Driving Back from Nashville

Surprise, it's taken me much longer than I thought to get this post together. The drive back to Florida after the long Labor Day weekend in Nashville involved stops at a few places.

Remember back in May that we were in limbo regarding where we would be going before we found out for sure that we were moving to Florida? Well, I had heard about an opportunity at Arnold Engineering Development Complex to be part of a new group that would be tasked with doing similar work that I did for my graduate work. Long story short, the opportunity just didn't happen at the right time for us among other things. Since AEDC isn't too far from Nashville, I decided to drive through the nearby cities and outside the base just to get a glimpse of what could've been.

I went through Murfreesboro and Manchester before arriving at the AEDC main gate. After perusing the airplanes outside the main gate, I made my way to the nearby University of Tennessee Space Institute. It's a quaint little campus settled on a small part of the Woods Reservoir shoreline.

The view behind the UTSI campus.

I encountered the UTSI security guard and upon falsely telling him that I had applied for a job at AEDC and wanted to check out the surrounding area, he proceeded to tell me about the nearby cities and the UTSI campus. He even took me inside the dining area. I didn't feel too terrible about my fib, because it was Labor Day and the campus was officially closed so he probably enjoyed that someone was there to help pass the day.

I continued along my way and was going through Lynchburg, TN. I saw a building on my left which was the Jack Daniel Distillery. I immediately took the first U-turn I could to see what it was all about. Free tours? Heck yes! They even had a bottle shop where I was planning to get a special bottle of Tennessee whiskey (to bypass the dry county law--which seems like everyone knew about but me--the distillery takes advantage of a state loophole in which a distillery can sell commemorative bottles). Unfortunately, TN law stated that no liquor could be sold on Labor Day. Lame.

The tour itself was great. It takes you through the entire process: the grains, charcoal, mash, fermentation, distillation, purification, barreling, etc.

Tour group photo. The distillery sits on the site where Jack originally made his whiskey.

"Jack on the Rocks." The cavern in the background has spring water that is used in the whiskey.

After this delightful unexpected stop, I continued onto my next intended destination, the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL. Because of my unexpected delays at UTSI and the Jack Daniel's Distillery, I didn't make it there on time to take the bus tour of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The $20 admission price is well worth it, and there's so much more to see than Space Center Houston.

U.S. Space & Rocket Center entrance.

A sampling of the rockets on display at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.

Scale model of Saturn V.

Scale model of Saturn V.

Meet me for lunch underneath the Saturn V?

The five F-1 engines of the first stage of the Saturn V.

Lunar landing sites, mission patches, Apollo lunar module model, and LM descent engine.

Space transportation system (space shuttle) external tank and solid rocket boosters.

   

Aft view of space transportation system (space shuttle) stack.

The mock orbiter Pathfinder was a boilerplate for fit and function tests of supporting equipment.

Articles from the ground test of the wing leading-edge reinforced carbon-carbon panel after the loss of Columbia.

I'd love to visit the center again and take that tour of the Marshall Space Flight Center, but Huntsville is a bit of a drive from where we live, so it may be a few years before I can do that.