space Shuttle Pathfinder was featured.  It’s a space shuttle simulator made of steel and wood and was used to check roadway clearances, crane capabilities, etc.


 
I know Bob’s wishing he would have had a chance to ride that thing.


It’s size is amazing.  Look how tiny the people under it look!


This is the Space Camp dorm.  They also have an A-12 Blackbird spy plane which saw from the road but missed while walking through the exhibits.  How did we do that????

We had a good time visiting the Space and Rocket Center and Space Camp, but our next road trip is one of my favorites!  Check back soon.

Goose Pond Colony – Bob’s Fishing Hole

Before we left home I read about a place in Alabama where they sell unclaimed baggage from airlines.  We came here to see the store, but we found something we like much better – Goose Pond Colony!  We we stayed two weeks but wished it could have been longer.


You can see Bob relaxing in our camper with his new fishing hole in the window behind him.


Goose Pond Colony is a campground owned by the city of Scottsboro, Alabama on the banks of Lake Guntersville and the Tennessee River.  The lake is a 69,000 acre lake rated as one of the best fishing holes in the South for bass, crappie, and catfish.   


The guy in the camper near us just happened to have a bass boat, and he asked Bob if he wanted to go fishing with him.  Did he want to???


Yes, he certainly did!


Off they went.  Good luck Bob! 


Look at this!  He caught a bass, and a nice one too!  


Unfortunately, Bob’s friend Madison practices catch and release, so there was no bass for dinner.


I think Bob has adjusted to this retirement business pretty well. 


He went fishing without Madison and caught this nice stringer of crappie and bream.  He didn't put them back, they were yummy!


While Bob fished I drove into Scottsboro for First Monday.  They had an  assortment of vendors along the Courthouse building, and it was a fun day for me.


I also visited Hammer’s, the old store on the square that reminded me of a store in Steelton my mom and Grammy used to shop in when I was little.  Anyone remember Solomon’s?  Most of their items for sale were on big tables, not on hangers.  It was like a trip back through time.  I bought a jar of pickled okra.  Yum!  


Bob could walk to either of these docks to fish.


This one was next to our camper.


Our campsite.


I almost forgot, there were two championship golf courses here too, and we could see this green from our camper.  No, we didn’t golf.  Not enough time!


I biked to the marina to watch the action, and I could also watch Bob fishing near here.  From here you can watch people fish or golf.


There was a lot of action this day because they held the McDonald’s Big Bass Splash this weekend.  It lasted for two days, and there were many, many boats and fishermen competing.  The first prize was a bass boat and trailer plus $1,000 and a bass shirt.


I couldn’t figure out what this tube was for.  Can you?


The boat, motor and trailer are the first prize.  Pretty nice!


The fishermen put their fish in a plastic bag and take it to be weighed.


After they weighed the fish they took them to this tank to be rejuvenated in special water.


After the fish is happy again they pick it up and put it in the tube which slides the fish back into the lake!  How clever!


Bob’s wishing he’d catch the big bass and win that boat.


That’s a pretty nice sized bass, but not the winner.  The winner weighed 9.52 pounds!

We really enjoyed our time here at Goose Pond Colony and plan on coming back again next year.  We did take a couple of road trips during our stay here, and they’ll be our next post.