Week #8 – Pardon me boys…

Is that the Chattanooga Choo-Choo?

Well, kinda…4 of us headed down south to the land of the Smoky Mountains and ended up in Church.

We spent most of Friday exploring downtown Chattanooga starting at a funky little coffee shop, Rembrandt’s, and ending at a rather disappointing Ghost Tour. In between we visited Ruby Falls, sampled the local flavor (liquid and solid) and met quite a few Uber drivers.  We also met quite a few people who moved to Chattanooga for it’s scene – we even met one bartender who said they stopped their for lunch during a road trip and never left.

One thing we learned while on this trip is Tennesseans are a friendly bunch and are more than happy to offer up all their favorite places for eating, drinking, entertainment and the like. They were all in agreement of the best places and we were never at a loss of what to do, where to go.  As a matter of fact we probably had too many choices and did our best to see them all.

Ruby Falls is a spectacular, spelunking journey into a cave system found and explored at the turn of the 20^th century. 100 years later we enjoyed the stunning natural wonder of this cave system - not just the usual stalagmites and stalactites but “flowstone” and “drapery” formations.  The journey culminated in the exquisite Ruby Falls – all 145 feet of it. (cue the very dramatic music and lighting.)

  

 The reason for this trip was to attend the Moon River Music Festival.  Two days and nights of great music with just enough rain to cool us off and only a little more to shut it down for a brief time or two.  We enjoy discovering new music and relishing old favorites so festivals like this are right up our alley.  Of all the new music I experienced my new favorite band is a duo called, Penny and Sparrow.  They were amazing! Rich voices and sweet guitar work – they sing real purdy… for boys.

Some of the lesser-known groups we also enjoyed were Caamp (not a typo), Secret Sisters, Boy Named Banjo, Mandolin Orange and Ballroom Thieves.  The better known groups (at least to us) were Judah & The Lion, Trampled by Turtles and Mavis Staples with the shows being headlined by Drew Holcomb and Avett Brothers.  Man, what a line-up!!

For two days we danced, drank, tranced, sang, devoured and danced some more.  Another fun perk was to spend these days in the VIP section; no waiting in lines, no stinky porta potties and some real nice chairs set up under the trees to make the scorching Tennessee days a lot more bearable.

On Monday we headed for Nashville for a change of scenery and to be just that much closer to home for the trip back.  Monday was “Be A Tourist” day.  First stop - the Ryman Auditorium.  The self-guided tour was very informative (unless, evidently, you watch the TV show, Nashville, in which case you already knew all that).  I only wish I hadn’t been so “frugal” and had spent the money to make a recording in the Ryman Studio.  Note to self; if one has to ask the question, “will I regret not having spent X amount of dollars to do Y” the answer is most likely, “yes”.

 Our next stop was Broadway – yes, we went to Tootsie’s, no, we did not go to the Bluebird Café, but we did find plenty of other things to do.  Luke Bryan was opening his new restaurant and there was going to be a free concert in the street that night - the excitement was palpable and it seemed the night would go on forever.

We, on the other hand, could not and were back at our hotel by 7:30.  What started as a raucous drive playing the Alphabet Game using music artists and bands ended in quiet, companionable ride home. 
Goodbye Tennessee, Hello Quad Cities.