Walk along Rock Creek - Visiting Milky Way Farms

Monday (Jul 6):

This was the first day in a long time that there was only a small chance of rain in the forecast and we were able to get outside during the day. Connie and I did 20 minutes of yoga this morning and we will try to keep this routine in the future. I have to modify some of the poses since the roof of the motor home in only 7 feet tall and Connie has to modify a few because of her back. Connie was able to touch her toes, do COBRA and CAMEL this morning with only slight discomfort in her back.

We went over to Lewisburg to mail some packages at the USPS and then to do the Rock Creek Walking Trail. The trail is located along the creek that runs through Lewisburg.

The trail has a concrete path and is about 5.4 miles if you walk from the start to the end and then back again. Connie and I did most of the trail and walked for about one hour.

After finishing our walk we stopped and got something to drink and some trail mix to snack on. Connie tried a soft drink called Sun Drop which is a citric flavored drink that we found out has lots of caffeine in it. Then it was on to the Milky Way Farms.

Fred Mars who was the founder and owner of the Mars Candy Company that makes the Milky Way Bar is the individual who started Milky Way Farms. The story goes that he and his wife were on a train from Chicago to Florida to look at some property to start a thoroughbred horse farm when they met a couple from Tennessee. The couple from Tennessee convinced the Mars' to stop in Giles County Tennessee to look at the land located there for their horse farm. They fell in love with the place and decided to build their thoroughbred horse farm here in Tennessee. They purchased about 2,800 acres of land on which they built a manor house, a race track, horse barns, storage barns and other buildings needed for the farm. The land was purchased from local farmers who were then employed by the Mars' on the Milky Way Farm. This all took place from the late 1920's to the early 1930's during the first years of the Great Depression. At one point in time there were about 900 people employed by the Mars' on the farm. The Manor House was finished in 1932 and Fred Mars died in 1934 at the age of 51. His widow lived in the house until 1945 when she sold the property to another individual. The property sold several times over the years until it was purchased by a couple from Brentwood Tennessee who opened the house up for tours and events in 2010.

The house has 25,000 square feet in it with 20 bedrooms, 14 full baths and 2 half baths. Below are pictures of the two master bedrooms, one for Mrs. Mars and one for Mr. Mars, which is how everyone who had enough money lived in those days.

Mrs. Mars bath

Connie sitting on Mrs. Mars bed

Fireplace in Mr. Mars bedroom with hidden closet on the right.

Mr. Mars bedroom

Sitting room in Mr. Mars bedroom

The house has a great room with a large fireplace as you come in the front door and then a large dining room with the largest table in a private residence in Tennessee.

These gates came from the first house the Mars's built on the property.
That house burned before this one was finished.

The Great Room with a ceiling located 40 feet above the floor.

The dining room table. We forgot to count how many chairs are around the table.
Can you find Connie at the far end of the table?

The house is open for tours when they are not having events. We were the only ones at the house when we toured it and the caretaker told us to take our time and wander through the house. At one end of the house, outside the master bedrooms, is a porch with a picture window overlooking the property.

We wandered through the house for about one hour. One side of the house was for the family and the other side of the house was for guests. Although very little of the original furniture remains in the house, the couple who own it now have obtained period furniture to show how it would have been decorated during the time the Mars' lived in the house. Mrs. Mars did raise the winner of the 1940 Kentucky Derby on this farm so there was some success in the thoroughbred horse racing operation. 

By then we were hungry and decided to visit Pop's BBQ restaurant which is located at the I-65 exit just south of our campground. The restaurant is located inside a truck stop and the couple of times we had gone past the place the parking lot was full. Connie had ribs and I had pulled pork both of which were very good. 

Back at the campground we had a nice visit with the couple in the Entegra Conerstone motor home parked next to us. They are from Beaumont Texas and are on a two week trip to Tennessee and back to Texas.

Texas T Campground

Saturday (Jul 4):

We had a quiet 4th of July. The campground had a luncheon for all of the campers where they provided sandwiches, drinks and chips and the campers provided everything else. The side dishes and desserts were very good and we enjoyed meeting some of the campers here at the campground. It rained all morning and all evening, so we ended up spending most of the day inside The Duchess (no fireworks for us).

Sunday (Jul 5):

We have been here at the Texas T Campground for several days now and this afternoon was the first time that we have seen the sun shine. The campground is a privately owned place just a few hundred feet off of I-65 in Cornersville, TN. It is a small campground that has pull through sites so it can accommodate large rigs. The campground was originally owned by a couple from Austin TX who gave it the name of Texas T Campground. About 12 years ago they sold it to a couple from Ohio who kept the name and they in turn sold it to a couple from College Station TX who are the current owners.

 The site we are in (Site 33) is a pull through site that is about 100 feet in length so we have plenty of room at the site. The campground has full hook ups with both 30 and 50 amp service along with having a few local channels on their cable and the WiFi has been decent most of the time we have been here.

The campground has a number of long term residents that work up and down the I-65 corridor along with a number of RV's that use this park as an overnight stop as they travel up and down I-65. There is a mixture of travel trailers, 5th wheels and motorhomes in the park. Our motorhome has been the biggest in the campground until today when an Entegra Conerstone (45 ft) pulled in beside us.  Here is a view down the "street" that we are parked on.

This is a small creek that runs beside the campground that has been flowing quickly with all of the rain this area has received lately.

There are a number of places we would like to visit that are within an hour's drive of this campground although with my family reunion coming up later this week our time will be limited. My dad arrived at Henry Horton State Park Lodge today and came over to visit with us for a couple of hours. It was nice to see him again after several months of only phone calls.

Picker's Creek Winery - Lewisburg TN

Friday (July 3):

Today is my birthday and Connie baked me a wonderful cake made from angel food cake mix and crushed pineapples for the occasion. It was light and not too sweet with no icing: easy to make and delicious to eat.

It rained most of the night and all morning long here in central Tennessee. Getting a break from the rain I went up to the office to get what I thought was a package from Amazon that had been delivered to us here at the campground. We opened the package to discover that it was box of insulin from Humana Pharmaceuticals that was suppose to be delivered to a lady near Chatanooga TN. Connie and I spent the next hour on the phone with both Amazon and Humana trying to figure out what had gone wrong. We examined the box closer and saw that the original box had been torn open and then placed inside another box with our name on it. So someone at UPS has really screwed up. We finally were able to get to supervisors at both Amazon and Humana and think we have Amazon shipping another package to us with the correct order and Humana sending us a return shipping label for the insulin. Since we opened the package (it had our name on it) and it contained medical information about a patient of Humana, there is a violation of the patient's privacy (called the HIPAA rule) and we will receive another call from Humana next week about the problem with the package.

In the afternoon we decided to visit the Picker's Creek Winery which is located about 12 miles from our campground as they were having their July 4th celebration today (in Tennessee you can not sell alcohol or guns/ammunition on July 4 ).

View of part of the vineyard at the winery

We had found out that they were having live music, food trucks and a fireworks display at nightfall if the weather held out. We arrived at the winery around 3:30 PM and went inside to enjoy the free wine tasting. The brother of the owner was the one that served us the wine to taste and also answered our questions about the winery (it is a new winery that has only been active since 2009). We tasted all of their wines: one white, several reds, one blush and several "sweet" wines.

The owner of the winery is a lawyer and his wife who bought the property from his parents. His father played in a number of bands, blue-grass and western swing, in the area and was known for his guitar picking. One of the wines is named after his father and called Mack's Band. The property has a small creek on it so they name the winery after his dad ability to pick a guitar and the creek: Picker's Creek Winery. The have some unusual names for their wines.

In-Di-Godda-Di-Vino

GuitarZin

We ending up buying a bottle of the GuitarZin which we drank while sitting on the porch overlooking the vineyard enjoying a bowl of chicken/sausage gumbo listening to some live music by The Bird and The Bear (the bird is a lady from The Netherlands and the bear is a gentlemen from New York who meet in a hostel in Nashville).

Happy July 4th to everyone

We left after the first set of music since it looked like it might start raining. All in all not a bad way to spend my 61st birthday.

Visit to Lynnville TN

Thursday (Jul 2):

Today Connie and I went over to Lewisburg TN and did some grocery shopping at the Kroger’s since it was not raining and the forecast was for it to rain most of today. After putting up the groceries and having lunch, we decided to go over to Lynnville to visit the town and take a tour of the TennSouth Distillery that is located near the town.

We followed the Google Maps app on our mobile phone to the distillery which is located a couple of miles outside of Lynnville. We met Colin who gave us the tour and also ran the tasting of their spirits.

The distillery has been in business since 2012 so has not been doing this for very long. The laws concerning small distilleries here in Tennessee changed in 2009 and several distilleries have opened around the state since then. TennSouth gets all of the corn used in their spirits from local growers within the same county. They also use wheat and other grains from sources with in the state. Colin was very knowledgeable about the process and did a great job on giving us a tour of their operation.




TennSouth distills several different spirits: a moonshine along with several flavored moonshine blends, Corn Whiskey, Tennessee Whiskey, vodka and gin. The moonshine is only distilled once while the other spirits are distilled several times.  Moonshine is not aged while the other spirits require a period of time to age (varies from about 12 to 18 months). The pictures above show the barrels that are used in the process: Tennessee Whiskey can only be made in Tennessee and only in “new” oak barrels that have been charred. Once the barrels have been used in making Tennessee Whiskey they are then used to make the Corn Whiskey. Corn Whiskey is made with only corn grain while the Tennessee Whiskey uses a mix of corn (76%) and also wheat/other grains (24%). The process itself to make these spirits is a combination of chemistry and art. Colin took the time to take us through the distilling process and answered all of our questions about their operation.

After the tour it was time to “taste” their spirits. We took small samples of all of their products and were impressed with the quality and taste of each one of the different spirits. We especially like the Apple Pie Moonshine and the Black Mule Vodka (which we ended up buying a bottle of each). TennSouth Distillery is a part of the Tennessee Whiskey Trail which includes Jim Bean, George Dickel and several other smaller distillers.



After a very enjoyable time at the TennSouth Distillery, we went back into Lynnville. Lynnville is a quaint little town with several tourist shops located along the main street in town. We stopped into the White Horse Trading Company and picked up a loaf of gluten free pecan cranberry pound cake.



We spent a few minutes walking main street and visiting a couple of the stores along the way.



All in all a pleasant way to spend the afternoon. On another personal note, I have had to work for my old employer this week since the lady who replaced me and was suppose to come back to work this week is out sick with a viral infection (both her and her new born came down with the infection).  So a lot of early morning and late nights this week on the computer.

Seeing a few sites around Crossville - Travel across Tennessee

Sunday-Wednesday (Jun 28-Jul 1):

On Sunday we decided to take it easy as I continued my recovery from the infection I had come down with the prior Sunday. We did some grocery shopping and then took naps as the rain continued here in Tennessee.

Monday we decided to get out an visit a couple of the water falls located in two of the natural areas near Crossville. We first went to Ozone Falls which is located only a few miles from our campground just off of I-40. The upper part of the falls are located only a few hundred feet from the parking area located along Hwy 70. We took the short hike to the upper part of the falls and then I continued down a steep trail to an area close to the bottom of the falls. I talked to a girl who was coming up from the very bottom and she told me it was very muddy, so I only went about 2/3rds of the way down.

Trail to upper falls

Overlooking the upper falls (no guard rail)

Beginning of the trail down to lower part of falls

"Gambler's Den" located about half way down the trail

Thought it was interesting how this tree is growing right out the rock

Another cave along the trail

Ozone Falls which is 110 feet high

Pool that the falls empties into 

From there we took the road south to the Piney Falls which is located near the town of Grandview TN. We took the Fire Tower Road as indicated on the map, but could not find the trailhead. As we were headed back down the road, Connie say a small sign with "Piney Falls" on it. We stopped and decided to make what we thought would be a short trip down the trail to the falls. We kept walking and walking and walking. The trail split into two and then into another two (we ended up going to the bottom of the Upper Piney Falls). Connie had not dressed from a long hike and we ended up hiking about an hour in and another hour out. Some of the trail was so steep that Connie had to scoot along the rocks to get down. We almost gave up and turned around, but finally I went ahead a few hundred yards and found the falls and Connie joined me at the falls. It was beautiful.

"Large" sign indicating the trail head

The trail got rugged

This is how it started out

Upper Piney Falls which is about 80 feet high

View from underneath the falls

View of the "pool" that the falls empties into 

Connie posing with her walking poles.

Area on the trail where a rock slide had occurred

On Tuesday we decided to visit the Sergeant Alvin C. York Historic Park which is located nine miles north of Jamestown and pays tribute to Sgt. Alvin C. York, one of the most decorated soldiers of World War I. The park contains the farm and gristmill once owned by York who lived in the Pall Mall area for most of his life. Along with the millhouse and milldam, the park includes York’s two-story house, York’s general store and post office, the Wolf River Cemetery, the Wolf River Methodist Church, the York Bible Institute, an M247 Sergeant York tank and various picnic facilities.

Alvin York is one of the most celebrated soldiers in American history. He joined the pacifist Church of Christ in Christian Union in 1914, and when drafted for service in World War I in 1917, he applied for conscientious objector status, but was denied. On Oct. 8, 1918, while on patrol along the Meuse-Argonne Front in France, York and his platoon wandered behind enemy lines and were caught in an ambush that left over half the platoon dead. York then led the handful of survivors in a counterattack that resulted in the capture of 132 German soldiers.

York was awarded the Medal of Honor and became an instant celebrity, and upon his return to the United States he was barraged with offers for endorsements (both commercial and political), movies, and books, most of which he initially rejected, believing it was wrong to profit from an act of war. The Nashville Rotary Club raised the funds to buy York his Pall Mall farm, which it presented to York in 1922. After York’s death, his widow sold the farm to the state of Tennessee.

House given to Sgt. York by the Nashville Rotary Club

Kitchen in the house

While we were in the house a thunderstorm hit the area, so we took our time inside the house, had a nice visit with the ranger and let the storm pass. We decided to take the short drive over to his grave site.

Sgt York and wife grave site

View of the mountains from the cemetery

On Wednesday morning we finally left Crossville. We went by to see if the parts had come in for our refrigerator. Two of the parts had come in but they ended up not being the correct ones we needed. The owner of the shop, Bill, has become very frustrated with Norcold, the maker of our unit, since every time he calls he gets a different answer to his questions. So at this point we will continue on as we have been using both the regular refrigerator and our basement freezer to keep our food cold. Bill will ship the parts to us if they ever come in and we will try them to see if they make any difference. At this point in time we are thinking that the best option for us is to replace the current unit with a residential refrigerator.

We headed west along I-40, then southwest on TN 840 to I-65 South. Once we got on I-65 a thunderstorm hit the area and we had to slow down to 40 MPH because of the heavy downpour. When we took the exit for the campground, I missed the turn and ended up having to back the motor home up for about a 1/2 mile after disconnecting the Jeep. We finally got checked into the campground which is now owned by a couple who retired from College Station TX. We pulled into Site 33 at the Texas T Campground and got set up for the next two weeks.