Day 6 – Whiskey and Tupelo

Jack Daniel's Distillery

Today we drove south on our way to Tupelo, MS. We made our first stop in Lynchburg to tour the Jack Daniel’s distillery. It was interesting tour and the weather was fantastic but because we didn’t get to see that much on the tour, it wasn’t actually all that informative. Maybe it was just our bad luck, but the distillery building was closed today due to some issue with them working on the roofing and then we hit the specialty bottling line during their lunch break so we didn’t see that line in operation either. The main bottling line is two miles away and not included in the tour. Likewise they don’t include their storage area so you don’t get to see the casks where the whiskey is stored with it is being aged (4 to 7 years). The only whiskey that we actually saw was what they sold in their factory store. 

Jack on the rocks

That said, we did see where they burned the ricks of wood to create the specialty charcoal that they use to uniquely filter their whiskey and the cave where their spring water comes from, so we did see some behind the scenes things. We also got our photo taken with "Jack on the rock". If you look closely behind us you can see the cave where the spring water comes to make all their whiskey. One other thing of interest - the statue makes Jack seem to be about 5'10". He was really only 5'2", so your stature does apparently grow with fame.

Birthplace of Elvis (house on the left)

From Lynchburg we drove through Huntsville, AL, on our way to Tupelo, MS. Today was mostly non-interstate driving so not really the most relaxing. We got to Tupelo in time to tour the birthplace of Elvis Presley. Vernon Presley, Elvis’ father, borrowed money and built the house before Elvis was born. It is a “shotgun” style house with only two rooms, no heat and no indoor plumbing. Of course times were tough for the Presleys and they lost the house when Elvis was about three. They moved several times in Tupelo before relocating to Memphis when Elvis was thirteen.