Incline Railway/Rock City - Chattanooga

*Pictures from our day at the Incline Railway & Rock City have been downloaded to the first slideshow to the left.

We got a late start this morning. We were going to spend the day checking out Lookout Mountain. We stopped by Ruby Falls and decided to pass on that attraction...we found out it's an underground cave with a fall, after Carlsbad Caverns, we decided Ruby Falls couldn't hold up to the Caverns. So we headed on down the road to the Incline Railway.

Now that was interesting! The Incline Railway is supposed to be the longest/steepest Railway in the Word. It's a little over one mile, at a 72 degree incline. Folks, that's steep! When I saw it, I started to back up and just watch Mark do it. I don't mind heights, but the track looked pretty much like a 90 degree drop at the top portion of Lookout Mountain. But I followed through and joined Mark on the ride up. At the top they have a lookout that spans 7 states. It was a little hazy, but you could easily see the Smoky Mountains, a good 150 miles from where we were. After the very steep ride to the bottom, we headed to Rock City.

Mark says he's heard of Rock City and seen it on bumper stickers since he was a small kid going to Arkansas and he always saw bumper stickers about Rock City. So needless to say, we couldn't come to Chattanooga without checking out Rock City. I didn't know what to expect, but it was actually a beautifully landscaped garden, encompassed in rock. It was a very humid day today, which made it feel much warmer than it actually was. I was ringing wet halfway through the Rock City maze. I remembered hearing about "Fat Man's Squeeze", and Julie, tell Billy it was indeed a tight squeeze! A few places we had to suck in for sure!

There were several lookout points at Rock City as well. You can see 7 states on a clear day. It had cleared somewhat and you could very clearly see the Smoky Mountains, North Carolina and Kentucky. There was a really cute area towards the end of the second maze...primary for children but it was just sooooooo cute. Lot's of depictions of gnomes in various scenarios, for various fairytales, like Snow White, Humpty-Dumpty, etc. Also, lot's of nursery rhimes were set up with colorful paint. Mark took lot's of pictures and I'll need to download them to Picasa, which takes several hours. So I won't get them posted tonight, but will as soon as I can.

Only thing on the agenda for tomorrow is to check out the Chattanooga Civil War National Park. It's supposed to be the largest and oldest in the U.S. There's a good chance of rain tomorrow, so we'll have to play it by ear. There is an 8-mile auto tour, so we should at least get to check that out tomorrow.

We'll be leaving Chattanooga Thursday morning and heading to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee for a few days to check out the Smoky Mountains. From there, we're planning on heading to Asheville, North Carolina to check out "The Biltmore", known as the "Largest Home in America". It's a 250 room mansion and takes more than a full day to check out the home and surrounding/supporting areas including the Winery, Stables, River, Gardens, Orchards, etc. I first heard of The Biltmore on an old show called "Americas Castles"...I loved that show. Anyway, we recently discovered we'll only be 150 or so miles from there, so why not make a short stop and check it out?

We're having a great time and are really excited about what we've seen so far on this trip, as well as the things we're hoping to check out in the coming weeks. Well, that's about a wrap for this entry...stay tuned~

Last Minute Change of Plans/Chattanooga Tennessee

We got an early start yesterday and were heading to Pigeon Forge and the Smoky Mountains. But, once on the road I got the road map out and couldn't figure out why we were going to the Smoky Mountains and then to Chattanooga. We'd end up driving "backwards" some 150 miles or so to go to see Chattanooga.

So we made a last minute 'executive change' and drove south to Chattanooga Tennessee. We finally arrived around 2:00 P.M. yesterday afternoon, but not without encountering a harrowing experience. I had found an RV Park that was reasonably priced (remember this was a last minute change in plans, so no we had not yet checked out any of the RV Parks in the area). We were folling 'Nellie's" directions (Nellie is our trusty little Garmin GPS). Once we got into Chattanooga, 'she' sent us towards the downtown area...which are All One Way streets. We were within a few miles of the destination, according to 'Nellie', when Mark noticed a sign indicating the upcoming Bridge Clearance was 12'6"...too low for us. Our RV is 13'5".

We veered to the left, thinking we could avert the bridge, only to find we were going the Wrong Way On A One-Way Street!! Yikes!!! Cars started stopping and honking their horn, and one guy yelling and pointing we were going the wrong direction...Well Duh!!! So I rolled down my window, half-way climbed out and started pointing the cars to go around us. Once the road appeared clear (we couldn't see beyond a stop sign due to a sharp curve in the road). So Mark 'darted' the short drive (going the wrong direction) to the stop sign. I'm not explaining it too well, but bottom line--we were going the wrong way down a one-way street, through a stop sign in order to get turned around. It was a miracle there were no cars coming from around the bend...if there had of been, I don't know what would have happened! The Good Lord was with us, that's for sure! Whew!!!

That's definitely been the most precarious situation we've ever been in while on the road. We changed plans, back-tracked and found an RV Park not far from Look-Out Mountain. We're planning on spending 3 nights in Chattanooga. Today, we're planning on going to Look-Out Mountain; Checking out the Incline Railway and Rock City. Tomorrow, we're planning on checking out the Chattanooga Civil War battlefield. And then moving on to Pigeon Forge, Tenneessee on Thursday to spend a few days in the Smoky Mountains.

Well, that's the latest for now...I'll update after our day on Look Out Mountain and the surrounding area this evening if I get a chance. Until later...~

Shiloh Civil War National Park

Wow, what a terrific day! Though the Shiloh Civil War National Park is much smaller by scale than the Vicksburg Military Park, it was by far our favorite. The monuments were more 'simple' and there were far fewer monuments, however, this park did a good job outlining each area of the Park with "Who" was where; "Where" the Blue/Gray lines were drawn; "Where" the battlefields were and who was killed.

There was a very sobering site halfway through the battlefield. The Shiloh Civil War was the bloodiest battle in the Civil War. More than 2,700 men died that day. More than 1,700 troops that died that day were from the Confederacy. After the one-day battle, many of those in the vicinity had requested to go to the battlefield and find their loved ones to bury them. So General Beauregard sent a messenger to deliver a note to General Grant requesting a temporary truce, in order to bury their dead. Grant responded that it was too late, his troops had already buried them.

The Conferderate forces that died in the battle of Shiloh, were buried in "Mass Graves". Archaeologist have located the largest of these mass burial sites. We took pictures. They simply dug a very long trench, and simply dumped all the dead into the trench and covered it up. More than 700 men were buried in the mass grave marked. It was sobering. Sad. Most of these men and young boys in battle, on both sides, were farmers and the only thing they'd ever tried to shoot were deer and other game. We've learned so much about the Civil War in the last few days, between Vicksburg and Shiloh.

On a brighter note, when we were checking out the Shiloh Church, which existed at that time, and has since been rebuilt at the same location. Using old documents, they built a cabin with the same dimensions. We were walking around the grounds and peeked inside the building and got to visiting with a guy and his wife who were planning to have their wedding vows renewed in that very building. They were joined by friends and the wedding planner.

All of them are quite involved with the re-enactments of the civil war. Now these guys know their history! The one guy set to renew their wedding vows, had a Confederate Hat; Confederate Checkbook hanging out his pocket; a Confederate belt buckle...and on and on. Mark and I thorougly enjoyed talking to these guys. They were a hoot too. Just listening to them talk about what transpired in that area (they parents; grandparents And Great-grandparents all lived in this area). Savannah is in Hardin County, and apparently he was a well known figure during the civil war and afterwards. The stories are too numerous to mention here, but suffice to say we really enjoyed listening to what "actually" happened. We must have stood there talking for at least an hour and would probably still be talking but they had to leave to continue their wedding plans.

The Shiloh Cemetary was much much more impressive as well. You enter through these magnificent gates. Once you enter, there are large monuments representing where Grant had his 'office' while in camp. The cemetary is beautiful. Peaceful. There are several tombstones that indicate "two soldiers buiried here"...with no name. Those actually buried in the cemetary are mostly Union soldiers...the Conferderate soldiers were buried in the mass grave trenches by the Union soldiers.

Though we only spent one full day here, we really enjoyed it. The folks at this RV Park, at the laundry where we did some clothes this evening, were all so friendly. Just good ole' country folk, guess you could say. We leave early tomorrow morning for Pigeon Forge, Tennessee to spend a few days at the Smoky Mountain National Park. We'll probably spend 3 - 4 days in Pigeon Forge before moving on to Chattanooga, our last planned stop in Tennessee.

Well, that's about it for this update. I've downloaded our pictures from today, but haven't had time to upload them so I can put them on the blog. I'll try to do that tomorrow night. Talk to you soon...~

Savannah Tennessee

We got an early start this morning as we had a 375 mile drive to our new location in Savannah, Tennessee. It's the closest location we could find with a decent, low cost RV Park near the Shiloh Civil War National Park in Shiloh, Tennessee. We passed a rather large Farmers Market and hope it's open tomorrow so we can stock up on tomatoes and cantelope.

Our current plan is to spend tomorrow touring the Shiloh National Military Park all day. It was supposed to be the 'bloodiest' battle of the Civil War. This location was also a good stopping point before moving on to the Smoky Mountains, which will be a relatively 'short' 250 miles. We still need to do some research on where we'll be staying when we leave here Monday morning for the Smoky Mountains.

We were planning on spending 3 nights in Pigeon Forge, which is just a few miles from the Smoky Mountain Park. However, after picking up some literature at the Welcome Center when we entered Tennessee earlier today, we discovered Gatlinburg is just a few miles from Pigeon Forge and the Smoky Mountains as well. Pigeon Forge is actually where Dollywood is located, and she has a nightly dinner show called Stampede, that's reasonably priced, so we're considering going there. But, there appears to be lot's of things in Gatlinburg as well.

Anyway, we're in Savannah Tennessee thru tomorrow and are planning on heading to the Smoky Mountains Monday morning. I'll update the blog with pictures from our adventure tomorrow when I get a chance. Stay tuned...~

Vicksburg Civil War & Courthouse

**(Note: I've updated the Blog ADDING ANOTHER SLIDESHOW, so that both the pictures from yesterday of Natchez Mississippi, along with those taken today in Vicksburg, Mississippi, can be viewed. Just click on either slideshow to see the pictures from that location)

Well we had a really busy today. We got out the door around 10:00 a.m. (that "used" be to a time I considered "late morning" when I was working!). We stopped by the RV Park office to pick up a free copy of the CD used in conjunction with the auto tour portion of the Vicksburg Military Park tour and headed out.

Our first stop was the Vicksburg Military Park visitor center. We then took off on the 3-hour, 18 mile auto tour and used the CD with each monument and stop, which provided lot's of detail, including voice depictions of events that occurred at the time. One of the most amazing things was the breakdown of "Blue" and "Red" throughout the entire Park. They placed Red and Blue markers throughout the park, which depicted the front of the Union and Confederate Lines.

Vicksburg, Mississippi was the site of one of the pivotal battles of the Civil War. It’s importance was its geographic location on the Mississippi River, control of which was crucial for the passage of Union troops and supplies into the South. Located high on the bluffs, Vicksburg was a fortress guarding the Mississippi River. It was known as "The Gibraltar of the Confederacy."

The Union troops were under the direction of Maj. General Ulysses S. Grant; the Confederates under Lt. General John C. Pemberton. The siege lasted 46 days, from May 18 to July 3, 1863. It is ironic that on July 4th, the day of our independence from England, Pemberton surrendered to Grant at Vicksburg. This surrender, coupled with the fall of Port Hudson, Louisiana, divided the South, and gave the North undisputed control of the Mississippi River.

The park sprawls over 1800 acres, contains 1,330 monuments (the most of any military site in the U.S.), provides a 16 mile auto tour road, and whose cemetery provides the burial site of over 17,000 Union soldiers of which over 12,900 are unidentified. It also includes the remains of a Union ironclad gunboat, the U.S.S. Cairo, which was sunk in 1862 and spent 102 years on the bottom of the Yazoo River before being raised in 1964 and later restored.

As you begin your tour on the auto road, you are driving along the Union line and the road is appropriately named Union Avenue. Later you will reach a point where the road changes to Confederate Avenue, at which time you will be following the Confederate line. Many monuments of all sizes line the route. There are, of course, major structures erected by each state whose soldiers fought here. But there are lots of smaller monuments honoring each specific battalion who fought, listing the designation of the battalion, the leader, and the number of soldiers who died and were wounded. One after another, the sheer number of granite stones begins to accumulate and as they do, so does your understanding of the magnitude of the battle and your reverence for this hallowed ground.

One of the most stunning and substantial monuments was from the state of Illinois. Modeled after the Pantheon in Rome, the approach contains 47 steps, one for each of the days that Vicksburg was under siege including the day of surrender. Sixty bronze tablets lining its walls contain the names of all 36,325 soldiers from Illinois who fought at Vicksburg during the Civil War in 1863. Many of the memorials are beautiful and artistic sculptures and structures. Many contain some kind of symbolism, or the absence of same, as some states directed their designers that the monument should not contain any feature that is an expression of war or conflict. One of the most unique memorials, amidst this park full of huge granite and marble structures, was the contemporary Kansas memorial.

One of the relief panels on the base of the Wisconsin monument features a Union soldier shaking hands with a Confederate. According to the audio CD, a two and one half hour truce was declared on May 25 to enable soldiers from both sides to collect the bodies of the many dead that lay upon the field in this area after a particularly long and harsh battle. Flags were unfurled in both camps and soldiers moved freely among the ridges, visiting and trading with friend and foe alike, even entering each other’s camps. Afterward, the war and fighting resumed. War can be quite strange at times huh?

We also spent at least an hour at the Cairo Cannon Ship, which was the only one of seven that did not make it during a trip down the Mississippi by Union soldiers in an effort to take Vicksburg. It was shot by Confederate cannons in strategic locations on the bank and sank in less than an hour. The Cairo was found in the Mississippi and raised July 4, 1965, exactly 102 years after it had sunk. Since it had been in silt/water, much of the ship and lot's of items from the ship were recovered. We were able to board the Cairo boat and took pictures (see slide-show for pictures). Then, we went into the Cairo museum. It was packed full of articles and personal items from the sailors, as well as items from the ship. Everything from spoons (sailors actually carved their name on their utensils), to the ancho, canons, doctor equipment, kitchen equipment, officer items, shoes, etc. etc. Wow! This was an awesome experience!

We then went across the street to the Vicksburg National Cemetary. Of the 17,000 graves from the Civil War era, only 4,000 were identified by name. The other 13,000 was simply buried and assigned a cemetary lot number in which they were buried. We also saw graves from the Spanish American War and World Wars I and II as well. I think that was one of our favorite venues...it's sobering to walk among the graves of these brave men, not knowing who the majority of them were.

Finally, we drove to downtown Vicksburg, to check out the historic Courthouse. This courthouse was established in 1835 and survived the civil war and the numerous bombardments by the Union to destroy it. The items in this historic Courthouse were, well........unbelivable. Beyond description. It was just awesome. Absolutely everything you can think of from the time period, was included. From old family portraits, to furniture, guns and ammunition, clothing, the chair of Jefferson Davis, items passed down from the Jefferson Davis family. In addition to the two story building full of items from the 1800's thru the early 1900's, we found the actual Courthouse which was used by various judges beginning in 1835. We also took pictures of the courthouse. It was the actual courthouse as it was used, with the old jury section chairs, as well as the defendant the judge areas.

Wow! Like I said, we had a busy, but awesome day! We're really glad we took time to make a stop here in Vicksburg. Everything from the Vicksburg National Park to the Cairo Cannon Boat and Museum and the Old Vicksburg Courthouse made for a terrific and wonderful day! I'll update the Blog Slide-show to reflect the 110 pictures taken during our day today.

Well, that's a wrap for today. We leave early tomorrow morning for Savannah, Tennessee. We're planning on spending Saturday & Sunday in the area to check out the Shiloh Civil War Park. Our current plans are to be in Savannah, Tennessee Saturday and Sunday. Moving on to Chattanooga, Tennessee for a few days and then on to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee to spend a few days in the Smoky Mountains. Hope you've enjoyed the info...I'll update after we've seen the Shiloh Civil War Park. Stay tuned....~

Natchez State Park

Well, we've settled in at Natchez State Park in Mississippi. This is our first stay in a state or national park and I think we're going to really enjoy staying in these parks and plan on staying in them whenever possible. Not only for the natural scenery and beauty, but it's also much cheaper...which is always a good thing!

We got a late start today. We didn't get up until 9:30 and didn't begin packing up to move until after 11:00 this morning...that's a first for us on move day. We didn't get packed up and out of Poche's RV Park until around noon today. And we miscalculated how long it would take to get from Breaux Bridge, Louisiana to Natchez Mississippi too. We miscalculated the estimated mileage; there was lot's of construction in several long sections of the highway and it took awhile to get to the state park campground and set up.

But we're here and it's beautiful. After setting up, we took a drive a couple of blocks down the road to the lake and took several pictures. We peeked out of the RV tonight after dark and Wow...is it Dark! If you stepped a mere 10 feet away from our RV to get away from the light inside, you literally cannot see your hand in front of your face! Now that's a tad scary for me. I told Mark if the dogs need to go out tonight...they'll just need to go in the 'house'--'cause I'm not stepping foot outside this campground until daylight!

Oh yea, on a side note, Mark took Duffy out for a walk earlier this evening, and we're right next to a big forest, and a deer had walked right out into the opening, just a few feet in front of them. Mark said the deer just stood there watching them for a minute or so, until Duffy decided to take off after the deer barking. We also saw a bunch of wild turkeys right down the road too. Hopefully we'll get pictures of those in the next couple of days. We're planning on staying here in Natchez State Park through Wednesday night and will continue north in Mississippi Thursday morning.

Tomorrow morning we're planning on checking out some of the sites in downtown Natchez. There are over 100 antebellum mansions in the area and several of them are open to the public and we'd like to check them out. There are also walking tours of the downtown historic district that we're hoping to check out tomorrow as well. Well, that about wraps it up for another blog update. In the meantime, stay tuned! I've attached a few of the pictures from our current location.

Heading to Natchez Mississippi

We've finished up a very relaxing week here at Poche's Fish Camp RV Park. After checking out our "101 Most Scenic Drives in America" book yesterday, we're headed to Natchez, Mississippi for a week long trip from Natchez to Vicksburg.

We'll be following the Natchez Trace Parkway, starting in Natchez to check out the lavish homes from the civil war era that are still in existence. We'll move on to see beautiful pathways, a couple of State Parks and on to Windsor Ruins. I'm looking forward to checking out Windsor Ruins. It was built in 1861 for a whopping $175,000, which of course was an enormous sum of money in that day and time. It survived the civil war as first a post for Confederate soldiers and later became a hospital for the Union. Ironically, the building survived the Civil War only to be destroyed in 1890 by a careless smoker. All that remains of the structure are haunting skeleton of this once magnificent mansion is 23 weathered Corinthian columns, with ornate iron capitals touching nothing but the sky. I'll be sure and take lot's of pictures.

Then we'll check out a couple of Falls, a swamp, and Tombigbee National Forest. We hope to wrap up our Mississippi stay in less than a week, as we've made plans to be in West Virginia in 3 weeks for a Christian conference we'd like to attend. Sorry I didn't get pictures of where we've been, but if I get a chance, I'll snap a few on our way out of here tomorrow morning.

Mark finished up our week here by fishing again this afternoon. I think he got more 'bug' bites than fish bites! Well, that about wraps up the latest on what we've been up to and where we're headed...stay tuned, I'll update the blog with new pictures and info as soon as I can. Until later~

Breaux Bridge, Louisiana

We're now in Louisiana. We dropped the RV off Tuesday morning for repair and they weren't able to finish and asked us if we could stay in a motel so they could finish up this morning. So, we spent last night at a LaQuinta in Lafayette. Mark and I felt like a fish out of water in the hotel, we Missed our home on wheels! We picked it up around noon today and headed a few miles down the road to Poche's Fish Camp in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.

We're planning on staying here through Sunday. Mark loves this place...it's like a fish farm of sorts. There are 4 separate ponds stocked with large trout. After cooking out this evening, I settled in for the night and curled up to watch TV with Clyde and Duffy. Mark grabbed his fishing pole and lawn chair and walked 10 feet over to the closest pond and fished for a couple of hours. I understand there were a few bites, but no fish...tonight anyway.

No big plans tomorrow...we're planning on just hanging out and chilling the remainder of the week. I'll take some pictures of our park and post them tomorrow. Well, that about wraps up the latest for us...stay tuned~

Clyde Cleared for Travel/Heading Out Monday

We took Clyde to the vet today for his follow up visit and to have his stitches removed. The doctor said that as long as we were careful with Clyde for the next few weeks that we could go ahead and take Clyde back on the road. Yippee!!! We got our truck worked on today. We had the 20,000 mile check up (already!) and they had to replace the radiator due to a seam leak and they also found a problem with the A/C condensor and replaced that as well. So, the truck should be good to go for some time now, Lord willing.

We're still leaving Monday morning for Lafayette to have the RV worked on, but rather than return back to the Dallas area we'll continue East. We're heading to Tennessee for a few weeks to check out the Smokey Mountains and lot's of the civil war sites (thanks for the info Julie!). We're not really sure where we'll go from there, but have several ideas. We'll be back home for the holiday season, November and December.

We're planning on spending tomorrow going to East Texas to get some peaches with the family and Sunday Chris wants us to all go to 'Twisted Root', a new burger bar in North Dallas that he found out about on Diners Drive-In's and Dives. Then Mark wants to wash the RV and truck Sunday afternoon before so all is clean before we head out Monday morning.

Just "Where" Are We and Where Have We Been?

I apologize to those folks that have begun following our blog and e-mailed wondering what has happened to us since our trip to Yosemite in late June. To better track where we are and our plans, I'll 'try' to update our blog, even if just briefly, daily...or at least 'most' days.

Ok, where are we? We're back home in the Dallas area. Why? During our last day in the Yosemite area our little chihuahua Clyde injured his back leg some how when we had left to grab a bite to eat for Fathers Day. He couldn't put any weight on it and it was quite apparent it was serious, so rather than heading on to Malibu and Simi Valley to see the Reagan Library the next day, we decided to go ahead and head East as planned, only a few days early and a detour back home to Dallas, rather than on to Kentucky as planned.

So...we got back home to Dallas on June 25th and took Clyde in to see the Vet the following day. We were surprised that he had actually ruptured his "ACL" (the same injury that athletes have--didn't know dogs even had an ACL!). He also dislocated his knee. He required emergency surgery according to the vet. So Clyde had surgery the following day and we're still in the area awaiting clearance from the vet to leave. Actually, they want us to stay "at least 4 weeks"...! That's gonna be really difficult for us having traveled so much. Clyde is doing quite well so far and they say he's ahead of schedule and his stitches will be removed this Friday.

We're planning on staying here at Plantation Place in Sunnyvale through this Sunday and plan on leaving this Monday 7/13 for Lafayette to have some warranty work done on our RV. So we'll be in the Lafayette area thru at least 7/15 and will most likely head back home for a quick follow up visit with the vet. We hope Clyde is doing well enough for us to get back on the road and head East some time the week of 7/20. We always enjoy coming back home and visiting with the boys and Mark's family.

As for "where" exactly we're going when we finally head East...well, we're still not sure. We've kicked around lot's of ideas but haven't made any decisions yet. We want to check out some of the Civil War sites, maybe Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia/West Virginia and ultimately, we'd like to camp near Washington DC. We spent a few days there several years ago but didn't have nearly enough time to see all the Smithsonian buildings and only had a couple of hours at Arlington National Cemetery...so we're planning on spending a couple of weeks in the area so we can take our time checking out all that Washington DC has to offer.

We've talked about heading up to New York State for a few weeks as well, but of course, no firm plans have yet been made. Well, that about wraps up our current status and plans, at least, what we've planned so far...but that's one of the awesome things about this lifestyle, flexibility. When something comes up it's so easy to just change our plans. Well, that's a wrap for this entry...I promise I'll try to update the blog daily, even if we don't have pictures to include, as was our previous blog update schedule. Stay tuned~