Chapel Hill, TN near Nashille

We are now in another time zone, we have reverted back to Central Time. I feel much better thanks. This must be a slow jet lag. My body is still on PST and my brain is well.....

Our last night in Chattanooga saw us in a drivers meeting and social when it really began to rain, I had already hitched up so the good thing was it washed some of the pollen off our rig.

The drive on the 23rd was off and on rain, but by the time we reached our destination it had stopped and was sunny and a little warm. Arrived early because it was first come first served on a Friday in a state park.

We unhitched and drove to Lynchburg, TN which has a population of some 361 souls for a guided tour. The town is dry, in fact the county is dry so to have a distillery there is quite a feat. You can buy booze there, but they cannot serve booze there, so you buy your booze and drink from your bottle on the way home, I guess.

Anyway we drove scenic routes going and coming and saw fields of Tennessee Walking Horses, and saw beautiful, prosperous looking homes and farms. If we were not as old as we are, this looks like a great place to live.

After the tour we drove to Lynchburg, the town, and walked around, everything closes up at 5 p.m. so eating was out of the question. Half lost, we drove to Lewisburg where we ate in the best place in town, a buffet of you guessed it, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, beans, slaw, fries, and mystery cobbler.
Unfortunately, I left my cap there and may have to go back to retrieve it. Sorry Judy. Judy had given me the cap for my birthday.

After "supper" we went Wal-martin'.

Here we are back in 1866.

The original Barrel House, still in use.

Our guide, spoke funny. The Oak boards are made into charcoal for the booze to drip through.

Me 'n Jack " hisself."

The bark on the trees like yeast which turns black, it's the way infernal revenuers found stills. 

Ya' gotta' admit, they are cute.

Beautiful grounds.

Downtown, most everything closed after 5 p.m.

Boiled, pronounced bald, peanuts is a staple in these parts.

At the local fillin' station.

Downtown.

"Betcha' ah can beatcha'

See Ya! Barry and Shirley

Chattanooga March 21-22, 2012

We are in Chattanooga. That is one of those words I love. I liked Walla Walla, and Yazoo and I love Chattanooga and we are even at Chickamauga. Wow such great words!

Our drive from Acworth, GA was pretty easy, we took back roads and therefore drove a little slower, saw more country and enjoyed ourselves very much. The last little bit of the trip was on I-75 that was easy too except when we moved to turn off at our exit. I needed to merge right and an 18 wheeler let me do that, there was a pickup coming onto the freeway and he was oblivious to everything, maybe even unconscious 'cause he kept pulling into us. I honked the 18 wheeler blasted and finally the pickup sped up. We turned off and the 18 wheeler was still blasting the guy. Hope he made it. We finally did. Some of these Tennessee drivers seem to have just received their licenses.

We are staying at the Holiday Trav-L-Park. It is a nice park just not very scenic. It is the site of Civil War Battles and there are folks buried here as we speak. There is even a monument put up by some of the solders who fought here.

Yesterday, the 21st. we drove up Look Out Mountain, home of the battle above the clouds. It's 2000 feet high and quite a sight around these parts. I visited here with my parents in 1948, the roads are about the same, steep, but a lot more stuff. In those days every barn for miles around had a sign on them, "See Rock City." There was "lovers leap," a place where you could see seven states, and you even got a bumper sticker stating you had been to "Rock City."

Now it's a little more commercialized and there is Ruby Falls. You can see all this for only $40 bucks a head. Instead, we visited the battle site. Quite something to see and I recommend everyone doing so. The Rebs were on Look Out Mountain, the cannon were useless because they could not shoot downward, the riflemen could shoot over the cliffs, but were a silhouette against the sky, so it was not a good battle for them.

Today, we visited the Chickamauga battle museum and battle site. We had a great guide and a great tour. The south won the battle, but the north got what they wanted...Chattanooga! Both sides lost a lot of men. Was it worth it? Well, it probably helped end the war earlier.

Last night we all drove to Whitwell, TN to see a dinner theater on the Civil War. It was a highlight. A man and his wife did the whole play after we had one of the best dinners we have ever had. The recipes were from Mrs. Davis's recipes and they ate pretty good in those days. You might look up the website to see some of the play. It's buttonwillowchurch.com try it you will like it.

Paisley, one of our caravaners, waiting patiently across the street.

The Tennessee River from Look Out Mountain.

Look, look see the Airstreamers.

The monument shows a confederate and a union solder shaking hands.

As you can see, the canon could only be aimed left or right.

This is the way we did it in the army.

Ruby Falls, what can I say?

Aww, isn't that cute?

Shirley and Dogwood.

Chickamauga Museum.

One of many memorials.

This was one of the best guides we have had.

Just a look at where the battle was held, almost 40, 000 men died here.

Tomorrow we leave, probably in thunder storms, for Chapel Hill, TN.

See Ya! Barry and Shirley

3-18, 19 & 20th Still @ Mc Kinney CG

Sunday the 18th was a "free" day, no tours etc. There is a lot to see but we stayed here all day. We love this place, beautiful. We had neighbors camping in a tent next to us who were quiet and respectful, real campers, not party people. There were up to 5 people, but we enjoyed their being there.

Shirley and I walked the park, read, and napped, she even got to practice her clogging and I even got to practice my mandolin and guitar. Weather is great, no bugs and we could stay here longer. This has been a busy caravan so the day off was needed.

Monday the 19th saw us heading with Bill and Barbara to visit another battle field. This time it was at Kennesaw Mountain. This was during the campaign in 1864 where Sherman marched from Chattanooga, TN to Atlanta, GA. A lot of blood was spilled here but things were winding down, as the South was on it's last legs.

After the movie and talks we drove up the mountain along the battle sites and got a view of things. Saw Fred and Searcy and their comments were, "doesn't enyone work anymore?" Which is true, there seemed to be many more locals jogging, hiking and walking up the mountain than there were tourists.

Lunch was good "southern" cooking at "Doug's Place" in Emmerson, GA, near our camping site and recommended by one of our fellow caravanners who was raised in Little Rock. We compared notes and he and I went to school there at the same time, only different schools.

By evening we were preparing to leave tomorrow and had our drivers meeting and had peach cobbler with ice cream. The cobbler was cooked over a camp fire in a Dutch oven, much as the Civil War folks would have done it. War is Hell!

Hard to read and not just stare.

Oops, here I go staring again.

Our trailer is covered in pollen, everything is yellow. Locals say it only lasts 3 weeks, this is our  third week with no relief in sight.

An early Airstream.

Atlanta from atop Kennesaw Mountain.

You can't see it well, but that's me thumbing my nose at the cannon. That's how we POed the Confederates.

Next stop is Chattanooga!

See Ya! Barry and Shirley