It was an absolutely gorgeous morning in Chattanooga. On our way out of town we stopped off to see the famous Chattanooga choo choo. The train ran from Cincinnati to Chattanooga, a vital supply line for the town. The old train depot is now a hotel and center for a few other businesses. Some of the old train cars serve as hotel rooms. The grounds are quite pretty, the train fun to look at.
On our way out of town we stopped at the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park. This park relives the history of the civil war battle that took place there. Interestingly enough, this park was created before the national park service. About 30 years after the civil war those that fought there gathered together. They erected thousands of monuments that remembered the ones who fought in the battle, battle strategies, those that died, pretty much everything about the battle. It's an interesting park to drive/walk through. Once the park service was founded this became a National Military Park.
Then it was on to Gatlinburg, and here is where we are now. Not a bad drive, though traffic got bad once we got to Gatlinburg. I did not realize that this park is the most visited of all the national parks. Gatlinburg is full of all the usual tourist trap stuff, and crazy amounts of people, like beach boardwalk in the summer crazy. But the park is big and the weather forecast isn't as bad tomorrow as we originally thought it might be. Not camping again tonight was probably the right call. Got some pretty good rain showers from about 5:30-8, might be a few more overnight. Would have been another damp night.
We did get one hike in to Laurel Falls today. It was a very pretty waterfall. We saw our first bear on the way down from the falls. A little cub was climbing around a tree. I'm guessing mama bear wasn't far off.
And that brings us to now. We'll see what the weather does tomorrow, but i think everyone is looking forward to some hiking and mountain time.
If you read this, and Mike's blog, I'm sure you've noticed some discrepancies. Go with whatever Mike says, it's a sure bet he's right and I'm not.
Friday, June 22, 2018
Thursday, June 21, 2018
Day 5: Chattanooga, TN
Turns out it was the right call cancelling our camping reservations in the Smokies. We drove through some pretty intense rain on route to Chattanooga this morning from Huntsville. That same rain made it's way up into the Great Smoky Mountains. In fact, when I checked the weather around 8 this evening it was still raining in the mountains. Camping would have been a whole lot less than ideal. Tomorrow's forecast isn't much better, clear in the morning but rain throughout the day. So. Here we are in Chattanooga.
We headed straight for the aquarium today because it was raining pretty good when we got here. I had no idea what to expect from the aquarium, I had not researched it at all. But, Mike said it was a go, so we went. I really didn't have high hopes. The aquarium was really very very nice. It's divided into two halves, one focusing on river life and one on ocean life. Two separate buildings. The buildings are tall and don't look big from the outside. They housed so many exhibits though, and all were very well done. We've been to a whole lot of aquariums over the years, this one was great.
We explored the river life half of the aquarium first. By the time we were done the rain had stopped (although that turned out to be a temporary lull) so we walked across the way to a little spot for lunch. More rain showers came during lunch, but it finally seemed to all clear off by 3. After lunch we took advantage of the breaks in the rain and walked around Chattanooga by the river for a bit. It's quite beautiful, some interesting history displays about the iron foundries in the 1800s. Pretty terraced hills with flowers, a very large art museum which we didn't have a chance to visit. Gave the kiddos some ice cream and then headed for the ocean half of the aquarium.
There's a waterfall near here called Ruby Falls. Again, didn't know much about it but thought it might be worth checking out. We drove up the hills to it, turns out it was in the kitschy tourist trap area and it costs a ridiculous amount to see, so we scrapped that and checked into the hotel. It was just the odd hour that was too early for dinner but too short to go explore some of the other things we wanted to do. So we swam in the hotel pool. That was refreshing, kids loved it. Found some dinner, walked around a bit enjoying the now absolutely gorgeous weather. The heat and steam from all the rain has blown off and it's quite cool and beautiful out. Mike and I would have walked around more but at least one of the kids was visibly tired and the extreme amount of bickering back at the room was a sure sign they are both pretty exhausted. So, that ends day 5.
For fun... we hit the first 1000 miles on our drive over here today, and we have officially been through 6 states now (Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia). I was very glad to have brown car today and not a rental. We gave the car a lot of love before we left to make sure she could get us around. She did well in the weather today. We have a 3+ hour drive to Gatlinburg tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will be a bit better than today. Just 5 days in, and Texas feels like a lifetime ago, and thousands (well just over one thousand anyway) of miles away.
We headed straight for the aquarium today because it was raining pretty good when we got here. I had no idea what to expect from the aquarium, I had not researched it at all. But, Mike said it was a go, so we went. I really didn't have high hopes. The aquarium was really very very nice. It's divided into two halves, one focusing on river life and one on ocean life. Two separate buildings. The buildings are tall and don't look big from the outside. They housed so many exhibits though, and all were very well done. We've been to a whole lot of aquariums over the years, this one was great.
We explored the river life half of the aquarium first. By the time we were done the rain had stopped (although that turned out to be a temporary lull) so we walked across the way to a little spot for lunch. More rain showers came during lunch, but it finally seemed to all clear off by 3. After lunch we took advantage of the breaks in the rain and walked around Chattanooga by the river for a bit. It's quite beautiful, some interesting history displays about the iron foundries in the 1800s. Pretty terraced hills with flowers, a very large art museum which we didn't have a chance to visit. Gave the kiddos some ice cream and then headed for the ocean half of the aquarium.
There's a waterfall near here called Ruby Falls. Again, didn't know much about it but thought it might be worth checking out. We drove up the hills to it, turns out it was in the kitschy tourist trap area and it costs a ridiculous amount to see, so we scrapped that and checked into the hotel. It was just the odd hour that was too early for dinner but too short to go explore some of the other things we wanted to do. So we swam in the hotel pool. That was refreshing, kids loved it. Found some dinner, walked around a bit enjoying the now absolutely gorgeous weather. The heat and steam from all the rain has blown off and it's quite cool and beautiful out. Mike and I would have walked around more but at least one of the kids was visibly tired and the extreme amount of bickering back at the room was a sure sign they are both pretty exhausted. So, that ends day 5.
For fun... we hit the first 1000 miles on our drive over here today, and we have officially been through 6 states now (Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia). I was very glad to have brown car today and not a rental. We gave the car a lot of love before we left to make sure she could get us around. She did well in the weather today. We have a 3+ hour drive to Gatlinburg tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will be a bit better than today. Just 5 days in, and Texas feels like a lifetime ago, and thousands (well just over one thousand anyway) of miles away.
Wednesday, June 20, 2018
Day 4: Huntsville, Alabama
Today was largely for our rocket boy, though we all enjoyed it. Wasn't a terribly long drive from Memphis to Huntsville, just shy of 4 hours. We had a couple of little rain showers along the way. Mostly we were just on
a little two lane highway winding through the country side of far north Mississippi and Alabama. It was pretty and green and pretty quiet.
I love where we live in Texas. Austin is a great city, lots of things to my liking. But being somewhere with more green and trees and a road that goes up and down some hills a little makes me miss some parts of Virginia. I have no desire to move back there, but there are times when I miss the scenery. So, on this trip, as the majority of it will be in the scenery that I love, I will soak it all in. My favorite roads are those that pass under a tunnel of trees. I love looking up and seeing the trees meet over the roadway with the light filtering down through it. We passed through one of those this evening.
The main goal for the day was the Space & Rocket center. It's kind of hard to miss as the Saturn V rocket on the grounds is standing erect and all 36 stories of it are visible from the highway. The museum had some really interesting exhibits. Rocket Park and the discovery center dedicated to the Saturn V rocket were certainly the highlights. We all learned a bit, could have spent many more hours there reading every little placard.
Perhaps the most well known part of this center is Space Camp. Kids from 9-18 can spend a week here during the summer prepping for their hopeful future as astronauts. The camps are divided out by age and become more intense in the older groups. The camp geared towards the 15-18 year olds will even qualify for a college credit. Bet you can't guess who wants to go to Space Camp. I would love nothing more than to send him. Who knows what the future holds.
We spent a small bit of the evening exploring historic downtown Huntsville. It's very pretty, the historic parts remind me somewhat of Fredericksburg, VA, or Fort Collins in Colorado. Smaller than both of those cities though. Lots of trees and green, historic buildings, corner cafes and restaurants. There was a very pretty park to the one side of town, lots of steps down with a cascading waterfall and a little river full of ducks. There was one family of ducks, mama and 10 babies. Ten little ducklings is probably one of the cutest things ever to watch. One little duckling got kind of far away from mom and started swimming in circles, crying. Obviously he was in distress. But, he persevered and eventually found his way back to mama. Anyway, it was nice to walk around down here.
We capped off the evening with some fine German food, and now we are getting ready for the next adventure.
a little two lane highway winding through the country side of far north Mississippi and Alabama. It was pretty and green and pretty quiet.
I love where we live in Texas. Austin is a great city, lots of things to my liking. But being somewhere with more green and trees and a road that goes up and down some hills a little makes me miss some parts of Virginia. I have no desire to move back there, but there are times when I miss the scenery. So, on this trip, as the majority of it will be in the scenery that I love, I will soak it all in. My favorite roads are those that pass under a tunnel of trees. I love looking up and seeing the trees meet over the roadway with the light filtering down through it. We passed through one of those this evening.
The main goal for the day was the Space & Rocket center. It's kind of hard to miss as the Saturn V rocket on the grounds is standing erect and all 36 stories of it are visible from the highway. The museum had some really interesting exhibits. Rocket Park and the discovery center dedicated to the Saturn V rocket were certainly the highlights. We all learned a bit, could have spent many more hours there reading every little placard.
Perhaps the most well known part of this center is Space Camp. Kids from 9-18 can spend a week here during the summer prepping for their hopeful future as astronauts. The camps are divided out by age and become more intense in the older groups. The camp geared towards the 15-18 year olds will even qualify for a college credit. Bet you can't guess who wants to go to Space Camp. I would love nothing more than to send him. Who knows what the future holds.
We spent a small bit of the evening exploring historic downtown Huntsville. It's very pretty, the historic parts remind me somewhat of Fredericksburg, VA, or Fort Collins in Colorado. Smaller than both of those cities though. Lots of trees and green, historic buildings, corner cafes and restaurants. There was a very pretty park to the one side of town, lots of steps down with a cascading waterfall and a little river full of ducks. There was one family of ducks, mama and 10 babies. Ten little ducklings is probably one of the cutest things ever to watch. One little duckling got kind of far away from mom and started swimming in circles, crying. Obviously he was in distress. But, he persevered and eventually found his way back to mama. Anyway, it was nice to walk around down here.
We capped off the evening with some fine German food, and now we are getting ready for the next adventure.
Tuesday, June 19, 2018
Day 3 - Memphis
It's a bit late, so this one is going to be short. Had another great day. We managed to see quite a few Memphis highlights, all the while avoiding the big one. We saw the Lorraine Motel (sight of the MLK assassination), Sun Studio (famous recording studio - Elvis recorded his first record here, along with many other very famous musicians), a tour of the Mississippi River via a paddle wheel boat, and the duck walk at the Peabody. The Civil Rights Museum was closed, but at least we had an opportunity to view the motel and catch the outside exhibit a bit. Ben wanted to ride the trolley, so we did. Also snagged a bus ride from Sun Studio back to Main Street. Yay for public transportation! Between that and our little legs we were able to get a break from the car.
To cap it all off we had some of that famous Memphis bbq at Rendezvous, known for their pork ribs.
We've been keeping tabs on the weather, there's a rather large system that's going to affect our plans in a few days. We had planned on camping in the Great Smoky Mountains. We cancelled that reservation tonight as it looks like a near 100% chance of rain and storms for the bulk of the time we would be camping. That didn't sound like a lot of fun for any of us. So, after exhaustive searching and trying to come up with an alternate plan that wouldn't increase our driving time unreasonably we opted for a day in Chattanooga and a hotel in Gatlinburg. If the weather changes, we'll still be able to go the park and enjoy the mountains, just no camping at this point. If we get the rain that is forecast we'll at least have a dry place to hang out for a couple of days.
That's the first deviation from the plan, and it's alright. We'll make anything work.
To cap it all off we had some of that famous Memphis bbq at Rendezvous, known for their pork ribs.
We've been keeping tabs on the weather, there's a rather large system that's going to affect our plans in a few days. We had planned on camping in the Great Smoky Mountains. We cancelled that reservation tonight as it looks like a near 100% chance of rain and storms for the bulk of the time we would be camping. That didn't sound like a lot of fun for any of us. So, after exhaustive searching and trying to come up with an alternate plan that wouldn't increase our driving time unreasonably we opted for a day in Chattanooga and a hotel in Gatlinburg. If the weather changes, we'll still be able to go the park and enjoy the mountains, just no camping at this point. If we get the rain that is forecast we'll at least have a dry place to hang out for a couple of days.
That's the first deviation from the plan, and it's alright. We'll make anything work.
Monday, June 18, 2018
Day 2: Hot Springs, Arkansas to Memphis, Tennessee
Let's see if I can string together a bit more of a coherent post than last night. Blogger stinks on a mobile device! Honestly, for the best scoop, you probably ought to go check out Mike's blog. He's so detail oriented, and his memory is so much better than mine. Anyway...
Hot Springs. Pretty cool little place. The area is fed by all of these lovely little thermal springs. The water bubbling up out of the earth is a toasty 143 degrees or so when it exits the earth. Thanks to the Junior Ranger program (more on that in a bit)... we learned that the springs are fed by rain water high in the mountains that follows all these lovely little cracks and crevices deep into the earth where it gets all nice and toasty warm, then it follows more cracks and crevices back to the surface. The water is not warmed by volcanic activity so it doesn't have sulfur in it which means no rotten egg smell. It tastes lovely, though hot. You can fill bottles from taps along bathhouse row. The waters are known for their medicinal properties.
The 8 bathhouses that are left make up bath house row. These were all build in the late 1800's - early 1900s. Only one still operates as a barthhouse, which is basically a luxury spa. And no, we did not get a chance to take a spring fed bath. Maybe next time. The other 7 are businesses of various sorts, a couple of them are National Park Service buildings. The Fordyce bathhouse serves as a museum and has been restored to it's glory days. It's quite interesting to go through, some of the luxury treatments offered seem a bit medieval - the electric bath in particular. The Superior Bathhouse has been turned into a little brewery restaurant touting themselves as the only place in the world that brews their own beer and root beer with the natural thermal hot spring waters. Both the beer and root beer were very good. The food was good too.
We also took a nice little hike up the mountain to the lookout tower. The view from the top of the tower was lovely. The Ouachita mountains were off in the distance, the town of Hot Springs down below us. The hike was a very steep 1/2 mile up. It was extremely humid and I was glad we chose to do the hike early in the day. We saw some deer, a chipmunk. I was reminded of how nice it is to hike outside of central Texas where the trees offer some shade and even in the extreme humidity it is quite tolerable and pleasant.
After Hot Springs we trekked on over to Little Rock. It's kind of a thing for me to go visit state capitols when the opportunities arise. The Little Rock building was very beautiful. Tons of marble, very big. There were large bronze doors at the main entrances. When we got there I noticed a man standing on a ladder doing something to one of the doors. It turns out that in order to maintain the luster intended by the original door sculptor, the doors are polished inside and out by hand every week. The doors are 10 feet tall. That's a lot of hand polishing.
We got our first taste of real rain in Little Rock. We cut the sight seeing short because of a torrential downpour. Enough rain that it warranted sitting in a parking lot for about 15-20 minutes to let the storm pass. It was the kind of rain that would have kept me off the road anywhere, not just because I was in unfamiliar territory. In fact, all I really thought was "huh, we're getting a Texas sized storm in little Arkansas.".
Then it was on to Memphis. Just a taste of Memphis tonight. We found a nice little place for dinner - Automatic Slims, then walked over to Beale street. Beale street is somewhere between Austin's 6th street and New Orlean's Bourbon street. Just fun to say, yeah, I've been there. We've got a little history planned for tomorrow. Graceland may or may not be on our list of stops. I think we'd all like to check out the Mississippi River a bit. It's big :-)
That's day 2. Pictures will surface eventually. For now, enjoy the words.
Hot Springs. Pretty cool little place. The area is fed by all of these lovely little thermal springs. The water bubbling up out of the earth is a toasty 143 degrees or so when it exits the earth. Thanks to the Junior Ranger program (more on that in a bit)... we learned that the springs are fed by rain water high in the mountains that follows all these lovely little cracks and crevices deep into the earth where it gets all nice and toasty warm, then it follows more cracks and crevices back to the surface. The water is not warmed by volcanic activity so it doesn't have sulfur in it which means no rotten egg smell. It tastes lovely, though hot. You can fill bottles from taps along bathhouse row. The waters are known for their medicinal properties.
The 8 bathhouses that are left make up bath house row. These were all build in the late 1800's - early 1900s. Only one still operates as a barthhouse, which is basically a luxury spa. And no, we did not get a chance to take a spring fed bath. Maybe next time. The other 7 are businesses of various sorts, a couple of them are National Park Service buildings. The Fordyce bathhouse serves as a museum and has been restored to it's glory days. It's quite interesting to go through, some of the luxury treatments offered seem a bit medieval - the electric bath in particular. The Superior Bathhouse has been turned into a little brewery restaurant touting themselves as the only place in the world that brews their own beer and root beer with the natural thermal hot spring waters. Both the beer and root beer were very good. The food was good too.
We also took a nice little hike up the mountain to the lookout tower. The view from the top of the tower was lovely. The Ouachita mountains were off in the distance, the town of Hot Springs down below us. The hike was a very steep 1/2 mile up. It was extremely humid and I was glad we chose to do the hike early in the day. We saw some deer, a chipmunk. I was reminded of how nice it is to hike outside of central Texas where the trees offer some shade and even in the extreme humidity it is quite tolerable and pleasant.
After Hot Springs we trekked on over to Little Rock. It's kind of a thing for me to go visit state capitols when the opportunities arise. The Little Rock building was very beautiful. Tons of marble, very big. There were large bronze doors at the main entrances. When we got there I noticed a man standing on a ladder doing something to one of the doors. It turns out that in order to maintain the luster intended by the original door sculptor, the doors are polished inside and out by hand every week. The doors are 10 feet tall. That's a lot of hand polishing.
We got our first taste of real rain in Little Rock. We cut the sight seeing short because of a torrential downpour. Enough rain that it warranted sitting in a parking lot for about 15-20 minutes to let the storm pass. It was the kind of rain that would have kept me off the road anywhere, not just because I was in unfamiliar territory. In fact, all I really thought was "huh, we're getting a Texas sized storm in little Arkansas.".
Then it was on to Memphis. Just a taste of Memphis tonight. We found a nice little place for dinner - Automatic Slims, then walked over to Beale street. Beale street is somewhere between Austin's 6th street and New Orlean's Bourbon street. Just fun to say, yeah, I've been there. We've got a little history planned for tomorrow. Graceland may or may not be on our list of stops. I think we'd all like to check out the Mississippi River a bit. It's big :-)
That's day 2. Pictures will surface eventually. For now, enjoy the words.
Sunday, June 17, 2018
Austin to Dallas to Hot Springs, Arkansas
I think Mike is sitting by the window writing his own blog post for the day. Probably postingbon Facebook too. How much of my thoughts do I put here, how much do I save for my journal? Do I date read Mike’s blog now or wait until the end of the trip and revisit everything from his perspective?
Anyway... day 1!! It’s still hard to believe that this trip is actually really finally underway. It was a pretty great start to the trip. Dealey Plaza does not fail to inspire awe. It’s quite something to walk through such a well known part of American history. The museum was incredibly fascinating. We had a lovely lunch at a little local place s few blocks away then hit the road on to Arkansas.
And that is where we sit now. Hot Springs is a cute little place. The old bath houses are pretty to look at. Only one is still doperating as a bath house.we walked around a little tonight, will do some hiking and exploring tomorrow. The water from the Springs is on average 134 degrees, quite toasty coming out of the earth. I imagine the baths would feel quite lovely.
I was going to add a few pictures, but blogger doesn’t work great on the phone. Will have to add photos later.
Anyway... day 1!! It’s still hard to believe that this trip is actually really finally underway. It was a pretty great start to the trip. Dealey Plaza does not fail to inspire awe. It’s quite something to walk through such a well known part of American history. The museum was incredibly fascinating. We had a lovely lunch at a little local place s few blocks away then hit the road on to Arkansas.
And that is where we sit now. Hot Springs is a cute little place. The old bath houses are pretty to look at. Only one is still doperating as a bath house.we walked around a little tonight, will do some hiking and exploring tomorrow. The water from the Springs is on average 134 degrees, quite toasty coming out of the earth. I imagine the baths would feel quite lovely.
I was going to add a few pictures, but blogger doesn’t work great on the phone. Will have to add photos later.
Saturday, June 16, 2018
Aaaaaand we're off... Almost...
The hope is that in less than 12 hours we'll be on our way. First stop is Dealy Plaza in Dallas. The boys and I visited this historic landmark last summer on our whirlwind eclipse trip. Pretty amazing bit of history to experience. I'm glad we'll have a chance to go with Mike. Our final destination tomorrow night is Hot Springs, Arkansas. Fingers crossed for quiet roads and good weather.
And packing the car? Yeah, it all fits, and yes, I can still see out the back window. Thanks, Mom, for the gift of car packing. I learned from the best.
As for the rest of the night... Well, I've got a few little odds and ends to pack up. I can't imagine I'll sleep much. Seems like a good time to put on a movie and chill.
One last note, the refrigerator is officially empty and I only had to give away 3 limes! We did a great job of emptying it out this week. Yay for creative cooking, and eating lots and lots of salads.
Happy Father's Day Mike. I hope that you enjoy this adventure more than you dreamed possible. I love you.
And packing the car? Yeah, it all fits, and yes, I can still see out the back window. Thanks, Mom, for the gift of car packing. I learned from the best.
As for the rest of the night... Well, I've got a few little odds and ends to pack up. I can't imagine I'll sleep much. Seems like a good time to put on a movie and chill.
One last note, the refrigerator is officially empty and I only had to give away 3 limes! We did a great job of emptying it out this week. Yay for creative cooking, and eating lots and lots of salads.
Happy Father's Day Mike. I hope that you enjoy this adventure more than you dreamed possible. I love you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)