Rocky Top always brings you home.
Last week we loaded up the car, and I do mean loaded,
kidnapped our oldest neice and nephew and pointed the car South. We were headed for a whirlwind tour of the
hot spots in Tennessee.
In true HollySarah fashion we cram packed our schedule, err,
I mean vacation. Yeah. Ok, so yes, there was a schedule. And at times it was tight, I’m not gonna
lie. The 6:30 AM wake up calls were a
bit much for the college folks among us.
Our first stop….none other than good ol’ Rocky Top! A stop on The Hill, a first for Sweet Sarah,
Taylor and Cal. And it did not
disappoint!
Neyland Stadium was wide open for the taking and
Thompson-Boling practically rolled out the red carpet. True story…we were walking down on the floor
level of the arena, back by the locker rooms and the storage rooms. At least three times, one of us muttered, “do
you think we should be down here?” And
just as we came around a bend there were some workers cleaning, which caused
one of us to sneeze. Ummmm, you
guys! The workers apologized for
stirring up dust while we were down there.
Red Carpet, I tell ya! [Pretty
sure Pat told them we were coming.]
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| Not bad for a snap in a moving car |
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| Their first shot on The Hill [we drove up] |
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| I think I just convinced them to transfer |
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| Mecca |
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| A lifelong Bronco, now converted to a die-hard Vols fan too! |
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| I wasn't kidding! Pat told them I was coming. |
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| Pretty sure the heigh difference is real, people. |
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| If this doesn't give you chills..... |
From Knoxville we headed to Chattanooga for a few days of
exploring, capped off with white water rafting the Ocoee.
A little back story…..when I was in third grade my paternal
grandparents moved back to Tennessee to retire [they had moved to Ohio after
the war for work]. Needless to say I
spent many a summer in Tennessee, to say nothing of the holidays and mid-year
trips with my parents to visit. [oh
yeah, have I mentioned my parents would throw three bean bag chairs, a cooler
with bologna sandwiches and their three kids in the bed of a pick up truck and
head on down the road to Tennessee for eight hours? Yep.
They did. Ok, ok, so there was a
cap on the truck, but STILL! Was anyone
else ever subjected to this poor man’s mode of travel?] Anywho, in spite of the possible transit
traumas, I grew up always knowing I’d live in Tennessee. And, sure enough, my first job out of
graduate school was in Jackson. [cue
Johnny Cash]. Now, if you’ve ever driven
through Tennessee, it’s impossible to not pass at least half a dozen “See Rock
City”, “visit Ruby Falls” signs. Now
multiply that by many, many, many trips and
living in this state and it’s just plain ridiculous I’ve never seen Rock City
or visited Ruby Falls!
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| All OVER Tennessee. |
Aaaannnnnd, that explains why it was FIRST on the agenda our
first day in Chattanooga. We played uber
tourists by purchasing the Triple Play pass- the Incline to Lookout Mountain,
Rock City and Ruby Falls. I’d recommend
them all if you get a chance. But an
official survey post trip ranked Ruby Falls in the top five activities by 3 out
of 4 respondents. Lookout Mountain was
my favorite of the three. Just
beautiful! I could’ve spent hours up
there.
Rock City is a really amazing place. It has everything that I love about visiting
a place, hiking, amazing views and being able to be outdoors. Unfortunately, we were a bit tainted on Rock
City by the ridiculous amount of gnomes planted, displayed, creeping, hanging,
shadowed, spying, lurking and nearly museumed [yes, I know that’s not a word]
every where at this place. Dear
Lord. Gnomes are the clowns of the
garden world. Why? Why do people insist
on these creepy things? Why? Anyway, it kind of tainted our view of Rock
City, even though it shouldn’t have, but MAN!
Oh, the gnomes!
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| This is the beginning of the Incline. We took it all the way to the top. Pretty cool! |
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| Taylor was excited. Cal, well....not sure what's going on there. |
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| Sweet Sarah....she was NOT excited. But ever the trooper |
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| It's so steep you look out the roof at eye level. |
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| The view from the top. |
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| Ready to explore |
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| Heading to the view |
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| I decided to hike up from the river. Just arriving here. :) |
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| Cal spotted a football field from the top |
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| One of my favorites. |
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| Time out for Taylor |
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| A selfie on the edge of Lookout. |
Ruby Falls...
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| Inside the cave |
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| A formation that looks like a "donkey headed south" |
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| Here she is. Ruby is beautiful. |
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| I missed getting the falls in by ONE second. The lights turned out on us. |
Rock City.....
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| It's tight. But wait 'til you see Fat Man's Squeeze |
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| Heights and Swinging Bridges...Sweet Sarah isn't a fan. |
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| Face Rock |
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| The Seven States. Do you see the rain rolling in behind them? It came a gulley washer within minutes. |
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| Post Rain. The view from Lovers Leap at Rock City |
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| Imitating their father |
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| here is Fat Man's Squeeze |
We rounded out the day with a night at the ball game. There’s nothing more pure than minor league
baseball. It was a beautiful night and
we saw some great ball.
On our third day we headed out for a little history
lesson. We spent about three hours at
Chickamauga Battlefield. It’s rich with
history and landscape. The coolest thing
was a self-guided audio car tour. The
NPS always impresses.
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| We went to the top. Ummm, my calves are still sore. |
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| The view from the top |
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| We saw this a lot on the trip |
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| We finished the climb and came down. |
Then…..we did a little shopping. BOOT shopping. Both Taylor and Cal wanted to be booted up
for our trip to Music Row. I think the
quote of the evening went something like, “ok, I want boots that say country
boy meets suburban Waterville”. Anyone
know what that means? Yeah, we didn’t
either, which would explain why we were in the Boot Barn for an hour and half
watching him try on, no lie, at LEAST 35 pair of boots. NOT LYING ONE BIT HERE. Meanwhile, his sister had picked her boots in
the first fifteen minutes of our visit.
Holy cow!!!!!! And here’s the
thing, you guys, it wasn’t like he was doing his own thing and we were just
perusing while he decided. Oh, no, no,
no. That would’ve been enjoyable. Reasonable, even. Nope.
Cal thought all three of his posse should help him and bring him boots
as if his throne and crown were the little stool/mirror combo. Sigh.
After sunset and two pair of boots we headed to dinner.
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| Had to make sure they tried Moon Pies and Sun Drop |
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| Sweet Sarah LOVED them both! |
Up bright and early Thursday morning for our rafting trip. HOLY COW IT IS WAS EARLY! While there is no photographic evidence that
we actually rafted, I have a sore bum, a few bruises from said nephew falling
into me and an ear that is still full of Ocoee water for proof. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect
trip down the river. We were the first
on the river and the only raft in our group with a guide that had been making a
living for 24 years on the back of a raft.
He was great! Put us through the
Class IV rapids expertly---a little edgy without dumping us. [Aunt Holly was too cheap to buy the
pictures, though they were great!]
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| I took this post trip. Water logged. |
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| The next group heading out |
From there we loaded our water logged selves, into the car
and headed to Lynchburg---home of Jack Daniels. Aaaaannnndddd, apparently every
other Tennessee tourist decided to do the same thing that day too! It was packed. But the free tour was worth the wait. While I
don’t drink whisky, the tour made me wish I did, if only for the pride of being
a JD drinker. It was a pretty cool
place.
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| Lynchburg will never be the same |
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| He was beyond excited to be here. |
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| What a handsome young man! |
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| They burn this sugar maple wood to distill the whisky....this is what makes it Tennessee whisky |
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| That blue can contains whisky. They use it as the fire starter |
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| Jack Daniel on the rocks |
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| The safe JD kicked, which eventually led to his death |
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| Downtown Lynchburg for a Moon Pie break |
Here’s a holy crap fact:
Jack Daniel’s pays $8 MILLION in taxes every….wait for it, wait for it,
wait……….every TWO WEEKS! In the
humble words of our tour guide, “if you
want to stimulate the economy, drink more Jack Daniel’s whisky!” Man, oh, man, I’m in the wrong business!
Without any free samples in our system, a box of Moon Pies
from the General Store [Sweet Sarah has found a new favorite!] we headed north
to Music City. We ventured out to Music
Row for dinner and a little live music.
And apparently, so did every other Tennessee tourist! It was packed. But, of course, that always makes it more fun
and interesting. Unfortunately, Aunts
Holly and Sarah were showing their age and we headed for bed around,
ahem…..ten. Don’t judge! Not nice.
Hauling around two college kids and keeping them busy, busy, busy is
hard work. Don’t judge. Ok, you can judge. I don’t care, nor apologize. This girl needs her sleep.
Our final day we hit up the Country Music Hall of Fame. Let’s just say in our official post-trip
survey, it didn’t make the Top Five list for any of the four respondents.
We were also thrilled our cousins and their new babies were
willing to meet us for dinner. The
babies are beautiful and it was fun seeing them as parents.
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| Nothing like family! Look at those cute babies! |
And….for the grand finale……..A night at the Grand Ole Opry.
Oh, yes. You wanna win big points with
your niece and nephew, plan to have The Band Perry and Carrie Underwood at the
Opry the night you’re there. Yep, that’s
right. We’re THAT good. Ok, we’re not really. Good timing and luck ever be on our
side. [Thank, goodness!] I tell you, there’s nothing like live music. And Carrie Underwood….well, the girl’s got
some pipes!
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| See those boots???!!!! Two beautiful young adults! |
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| Super excited! |
So I mentioned the post-trip survey, if you ever traveled
with me, you’ll learn there is always the “what was your favorite part of
today?” dinner question, rounded out by the post-trip survey.
This trip’s survey: List your top five favorite things,
followed by one thing you’d change or do differently and you can’t say Rock
City [the gnomes dropped Rock City to the Rock Bottom of everyone’s list
pronto!]
Here are the unofficial, as best as I can remember,
corrected to be accurate by Sweet Sarah:
Taylor:
1.
Grand Ole Opry
2.
White Water Rafting
3.
Ruby Falls
4.
Jack Daniel’s
5.
Lookout Mountain
Do differently: no changes
Cal
1.
White Water Rafting
2.
Grand Ole Opry
3.
Jack Daniel’s
4.
Ruby Falls
5.
Music Row
Do differently: Stay out later on Music Row [I may have
failed to mention above, said nephew is 19 years old and was unable to get into
any of the bars. So staying out later
would’ve meant…….???? We’re still unsure.
But he still thinks we should’ve stayed out later.]
Sweet Sarah
1.
White Water Rafting
2.
Grand Ole Opry
3.
Ruby Falls
4.
Jack Daniel’s
5.
University of Tennessee
Do differently: As always, Sweet Sarah is sweet. And has no
changes.
Holly
1.
Grand Ole Opry
2.
Lookout Mountain
3.
Chickamuaga
4.
Jack Daniel’s
5.
White Water Rafting
Do differently: Make a stop at
Tootsie’s. How did we miss Tootsie’s? See parenthetical comments in Cal’s list
Good Ol’ Rocky Top.
Rocky Top Tennessee.
Rocky Top Tennessee.
