Good Morning Family and Friends
Here we are! Stone Mountain Park and Campground in of all places, Stone Mountain, Georgia. This place is huge. So many things to see and do and spend lots of money on. But all of that is for another post because this one is a catch up selection to bring everyone up to date.
The last 3 nights we spent at Chattanooga, Tennessee. There. All caught up. That sure was easier than I thought. Probably should not have put it off for so long.
Alright, lets get to it. At Chattanooga we met up with my brother Steve, and sister-in-law Susie, and we will be traveling together for the next two months. They have moved up from a smaller Class A RV to a big diesel pusher Class A. So now we both must search out the lowest diesel prices in a place that would be big enough for us to not only get into, but out of as well. Makes planning the drives a bit more complicated. But that’s ok because Google Earth is our friend.
At Chattanooga there were several items of interest to see. Rock City, City Point Park, The Incline Railway, The Chickamauga Battlefield, and Cloudland Canyon were our objectives. We attacked the first 3 on day 1 and the other 2 on day 2. So, let’s get started with some technical details for the numbers geeks among you.
The drive from Clinton, Tennessee to Chattanooga, Tennessee was a whopping 137 miles, and it took us a full 3 hours and 45 minutes to accomplish. We would have been there at least an hour earlier except for traffic in and around Chattanooga. Our gps took us off the highway to avoid what ever it was causing the backup but, it was unaware of local backups, so we still ended up sitting in traffic. The KOA was really nice. Set way back from any road or traffic, it had great WIFI but low water pressure (oh well, can’t have everything)
I’m supposed to insert a picture of the RV at the Campsite here but I have to find it and download it first. Sorry.
Our first full day out we took the incline railway up Lookout Mountain and walked from there to City Point Park. The incline railway has been a fixture on Lookout Mountain for over 100 years. It is a cable operated system as compared to a cog railway like the one that goes up Pikes Peak. The two cars are connected by the cable and as one goes up the other goes down. Its sort of funny sitting in the car at the bottom of the incline because you are tilted backwards. It takes about three quarters of the trip up the mountain to get to the point where you are sitting straight. The ride takes about 10 minutes and at the top you can go up on the roof of the bldg. and get an awesome view of the surrounding area.
About 3 blocks away from the top station of the incline is Point City Park. This is where part of the battle for Chattanooga was fought. The South held the high ground, and the north came up the mountain and took it away. The park has lots of signs describing what happened where and who was involved and how many died. The signs for the south are in red and the north in blue. It was a real nice walk. The weather was mild, in the upper 60’s with a bit of wind, so no worries about overheating. There was one problem we encountered at the park. It seems my sugar levels decided to see “how low can they go”. Alarms on both my phone and Sarah’s started going off as the numbers dropped below 70. They got down to the 40’s before we could find a place to do a quick sugar load. A few candy bars and a bottle of orange juice later and all was back to normal.
It was back to the incline railway for our trip down the mountain and over to our next stop which was supposed to be Ruby Falls. Now this place is the home to the biggest underground waterfall, and it is, from all accounts, awesome. When we got there, we found out that we had to prepurchase timed tickets to see the attraction. If we were willing to pay the price and wait, we could have seen the falls about 2 hours after we arrived. Of course, there was a massive gift shop just waiting to take our money but we decided to move on to Rock City. Another timed ticket purchase but this time there was no problem getting in quickly.
For those who have not seen Rock City there is really no way to describe it but, I’ll try anyway. Rock City. Its up on Lookout Mountain. About 3.5 miles down the ridge from City Point Park. You walk (one way) though trails which bring you through various rock formations and overlooks. Some of the trails are very tight such as the aptly named “Fat Man Squeeze”. There is a rope bridge, a lover’s leap, and from one observation point, you can see 7 states. Its just a peaceful stroll and well worth the admission price.
Towards the end of the Rock City trail, there is a magical place called Fairyland Caverns. This is all underground and well, it is a Gnome Fairyland. They make great use of Black Lights and other affects to really enhance the atmosphere. Words can’t describe and since I’m getting tired of typing at this point, I’ll just let the pictures do the work.
That was it for day 1 in Chattanooga. I still have to download the pictures from day 2 so I’ll just end here for now. I really look forward to the comments you leave and I try to answer everyone of them quickly. If you are not already a follower of this blog please consider becoming one. There is no monetary benefit to doing so for either you or I but it sure makes me feel good and that should be enough of a reason to follow!
TTFN
Love your photos,as always guess you need to get Sarah a bigger purse or Fanny pack to hold sugar snacks! Or you get a man pack.
You’re right. I have my “kit” as we call it that I carry but that is only good for when my numbers get high. For low’s, its time to find a local candy store. But, sarah does now carry a roller of pure sugar candies as a just in case. No question that I would not be here if it were not for the love of my life.
Great photos and the 💡 ng in fairyland is fabulous! Hope you guys stay healthy and have fun!xo
It was pretty awesome. Seems they have been doing that kind of lighting since the 1940’s. They claim they were pioneers in that area. Don’t know if its true, but it sure look great.