Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Chattanooga and on to Atlanta GA



We spent two days in Chattanooga TN (and I couldn't quit thinking about the Chattanooga Choo Choo song!). We drove around for about 4 hours looking at civil war battle sites. The battles of Chickamauga and Chattanooga (the battle above the clouds on Lookout Mtn) were fought in this important railroad area. We rode on the steepest passenger railroad which has a 72.7% grade towards the top. We then went to visit Ruby Falls on Lookout Mtns. We rode an elevator 360 feet down a shaft dug in the late 1890s, then hiked down another 600+ feet to the longest water falls found in a cave. They had artifical lights on the falls and you could hike all the way around the falls. On the way there were lots of stalagtites and stalagmites (remember which is which?). This morning we went to Rock City (again on top of Lookout Mtn.). This area was discovered by some missionaries who described it as a citadel of rocks. A couple named the Carters had this area as a part of their estate and Freida Carter began developing a walk through this large "rock garden". After two years work, they opened it to the public. We took our dogs through the walk which took a couple of hours and enjoyed rock formations such as mushroom rock, needle's eye, fat's mans squeeze and lover's leep (Roy says he jumped) but I have a picture of him under the 1000 ton balanced rock afterward. We then loaded the RV and headed to Atlanta GA for the next NASCAR race. Go Earnhardt Jr #88 and Stewart #20.

1 comment:

SharonK said...

Your blog/travelogue is definitely improving. =)

Isn't it amazing all the wonderful things to see right here in our country?!

Since you're taking requests, any pictures of Kyle Petty (for Dawn) and/or any Petty car or The King himself for Joe, Little E for Jeanette, Jeff Gordon (sorry) for Bethany, and of course, Michael Waltrip for me. We tend to spread the love around.

Meanwhile, stay safe and well.