We left home on Sunday May 2nd, traveling via Atlanta to Best Holiday Trav-L Park just outside Chattanooga, exit 1b off I75 N. Sunday and Monday nights we stayed at the Cassville GA KOA about halfway between Atlanta and Chattanooga where we spent a d
ay visiting the
Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History.
We then headed for our rendezvous at the
Best Holiday Trav-L Park with the Sun City RV Cub. Got to grill hamburgers that night for the group at the RV park.
The following day we toured Chattanooga in a van. We were impressed with the city and the military park on top of Lookout Mountain which commemorates the Union victory. One interesting sight was the towing museum sponsored by the person who invented a towing instrument designed to tow cars.
At left we had just crossed the glass bridge near the riverfront.
Below, at right, our group is at Lookout Mountain Military Park which provides a great view of Chattanooga and the Tennessee River.
Inside the visitor's center is a striking mural depicting the Union forces attacking
the Confederate defenders on top of the mountain. This was know as the battle above the clouds and indeed it did take place above them as depicted.
That evening we went to the
Button Willow Church Civil War dinner theater which is run by Steve and Allison Gipson. They've done a lot of serious research using original documents to script a two person two hour act which simulates a dialog between two Civil War characters, a Union Colonel and his sister who is a Southern Sympathizer. Their interactive dialog mixed humor, fact and Southern miss-beliefs into a very interesting show. It was preceded by an outstanding dinner which replicated meals served to Jefferson Davis in the Confederate White House.
On Thursday, May 6 we visited Ruby Falls, the Incline Railway and Rock City. The whole group ate lunch a the Mount Vernon Restaurant. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food, but none of us saved room for amaretta pie, a restaurant favorite.
Ruby Falls is actually inside a cave and was discovered quite by accident. It is directly below Lookout Mountain about 1200 feet. The waterfall is 145 feet and pumps 300 gallons a minute. Solar energy is used through the site.
For some reason, my pictures of the falls didn't come out very well, so here is a commercial one of Ruby Falls.
Outside, there is a beautiful observation area as can be seen in the picture of Lill and I.
Our next stop was the incline railroad which takes one to the top of Lookout Mountain. While the ride was not that great, one could walk to the Military Park.
One thing that did interest me was the machinery room shown above at the right.
After a nice lunch at the Mt. Vernon restaurant, the Sun City group then visited Rock City. During the Civil War, soldiers first wrote of being able to see seven states.
At right, we are pictured in front of the sign pointing to each of the seven states visible from this point. The rhododendron were in full bloom as were
other plants too numerous to mention, i.e., I don't know their names.
The paths features interesting walks through narrow passages as seen on left
through the rocks, a stone bridge, seen on the right, and a man made cave, which contained several exhibits of fairy tale characters
interestingly illuminated, such as the one above, right.
The next day was free, so Lill and I visited the
Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum
whose displays were primarily outdoors. The indoor ones were in some of the rail cars. Fortunately, both of us enjoy visiting RR museums.
We took a train ride which ended at the work area where cars and locomotives are repaired or restored. A turn table ended the ride from which we returned to the museum, a round trip of about 6 miles.
This is a view of the work facilities operated by the museum.
This is a view inside the work area where equipment if being repaired and a locomotive is being restored.
At right is one of the more interesting locomotives on display made by FIAT and privately owned. Its owner is storing it temporarily storing it here.
After the museum, we had lunch at a very interesting cafe just a few miles from the museum,
Walt's Cafe and Karaoke Club.
Although we primarily ate here because of the name,
the food was actually quite good and the atmosphere absolutely delightful. For Lill, it appears to be a long wait for food, but it wasn't; I spent my time drinking beer and looking around, especially enjoyed the pool table and bar shown behind Lill.
After lunch, we drove to the Chickamauga Dam
and hiked half the length of the Riverpark trail, about 7 miles. Along the trail there were several interesting sculptures, restrooms, fishing piers and picnic areas.
,
Upon returning to the dam, we saw about a dozed heron along the shore patiently waiting for a fish to appear. We never saw so many heron standing in an almost straight line a we saw today.
The following day, Saturday, the RV Club visited the Aquarium and enjoyed a nice trip on the Tennessee River to the Gorge area. At left, Lill is on a bench in downtown Chattanooga by the Aquarium.
This is at the front of the Aquarium.
The aquarium consisted of two buildings, the one behind Lill houses the fresh water displays, another houses the salt water displays. Below are some of the fresh water exhibits. They had one of the nicest seahorse exhibits that I've ever seen.
Below are some of their sea water exhibits.
After the aquarium, we had lunch in a local brewery and then saw "Hubble" at the IMAX. I found it very disappointing. I expected scenes showing Hubble's discoveries; instead they focused on sending astronauts to repair it. Launch of Apollo was great in IMAX, though.
After the show, it was time for our boat ride to the Gorge, the last event of the rally.
And so, on Mothers Day we headed back to Sun City, got there around 5pm, just in time to take her out for Mothers Day at the Okatie Ale House for a fajita and a pizza for me.
on St. Hubert street. This was our third time there for the races; it is one metro stop from the race track and offers garage parking. At right is the beautiful view of Montreal from our window on the 21st floor. We could exit the hotel and walk through the underground shops, restaurants and tunnels to the metro station without ever going outside. A real plus in inclement weather. Once at the track, we had about a two mile walk to our grandstand seats, tribune 11, section 3, row h. We selected this tribune because it faces the start of the race and the first curve and the exit from pit row: this is where the real action generally takes place and we were not disappointed in this instance. On Friday and Saturday nights, Grand Prix Tours, as part of our package, included cocktails, a meal, 
and interviews with Rubens Barrichello, 
Jackie Steward and up and coming driver Conner Daily. At left is racing art display featured on Friday night while on right Rubens is being interviewed by Peter Windsor.
along the way. Here I am by a small waterfall with still a long way to walk to our seats. What really made the walk difficult was the very large number of fans; different speeds, crisscrossing, stopping, and several bottlenecks along the way as the path narrowed, crowds gathered at souvenir stands, etc. The worst day, of course, was race day itself with crowds estimated in 250,000 or more. Did I mention the crowds in the subway? The system was terrific in handling the crowds, but boy, each car was jam packed. But, on to the race. I was rooting for Vettel on the Renault Red Bull team. After qualifications, he was second. Louis Hamilton of McLaren MB was 1st, Weber of Red Bull, 7th. Seven time world champion Michael Schumacher was 13th. The presentation of the flags of each driver's nationality started
the ceremonial beginning of the start of the race. Most numerous in the crowd 
were the Ferrari fans; many dressed outrageously as shown here.
Next came the start. We had great seats for this. Hamilton was at the right front of the grid, Vettel front left. And off they go with much scrapping in the first turn as some wings and other components 
got knocked off as each jockeyed for position coming around the first corner with Hamilton and Vettel in the lead.
with Alanso in the red Ferrari just behind in second.
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