At 0600 hours this morning, we were treated to a recorded version of the national anthem right before about 50 speedy and very noisy bass boats blasted off into a fishing tournament. They departed from the docks in our park, not far from our sloping campsite. However, after coffee we were back in exploration mode so we took a blind orientation drive in the areas around Winchester. This part of Tennessee is quite hilly and lots of creeks snake across the landscape. Everything is bright green. The roads are okay in most places. It is pretty. We started by driving into downtown Winchester, across the lake from our campground. Right away we spotted some absolutely architecturally gorgeous residences right on the main drag. As a matter of fact, we were pretty dazzled by the abundance of spectacular old homes there are in this part of the world. Folks must be rich around here.
We passed through a town called Estill Springs before getting to Tullahoma where George Dickel Mash Whiskey is made. We drove a nice, serpentine path into a narrow valley, which locals here spell as “hollow” and pronounce “holler,” where we found the distillery and also spotted a male scarlet tanager starting to sport his extravagant breeding plumage. He was fully pimped out. We get to add him to our list of first time sightings of birds we never see in the West.
After the distillery, we meandered through the towns of Normandy and Wartrace. Much joking went on about “Never seen a wart race. Mine all hold still” and other similar droll comments. Wartrace has a bunch of really spectacular old and new residential structures and they are quite pretty. After Wartrace, we headed for Manchester and its beautiful Old Stone Fort State Park. It is pretty country but it seems more suited for folks with little trailers. I wouldn’t want to go in there with our 34 footer. We cut from Manchester back to our RV park in Winchester by passing through the Arnold Air Force Base but we didn’t see any air forces.
See the pix. Click here