Another Tennessee Meetup: October 9-11, 2026

We had a wonderful weekend Ricochet meetup in Cookeville in September of 2023, which you can read about here. It’s about time to do another one, and after consulting with a few frequent meetup-goers, we landed on Friday, October 9th, through Sunday, October 11th. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, Cookeville is about halfway between Nashville and Knoxville, and is where I live.

There are a ton of interesting places to go within a two-hour radius of Cookeville. I will give you all (I’ve only lived here a few years and don’t want to come off as a Yankee poseur by saying "y’all") a bunch of ideas, and we’ll see what shakes out as being the most popular among potential attendees.

At the 2023 meetup, @OmegaPaladin said it would be cool to go to the American Museum of Science and Energy at Oak Ridge. This is mostly a nuclear energy museum, which does sound cool. We already had a full itinerary when Omega brought this up, but I said that next time he comes to Cookeville, we will do that. Stad worked at Oak Ridge himself, so if both of those gentlemen come to this meetup, we’re going there. We may also squeeze in a visit to Lost Sea Adventure while we are in that part of the state. This is billed as America's largest underground lake.

I have a sample itinerary worked out, if we want to have a Nashville day. Have breakfast at Puckett’s Restaurant in Nashville. From there to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is a 9-minute walk. From there to the Goo Goo Chocolate Company is a 5-minute walk. You can buy off-the-shelf Goo Goo Clusters, of course, but you can also have candy made to your custom order. There are plenty of bars in the area, in case we feel like stopping to get a drink. If we have more motorheads than country music fans, we could instead go to Lane Motor Museum, although it isn’t walking distance to those other things. I've been to both of these museums, and they're both terrific. I had thought about the possibility of going to the Grand Ole Opry, but that's probably a better option when there are only a few people.

There are a lot of fun things to do on Lookout Mountain, if we have a Chattanooga day. Ruby Falls is cool, as it is a waterfall inside a mountain. Rock City Garden is fun and has some beautiful views. I have not been on The Incline Railway, but it looks cool. If this is all a little too outdoorsy for some, you can visit the Tennessee Aquarium or take the Chattanooga Whiskey Experimental Distillery tour. Maybe we will schedule a stop at The Hot Chocolatier.

I think there will be some interest in doing a little scenic hiking. Just 15 minutes from my house is beautiful Burgess Falls State Park. For those who don't mind doing a little hiking, there's a beautiful trail along the river that lets you see multiple small waterfalls. Or if you want to take it easy, you can take the shortcut and go straight to the big waterfall at the end of the trail. If anyone is feeling up for a more lengthy and strenuous hike, we could go to Fall Creek Falls State Park, which is about an hour from Cookeville. Or we could visit Cumberland Caverns (about an hour from Cookeville) if anyone wants to do a cave tour.

Or if you feel like just taking it easy while others are running around in nature, my mother highly recommends hanging out at Calfkiller Brewing Company (named for the local Calfkiller River).

Let me put up videos of some of the outdoor attractions.

We obviously aren't going to do all of these things in three days. If you are planning to come to this meetup, let me know which things you most want to do, and I will try to come up with a plan to satisfy as many people as possible. Those of you who came to a previous Cookeville Ricochet Meetup are probably wondering if we're going to Crawdaddy's West Side Grill again. We sure will, either one night or for Sunday brunch.