Feb 27 Chickamauga and Chattanooga, TN

I hated to leave Stone Mountain Campground. It was a beautiful spot with a lovely lake and sunshine everyday. I walked around the rock before we left…logging 6.6 miles. I’m trying to get ready for the Eugene ½ marathon, but our usual camping spots at Walmart don’t lend themselves to safe and interesting walking!

We’ve seen a lot of battlefields lately. We drove north to Chattanooga, Tennessee to see the first national military park dedicated in the US. Lookout Mountain Battlefield Park was interesting. The confederates were getting pushed south but wanted to defend Chattanooga so they built trenches and put their cannons up on Lookout Mt. I don’t know why the Union bothered to try and take the hill, but they did. The cannons on the mountain are still aimed right at Chattanooga and the surrounding area so the Confederates could defend the hill. Chattanooga was only a small town at the time…about 2,500 people. It wouldn’t have been important except that the railroads converged there and were critical to resupplying the south. There are amazing houses up there now, sitting right on the edge of the sharp cliffs. There is also a tourist trap spot where they claim you can see 7 states…but we were too cheap to pay up. We’ll just pretend that we stood on the spot! Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Battlefield Park is a bit west of the mountain. Lots of cannons and state monuments memorializing the soldiers killed there. We crossed into Central Time Zone on our way.

At the moment we are at Huntsville, Alabama trying to pick up our mail. Gene has gone to the Post Office for the second time. It wasn’t there last night, but hopefully we’ll be successful today so that we can move on. The “plan” (you know how bad we are at following our own plans) is to head south and explore Alabama…down to Pensacola, Florida. We want to drive along the coast for awhile. We’ll see!

Gene returned victorious...got the mail! Unfortunately, that meant that we had to answer the mail...and did you realize that the bill collectors can find you no matter where you hide? We pay most online, but they still send BILLS! Luckily no diesel bill in the pile...don't want to see that till we get home. After the bills were paid we drove on down to Selma, AL. We want to see the Civil Rights museums and the route of the Voters Rights march from Selma to Montomery. More about that after we see it. We are carefully watching the weather reports as it looks nasty all around. Thunder storms and heavy rain are forcast for Selma. Tornado's all around our area, but not right here thankfully. CK just flew home from Omaha and now they are getting "thunder-snow" at a rate of 2 inches per hour. Not THAT bad here...thankfully CK is home counting Holt's money and hugging Marc. Off to Selma. Thanks for all the messages on the blog...sorry Gene scolded you again. We do love notes, phone calls, emails, ANYTHING! Mom is seeing the hip doctor today for the first time since surgery...she'll be climbing Mt. Rainier soon I'm sure!