[Half] Cross-Country Trip

Lucky Liz moved to Los Angeles in September, and I joined for half of the road trip. One night at mom's, a night in Nashville, 2 nights in New Orleans, and then Liz traded me in for her dad in Houston. The trip started out with Liz picking me up and with the utmost excitement, and we promptly entered a brutal trip around the DC beltway. 2 hours and 30 miles later, our excitement could not be quelled! Finally, after a good night's rest and some amazing mom hospitality in Virginia, we headed to Nashville. With a stop at a vineyard of course to try their wares (Liz has those pictures :).

Our first official activity: a haunted tavern tour in Nashville. Although I don't actually believe in ghosts (I need to see to believe), it was a great way to get a guided bar tour. We were snapping photos every 5 minutes trying to catch "orbs," or indications of ghost presence that can only be captured on camera. Here's a snapshot of Liz at our first stop:

The eccentric tour guide was able to spot this orb in the picture as she zoomed around my photo on my camera:

I pretended to be relatively convinced. Once I got my camera back I realized that it was a nail in the photo hanging on the wall behind Liz. Busted! Later that night as we toiled around the city I got this shot:

Next stop: Jack Daniels distillery!!! Why not? It was somewhere between Nashville and New Orleans. So what if it wasn't EXACTLY on the way?

We got to pose with good old Jack:

We could smell the luscious vanilla-esque aroma of bourbon whiskey throughout your tour of the distillery. In fact, the tourguide waved the lid of a barrel which was actively filtering the fine liquor so that we got strong wafts of the processing liquid... so strong that we could feel the burn of the alcohol in the back of our throats. I've never, ever wanted a glass of Jack on the rocks so badly before in my life...my thirst for it was INCREDIBLE. But the ironic heartbreaking fact is, you cannot purchase alcohol in the town of Lynchburg, TN. You cannot taste the 12-18 years worth of work that you are witnessing, because it is illegal to consume it in the town. It was singularly one of the worst teases I have ever experienced. So what did we do? High-tailed it to New Orleans...the polar opposite of Lynchburg!

Unfortunately I don't have very good photographical documentation of New Orleans, but I LOVE this shot:

Walk? Don't walk? Crap- I'm confused. What the hell am I supposed to do?? :)