Chattanooga

Thursday

I was hoping to pull out of Athens around 9am this morning but did not wake up until 8.  We took our time and pulled out around 10:15.  We had around a 160 mile run today to Hixson TN, just outside Chattanooga.  We are trying to get a site at Chester Frost Park.

We had a pretty easy drive, we made one stop for fuel at a Pilot and only needed 48 gallons.  We followed the GPS and the roads got pretty narrow as we got close to the park.  This is a county park right on the Tennessee River, our site is across the road maybe 150 feet from the waters edge.  The park is very clean and nice and very popular.  First come first served, no reservations.  There were no waterfront sites but we had about 20 sites to select from.  They had us unhook and take the car to check out sites and then we went back and checked into site 60 a pull-through 58 feet long.  We have water and 50amps just no sewer, we are here 4 nights so thats not a problem.

Bonnie at Check-n.

 They were very nice here and had lots of local information for us.

Site was real tight after the slides were out

 Bonnie went to the office and maintenance will look at trimming back the bushes tomorrow.
Then we tried one of the suggested local places.  Choo Choo BBQ

I had the Chicken

 The chicken was good and I brought enough back for a sandwich tomorrow.

Bonnie dug right into her St Louis Ribs

 We both enjoyed our dinners and then headed back to the rig.

This is our view out the side window

We may lose our view if we get a neighbor.  Some storms rumbled through just north of us and we did see a little lightning.  We drove through a little rain today and the wipers did not want to turn on, add that to the list.  They worked once the rain stopped.

We have a nice view of a campfire out the front window and since there are a lot of close campsites and a lot of fires the smell of smoke is thick in the air.  Well thats about it for today.  No WiFi here so we have to watch our data usage.

Friday

We slept in this morning and then had a leisurely morning.  We decided that we would take a drive up north of here, which would put us on top of the Cumberland Plateau.  We just wanted to get a feel for what the area was like.  Once we got up there we were in and out of rain for most of the day.  We went through some areas that had storm damage from wind but we never got in a big storm just heart rain.  They call these storms pop up thunderstorms on the news here.  It got down to 70 after some of the storms.  We drove about 25 miles through a valley and there was one nursery farm after another the whole way, mostly young trees.  This must be the perfect climate for them.  We stopped for some lunch at SONIC which still have Car-Hops but they were not on skates.  Bonnie had a Coconut Cream Pie milk shake, one of 25 novelty flavors they have.  We made a big loop and were back at the rig after 4.  We made a stop at Choo Choo BBQ again and picked up cole slaw and BBQ sauce to go with the pork roast Bonnie had put in the slow cooker earlier.

We got a neighbor this morning so this is our view of the river now.

We lost our river view

Yep the camp group is filling up and I think they have about twice as many camp sites as would be idea.  Hey a Sno-Cone truck just rolled through playing its music, nice touch.  While crowded I have to say this is a nice park.

Well thats it for tonight, we are watching our data usage on our phone.

Saturday

Slept in late again, its overcast so not much bight light in the coach to wake us.  We are hoping to go up on lookout Mountain, but hoping for a clear day so we can see 7 different states.  Late in the morning the maintenance guys came around and trimmed some of the branches on the side of the coach.

The weekend crew trimmed some branches for us

We had a little lunch and then watched a movie.  Around 4pm we decided to head over and ride the incline up lookout mountain.  Our route took us along the river and through downtown Chattanooga, traffic was light and we had no problems.  We pulled into the parking lot and paid our $2 to a machine to park.  Then over and bought our tickets for a round trip ride $15 a piece, no senior discounts.  So the incline has been running since the late 1800s, the car we rode in was put in service in 1987.  The ride is a little over a mile long and at times the grade is over 70%.  Its hard to capture that in pictures but I gave it a try.

This is at the upper station

A view up the tracks from the bottom station

 At places along the route there are only 2 tracks, at others 3 (they share the center rail) and where the two cars meet half way up the hill there are 4 tracks.  The two cars counter balance each other and each has 2 1 1/4 inch cables connected to them.

Notice this a a picture out the roof of the car and the horizon is in the center

Passing the other car halfway down the hill

150hp motors have replaced the old steam engines that were first used

A view looking down the hill over the top of the car.

Once we were on top we walked down to the point and just had time for a quick look around.  This was the location of a big battle in the Civil war and General Grant used the point as a vantage point.

You can see a rain storm headed our way

Beautiful houses with a fantastic view

Roses all along there stone wall

We rode the incline down then drove back up the mountain and looked at some of the houses.  Then we headed back as it was getting late.  We fueled up the car and our bodies at a local restaurant.  Its been another good day.  We have one more day left here.

Sunday

Rain woke me around 3:15am, hard rain.  I rolled over and went back to sleep.  We slept in again as it was overcast and dark.  It looks like it will turn into a nice day.  We have no plans for today maybe a movie and take it easy.  We will start to check things in preparation for moving tomorrow.

Well did not take even one picture today.  We just took it easy and then watched the Dover NASCAR race.  It took all day.  I went out in the middle and removed and replaced all the connectors on the box that controls the wipers.  It also controls the air horn and it started blowing when I disconnected one of the 4 connectors, that was a bit of excitement.  Hoping that helps the wipers work when I need them.  Other than that we have just watched TV and rested.

After the race ended Bonnie decided to take a walk and take a look at the area.  I figured its a good time to get this written and posted.  Tomorrow we plan to move up to near Bristol, TN, so we will pretty much drive all the way up the state.

Its been a good week and the weather has been good also.  There is a lot to see here in Chattanooga but we think we will be back so did not feel that we needed to try to see it all this time.  Have a good week.

Thanks For Checking In!

"If Your Dreams Don't Scare You, They Are Just Not Big Enough"