We decided that we deserved a break in the evening, so we cleaned up and headed downtown. Now, downtown Chattanooga is about 4 miles away, so it shouldn't take very long, right? Well, our car GPS insisted on using the most circuitous route possible to arrive at a destination. Sometimes that's cool, since we get to see things that "normal" people wouldn't have an opportunity to see....you know....derelict buildings, abandoned storefronts, railroad switching yards.....
Eventually we made it to our destination: CheeBurger CheeBurger. Yes, that's spelled correctly. Here you see some of Chattanooga's finest picking up dinner!
CheeBurger CheeBurger is a build-your-cheeseburger place, Starting with a 5 oz "Beginner" patty and optioning up to the "Pounder", a full pound burger (after cooking), one can add a huge variety of goodies. Seven different kinds of cheese, twenty nine different toppings, including lettuce, tomato and A1 sauce all the way to Honey Mustard, Pepperoni, Jalapeño Peppers and Peanut Butter! Donna opted for bacon on her's and some other stuff that I don't remember!
I did the A1, lettuce, Jalapeno's, black olives and peanut butter on mine. Oh, yeah, we started with a "Serious" burger, which was a full 1/2 pound of meat!
Throw the whole mess on a Kaiser Roll and you have a handful of dinner! We passed on one of the 77 different flavors of malt or shake, but divided an order of "loaded" fries. Chili-cheese fries just like when we were teenagers!
Needing to walk off a few pounds, we traipsed around downtown and the revitalized riverfront area. We came across a glass climbing wall on the side of a parking garage that was pretty neat.
A free outdoor concert was going on down by the river, so we joined a thousand or so of our new friends and watched and listened. It was great! A band was playing and singing Rock-a-Billy tunes, kids were playing football down by the water, and sliding down a grassy hill on cardboard mats. Kayaks and boats cruised by or tied up to listen for a while. In the background, a great sunset played a silent accompaniment to the music.
Walking back to the car (parking is free after 6 pm and on Sunday), we came across a plaque commemorating the starting point of the Trail of Tears.
And back to Nessie for a bit of dessert (!) and a long night's sleep!
Today, Sunday, was a special day. We had heard about the Chattanooga Market the day we first rolled into town, and vowed to visit. The Market is only held on Sundays, and is a Producers Market, meaning that everything sold here must be made or grown by the seller. We saw natural soaps, wooden spoons, paintings and jewelry. Of course, there was a huge farm section with some super buys on sweet corn, heirloom tomatoes, squash, and okra (!). The Market is held in and around the Tennessee First Pavilion adjacent to Finley Stadium, which is the football home of the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, the "Mocs".
It wasn't so awfully cool inside the pavilion, but at least we were out of the sun.
The produce area had a number of interesting vegetables.
And purple string beans?
We shopped for a few gifts and a whole bunch of produce! The vegetables were the best we've had all summer, no doubt. Flat Top Farms was down from Soddy Daisy, Tennessee, with a huge display of picked this morning corn, squash, and tomatoes, I wondered how they could pick all this stuff, box it, and drive 55 miles to get to the Market by 10 am. Them we talked to the owners of the farm (by the way, the farm has been in the family for 102 years!), and found that they, and their employees, start working at 3 in the morning on Market days! BTW, the corn was delicious! Just outside the pavilion, we stopped to buy a couple of heirloom tomatoes that weighted 2 1/4 pounds apiece! Then a stop at the booth of Myers Farm for a package of NY Strip steaks. Grass fed and finished with grain, these steaks grilled up wonderfully! I wish they shipped!
We checked our Chattanooga list, and found that there was one thing that we had not seen:
The Chattanooga Choo-Choo!
On March 5, 1880, a train left Cincinnati, bound for Chattanooga. It was nicknamed the Choo-Choo and opened a new era of public transportation between North and South.
Now part of a hotel complex, the Choo-Choo is the focus of a venue where guests can stay in refurbished railroad cars, and dine in a refurbished railroad depot.
While the complex has fallen on hard times, and needs a serious renewal, it did provide a photo op!
There was a great video playing that detailed Glenn Miller's Big Band rendition of that famous song "The Chattanooga Choo-Choo".
So...Cowboy Roy was out on the range and noticed that he really needed some new boots. As soon as he could, he rode his horse into town and treated himself to the most spectacular, fantastic, colorful pair of boots that he could find. After buying his buddies a round of drinks at the saloon, Roy took off back to the ranch, but on the way his horse spooked and threw him off, right into a huge patch of sagebrush. Well, Roy was a bit dazed, and lay there for a while. His horse, however, saw the problem: a Mountain Lion! As Roy was laying there twitching and shaking in the bushes, the big cat became fascinated with Roy's colorful shoes. The closer the cat got, the more it was taken by those shoes, and soon snatched the boots off of Roy's feet and ran away, chewing and chomping on the nice new leather! After a bit, Roy wakes up and notices his boots are gone. Mad as a hornet, Roy sees the cat tracks and vows to get his shoes back. He tenderly gathers his horse up and rides back to town to get his old boots and to tell the boys what happened. They yipped and hollered and had a good time with Roy's misfortune, which made him all the more angry. Leaping on his horse, he finds a trap and gallops off to find the cat and his shoes.
After days of tracking, Roy locates the Mountain Lion's lair. He knows this by the small scrap of blue leather near the entrance that says "Justin Boots" on it. Laying in wait, Roy is able to trap the big cat and rig a sled to take it back to town. As he rides into town, very proud of his conquest, the boys pour out of the saloon.
One of the boys begins to hum Glenn Millers famous Chattanooga Choo-Choo tune, and then asks:
(to the tune of Chattanooga Choo-Choo)
"Pardon me, Roy,.....but is that the cat that chewed your new shoes?"
Well, I guess you had to be there....
On the way back to Nessie, we saw another branch of a good friends business ventures. Seems our buddy has expanded into new territory!
Sasha was waiting anxiously for our return! She has adopted the employee break area as her personal dog park! One of the employees brings a beautiful Golden Lab to work, and since the area is fenced, the Lab stays outside in a prefab doghouse. The Lab left a large plastic bone when it last left, and, of course, Sasha adopted that as well! We've been here so long that we don't use a leash on Sasha anymore; she knows the layout pretty well. Unfortunately, since she discovered a new toy, she doesn't have time for anything else! Out the door of the motorhome....straight to the "dog park" gate!
She loves to play fetch!
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