Chattanooga River Walk

28 May 2022--Went biking on the River Walk here in Chattanooga, a really nice trail that snakes along the Tennessee River for 13 miles.  We only did about 8 miles total, but it was quite enjoyable.

    

  

Right at the city's Aquarium is a marker commemorating the forced march/relocation of thousands of Native Americans--from the land they owned here and in Alabama, all the way to Oklahoma--now known as the Trail of Tears.

   

A mile or so further along the River Walk is the Art Museum and another very stately building where special exhibits are housed.

  

Check out this video.  I stopped to capture up close a whole section along the trail just covered with Kudzu.  Tennessee has miles and miles of trees and forests, and it seems like no one is doing anything about this out of control growth.  I would think someone should be able to figure out a cure, short of goats, to save these forests before they are completely smothered with Kudzu. 

Just a couple pics along the trail.

  

You might be wondering exactly what I'm doing on the ground here.  Well, I'm re-enacting the scene of Jeannie's misfortune...lol  So what happened?  We were all riding along, minding our own business, sort of single file on the right side of the walkway, except for Jeannie who was on the left.  A guy on a bicycle came in her direction, and instead of getting over to the right where we were, she went further left, off the sidewalk--where there was such a steep drop-off she couldn't touch down with her feet.  Over she went with her bike, but because of the mulch she fell into, and as she was behind us, Cathy and I had no idea she went down.  We could hear Caja sort of yelling Jeannie's name, but we are so used to that we weren't initially concerned--lol.  At the same time that Caja's voice went up a few octaves, I guy walking towards us suddenly ran, with a look of alarm on his face, in Jeannie's direction, so that's when Cathy and I stopped our bikes and realized Jeannie was in a pretty precarious situation.

It's sort of hard to tell from the picture, but it is a very steep drop off to the river behind me, and Jeannie was actually further down than I am in the re-enactment.  She was only stopped by the leg of the sign on the left. It took Caja and 2 men to return her to the safety of the sidewalk, and unbelievably she wasn't hurt at all.  We were lucky to have both a small crane and Mobile Medical Unit right where Jeannie went down, but alas, they weren't needed.

So in honor of her toughness, this area that used to be called Ross's Landing, has now been re-named Jeannie's Landing!  

  

Tomorrow is a down day and then Monday we will be heading out for Lexington, Kentucky for a couple days.  There is a horse farm there that is a big tourist attraction, I guess, so we are going to check it out.

Rock City Gardens

27 May 2022--Went to Rock City Gardens today, a 700 acre mostly "rock garden" established by Garnet and Frieda Carter and opened to the public in 1923.  They weather was absolutely beautiful---our first day of no rain--perfect for walking around these grounds for a couple hours.

    

They have different names for different sections, so we started out at the "Grand Corridor".  Initially it was just a bunch of large natural rock formations that you are walking thru, but it got better and better as you go thru it.

  

Definitely more interesting at what is called the "Needle Eye" section.  If you click on the pictures you can see there's not much room to squeeze thru these massive rocks.

 

These pink flowers are called Lenten Rose, but not sure what the white ones were.  This place would really be stunning if we were able to see it in full bloom, but it's not quite there yet.

    

There's quite a few colorful doors and interesting entryways to the different paths that you walk along.  In the 2nd pic Caja and I are sitting at what's called "Mushroom Rock".

    

With Frieda being a German immigrant, they say she loved German folklore, so she was a big gnome fan.  Varying sizes of gnomes are randomly placed throughout the gardens...we didn't see dozens as this info board suggested, but we saw a few.

   

Here we are on the "Swing-Along-Bridge"...not sure how high it is, but as you can see in the 2nd and 3rd pics it was quite high...and quite bouncy!  lol  Jeannie was a little nervous I think.

   

The biggest attraction as far as advertising is Lover's Leap--so named according to folklore because 2 youngsters in love, from different Indian tribes, met their untimely death from here.  You can't see it from these pics, but there is a big waterfall coming out of those rocks.  Click on the 2nd pic for sure...really a beautiful shot of the area and structure.

   

They say you can see 7 states from up here.  Of course they could tell us anything, as you're mostly looking out at tree cover as far as the eye can see, but I'm going with it. lol  In the 3rd pic are the flags of the 7 states--NC, TN, KY, AL, SC, GA and VA.

   

Leaving Lover's Leap, next up was "Fat Man's Squeeze"...I'm trying to not take these tight spaces personally, but they shouldn't over-do it. lol 

  

Here is the big waterfall coming out of the Lover's Leap rocks...It is behind us in both the pics with us in them, but a little harder to see.

  

A 1000 ton "Balanced Rock"...that's Caja and I holding it up while Jeannie stands around watching. lol

Fairyland Caverns was the last section we went thru...an incredibly cute and elaborate display of every nursery rhyme you ever heard of, or read to your kids.   We've only posted a few of the displays here, and you would probably think they are paintings or drawings as you look at the pics, but they're not.  They are all 3-dimensional, and what I assume are ceramic forms of everything from the Cow Jumping over the Moon, to Rip Van Winkle, to Little Red Riding Hood, etc.  Kids would find it cute, but probably more appreciated by adults for the level of detail involved.

         

Another day under our belt.  Going bike riding tomorrow along the Tennessee River...looking forward to it.