The XPLR.NASH Podcast

Most Beautiful Drive in Tennessee? | Episode 062

Episode Summary

Did you know that Tennessee had the world’s largest tree house? If you didn’t… that’s okay you won’t have the chance to visit it anymore and we’ll tell you why. But, if you are looking for a beautiful scenic fall road to drive on this weekend, we’ll tell you all about one of the most beautiful drives in the state. All of this and today’s events on Nashville Daily.

Episode Notes

Screened Threads

https://screenedthreads.com/


Events

Nashville Business

Creator of the Day 

Natchez Trace

  1. 444 mile road from Nashville, TN to Natchez, Mississippi 
  2. https://www.nps.gov/natr/index.htm
  3. https://www.natcheztracetravel.com/types-of-trace-stops/natchez-trace-hiking-trails.html
  4. https://www.natcheztracetravel.com/types-of-trace-stops/natchez-trace-waterfalls.html
  5. https://www.natcheztracetravel.com/types-of-trace-stops/natchez-trace-overlooks.html

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Episode Transcription

00:00          Hello everybody. This is the Nashville daily podcast. I'm Stuart Deming

 

00:02          And I'm Erin Pennington. Did you know that Tennessee had the world's largest tree house? Well, if you didn't, that's okay. You won't have the chance to visit it anymore and we'll tell you why. But if you're looking for a beautiful scenic fall road to drive on this weekend, we'll tell you all about one of the most beautiful drives in the state. All of this and this weekend's events on Nashville.

 

00:37          It's a Friday morning. Our recommendation for you guys is just take off of work. You've probably already made the decision yesterday prior me that decision yesterday. You're coming home in the afternoon, you got stuck in traffic and you're like, I don't want to do this again tomorrow. And so he took the day off cause it's, there could be some rain today. Yeah, some rain. And so you just, you took the day off. But we, we had an incredible meme sent to us and we want to go over this meme and we're, you know, we're all about unfollowing meme accounts on the Instagram. If you have listened to an episode of the podcast, but this meme is following an account on Instagram. So also this was sent to us from my wonderful wife Amanda. And you guys know that song, the cha-cha slide. Oh yeah.

 

01:25          You forget about it and then you go to a wedding or some kind of event and they play it and you're like, Oh my gosh, I have to do this dance again.

 

01:32          Yeah, you have to do this thing. It's like your requirement. Anytime the cha-cha slide comes on, you have to, you have to just dance.

 

01:38          Yeah. So this meme was lyrics to the cha-cha slide, but rewritten to represent traffic on four 40 and a, it goes like this to the left. Take a dude two. Are y'all real close this time? Right lanes to closed.

 

01:52          Well, definitely. It's too closed. Freeze everybody. Traffic jam done. Done. Done. Yeah. We're still doing the cha cha slide right now. So we just thought that was funny. We shared it on our Instagram stories on Wednesday, but we will share it again today. Just so for your enjoyment. We'll just remind you, yeah. About traffic. About traffic every single day. 40. If you guys have any traffic related jokes, please tweet us at X PLR, underscore Nash and we will share those traffic related jokes.

 

02:24          Yes. okay. So if you decided to take today off and you're wanting to know, Hey, where could I go today? One place that you could go is the Americano lounge. They are having one year celebration, happy hours all pretty much through through Saturday, through Saturday, and they're having happy hour specials on coffees,

 

02:48          Drinks, having live music. We've recorded three episodes there. We've recorded with Andreas. We had another episode about tourism here in the city of Nashville and we also recorded an episode with Justin Harvey at American and the lounge.

 

03:00          Great coffee shop that's found in Wedgewood. Houston. Yeah, absolutely. Also if you well, Saturday, if you work on Saturday and you decided to take the day off and you wanted to get some Halloween fun and there is a haunted museum storytelling festival going on at the Tennessee state museum. I don't know exactly how a haunted storytelling festival, I don't know if you stand in front of a bunch of booths and listen to storytellers, it's just just a bunch of people. They're like, Oh yeah. [inaudible] Pop competing over the space to tell a story in one room. I don't know how that works, but it's happening at the Tennessee state museum and that is Saturday from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM and again, all of these links are in our show notes and it's a free event, correct? Yeah. Pretty much, yeah. That's a free event to learn about like hauntings throughout the state, Tennessee.

 

03:46          Yeah, which is super, super cool. Super unique. Guess what else is happening this weekend at the Ryman auditorium? This has been happening consistently for the last week. Is this a sold out concert? Yes, it is. Both shows. This is Jason is built and the 400 unit happening Friday and Saturday, 8:00 PM Ryman auditorium. They try to get tickets for their, if not Ticketmaster's going to be your best friend or your worst enemy depending on right here. Rices usually Ticketmaster's not the best friend. They are. The worst. Now there's somebody like those other like concert venue things where they like discounted tickets. Like they buy them in bulk and then they discount them. I can't remember that service, but it's based out of New York city. There's so many of them now. I have no idea what Ticketmaster's usually not mentioned in the top list of things people like now. Absolutely not.

 

04:28          Especially when that data leak captain with ticket master and they lost like 30 million they had a break in for like 30 million different accounts. Yeah. Imagine dealing with that headache. What else is happening on the Ryman that Sunday? They're so busy. Yeah. So the, the, the Raymond's not missing a beat. We have Trey on a Stasio Sunday at seven 30 only time I've heard Trey on his Dalziel mentioned, I don't know if you would remember this. I don't know. I've watched the office too much. It has mentioned when Andy Bernard talks about somebody who really likes his singing. Oh nine. Yeah. It's later. It's later in there. Yes. It's like season nine, where he's like talking like doing the YouTube videos and the YouTube comments. No, this is, this is before that. This is when he brings, Oh, the yeah, the university fellow girl from clown group.

 

05:23          Yeah. Okay. Yeah. In there. And they have the competing, I legitimately have no idea who this guy is. So happening at Bridgestone arena on is this Saturday or Sunday? Is Sunday. Sunday. you have Kacey Musgraves. Oh, the Kacey Musgraves, yeah. Yeah, Kacey Musgraves is Saturday. Okay. And then the opening is Maggie Rogers who just played at the Ryman. Like he played a sold out show at the ramen. Yeah. and then you do this one at the Nashville symphony. Cause I'm on a butcher that, this is the a, the Brahms violin concerto. This is that APM screamer horn symphony center. This is going to be happening all weekend, Friday, Saturday and I believe Sunday. So to get details on that national symphony.org link in the show notes Saturday at Bridgestone arena, we have Mike's fall soul celebration with maze featuring Frankie Beverly. That's a Bridgestone arena. Saturday at 7:00 PM that is a tongue twister.

 

06:22          Yes it is. That's a long name. And then continuing with Bridgestone arena Sunday we have mercy me at Bridgestone on Sunday and it's own Ryman. David Crowder is going to be a guest. Oh that's cool as well. If you guys have never seen David Crowner, he is a tall and skinny guy from Texas. Withhold with beer. Does easy top beer. Yeah, like huge beard, like almost down to his BeltLine. So it's a big one. I'm envious of his there. I do have beard envy every now and then. His buddy. Yeah, that's a good person. Have beard, beard envy, veered in Vinton.

 

06:59          So yeah. So happening at the grand old Opry on Saturday at seven and 9:00 PM you have trace Atkins and Hunter Hayes

 

07:05          Shows on Saturday for that one. That's gonna be a good show. Yeah. And then you have the Halloween ball and marathon music works at 9:00 PM I believe that Saturday as well. Yeah, that one's actually going to be cool. If you're looking for like a masquerade type a Halloween ball, then that's gonna be pretty cool. Performers is Halloween ball. It's gonna be the Chrome bar. And admission, this is not a free event. A tickets can be pricey depending on the experience that you want. Oh, absolutely. Like tickets can be up to $750 for, I'm guessing, your the events and they start at 35 so it doesn't, it's not starting at a totally ridiculous place. But it's, it's going to be pretty interesting. I'm pretty interested in event it says from the creators of the show it's live dancing girls and music city burlesque come to the South, sexiest hot Halloween ball. So a marathon music works getting very interesting. It's always gonna be the interesting venue.

 

08:08          Yup. Because a cannery road just sold for around $33 million. Oh, that's the, that's why. So no, that's a, that's crossed from the roundabout in downtown Nashville and was a very alternative venue. So we'll be interesting if I was the developer that just paid $33 million for that, I will be demolishing that and putting five buildings on it. But I'm not a developer that bought that. So I'm sorry if you guys like mercy, cannery row and mercy lounge and all those concert venues happening Sunday you had the Tennessee Titans versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Nissan stadium, 12:00 PM a tailgating. We'll probably start at nine. I'll give it, I'll say that's brilliant. As early as you can park, it's going to be happening. It's going to be happening. And then you have some ongoing things. You have two more weekends of the Hermitage go stores three this, the second week of first weekend, November, second weekend of November as well. Yeah. these things sell out, so make sure to get your tickets beforehand. This is the last weekend of Cheekwood harvest. Make it a priority to go Saturday and Sunday. It's the beer gardens open Friday night. It's an amazing, amazing thing and you guys need to experience it.

 

09:15          Absolutely. as well as boo at the zoo at the Nashville zoo. This is happening from, I believe it's, it's already been starting this week. They opened it a little bit earlier through the rest of this weekend, five to 9:00 PM. And I haven't been, but I imagine it's, it's [inaudible]

 

09:33          They're probably sick of every event at the zoo is fantastic. Yeah. You can't go wrong with the zoo. So this is a really interesting thing. We're going to be talking about East Tennessee a little bit. Yeah. In today's episode, but a East Tennessee man grew a 910 pound pumpkin and used it as a boat. That's what says America. Other than that,

 

09:54          Yeah, probably not much unless you shoot it, but, but it's the, this is coming from news channel five and I think this originally a CNN article it says instead of making a jack-o-lantern or massive pie this, this Tennessee farmer took his 910 pound pumpkin out for a spin on his pond. The video is pretty much gone viral of this hollowed out pumpkin, kind of floating in the water. He has a paddle and he's pushing it along. And it's  

 

10:27          The question was why the question is, is what type of tractor did he use the lift at 910 pound pumpkin to put it into a pond and then bring it out to the middle of the pond? Unless I, yeah, that's the most fascinating thing for me is how did he pick this thing up? Who knows? He bike, he could've lifted, he could roll down the Hill. Yeah. Who knows. No idea. And then so we made a teaser earlier about the largest tree house in the state of Tennessee. This tree house. I'd only seen pictures of it, but this was up. There was a crossing out Ross for plus away from Nashville, Nashville. And it was the largest tree house in the world. It was a standard, a hundred feet tall, had 10 stories and it was built by a, a pastor who felt God was calling him to build this tree house. And unfortunately on Tuesday night, it burned down.

 

11:22          Yeah. And in 15 minutes. Yeah. It burns into ashes in 15 minutes. It took news stations like two hours to get out there. Yeah, it's pretty far out there. It was close to the public in 2011. So I know a lot of people haven't seen it sense. But I, I think they're still investigating. I don't know what the final word is at this point, but I know they're investigating to see what may have actually happened. I don't know if there's a violation.

 

11:50          It could have been a trespasser. It could've really been a wildfire. It could been anything. So we have no idea. One of our guys who's come to a couple of explore meets Justin he has an incredible photo of the tree house. I'll have to show it to you, Aaron. Sometimes. It's amazing. It's really cool. So every single day we have our explorers Nashville tip of the day. And because this is the last weekend for Cheekwood boo at the zoo and some other fall activities, this is the last weekend for bell, which so like the bell, which cave and that's not opening for another six months. So like this isn't the last weekend for a lot of haunted attractions and fall based activities here. Cause now they have to take the first two weeks off in November to prepare for Christmas. And so absolutely our tip of the day is to go to Cheekwood to go to boo at the zoo, to go up to Adams, Tennessee. Go up to the bell. Which cave, which tickets are $12 to get in w would you say anything else about something to do this weekend?

 

12:54          Well, I mean, I think for anybody who wants to go out there and really hit fall in the full stride with possibly good weather's Saturday, I mean there's, there's chances of rain. So, you know, it may be on a Sunday or something that you get to do this. But to really experience the outdoors in Tennessee's true fall fashion Sunday may be one of the only true days to do it on a weekend. You know, we w the truth is we just don't have a very long fall season here this year.

 

13:25          Yeah. So I was driving around on Wednesday and some of the Leafs in like green Hills and Bellmead like they're fully changed now. They look stunning. Yeah. So I would say we're about to hit fall peak fall foliage within the next like five days. So that's kind of why

 

13:43          Say like, you know, a true Tennessee fall weekend, because last weekend, you know, the leaves just hadn't changed that much. Yeah. This weekend they're going to be changing. They're gonna be changing. And I think for the most part at probably 85, 80, 85%. Oh, absolutely. And it might be too late to do it with perfect weather next weekend. So Sunday might be the day to go and enjoy a, a, a nice outdoor fall activity. And especially if you want to get that perfect fall photo. Yeah. Sunday is probably going to be your date,

 

14:21          Especially at Cheekwood with their pumpkin houses. Because after Sunday that pumpkin house will no longer exist until next year. Nope. That's gotta be a pumpkin pie house. Haven't bad catching in a big old stick. The entire house in a big tree house fire should have happened. Right. That pumpkin house [inaudible] it's a good one. That is a good one. So every single day we like to highlight a different creator of the day. And so our creator who day has come to a couple of explore meets his incident cram count, has incredible shadows. I love what he does with some of the colors and especially these long exposure shots. AL long exposure shot is where the camera is opening is absorbing light into the camera. So that's a long exposure shot. Uso who is our creator of the day? Aaron?

 

15:09          So our creator of the day is is our friend named Billy his Instagram. His Instagram account is at jet. I photography with the silent D at the end. So D, Chad, I photography. But Billy and I actually met very randomly and had a very funny connection because we met up for just talking drones and photography and everything we met up at just love coffee of optimum brain. And it turns out that, you know, we didn't even know this about each other that, you know, cause I teach at SAE Institute and he actually went to S a Institute like two years before for sound engineering or sound engineer. Yeah. Before I started teaching there. And I think we may have crossed paths at some point, but, you know, he was never in any of the classes that I was a part of or anything. So it was, you know, we just kind of found that about, found that out about each other on the spot and it was pretty cool that we had kind of that intersection of, of of our lives here in Nashville. But he had, he's taken up photography since then and he's really dug into it, especially with portraits

 

16:29          By his portraits are great in his shadows. Like I love his shadows in his photos.

 

16:34          Yeah. And especially just, you know, portraits, self portraits. He's done a lot of the events with a lot of the trackers. Yesterday we talked about the, the new party, but for the party buses and stuff and he's done some photography and stuff and he actually makes it look probably less, less of a drunken mess than it probably is in real life. But they look really, really cool. He's got some wedding photography on there, which looks really good. But his portrait stuff, I like how he's just not afraid to kind of experiment with different looks in the portrait world. And he, he's, he's definitely done some pretty cool things, especially there's a shot with him standing on a bridge at old stone for beer. It's cool. Is just fantastic. So Billy keep on rockin and keep creating his Instagram account. Is that D? J E D I photography. And you can find it in our show notes and that is Jedi photography. Thank you so much, Billy, for being our creator of the and for creating

 

17:50          Some awesome content. As always as customary. Go follow Billy at Jeff photography. You know, the drug go unfollow a meme account unless you guys are fixed means if you have good traffic means please send them our way. Hopefully you guys are down to maybe one or two main accounts by now. Maybe we never know. We'll never know. You never know. You did on that every day. If we can, we learned to feature a different restaurant that we've eaten locally. Yesterday we had the opportunity to interview Shane from honey fire. He's the operator and founder of honey fire barbecue. We've talked about honey fire extensively on this podcast. So if you want to listen to Shane's interview with us, definitely go check that episode out. That is a Thursday's episode of our podcast. And so guess what, I view now only five times this week.

 

18:46          Yeah. So I guess when the, when I hit it hard, I hit it hard. So but I S yeah. Shane tried to get you to try something else other than the Bernie hands. So on a Tuesday night I actually so Ryan, yeah, he just moved here from New York city here to Nashville. We went to honey fire with him and he had a sandwich. I can't remember. I was like the Alabama slammer or something. Cool. And it was a sandwich with a smoked chicken bacon in case. So on the sandwich. So I tried to bite of that. That thing was fire. Wow. And then honey fire honey fire. Yeah, it was good. And then that banana bread pudding. Oh, I just thought that peanut butter and another butter cookie. And we talked to Shane about that yesterday, I think, where he got his inspiration. Incredible story. If I could just like take some multivitamins and crumble them up and put them inside of that, you eat it for three meals a day, that would be my meal for the, I would only need one of those a day. The multivitamins and coffee and diet Coke and I will be good. My veins will be happy.

 

19:54          Your doctor will not. So you ate honey fire too. And from his explanation he definitely had that banana bread pudding or banana pudding. Yes. Yeah, it was really good. Every time it just gets better. This episode of Nashville daily is brought to you by screen to threads. Screen threads is a Nashville curated shop located in the historic marathon village. Use code Nashville daily to get 10% off your next online order. Their website is screened, threads.com mentioned this ad in store and get 10% off as well. And that's screened to threads.com you can get some of your best Nashville apparel, merchandise, hats, candles, puzzles, and the list goes on. You absolutely can. Dull can always get guys from there. So yeah, so that's, that was, that was a funny one. So today we wanted to talk about the Natchez trace Parkway in the fall. Yeah, I believe we, we've mentioned talking about it a lot on our YouTube channel.

 

20:58          Channel has a lot of information on the Natchez Parkway with some of our top lists. And you can find information and especially some visuals of the Natchez trace Parkway, especially near the double arch bridge in Franklin. We have photography on both of our Instagram pages of that place. We have a YouTube video about best suburb in near Nashville. And that was about Franklin. Yeah, we'll a lot of videos about it. You know, the reason that we want to talk about the Natchez trace right now, just kind of give you guys a little bit more information about it, is this fits in really into our Nashville tip of the day, which is to go out and explore kind of the fall things that Nashville has to offer while we have the opportunity to do that, because we don't know how much longer fall is going to be here for us.

 

21:43          It usually seems to come and go pretty quickly and one of those things, as opposed to, you know, maybe go into Cheekwood or the Hermitage or boots zoo or something like that, you know, you may just want to get in the car and just drive this thing is so it's, it's free. The park is free. You have to pay for gas and you have to have a vehicle. So tell us a little bit about, it's a road, but it's also a park. So how does, how does, what does that look like? Cause that sounds pretty, so it's an interesting, it's a 444 mile road that starts here in Nashville and ends down in Natchez, Mississippi. And historically this was a native American hunting and trading trail for the Chickasaw cheek Cherokee and a couple of other native American tribes. Right. Cause if you go back to our episode about the very beginnings of Nashville if you remember, if you, if not, go back and find that episode.

 

22:37          I believe it's who founded Nashville and Nashville. One of our most popular episodes. I love that episode. Yeah. To go take a listen to that. It's called who founded Nashville. But we had talked about the uniqueness of, of where Nashville is. It wasn't really occupied whenever said, whenever people came into Nashville, Nashville was more of a place for hunting, seasonal hunting, seasonal hunting. Yeah. So, and we've talked about this on another episode from the history of 1790 to 1800 in the original road system and how that formatted this was a bison breeding grounds. And that's what Nashville was known for it because of the rolling Hills, the lushness of the grass. Like, and we talked about this on, I think it was Tuesday's episode where we talked about what the three stars represent and we're in middle Tennessee and this place is like a feeding frenzy for bison and deer area mineral in, it's the water is peer and they like it.

 

23:35          It's a good area for wildlife that the Natchez trace originally is one of those trails that the date of would use to come up to this area to hunt. Yeah. So a lot of those native Americans would have lived down in Mississippi. So the Natchez trace Parkway goes through three States. It starts in Nashville and ends in Natchez, Mississippi, like we've said. And then a lot of those native Americans would have lived down towards Natchez, Mississippi or in Alabama. So it covers three States, 444 miles. So starts in Tennessee, ends in Mississippi, and in the middle of it you drive through Alabama, you go over the Tennessee river. It has seven diverse ecosystems on this trail. Absolutely stunning drive in the fall. I make this, this is an annual trip for me. So not only a drive, but if you are an avid bike rider, it's, there are probably more bikes on the Natchez trace that I've seen.

 

24:34          Of course been there are cars. Yeah. And when I say bikes, I mean like road bikes, like cycle or watching the tour de France kind of bike. Oh yeah. Oh absolutely. These guys go fast. These guys are going fast and big groups. So if you're out there driving, especially this weekend, there's going to be a lot of bikers out. I believe this is this. Or next weekend they have a huge 5k. So just be careful like B B, be diligent in watching where you're driving. Absolutely. Don't, don't speed on the Natchez trace or you will be, you will be caught. You will be ticketed. Yes. so the Natchez trace starts over in West Nashville. So it's right next to the Loveless cafe where it starts, which I would recommend starting your day there at Loveless [inaudible]. Y'all get some biscuits, a fill yourself up with some food or you could also fill yourself up with some gas, your car up with some gas right there next to Loveless.

 

25:25          And then just start that drive in the natural strays. I love doing early morning because of the sunrise, cause you can see the sunrise right there on the double arch bridge, which is in Franklin, Tennessee. We've talked a little bit about the double arch bridge. There's been some controversy about it cause they're building suicide barriers here in the future. Eh, but it's only controversy, not because we don't want, we want people to be safe, but it's a controversy because that lessens the experience of being able to walk on the bridge and experience what that overlook look. Absolutely. And so I like making that early morning drive right when the sun's about to come up. Either it's really moody with like this fog or it's like the lighting through the trees and the Leafs, especially in the fall is incredible. So I would recommend starting your morning by getting a breakfast at Loveless cafe.

 

26:18          I think they open at seven or six. I can't remember their, it's pretty early. It's pretty early. Get some biscuits and then get something to go and then start driving down the trace. So the first few attractions on the trace that we want to highlight definitely make time to stop at a, the first one's going to be the double arch bridge. The double arch bridge was built in the 19, late 1990s. It's absolutely incredible. It's actually a, this is an interesting fact. So that concrete on the bottom of the double arch bridge and Franklin is hollow. Did you know that? So those arches, those arches are hollow. I did not know. It's a, it's like a, the way, the way I've heard it was designed is like a Lego set and they combined the concrete with like the Legos and it's a hollow on the inside.

 

27:02          Interesting. so stop it. The Natchez trace double edge bridge, so you could either stop there for sunrise and sunset. It's, it's featured in our top sunrise and sunsets video, especially in the month of June for sunsets because the sunsets directly down highway 96 absolutely incredible. And I believe it's February where the sun rises on highway 96. So the, with the rotation of the earth, there's all math equations for that. So you can figure that out by, I believe it's February. So watch a sunrise on the Natchez trace and then drive about two miles down the road to Timberland park. This park opened the weekend of the solar eclipse that happened two years ago. You can still see, I think it was like 99% visibility of the solar eclipse down there. Wow. so that park, it's a Wayman County park. It's not an, it's not a national park, but there's entire part of this entire Parkway or drive is a national park.

 

28:03          So you guys have to keep that into consideration. So there's going to be from a law enforcement perspective, there's going to be your park troopers or park Rangers. There's going to be national park Rangers, which is technically one of the highest level of law enforcement in the country. And then you're going to have your sheriff, your Williamson County sheriff, you're gonna have your sheriffs, you're going to have state police and you're going to have your local police and state park Rangers and state park Rangers and County park Rangers. Like law enforcement is a big deal on this thing. So do not speed, take your time, enjoy it. But Timberland park is in Williamson County. It's right after the double arch bridge. I want, I think it's about five miles after the double arch bridge. And it's incredible. There's amazing hiking trails. They have a hiking trail that's ADA certified.

 

28:51          So if you're interested in that, there is a hiking trail for that. And then that's nice. There's a partnership with private land. So there's a big hiking trail on the back end of that park that has a partnership with like private, like farm. And you go on private land and at the bottom of the rolling Hills you walk out into like this Valley and like there's this like weird, like gnome house. Super weird. And then there's this gnome, Oh dude, it's like this gnome house. It's like this green house that looks like an old Noam thing. Oh man. It's weird. Is it weirder than the gnome artifacts and everything we saw in Chattanooga? Kind of because it's like a Bandon. Oh my. Yeah. It's like worn down, but it's, Oh, cool. And I think it, I think Cumberland park has about, I think it's three miles of trails, but you come down the Hill and you come out of this Valley and into the Valley of the Natchez trace.

 

29:50          It's so beautiful. I think it's really cool. I'm on the national parks website right now and there's a little section where you can plan your visit along the Natchez trace. And what's really cool is they have the maps of the areas that you can actually walk along the same areas. That was the original trail for the native American and the native Americans. Yeah. So that's really cool. You can download these as PDFs that you can have them on your phone. But that's pretty dang cool that you can, you know, walk along the same path pathways that the native Americans did in their hunting grounds. Yes. So that's, and I think that's called the old Natchez trace. I think that's like the hike. It's called old Natchez trace and you could walk down that trail. So another great resource. So my, one of my favorite resources is nps.gov backslid snatches index.

 

30:45          And then another great resource and I would say this is even better than the national parks, is Natchez trace, travel.com. They do an incredible job of highlighting all the amenities, attractions, food, hiking trails, waterfalls, scenic overlooks. And so after you're done with tee in Timberland park, you can keep driving down. And I believe you can see, you can hike part of that old Natchez trace trail. I think it's like eight miles or so. It's called old trace. And for anybody who's wondering, this is, you know, obviously the very scenic drive, it's pretty much tree-lined the entire way. Yeah. So once you get down towards like the border of Alabama and Tennessee, you have the Tennessee river so you'll pass over that, you'll see different ecosystems. You get down to Mississippi, you'll see some swamp lands, you'll see you'll see Prairie's.

 

31:39          So diverse ecosystems, but all throughout Tennessee, it's basically trees on both sides of the road. You can't take, no tractor trailers can go on this road, which is incredible. You'll see RVs, you know, track no tractor trailers, no working on stuff first, and no working commercial vehicles. Wow. Yeah. Besides like police. And then you'll see bicycles, you'll see other cars. You'll see people walking up and down the trails. Like it's such an amazing thing. I would say this is the largest hidden gem in the start of Nashville. I think so, yeah. Wow. You also have a very personal connection now to the Natchez trace. Yeah. And I've, I've had this for a while, so before Amanda and I were married, we would do a trip down to the trace and we drove down all the way to Mississippi. I haven't, I haven't done all 444 miles.

 

32:35          Yeah. I, that's a goal of mine. Right. I've done I think it's 210 miles one way and then 210 miles back. So it was about eight hours of driving, nine hours of driving and it was incredible. We hiked down the Mississippi and there, the place that we hiked was, I can't remember the state park and Mississippi, Mississippi has paid state parks. That was the first time I ever ran into that situation. You're like what? What exactly did they do? Where the system where you have to pay for the parking? Yeah. You so you paid for net pay for your car? Yeah. Admission. Yeah. So your car, I think a car load was $8. And that was the first time I ever had to pay for a state park. I'm like, what? Like, I literally don't understand what's happening because I came from New York, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, which are all, which are all free.

 

33:26          And so we drove down to, let me see if I can see it right here on the Natchez trace, travel.com. But it's, we, we went down there and we just had an incredible conversation and that that day was the confirmation that I needed to pursue Amanda like in marriage. So that was a deep history. And then there's a overlook called Swan overlook, which is about an hour away from the double arch bridge. And that's where I proposed to Amanda. That's where you did the video on Amanda's episode. We actually talked about the creepiness of the drug deal looking situation. So you can listen to that episode on Wednesday we had a hi, we tried to hide to hide and then I ruined it all. We got out of the car and I'm like, this is being recorded. There's a GoPro and but the Swan overlook is it's, there's no hiking trails on the Swan overlook.

 

34:15          It's literally just like little overlook with this AMU. Amazing. I think it did overlook. So you can see some of the, the, you can see some of the road and mattress trace, but if you're looking South, West, East, you'll see some of the rolling Hills of the trace. Okay. so it's a beautiful overlook and I can't remember if it's an Oak tree or an Elm tree, but that thing changes full-color Oh that change thing changes full color and it's absolutely incredible. And so that's where Amanda and I got engaged. So the Natchez trace is near and dear to my heart. It absolutely is. And the Natchez trace is one of those places where if you're looking to have a drive with like the windows down and with this perfect fall weather, that's going to be the place where you can really just get in the car, gas up and go.

 

35:08          Well, you know what you can listen to on the way you I'm guessing there's a couple podcasts. Yeah, you can listen to a few episodes of Nashville daily. Going down to the trace. There's two things I want to highlight before we end this episode. And you guys enjoy your weekend. First one is a scenic overlook called Baker Baker bluff overlook. Okay. This is at mile post four Oh five. And you and I have seen this overlook a few times. I think we've stopped a couple times. Yeah. But you you drive down the trace and you come down this huge Hill and that's where it starts speeding up to 55 miles an hour. Okay. And then you go up this big Hill and then right there to your left, you get to see a perfect example of middle Tennessee and rolling Hills and rolling Hills and fog and cows and corn.

 

35:57          And it's just, it's breathtaking. Yeah. Especially in the fall. It's the most breathtaking thing. And I would say near middle Tennessee besides like South Cumberland state park. Yeah. Yeah. That's really cool. Are there any places, let's say, you know, obviously that's a long drive. Are there places for people to stop rest, structure, feet besides hiking trails? Yeah, so there's going to be, there's going to be restrooms all throughout. I think there's restrooms every like 30 miles, give or take. And then any like restaurants, gas stations, there's not directly on them, so you actually have to get off the Natchez trace Parkway. So especially like once you get past this Baker bluff overlook, you're going to have to get off for like Columbia or Leaper's fork. You're gonna have to go into those towns to get gas, gas and get food. But everything is like maybe two miles off the trace.

 

36:50          Gotcha. Okay. So like you get off a trace exit, go out to like Columbia tendency Leiper's fork Franklin. Gotcha. Go get gas and go get food. Gotcha. Very cool. Second thing I want to highlight a, this is at mile marker three 94. I've hiked here about four times. It's called devil's background, backbone state, natural area. It's an intense hike, but so it goes over like, it's like as Highland, a rim hike. So you start the hike and then you go over backlist huge rolling Hill, high, high, high rim, and then you go down into this meadow. This is, I would say this is my favorite spring hike on the trace. I haven't, I've done it once in the fall, but it wasn't in peak. It's probably incredible. But after you do that high rim, you go down into this meadow and there's these streams and like I've seen owls there and I've seen Eagles flying overhead.

 

37:44          Absolutely incredible. Complete silence. It's just the nature. You just hear nature. You don't hear the cars, you don't hear anything. Just the water and animals. Yeah. this is pretty cool. It says the trail takes hikers from the parking out along the ridges of the Tennessee's Highland rim down along the Creek and back again. Trail is a moderately strenuous loop with 200 feet of elevation change and it's about three miles long. So that's really cool. This Natchez trace, travel.com website is pretty good. I mean, you know what you're getting yourself into. That gives you pictures. It gives you elevation Heights, it gives you a mile markers. It gives you latitude and longitude like this. The deal. They've done a great job at breaking down the details of everything. Yeah, absolutely. I'll just throw this out there kind of as we closed down this is where I went last, not the Natchez trace, but I went somewhere else last fall and this is a, I should have put this in the recommended of places to go.

 

38:44          This is kind of a day trip outside of Nashville, but this is the, a mammoth cave national park up and down, up and up in Kentucky, just in between bowling green and Elizabeth town. That place is full of trails as well. Good caves. That was the one you have to pay to enter though, right. Then national park paid to know it's free. Oh. But all the tours you have to, to go in the cave, you will have to pay. Yeah. but I just remembered the fall photos from last year that I had there. And it's, it's, it's a great place for, for, I think we talked extensively a little bit about that adult five best day trips podcast that we had. Yeah. It's going to be great in the fall, but Natchez trace going to be the place to drive. If you want to get out and have a fall drive, it's going to be fantastic.

 

39:33          Stuart, are you going to be doing it this year? I think I may do it four times. I typically take those four times and go, I'll just go once all the way down. That's true. I could listen to some Nashville daily podcast cause I need to catch up. I'm, I'm 12 episodes behind listening to my own podcasts, so I need to have some catching up to do so. That gives me a reason. But I'm going down Amanda and I make this an annual trip. I would love to get a Springer van and just go down the trace super slowly. Yeah, if you do have an RV or something like that, this would be a great opportunity to take, you know, whatever kind of of recreational vehicle you have to go down a very, very scenic road. Probably if you have an RV, you already know about this place, but they may not.

 

40:18          Yeah, it's always good to go. Again, be careful from a photography pay spec perspective. This is a place where you technically have to have permits to do some photos as some of the certain state and natural areas. So be careful if that they're typically really nice, but that we've had some run in run ins with the cops down there where they just kind of ask what we're doing and what we're up to. So just be honest with them and just say you're taking photos for your personal social media accounts or just for yourself or for yourself. Yeah, so this is the Nashville daily podcast. Make sure to tweet at us at X PLR, underscore Nash, our Instagram is X PLR dot. Nash guys, tag us with your fall photos. We want to share them. We haven't shared enough fall photos yet on that account, so please tag us. Go watch some YouTube videos. You can also listen to this podcast on YouTube. Rate us five stars. You can only do that on Apple. I guess you can't do it on Spotify and share this with a friend. So everybody have a great weekend, have a great fall. We'll see you back on Monday.