20040702

July 2, 2004

Start: 97 Oakleaf Court, PCB FL
End: 6670 Polo Drive, Cumming GA
Miles: 330
Temps: Not observed, 80's

We got on the road at 9:02 and headed north.

The day before getting started included 1) replacing the outside shower assembly due to water leak, 2) rewiring the trailer towing electrical plug on the truck, including getting professional help to finish it, and 3) replacing one tire.

We slogged up the usual route to Atlanta - US231 to Dothan AL, US431 to Phenix City AL, US80 across the Chattahootchie to Columbus GA, I-185 to I-85. Then we went around Atlanta on I-285 to GA400 and eventually wound up at Biker's Dream. Biker's Dream is the motorcycle sales and service company owned by Don & Marilyn Parkinson, our son-in-law's parents.

We pulled into their lot with the front left brake smoking like mad after all the stop-and-go-traffic in the heat. No problem after it cooled down.

Don & Marilyn were still working on essential things, so we wandered the shop looking at bikes and talking with employees. We picked a couple of tee-shirts out so we can wear them around Panama City.

Marilyn left before Don and led us to their home, a beautiful place in a great neighborhood. Not long afterward, Don came in. We had cocktails and we were given the house tour - it's really nice and everything's large. The workshop in the lowest level has a driveway down to it and a door so you can bring in large items and unload them. The garage is up on the main level with the atrium living room, the kitchen/island/recreation room and the master suite. Up another level are multiple bedrooms, each with its own bath.

Our assigned bedroom had a king bed and a vaulted ceiling up to the roof-peak. Very comfortable.

We went to dinner at a place Don & Marilyn like (I missed the name) with very friendly people and good food. We told stories, laughed, ate, drank, and returned home for more conversation.

We finally drifted off to bed somewhere around 11.


20040703

July 3, 2004

Start: 6670 Polo Drive, Cumming GA
End: 6670 Polo Drive, Cumming GA
Miles: 0
Temps: Not observed, 80'

We got up late and found a note from Marilyn that they'd both gone off to work and to take what we wanted.

We read the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for a while, then had lunch in the trailer parked out in front of the house.

Then we came back in and read and took it easy until Don & Marilyn came home. Then we had a drink or two until their son Donavan showed up with his wife, Mallorie. We went out to an excellent Spanish restaurant. We chatted and enjoyed the food, then returned to the house.

We had a couple more glasses, during which Donavan told some growing-up stories that had us all laughing hysterically. Donavan and Mallorie left and we all drifted off to bed.



20040704

July 4, 2004

Start: 6670 Polo Drive, Cumming GA
End: Lookout Valley RV Park, Chattanooga TN
Miles: 140
Temps: Not observed, 80'

We got up and read the Sunday paper. Don & Marilyn got up and we went out to a nice breakfast place. We got back around noon.

Then we took off on the route (GA20) they recommended, which worked out well to take us over to I-75 to Chattanooga. As we left their development, we noticed the speedometer and radio not working. We judged speed by the tachometer and kept going.

It was warm and there was lots of traffic on I-75, but the road has three lanes in each direction so we were able to keep moving at regular highway speeds.

We found the campground with no problem and backed in to the site. The water hose gave problems where it connects to the trailer, but we finally convinced it to behave.

I worked on the truck for a while. The fuses feeding the speedometer and radio were found to be good. Re-seated all the connectors I could find; this fixed the speedometer. I'll have to work more on the radio - probably a loose ground somewhere.

We hiked around the campground and I went to the head-shed to get e-mail.

Then we had a small dinner and watched (weather channel) a storm front bear down on us as it crossed Tennessee. At the last minute, it split into parts that went north and south of us.

We took it easy and rested.



20040705 PhotoLink

July 5, 2004

Start: Lookout Valley RV Park, Chattanooga TN
End: Lookout Valley RV Park, Chattanooga TN
Miles: 0

Temps: Not observed, 80's

Up fairly early and out, so we could do things before it gets hot.

We rounded Lookout Mountain and went up the side of it on Rt 148, then turned in to "Rock City". This attraction is made up of a path over rocks and through passages between rocks, including a dazzling assortment of plants and trees lining it. There are a number of waterfalls. There is a rock that extends out over the drop-off, forming a sheer cliff hundreds of feet high. It's known as Lover's Leap, for no known reason.

We did the full path and then went across the street to a place that had been a gas station in the early 50's. There was a 1949 Studebaker and a 1953 Ford to view there.

Then we drove to the northern-most lookout point on Lookout Mountain. Called Point Park, it's part of the Chattanooga and Chicamauga National Military Park. It has a commanding view of the city. There were gun emplacements on it during the Civil War battles. Chattanooga was a rail and shipping center on the Tennessee River, and very important to the Confederacy (which, of course, made it important to the Union).

A ranger was giving a lecture on the battle as we arrived. He followed that with a demonstration of the loading and firing of the Springfield muzzle-loader rifle. His two shots - fire, reload, tamp, fire again - were about twenty seconds apart. He said that was about normal. The black powder he used caused a big smoke cloud. His point in that was that the battlefield was probably a very confused place after several rounds had been fired, what with the smoke and noise all around.

After the rifle demo, we walked around the park and then looked through the visitor's center/bookshop. Dolores bought a souvenir pin.

We returned to the trailer for lunch, since it was close at hand. We bought a few groceries on the way there.

Then we drove out to the Chicamauga battlefield part of the park. We entered the visitor's center just before the start of the multi-media presentation on that battle. It was one of the more bloody battles of the war. Then we toured the rest of the visitor's center. We returned to the truck and drove the marked tour route while reading the comments in the brochure about the things we were seeing.

We then drove north back into Chattanooga and drove up the ridge road along Missionary Ridge, another battlefield in this campaign.

At its end, we drove west into downtown Chattanooga, and drove a few city streets. It's a good-looking downtown, obviously recently improved.

It was fairly hot and late in the afternoon when we finished this tour, so we returned to the little house on wheels in the campground. There, we got more organized, and then had dinner. Then we did a trip to the head-shed to get the e-mail and so that Dolores could do her WW book-keeping. Now, it's 8:30pm and time to take the shoes off and relax.




20040706 PhotoLink

July 6, 2004
Tuesday

Start: Lookout Valley RV Park, Chattanooga TN
End: Lookout Valley RV Park, Chattanooga TN
Miles: 0

Temps: High 90, Low 66.6

Breakfast in the trailer, then out before it gets too hot. We stopped at the downtown Chattanooga visitor's center to get ideas.

Then we ran across town to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. We found the end closest to downtown, which they call East Chattanooga; the normal place to start is the other end which they call Grand Junction. They're separated by three miles of good mainline track, formerly the main line of the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina RR.

This living museum was started in the late 1950's by a group of people who saw that the "romance of the rails" was ending quickly with the advent of diesel locomotives. They put their case before the president of the Southern Railway, Mr Claytor, who saw to it that they were given access to inexpensive rolling stock and contributed some of the right-of-way the railroad now uses.

Over the years, they built a bridge to connect two disconnected parts of the right-of-way and two terminals, both reconstructions of typical depots of the mid-1900's. The terminal at Grand Junction, off Cromwell Road, has a audio-video presentation area, gift shop, full station operator office with telegraph and telephones of the era, and a deli and dining room. The smaller terminal at East Chattanoogad has a few gifts for sale. Tickets are sold at both ends for the round trip.

There are two yards and one shop building with pits and cranes sufficient to do their own overhauls and restorations. The yard at Grand Junction consists of a wye to turn trains around and four tracks on which rolling stock is stored and displayed. The shops are located at East Chattanooga along with two or three storage/display tracks and an 80-foot turntable. A big part of the show is to watch the engine turned at East Chattanooga to return to Grand Junction. The conductor gives an explanation of the turntable, then the engine is turned and chugs away to re-attach to the train, while the conductor gives a tour of the shop.

As we arrived at EC, the train was coming in from GJ behind a GP-7 diesel; we were told problems with the 2-8-0 #610 had been fixed and she would pull our train out. It happened just like that. The three coaches were half-full as we gently went up to Grand Junction. There, we pulled directly into the tail of the wye, backed down onto the main line and came into the station in the direction to return to EC.

Dolores & I went into the terminal, ordered lunch, and ate it in the little dining room. The deli folks made up our requests specially for us; the food was very good. We walked around and took pictures of the rolling stock on display. Then we returned to the depot and took in the audio-video presentation. As we came back downstairs, the train was arriving from EC. We hopped into an air-conditioned coach (ex-Southern) and rolled back to EC in cool comfort (it was HOT out). I wandered the yard taking pictures while Dolores looked around in the terminal. Then I joined her; I bought a cap. Her pin wasn't available, so we drove back to the GJ station to get one there.

As we turned into the GJ station, we noticed the building housing the National Model Railroading Association in front of it.

Dolores got her pin. We drove back toward the campground, stopping for a few groceries and diesel fuel en route. We'll go out for dinner later at a place downtown.

(Later) We went downtown to the restaurant called, and located at, 212 Market. Very nice rooms, good food. Dolores had lobster ravioli and grilled shrimp after a crabcake and cole slaw appetizer; I had a spinach salad and chicken stuffed with ham and cheeses. We had glasses of Sauvingnon Blanc from New Zealand with it. Then we told the waiter we were returning to the RV - he talked us in to taking a desert along, then gave us two deserts (lemon roll with caramel - fabulous) which we had with green tea back at the little house. Highly recommended place if you're ever in Chattanooga.

Daughter Susan called after we returned from 212 Market and we visited with her for a bit. We'd thought about running up to Ohio quickly to get there for son-in-law Wyatt's birthday on the 7th, but decided to go with our original plan. So we wished Wyatt a Happy Birthday and told him to figure out a place to go for his birthday dinner when we get there.


20040707 PhotoLink

July 7, 2004
Wednesday

Start: Lookout Valley RV Park, Chattanooga TN
End: Fox Inn CG, Clinton (Norris) TN
Miles: 140

Temps: High 89.4, Low 67.1

We got up later than we wanted, then ate quickly and hit the road - north on I-75 to Norris, Tennessee. Just before Knoxville, we went through some sort of front; the air became less humid and the clouds went away, resulting in a really nice day.

We set up the trailer in the Fox Inn CG, unhooked, and went to Wendy's for lunch. Then we drove to the Museum of Appalachia.

We'd been here once before, in the early 90's, for a festival they hold here in October called "Tennessee Fall Homecoming". It's quite a performing thing, with folk and mountain musicians from all over Tennessee. At that time, we saw such experts in the field as John Hartford and Grandpa Jones and Mack Wiseman, and a local left-handed fiddler named Charlie Acuff (his dad was a cousin of the Grand Ole Opry star Roy Acuff). It draws several thousand a day over four days.

There wasn't to be much going on today, so we just wandered the fields and stumped through the buildings, reminding ourselves of the previous trip and looking again at the tremendous hoard Dr John Rice Irwin has stashed here to preserve the memory of mountain people and their time and accomplishments.

We also saw the usual animals and birds they keep around the place.

Then we came upon a cabin with three musicians - two playing fiddle and one playing banjo. One fiddle player was playing left-handed; sure enough, it was Charley Acuff. We listened to him, John Alvis (banjo/guitar/fiddle) and another fiddler playing old-time music for a while. We talked briefly with Charley. Then we bought a couple of CDs they had and went on.

We returned to the campground and did computer work - loaded, named, and filed all the pictures from yesterday and today, and did this log entry.

We're going to have chicken and salad in the trailer tonight, swap e-mail with the world, and loaf.


20040708

July 8, 2004
Thursday

Start: Fox Inn CG, Clinton (Norris) TN
End: Blue Licks State Resort, Carlisle KY
Miles: 190

Temps: High 92.5, Low 68.5

We got up late again. We ate & got onto I-75 heading north again.

We successfully left Tennessee and entered Kentucky. The roads were good, and the temperature not too warm.

Then we turned a curve and saw both lanes of traffic stopped. We screeched to a stop and waited. Then we waited some more. Occasionally, we'd move a few feet.

This lasted for a half-hour or so until we came to Exit 62 for Renfro Valley. There, both lanes were forced off the road onto US-25. The next exit on I-75 is Exit 76.

We crawled for two and a half hours making those 14 miles. Not a soul was out there to say what was happening nor to help traffic. When we got to Berea, we found a normally-operating traffic signal letting six or so cars through per cycle. We finally got through that and joined the now normally flowing traffic northbound on I-75.

It took me about 50 miles to calm down and accept defeat. We'd been had. Still don't know what happened, but it must have been an accident.

After that, we bypassed Exit 104 and the Liquor Barn since Susan couldn't recall if the parking lot is large enough to hold us. We'll get the booze in Dayton. We did exit at 113 to take US-68 north to Paris and then to this park/resort.

We quickly got to the museum before it closed so we could see some of the reasons the place is here. It's the site of the last Revolutionary War battle in Kentucky (1782, after Yorktown). The British and Indians were still raising hob out here against the settlers. The Brits attacked a nearby place, then fled here. A bunch of settlers got here second and ran into a trap set for them. Quite a few were killed, among them Israel Boone, Daniel Boone's son. Dan'l was captured and taken away by the Indians to Detroit - I'll have to read this story for more detail. The settlers soon drove the Brits & Indians out.

There is an obelisk memorial to commemorate the site and the site of the graves of those killed is also at hand.

The resort has a boat landing on the Licking River, a lodge with 32 rooms, a campground with 57 sites (some primitive), a pool, the museum, miniature golf, and a nature center with trails. It's a nice place to stay. I just wish we'd arrived at our intended time so we could have enjoyed more of it during the afternoon.

We blew lunch during the traffic jam and went to the museum on arrival, so we stopped to eat something at 5:00pm. There's no TV worth mentioning, so it's going to be a quiet evening around the camp. I'm thinking of sitting outside after it has cooled a little more.

There's a group of kids staying in tents near a trailer that must be holding the chaperons or parents; the kids are all over the place having fun.