A Nation Divided

Day 5

States visited: Tennessee and Georgia

Sites seen: Ruby Falls, Rock City, Lookout Mountain, Starbucks, Point Park, local movie theater

Today was a great day! I have very fond memories of Lookout Mountain from my childhood and I think my children will now, too. The best thing I heard from them all day was that it wasn’t as boring as they thought it would be 😂😂😂😂

Ruby falls is an underground waterfall, touted as the largest commercial underground waterfall in the United States. It does not disappoint. It is unbelievable to me to think that someone in the 1920s went looking for his old childhood cave that had been closed down for the railroad and came upon this beautiful sight. And of course, Ruby liked it because it contained her name.

Rock City did not disappoint either! Basically this guy and his wife owned a bunch of property on Lookout Mountain. She loved gardening and created a path with different gardens and lots of gnomes. They opened their backyard to people and it was such a hit they decided to make it a thing and created Rock City. It was very neat to walk around and see all of the beautiful rock formations and simply meander along the mountain. The views certainly did not disappoint. Supposedly you can see seven states from the top of Lover’s Leap.

The last scenic part of our day was spent at Point Park learning about the Battles of Chattanooga. It was interesting to hear about the history and the mess of the civil war and the impact it still has today. Interesting tidbit for you- Vice President Breckinridge (under Coolidge) took an oath to defend his country from enemies both foreign and domestic. He fought on the side of the confederate. I also didn’t know that as General Sherman made his sweep south, that yes, he burned down and destroyed a lot of things. But so did the people in the south. They figured they would control the burning of their own things rather than have someone else burn it down.

This park was created before the National Park Service became a thing. Originally the park service was going to be under the military so the entrance to this park was built by the Army Corps of Engineers and then eventually taken over by the park service. It was our first opportunity to use our national parks pass on this trip and we are looking forward to using it some more along the way! The other thing this park has is hundreds of cannons from the civil war. Any cannons that were left behind are now part of the parks commemorating the Battles of Chattanooga. It also has one of the few statues that has both a confederate and a union soldier on it, together and shaking hands, representing hope for a nation divided.

Today also happens to be my birthday so we all went to the movies this afternoon and filled our bellies with popcorn and candy and soda. We wrapped up our evening with the family mile and some swimming. Tomorrow morning we are headed to New Orleans!

Talk to you soon,

Deanna