Part 2 - "If you learn anything from Jack, it's that you shouldn't go to work early. It can kill you."

My favorite part of the trip was the morning that I spent driving to Lynchburg to see the Jack Daniel's Distillery.

Yes, please.

I've been made fun of in the past for planning everything to death. I am that person who will make a to-do list, and then make a to-do list to make sure everything on my first list gets accomplished.

On this trip, I made it a point to not plan anything. I had my Airbnb reservations set in advance, but that's the only planning I did.

I talked to my Mom when I stayed in Saint Louis on the first night of my trip. She asked me how I was getting to Nashville, and what highways I planned to take.

My answer: "I have no idea. That's tomorrow's problem."

She asked me what I had planned the next day, presumably so she would know where to guide law enforcement if I mysteriously vanished.

My answer: "I have no idea. I'll figure that out tomorrow."

On my first afternoon in Nashville, I went downtown. I was nervous about the parking situation. Actually, that's a lie. I was terrified about parking.

It turns out that parking is not a big deal.

Getting there, on the other hand, is a very big deal.

I've never seen traffic that bad.

When I finally got through traffic and parked, I sat in my car for a really long time (with the AC on). I thought about whether I wanted to get out of the car.

I don't know how to describe it if you haven't been there. There are cars and people and pedal taverns and scooters and did I mention people everywhere?

It's overwhelming.

I wasn't willing to do Broadway two days in a row, so I decided to get up early on my second day there and drive to Lynchburg.

I set my GPS on my phone, but it turns out that I didn't need it. Everyone else who came to Nashville that day who hated the crowds had the same idea I did, and all I had to do was follow the stream of traffic two hours south.

Did I mention how beautiful it was?

Everything is perfect there, from the perfect little roadside fruit stands to the perfect white picket fences to the perfect cows grazing on perfect green grass.

The hay fields looked perfect. The farms had perfect dogs on them.

Literally every little thing is beautiful there.

Fun facts about the distillery:

• Jack's real name was Jasper. (My parents have a dog named Jasper. Go Jasper!)

• Jack died of an infection. He went to work early one day and the person who usually opened the safe wasn't there yet. Jack kicked the safe out of anger, and eventually died because of that incident. Our tour guide: "If you learn anything from Jack, it's that you shouldn't go to work early. It can kill you."

The safe that Jack kicked.

• One barn on the property holds 20,000 barrels of Jack, which is $14 million worth of product. There are 89 barns on the property. If you do the math, you'll learn that I can't even multiply that high.

• The spring they get their water from is 56 degrees. In the Tennessee summer when it's about 100 degrees outside, standing by that spring feels pretty good. I went back and stood by it again after everyone in our tour had left.

• Although Lynchburg is in a dry county, you can buy a "commemorative bottle" at the distillery. That bottle just happens to have whiskey in it. Funny how that works.

• During the tasting portion of our tour, our tour guide had us mix Tennessee Honey and Tennessee Fire together. It was my favorite combination.

I could go on and on, but I'll stop there. I don't know how or when this was placed on my bucket list, but it was and it's something I've proudly crossed off.

I drank Jack Daniel's in the place that it's made.

Life is good.

All the pretty colors.

I am a lot of things, but patient is not one of them.

I'm also not a quitter.

Last week, I decided to travel an hour west because I was craving my favorite restaurant. I really thought I would have enough time to get home before the storms hit.

I was wrong.

I am grateful there were no tornadoes or hail in this storm. There was a lot of wind and rain, and it was kind of fun to see the vehicles chicken out and pull over.

A line of us crawled all the way home without quitting, at a whopping 45 miles an hour.

In the photo below, I was going east, and I had already driven through the colorful stuff. Why stop to let a storm pass when you just drove through the worst of it?

I decided to keep going.

I needed gas, though. That proved difficult in Cimarron because there were cars underneath the gas station awning.

Guys, let's think about this for a second. Look at the pretty colors in the photo below. A gas station awning will not protect you from rain when the rain is horizontal.

Move so I can gas up, people!

It wasn't the smartest decision I've ever made, but it was kind of fun.

Oh, Kansas.

I'm back from a short break from blogging.

The break wasn't planned. Life happened, and blogging just kind of took a backseat.

I have a funny story to share, though.

I drove home late last night from Colorado. Pikes Peak says hi, by the way. Anyway, I stopped a few times because I always like to make sure I have enough caffeine to get me through when I'm driving by myself at night.

Actual shirts I saw in northwest Kansas:

• Your girlfriend is rated E for everyone.

• Keep calm and carry guns.

I couldn't decide if I was brave enough to ask the guy wearing the first shirt if I could take his photo. I decided not to, but I really regret that decision now.

Oh, Kansas.

Keep moving.

My policy for driving in the snow is a lot like my policy for falling down. No matter what happens, you have to keep moving. 

When driving in the snow and slush, the only thing I want is to not get stuck. Most of the time I want to keep going forward, but there are times when going sideways is acceptable.

The point is you can’t stay where you are – you have to keep moving and get to your destination.

A Google image of snow. 

I’ve had plenty of time to think about this. According to my Dad, we just received our 20^th snow of the season (that data is not scientific, though). Driving in it and being in it is not my cup of tea.

I lived in cities away from my family for a lot of my adult life. When I lived away I couldn’t rely on family members to help me dig my car out if I got stuck. I knew that I had to put a shovel in my trunk, drive carefully, and hope for the best.

Getting stuck is not an option.

I tested my ‘keep moving’ theory when I decided to walk through snow-covered grass yesterday. I stepped in a hole and tripped. I'm happy to report that I didn't hurt myself and my ego wasn't even damaged that much.

I didn’t miss a beat. Sure, half of my body was covered in snow and it was obvious I fell, but hey. Sometimes you just have to keep moving to get where you want to go.

How gracefully you got there doesn’t really matter in the end.