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On the trail again

Heading North for the summer

By Time2Geaux Unplugged

May 11^th, 2019

“I have never seen a Kentuckian without a gun and a pack of cards and a bottle of whiskey in my life”

Andrew Jackson - 1804

Summary:

After seeing our grandson and picking up the last of our Amazon packages we headed North East towards Michigan. We made a stop in Alabama to see some family and then on to Tennessee. We spent sometime in Kentucky before moving on North through Ohio on to our final destination in Michigan. It is funny, I spent my entire career working for a company based in Michigan and now I am visiting there on vacation, if you can call this lifestyle a vacation.

This trip to Michigan is to visit family that I just recently discovered. I am adopted and my birth father has three older children living in Michigan and we are going to visit them.

Whisky or Bourbon

Traveling through the heart of America’s distillery country we made a few stops to do our own comparison of Kentucky Bourbon and Tennessee Whisky. We learned what it means to be called a bourbon and how water and climate are both the primary reason that our countries best distillery is located in this area.

We visited both Jack Daniel’s in Lynchburg TN, and Jim Bean in Clermont KY. We were able to understand the differences in the processes between these two fine American whiskies but we really enjoyed the end of the tours where we had a tasting.

Both distilleries have been around for more than a century, but what I found most interesting is that both distilleries were successful in part because of good relationships between blacks and whites. This is counterintuitive since both of these states were former slave states. The best example was at Jack Daniel’s where young Jack purchased the still from a part time minister, Dan Call who was pushed by his family and congregation to choose one of the other… Young Jack, whom had worked with Nathan “Nearest” Green, the still operator for the minister ask Nearest, a former slave to join him in moving the operation to a cave spring. Nearest was the first master distiller and a member of the Green family has worked at Jack Daniel’s every since.

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

The Hermitage

Andrew Jackson moved to Tennessee where he taught himself law and became a successful politician and military commander. His mother wanted him to become an Episcopal minister, he was known to have a short temper and wouldn’t back down from a fight. After her death, his life went in another direction.

We know him best as the seventh President and the General who saved New Orleans in the War of 1812, proving this young United States could fight and win against a major world power, England.

The Hermitage, a home he purchased with his wife Racheal some four hours from Nashville was to be his retreat from public life, thus the name roughly translated as ‘hermits’ home’, never fulfilled its name. After his retirement and return from Washington, he would normally receive more than twenty guest per day!

We also learned that he had no natural children of his own, maybe due to yellow fever as a child, but he was a devoted husband and longed for his wife until he joined her many years later, both are buried on the grounds of their home.

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

We went to Churchill Downs on the day before the Kentucky Derby which is officially known as ‘The Oaks’. We got to enjoy all the big hats and fanfare of the derby, without having to fight the poor weather conditions that this year’s derby experienced.

We drank mint juleps which are based on Kentucky bourbon, all the people dressed to the 9’s with a flair for pink that would have fit well at our hometown Mardi Gras parade Spanish Town. Since the weather has been raining most of the week before some were dressed in ‘suits and rubber boots’. You can’t make this stuff up! We were in the cheep seats, really no seats, the infield which looked more like spring break in Panama City. If you like people watching, this was a place to experience.

We did bet on a horse and our horse naturally lost so we packed us our stuff and headed for the gate. We were tired of the sun and standing and wanting to leave the following day we packed it in.

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

Noah's Ark and Creation Museum

Seeing a full-size Ark was quite a sight! The shear size of the ship was surprising to say the least. It is a short drive away from the parking lot where you are picked up by a shuttle. The exhibits are well done and ‘artistic interpretation’ was interesting. How the food was stored and animals were contained and waste was handled were all believable and well engineered. I did find some of the timelines of the age of the earth to be challenging and question why some make God fit into mans understand of time. I question what is a day to God before sun, moon and earth were created?

The highlight of the Creation Museum was a presentation by Mr. Patrick Kanewske on the Golden Ratio which is derived from the Fibonacci sequence. What is interesting is things in nature all seem to be proportioned in this ratio. Things that adhere to this ratio are also visually more pleasing to most folks.

If you are interested in the Golden Ratio and Fibonacci sequence do a quick google search or follow this link: https://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/fibonacci-sequence.html

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

Wright Brothers Home in Dayton Ohio

We were passing though Dayton Ohio and I remembered from a visit to Kitty Hawk NC that the brothers were from Dayton and owned a bicycle shop where they worked on aviation in their spare time. The National Park Service runs an exhibit at the site of there bike shop with a nice rebuild of the shop with period equipment and bicycles they built and sold. Next door is an exhibit around their aviation with a full-size glider that they used to test their theories around aviation. They stood on the shoulders of the aviators who came before them but were able to make some breakthroughs by designing a wind tunnel for testing and by designing a building an eight-horsepower engine to power the Kitty Hawk. They learned from their mistake and in the end were successful.

Another amazing point was that after the first successful powered flight in December of 1903, planes were used in the Great War as early as 1914. In just 10 years the battlefield was changed forever.

On the trail again

On the trail again

On the trail again

What we Learned:

· Boondocking at a truck stop rest area works with our solar setup

· Technologies can change rapidly after a breakthrough

· Golden Ration has fascinating properties and can be played in music

Next Stop:

We will be parked in Doug and Monica’s back yard for several weeks while we travel with them to Europe. We will be spending a week on our own in Italy below Naples and then meeting them in Vibo Valentia area of Italy, almost to Sicily for another week vacation from the vacation.

© 2026 Time2Geaux Unplugged

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