On Wednesday, December 11, 2013 we took another Day Ride. We decided to take the scenic route to visit Bush’s Best Visitor Center and Museum in Chestnut Hill, TN and then lunch in Rutledge at the Down Home Restaurant.

Frosty and cold at 10am, we got ready to go. The temperature was right at 29 degrees. The skies were mostly sunny and a brisk nip was in the air.

We dressed in our cold weather gear, including our Gerbing’s Heated Gear. We also had on our thermal lined chaps and our Pilot Helmets with our windproof neck warmers.

Jeff describes our route in this short video:

We pulled out of our garage at 10:15am. We left north Knoxville and jumped on 640 to Asheville Highway. We headed north on Asheville Highway until we got to 4 Corners where we took 25/70 into Sevier County and then into Dandridge.

We rode through Dandridge, took 92 across the bridge and then stopped at Angelo’s on the Point. We took a few photos and admired a large flock of birds out on the water.

After a few photos, we continued on 92 into Chestnut Hill where we stopped at the Bush’s Best Visitor Center.

The Visitor Center houses a general store, a museum and a restaurant. Directly across from the visitor center is the impressive bean factory. Bush’s Beans has been in operation since 1908- now that’s a lot of history!

We’ve been here before and loved the restaurant. But today, we decided to spend time in the museum and eat elsewhere. First we looked around the general store and found a few Christmas gifts.

Then we went into the museum area and watched a fun and informative video. Did you know that the beans are cooked after they are sealed inside the can? We didn’t!

After the introductory video, we perused the museum.

All of the staff at the store and museum are friendly and welcoming. It is truly a fun and informative experience.

After looking around inside for awhile, we then spent some time outside looking at the displays.

Here is a short video about our visit:

From Bush’s, we took 411 and rode into Newport. In Newport we took 25E which took us toward White Pine.

After our stop, we rode through White Pine, north through Morristown and into Bean Station.

From Bean Station we took 11W south and rode into Rutledge. We stopped at the Down Home Restaurant. We got here right around 2pm and our mileage was 98 miles at this point.

The folks at the Down Home were super friendly and the food was fantastic!

Next time you are in Rutledge, make the Down Home Restaurant a destination. It’s a great family restaurant.

After lunch, we got back on the bikes heading toward Knoxville. We continued on 11W and rode south into Blaine.

We then took 61 to 331 which brought us back into Halls just north of our home in Knoxville.

We then took Broadway getting back home at 3:30pm. Our total ride was 133 miles and after a very cold start, the temperature finally got up to around 46 degrees by the afternoon. Another great ride and some much needed road therapy.

See our list of Day Rides HERE.