We have seen a drop in gas prices by 20¢ a gallon.

THURSDAY, 11/18/21: Rain Day

On this trip, we have been blessed with favorable-to-fabulous weather. Today we were unblessed. It was an all-day, off-and-on drizzle day - mostly on. Chattanooga has a free downtown electric shuttle bus system. We decided to check out the downtown. Our plan was to walk if/when it stopped raining, and hop on the bus if/when it rained.

We parked the van at Shuttle Park South, the southern-most terminal. The bus runs every 5 minutes. It goes right through the main drag of downtown and ends at Shuttle Park North, next to the Aquarium on the Tennessee River. It was drizzling, so we rode the whole route. We got to see that the downtown wasn’t much. There were a couple of nice looking government buildings and an indoor shopping mall disguised as a normal downtown building.

The free downtown electric shuttle bus.

This is the original Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel. It is on the historic registry.

The rain stopped when we reached the Shuttle Park North. There is a smaller business section on the other side of the river. We could either take another free shuttle across the river, or walk the Walnut Street pedestrian bridge. We chose to walk.

Built in 1890, it was the first non-military highway bridge to span the Tennessee River. At 1/2 mile long, it was quite an engineering feat. I think the use of the term “highway bridge” might be stretching it. I don’t think there were a ton of cars in 1890, if any. I guess way back then, horses and wagons needed highways too.

The bridge was closed to vehicular traffic in 1978. It sat idle until 2009, when it was refurbished for use as a pedestrian bridge.

The bridge has a checkered past. At least two lynchings happened on the bridge. The most famous was the lynching of Ed Johnson in 1906. What made it famous is that it led to the only criminal trial ever heard by the US Supreme Court (U.S. vs. Shipp). The US Supreme Court convicted and sent to jail, Sheriff Shipp for aiding and abetting the lynching of Ed Johnson.

To tell Ed Johnson’s story, info plaques and a commemorative sculpture are placed at the southern entrance of the bridge. The bridge itself is a delightful walkway across the broad Tennessee River.

The Walnut Street pedestrian bridge.

Ed Johnson.

This memorial is of Ed Johnson and his two African-American lawyers. Johnson was arrested for the rape of a white woman. He was no where near the crime and had an alibi. Johnson was sentenced to death in a sham trial. His alibi wasn’t allowed to be presented. His lawyers successfully argued Johnson’s case in front of the US Supreme Court and won a stay of execution. Sheriff Shipp ignored the court order and let a mob take Johnson to the Walnut Street Bridge. Johnson’s last words were, “God bless you all, I am an innocent man.” He was one of 4,000 confirmed lynchings from reconstruction to the civil rights era. In 2000, Ed Johnson was officially exonerated of the crime.

Views from the bridge.

This is how Lookout Mountain must have appeared when Hooker’s troops drove up the mountain in the “Battle Above The Clouds”. It should have been called “Battle In The Clouds”.

The Hunter American Modern Art Museum.

The aquarium.

A random piece of junk art. I am a sucker for junk art.

The northside business district was small. It started to rain again, so we rode the free shuttle from the Shuttle Park North Shore back to Shuttle Park North (on the south shore - yes, it is all kind of confusing). It was still raining. We gave up the idea of walking the downtown. We just rode the shuttle back to our van.

There was a “Black Hole” in Signal Mountain, a community just a few minutes from downtown Chattanooga. We needed a couple ingredients for supper. It happened again - $101. I beg all of you to buy stock in Walmart whenever we go on a trip.

On the brighter side, it stopped raining. We decided to go to the summit of the actual Signal Mountain. During Bragg’s siege of Chattanoogo, Signal Mountain was used by Rosecrans to send messages out via flag signals. This was before Grant came and opened up the Cracker Line.

Then we continued up the scenic Suck Creek Road to Powells Crossroads. I was intending to make a big circle drive on a series of mountain roads, but it was getting late. We turned around and drove straight back to camp. Suck Creek Road was gorgeous enough to drive twice.

Views from Signal Point, on top of Signal Mountain.

There is still an occasional colorful tree.

FRIDAY, 11/19/21: Tennessee Valley RR

Chattanooga heavily advertises the following attractions:

1) Ruby Falls. $22.95. A cave tour that features an underground waterfalls and a colored light show. The tour lasts around an hour.

2) Rock City. $21.95. A garden overlook. The brochure photos do look enticing.

3) The Incline Railroad. $15. The other day when we visited Lookout Mountain, I watched the Incline in action as it climbed up the steep slope of Lookout Mountain. It looked like a lot of fun. Since we had already driven to the top of Lookout Mountain, it didn’t make sense to drive back down to take the Incline.

4) Chattanooga Aquarium. $34.95.

5) Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. $21.00. This includes a one-hour train ride and entrance to the museum.

These all look very interesting, but they are on the expensive side. The reviews that I read concurred. Fortunately, if you like to hike, there are lots of spectacular free walking/hiking opportunities in the area.

We already rode the Tennessee Riverpark on our ebikes. We walked miles of battlefield paths and fields. We almost walked downtown Chattanooga. Raccoon Mountain, with plenty of trails complete with stunning overlooks was next up.

Well, not exactly next. I got sucked into one more shot at riding a train. The Tennessee Valley Railroad promised a double-header. A train ride and museum for one price. How could I resist such clever marketing?

The train ride was a short 3 miles (6 miles roundtrip), but the scenery was nice and the passenger cars were in great shape. At the turnaround, the engine went onto a giant turntable. We all got to watch as the engine flipped around to face forward for the return trip.

I admired how the TVRR bought old equipment and restored it to working condition. They have a large restoration building where they perform near-miracles on the junk they pick up. The steam engines, of course, are the real marvels. The complicated rusted out hulks have to be rebuilt to stand huge pressures. With no replacement parts available, TVRR fabricates all the needed parts.

All this sounds absolutely riveting, except we don’t see any of it. The museum was a letdown. It consisted of photos depicting the history of the TVRR, buying land, getting track right-of-way, building their terminal, displaying a handful of mementos, blah, blah, blah. I wanted to tour actual RR cars, see the refurbishing shop, and get a sense of what it takes to tackle a restoration project.

The new terminal building was nice, but was basically a glorified gift shop and ticket counter.

A “little boy” waiting for his train ride.

Look at all that infrastructure.

The turntable.

Some of the old equipment waiting for their turn to be worked on.

Restored equipment in the “yard”. Sadly, we weren’t able to tour the cars.

Hiking along Racoon Mountain soothed my bruised soul. The day was bright. The trails through the dense oak woods crackled with all the dried oak leaves on the ground obscuring the paths. Gaia GPS saved us several times as we were inclined to wander off in some erroneous direction. We were done with Chattanooga’s expensive attractions - it was going to be all “natural” from here on out.

SATURDAY, 11/20/21: Earning Our Amigos

We were both craving a return engagement to Amigos. We knew that meant packing in the calories. Our campground, Harrison Bay, has miles of nature trails. About five miles of calorie-burning hiking should do the trick.

First up, the 4 1/2 mile loop around several penninsulas poking out into the reservoir. We noted two things: 1) It was Saturday and the reservoir was filled with fishing boats. It seemed like every fisherman had the same style of big low-slung fiberglass bassboat powered by a monster motor. Surprisingly, the motors were all antique 2-strokes engines. That strong 2-stroke oil-gas smell is unmistakable.

2) The water quality in the big Tennessee reservoirs are questionable. We are spoiled in Wisconsin. Water quality was a big deal in Wisconsin for decades when the DNR had some teeth. With the recent race to deregulate everything, I fear that our waters may be in jeaporady. We are already starting to see a lot more weeds and algae blooms as nutrient-rich lawn and farm run-off is increasing and going unregulated.

Ah, the discrepancy. I said 4.5 miles and the sign says 4.3 miles. Well, the campground brochure states 4.5 miles, and our Gaia GPS pegged it at 4.6 miles. I took the middle number.

After the 4 1/2-miler, we hit a bunch of short loops to round out our calorie burning. By 4:30 pm, we were ready for Amigos. This time we split a large plate of gooey cheesy burritos and enchalades, with an ample side of beans and rice. We doubled up on the drinks, asked for a second basket of chips and salsa, I got to watch the UW Wisconsin Madison football game, and we walked out totally satiated.

Football, not soccer? Yes, Amigos wasn’t authentic. It even piped in rock music. But, the food was good, the service was top-notch, and the drink prices were reasonable. Sometimes you gotta bend your principals.

Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum.

Dave and Wanda

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