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Published: September 14th 2017
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Chattanooga - many miles outside any planned route we had in the South East USA, but fortunately it turned out to be a very delightful place to spend a couple of days.
Firstly, just across the road from our motel was one of the biggest 2nd hand bookshops we have ever seen. We, particularly Paul, were in need of some fresh reading material and this was easily sorted, as we exited with 6 books between us.
After getting into town on the free electric shuttle bus we were met by a very busy waterfront - Chattanooga was hosting the World Ironman 70.3 Championships, that is half-Ironman distance - 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run. About 4500 competitors from around the world had converged. In all the crowds here looked substantially leaner and fitter than at Disney a few days ago! ?
Today, Saturday, was women's events - professionals, seniors, juniors, and we saw some of the earlier competitors finish. Their time was around the 4 hrs 50 min mark. The winner had been around 4hrs 10 min, and there were competitors still finishing when we were in town
several hours later. Some seemed to be coping better than others!
We came upon one of the best ice cream places on our travels so far, Clumpies Ice Cream. We have never seen ice cream sold by weight, instead of scoops, before. Paul had Sunflower OJ Blossom (with sunflower seeds and orange blossom), Pip, Toffee Coffee. Chattanooga has a lovely feel to it, very easy to walk, wide streets and not skyscraper-ed, pedestrian only bridge over the river, culture, coffee shops. There are definitely worse places to be evacuated to. It is estimated that 6.3 million evacuated from Florida alone
On our way back we even saw The Chattanooga Choo Choo, as made famous by Glenn Miller in the 1940s.
We were back in town on the Sunday morning to visit the Sunday market, described as the largest in eastern USA. Mmmm - it was OK but we have bigger in the UK, and for a market claiming food and drink at its heart this was somewhat lacking. Several of the markets Simon has in Manchester are far better.
So we went for a trip on the Incline
Railway up Lookout Mountain. It claims the 'steepest passenger railway in the road'. In its upper section its gradient is 72.7% and gives amazing views over Chattanooga, the river valley and the Great Smokey Mountains stretching away in the distance. However, it also bills itself as 'America's Most Amazing Mile', which is somewhat harder to justify - a mile along the rim of the Grand Canyon? a mile walk around Yellowstone geothermal area? any mile on the Blue Ridge Parkway? we could go on. Just beyond the upper station was Point Park where the Civil War 'Battle Above The Clouds' was fought. The battles for Chattanooga changed the outcome of the Civil War. The ability of the Union to capture and hold this vitally important supply hub marked the beginning of the end for the Confederates as Sherman was able to stage his 'March To The Sea' push.
There is a very impressive monument in the park, erected by the state of New York as a tribute to peace and reconciliation between Union and Confederate veterans after the war. It is thought to be the only monument that is a memorial to both sides .
On the way back we heard a radio advert 'Swing for kids'. Presumably some sort of charity baseball, but the usual English expression conjures up other visions!
We also shopped for some paracetamol for a minor sprain to Pip's lower back. The pharmacist had not heard of it, and had to enter it into a computer database to establish what it was in the US. Turned out that Tylenol and other similar medicines in the US are the same. However, they clearly haven't got the memo about the suicide and liver damage dangers of paracetamol that has led to the limited numbers you can buy in the UK. In the UK the maximum is 32 before you have to go over the counter. Here in the US there are bottles of 240 on open display, and each tablet is 650 mg rather than 500 mg!
As we left Chattanooga to travel east for 3 days in Asheville, which is on the Blue Ridge Parkway, the extent of Hurricane Irma's effect on Florida, Georgia, South Carolina is coming through on the news. Nearly 6 million without power ( though that number went to over
9m in Florida alone in the next couple of days), storm surges of 20 feet or more. There was still no news coming from Key West which was nearly dead centre for the eye of the hurricane.
Making the most of our time we spent the day at Dollywood! OK, we know you have all had a groan at this ?. We had to drive through a place called Pigeon Forge which had clearly developed an entertainment highway on the back of Dollywood. Imagine the Las Vegas strip with Disneyesque centres as provided by Trago Mills!! Dollywood itself is a curious mixture of around a dozen or so serious, world standard thrill rides, including two enormous, back jarring wooden rollercoasters, side stalls showcasing Appalacian and hill billy crafts and several music entertainment spots with shows throughout the day. Kingdom Heirs, a 4 piece (white) gospel group were very good. We swear the bass singer was low enough to rattle your teeth, and the fact that one of them looked like Peter Kay spoilt the image somewhat. At the other end the Country Singers were about sub-Butlins red coat!
We pressed on to Asheville where
It Was A Dark And Stormy Night! Yes, the edges of Irma finally caught up with us. Barely 15 minutes after we checked in the rain outside our window was horizontal and the tops of the trees were trying to match this. It blew for some time, certainly 'til after when we settled down. The power went and returned several times, but in the morning the motel's cable and WiFi was down. The outside was littered with shredded leaves and branches of many sizes were strewn across the roads. Today was just spent locally, some shopping, eating and resting up. News continued to come through from Florida - 25% of Keys homes destroyed, 65% damaged, Jacksonville and St Augustine where we were a week or more ago heavily flooded.
On the TV, on a rare occasion when the news here reported on something Non-USA, there was a clip of Boris Johnson being interviewed. Beneath, the caption said 'British Prime Minister'. ? We sent Simon a quick message asking for confirmation or otherwise. His reply 'Hahaha'. Phew!
Wednesday we went to Biltmore House and Gardens. George Vanderbilt, in his time the richest person in the
US, built Biltmore which opened in 1895. It is the largest private house in the US and shows what you can do with unlimited funds. It is modelled on French chateau style, with English country house elegance but American technology eg electricity, central heating, bathrooms - 43 of them when having 1 indoors was unusual. It is also stuffed to the gunnels with European and American art masterpieces, furniture and antiques. How about a 30 foot by 90 foot 17th century painted ceiling bought from a palace in Venice!! Also, one of the nation's first indoor bowling alleys, an enormous indoor swimming pool, two rooms just for the house florist to work in, more than adequate individual rooms for the servants (also on the central heating supply), 7 storey high ceiling to the banqueting hall, walk in refrigerator, laundry with electric drying racks....
The gardens were also immaculate. We both played 'spot the weed', and both lost. Regretably though, unlike when we were here 20 years ago, we failed to see any hummingbirds.
The tickets included a free wine tasting. As we worked our way through a small selection we believe that, if you
wanted, there was nothing to stop you working through the full list of 30 or so wines on offer. But we decided that that was not compatible with safe driving!
We are staying in the area for a couple more days. It was to be more so that we could spend a day or two going north and south along the Blue Ridge Parkway from Asheville. But, bugger Irma again. Most of the Parkway is closed due to storm damage - trees, rockslides, actual road damage. We have managed to check out Charlestown though and that looks open for business so we move on there in a couple of days after checking out Asheville itself, its Pinball museum and the country fair that's on at the moment. Hoping to see some Appalacian Clog Dancing. Fun eh?
On the radio today, amidst a report on the plagues of mosquitoes that have arisen in SE Texas, the reporter said 'Dense populations of the little buggers....'. This is not the BBC!
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