A Night to Remember

Lake Powhatan (Powhatan was Pocahontas's dad)

Friday, April 28…

Another beautiful park… without any hook-ups. (Long story, Greg thought we could upgrade, but it didn’t happen.) We’re here for 3 nights, so we will need to be careful. Very few motor homes here – mostly tent campers or small rigs. We feel a bit conspicuous (to say the least) and uncomfortably ostentatious. To be honest, this is the first campground where we’ve felt a sort of passive-aggressive hostility from the managers: their attitude seems to be that this is a place for serious hikers/campers, not wimps in luxury RVs. (The campers themselves, however, are just a friendly as anywhere.)

Isis: the building 

We drove into Asheville proper in the late afternoon, giving ourselves a tour of the city and also taking care of a couple errands. Then we headed to the Isis Restaurant & Music Theatre, where we had reservations for dinner and a show by Canadian singer/songwriter James Keelaghan. Isis used to be a small movie theatre; now it houses 3 separate venues, each w/ its own musical offerings. We were in an upstairs room w/ max seating of maybe 40. We were about 10’ from Keelaghan… and he was wonderful! Very relaxed, lovely baritone, good guitarist, and he shared the stories behind the songs he sang. The food was excellent as well – the evening is definitely one of the high points our trip so far.

Keelaghan live. 😃

The venue: Stage in the back right corner. 
We were seated just about where that
table is (and there were lots more tables!)

Going Off-Grid

Raindrops on the Windshield

Thursday, April 27…

Wonderful thunderstorm in the middle of the night—thunder that cracked, thunder that boomed, pounding rain, and a good dose of lightning. Intermittent rain this morning, and Greg didn't want to leave until things cleared up. He had a couple good reasons, but I reminded him there was no guarantee of good weather where we were headed and we might as well just move out. So We did, driving northeast out of Tennessee and into western North Carolina. Scenic route – lots of creeks, rivers, forested mountains (we’re approaching the Appalachian Trail, Great Smoky Mts, Blue Ridge Parkway, etc.).

more of those solar panels we saw in Georgia

Tonight we’re at a totally off-grid campground (no elec, water, sewer, or cell service), a halfway point (sort of) between Chattanooga and Asheville. Beautiful, peaceful place. The couple in the adjacent site are doing day hikes on the Appalachian Trail (or maybe in preparation for the AT).  They’d had a rough time this morning when they were suddenly hit with drenching rain. But the “sun’ll come out tomorrow” and they’ll be back hiking. 

Smiling Greg

Stream near our campsite.

BlogThought... Met another great couple tonight - John (I think) & Dinah, and their well-behaved Jack Russell named Lady. The guys talked MH stuff, and they checked out our rig (once Dinah saw our laminate, I think their carpet's days are numbered). So many good folks in the world.  

Random Nature Gallery...

Impressive Tree 

Lichened Limbs

Stream, up close & personal Friday morning.

Catfish, Brownies & Beef

Wednesday, April 26…

These are over 2' long!

Another work day for me – bits and pieces of editing spread over the morning. Greg was busy buffing scratches we got a few days back driving through a mall entrance w/ low branches.  (I think Greg was more focused on the Trader Joe’s – first we’ve seen in several weeks – than on the foliage.) We had hoped to take the  River Gorge Explorer** trip this afternoon, but the water is still high and full of debris.  My rather mundane alternative was to walk down to the camp office to report a malfunctioning dryer. I needed steps, and it’s a beautiful campground. I also made a batch of brownies for a family that gave us fresh catfish that Greg will fry up for dinner. (This lake is full of fishing boats, and there's more than just catfish in the water.)

Lots of open space!

 

Love the juxtaposition: Nature & Nuclear

Just before dinner, I crashed the choir rehearsal at a nearby Methodist Church. Smaller group than last week, no vaulted ceiling in the choir room (but still a dedicated choir room), and a delightfully enthusiastic young director (just got his M.A.) who could probably have been a grandson of any one of the rest of us. Again, folks were very friendly and intrigued with my dropping in just for the opportunity to sing. One woman’s daughter is about to move to Seattle, so we chatted about school districts.

(Thank you, Elk Valley Times 😃)

**River Gorge Explorer: This high-tech vessel will transport you at speeds up to 50 miles per hour into the scenic Tennessee River Gorge. Four water jets propel this high-tech catamaran, the first of its kind in the Southeast, smoothly downstream. Angled seating allows each guest to relax in the climate-controlled cabin and experience "Tennessee's Grand Canyon" as it was meant to be seen - from the water. Really sorry we missed this!

BlogThoughts… Maybe campers are happier b/c they’re recreating. Whatever the reason, we’ve certainly met some great people. After dinner, we walked over to chat with the catfish couple and ending up coming back w/ a pound of hamburger “donated” by a recently departed member of their small cattle herd. 

We Are Tourists

Tuesday, April 25…

TVA built 2 dams on the river back in the 1940s

So, back in 1974 when Greg was working for Ederer, he made a couple trips to Chattanooga to help install a bridge crane in the Raccoon Mountain Pump Storage Facility that pumped water already "held" by 2 dams into a temporary reservoir to provide additional power as needed. This morning he did a little walk down memory lane when we visited that site. The website said tours were available, so he was disappointed to find out that those had been discontinued after 9/11 (16 years ago - maybe someone should update the website!). There’s a “virtual tour” video that we watched, and of course he had lots to tell me about the experience. 

This switchyard can transmit 16+ megawatts of electricity.

View from switchyard. The river winds around and through Chattanooga.

From Raccoon Mountain we drove to Lookout Mountain, which you can see to the right of the river in the photo above (it looks more like a plateau than a mountain). Lots of tourist sites up here, but we mostly stuck with historical ones. Chattanooga was a key city in the Civil War because it's located in a valley that provided railroad access N,S,E & W. The critical battles here followed Confederate losses at Gettysburg and Vicksburg and really set the stage for Sherman's March and Lee's surrender. First we viewed a video/electric map combo that detailed the combat on both Missionary Ridge & Lookout Mountain. The Confederates were seriously outnumbered and under-commanded (Gen Bragg seems to have made several serious blunders). After the history lesson, we walked through Point Park, once a battlefield, now filled with memorials and lookout spots.

Point Park (Lookout Mt looks
like a cruise ship; this park is
the bow - hence, point.)

View from PP: Tennessee River & Chattanooga

The Incline Railway was next. The uppermost section is at a 72.5° tilt (and yes, that is awfully close to 90), which makes it the steepest passenger railway in the world. Built in 1895 to carry guests to a luxury hotel at the top of Lookout Mt, it's mostly a tourist attraction today. However, when snow or ice make the mountain's streets unsafe, the railway is still occasionally used both to deliver goods to the top and to bring women in labor down to  to deliver their babies. We had lunch at the bottom before coming back up to our car.

Near the top (seats face down both ways)

Greg's shot as we ascended.

On the way home we happened to pass the International Towing & Recovery Museum and decided to stop. Really cool place. Greg has lots of great pics, but I'll just share two of my faves.

World's Fastest Wrecker - clocked at
109.33 at Talladega in 1979.

No stats, but in my opinion this must be
 the world's biggest tow winch!

RandomThoughts... 1. The fighting on Lookout Mt is often referred to as the Battle Above the Clouds. It's true that the Union forces made their way up the mountain through thick fog and mist. When they met the enemy, however, the Confederates found themselves greatly outnumbered and were easily driven back. Not really much of a battle. 2. There are several major tourist attractions on Lookout Mountain. Without consciously realizing it, I assumed that's all that was up there (the rest being natural landscape). What a surprise as we neared the top to find a large residential community that included almost every architectural style you can imagine: Tudor, classic colonial, chalet, Mediterranean, mid-century modern, cottages, cabins, and mansions. Probably pretty pricey overall, but delightful.

Tennessee

Monday, April 24…

North to Chattanooga – easy drive. Beautiful campground that had torrential rain yesterday. Driving in, I noticed the lake seemed high (the docks were barely above the water), then I saw picnic tables partially underwater and trees “growing” out of the water. We’re on higher ground, and I don’t think there’s any more rain predicted while we’re here. This campground is just above a dam on the Tennessee River, and our campsite is actually on a small island.

I took this as Greg was checking in and before
realizing how abnormal this was.

This isn't my photo, but this was our view of the Tennessee River as we ate dinner tonight at the Boathouse Rotisserie & Raw Bar. Greg enjoyed steamer clams and a salad; I had smoked brisket nachos (w/ queso, jack, asiago, feta, fresh tomatoes, cilantro, green onions, & fire-roasted salsa) - very good! We shared a piece of key lime pie, courtesy of the house, for dessert. (Our server felt the clams took longer than they should have. We didn't want to argue with him.)

Not the greatest pic ever

 (we were still driving home), 

but it was a great rainbow. 😃

Tomorrow we're going to visit Raccoon Mountain Dam, 

a site Greg worked on a long, long, long time ago.

Racing in the Rain*

End of a busy day.

Sunday, April 23 (Happy 453^rd birthday, Shakespeare)

Gray, wet morning here. First race group goes out at 8am, rain or shine (but not in lightning). Greg threw FrogTogs over his whites and happily joined the other 40 or so flaggers. There’s 2 or 3 at each turn, and Greg has different partners each day, which he enjoys. When the sun finally came out, I took a good walk through a different section of the park. The big race of the weekend, 90 laps of Indy cars, is today. Lots of Cub & Boy Scouts in uniform, tons of families lugging lawn chairs, lots of folks still filling parking lots (and whatever other space is available - lots of parking attendants!), but everybody’s happy. I’m also happy - I'm well into Dan Brown’s Deception Point and I can read w/o feeling like I’m ignoring Greg.

BlogThoughts... Geography is strange sometimes. Leeds (town of 12,000 near the track) overlaps 3 counties. Several cities we driven through have city limits that seem to us to be quite far from the actual city. Montgomery, AL, is a perfect example. The CITY LIMITS sign (green, just left of light pole) is only a mile or so from our campground and is posted on cattle ranch property.

*The Art of Racing in the Rain (Garth Stein) is a great book, even for non-car folks.

Random Ramblings

Dawn thru MH front window
(Greg is up at 5:45)

Saturday, April 22...

Feeling more comfortable today, I ventured out for a Walmart/post office run. (We try to get a postcard off to Greg’s mom at least every couple weeks.) Nothing eventful in the trip, but it was nice just to get “out” for a bit. The track is closer to the town of Leeds than Birmingham proper, which makes driving easier. in the afternoon I got into one of those sessions of random Internet wandering, where one site leads to another and another and another. (Can you tell I'm on vacation and actually have free time?)

Today's photos are also random (but not from my online wanderings).

Spanish Moss

...up close & personal. 

Spring!

Crayola offers 120 colors. My guess is you
could use that many just for shades of green.

Art Update... Driving through the park as I returned from Walmart, I noticed another sculpture that I really liked. When I googled it (to see if I could steak a pic), I discovered its interesting history. "Pulling the Wagon" was originally commissioned by a highly successful respiratory care company whose mantra was "everyone pulls the wagon." When one of the founders (the less culpable one!) was convicted of fraud (and the mantra proven hollow), the sculture was donated to Barber Motorsports, who added the motorcycle. I love it!

Awesome Art

Friday, April 21…

(lioness on top of scoring sign)

I think Greg was gone a full 12 hours. There was a general meeting of corner workers at 7, then two trolleys took them down to the track and I was on my own ‘til 7 or so tonight. I had a car, but nowhere I needed to go (plus, I’m a little intimidated by the the exit/return process. I have all the proper paperwork and tickets, but…) So I finished the 300-page book I started last night. (It was a very easy read.) Worked on the blog (almost caught up). Took a couple walks (and one short nap). 

Yesterday I raved in general about this venue. And I included pics of a couple sculptures. Today I need to rhapsodize on the use of metal sculpture within this park. Not only is it beautifully executed, it's also delightfully whimsical. i was immediately impressed with the horses (which I believe are the only painted pieces) when we drove in. (In fact, I wandered off to photograph them while Greg was still figuring out where we were supposed to camp.) This morning I was walking around a small, snowman-shaped (figure 8 + a head) auxiliary track when I noticed what looked like a turkey vulture in the inner landscaping. Then I saw another one and paused to look more carefully. Now I could see 3, but none were moving. And then I realized they were metal... and grinned. Why would anyone even think of adding subtle touches like this to such a small bit of the venue? Below are shots of a few other pieces, but there are also dragonflies, lions, elephants, more ants, more flowers, and...  Wonderful stuff!

(That's a life-sized driver.) 

(flowers, 10-12' high)

Regal Birds

"Charlotte" overlooks turns  5 & 6.

(macabre whimsy)

Fowl Friends (in a breeze, their heads do bob)

BlogThought... Amidst all this sublime art I also found a touch of the ridiculous. For whatever reason, there's also an inflatable church perched on one of the hillsides. Go figure.

From the front, you can look through to a stained "glass"
window under the (oops, crooked) steeple.