Hello from Highland, IL

Hello from Highland, IL

Friday evening October 21, 2011 (sixth travelogue of this trip).

We are in the parking area for the Blue Springs restaurant (map). We wrote about this place in a blog a couple of years ago (here). We have stopped here many times over the years and really like the home style cooking, blue plaid table cloths and there “foot high” pies. We called ahead to see if we could park in their lot overnight. They said fine. When we got here the lot was much smaller that we had recalled, but we have a spot for the night.

Getting here was quite an adventure. We were heading towards St Louis on I 64 and had to go across country to get to I 70 (about 25 miles). I forced the GPS to re-route us, but did not check the route. That is always an open invitation to disaster. The GPS put us on some very marginal farm road that were not wide enough for two vehicles to pass comfortably. In addition, there were at least a dozen sharp turns that were quite a challenge. One had a drop-off on both sides and I just barely made it. We came to a bridge that had a 10 ton limit and before I could think we were across it (we weigh over twice that amount!!!!).

We chose this spot because we wanted to be fairly close to St Charles, MO. We are about 50 miles away and can avoid the terrible traffic in St Louis by arriving early on a Saturday. We plan to visit a friend from many years ago. Kay was married to a good friend of mine who taught me how to paint cars. We were in the same car club and we really got to know them well as each of us began to raise our families. Ken passed away a few years ago, but we have kept in contact with Kay. She and Pat have a lot in common including genealogy. By arriving fairly early Saturday, Pat and Kay can have a few hours together. We will then start home on Sunday.

Now, let's catch up. On Tuesday, we left the site of the rally and returned to Choo-Choo Garage. I was scheduled to do a welding workshop today at Choo-Choo, but that got canceled. Tuesday we visited with some of the folks that came over from the rally. We went to dinner with Sean Welsh on Tuesday. We missed seeing his wife Louise (she went to CA to visit family). We have met up with them several times over the years in lots of different locations. They are neat folks and I love to pick Sean's brain on all kinds of subjects. Sean documented our visit in his great blog (here).

We set Wednesday aside to do some sight seeing. Our first stop was the Battles for Chattanooga museum. They had a slide show detailing the civil war battles in the Chattanooga area. We then went across the street to Point park. These are located on the top of Lookout Mountain. Even though the weather was cold and overcast, the views were great (see photos). The drive up to the top of the mountain was very steep and twisty. It was heavily wooded with gorgeous trees that were beginning to display the fall colors

 Point Park on Lookout Mountain

 Civil War cannons in Point Park overlooking 

Chattanooga and the Tennessee River

Our next stop was the Moon Pie General Store in downtown Chattanooga. Moon Pies are very popular in the south and they have been made in the Chattanooga plant since 1917. RC Cola was also formulated in Chattanooga. The video in the Moon Pie store said that the coal miners loved their 10 cent lunch (Moon Pie and RC Cola each cost 5 cents in the 20's).

For our last stop we went to the Choo Choo Hotel. This hotel is the converted train station (details). It is a fabulous hotel. There are several train cars that have been converted to hotel rooms. In addition there are several other train related displays including a Baldwin Steam locomotive. The hotel lobby is the original train lobby/waiting room with a beautiful domed ceiling. I have included a couple of photos.

 Choo Choo Hotel Garden with train cars used for sleeping rooms

 Baldwin Steam Engine

A lot of businesses and locations have the words Choo Choo in them. Apparently that all stems from the Glenn Miller song in the 40's with the title Chattanooga Choo Choo.

We left the Chattanooga, area on Thursday and drove to Kuttawa where we stayed at Huck's Travel Center Truck Stop. We don't normally stay in truck stops, as they tend to be very noisy with the truck engines idling and trucks coming and going. Since it was chilly (got down to 34 degrees) we did not have the windows open and the noise was not a problem.

The drive from Chattanooga, to Kuttawa was beautiful. There is a pretty good pass which the locals call Mount Eagle. There is a town at the top called Monteagle, which probably gives the pass its coined name. In any case, it is not quite as dramatic as some of the passes in Colorado, but it is still pretty steep and long. The road is lined with trees beginning to display the fall colors.

That is all for now