10/22/2010 CHATTANOOGA AND THE TOW TRUCK MUSEUM

We awoke to another beautiful morning to see a couple of women crewing down the river and news that we could, if we moved to the Aquarium Dock, stay as long as we wanted. We pulled in our lines, unhooked our power and water and yanked the steps. Zoom, we were off on our 200 yard journey! Marty from the marina was there to help us with our lines and, in no time at all, we were re-situated in our now home. Looking out our starboard we have the view of the Tennessee Aquarium. Not a bad place to be. Lots more foot traffic here and Dan is in heaven, gabbing it up.

QUEST AT HER NEW HOME

THE CHATTANOOGA DOCK WALK

Once all was secured, we took off to explore some more. Within sight of the Quest we found life sized replicas of Columbus’ Pinta and Nina ships. We opted to climb aboard the Nina, supposedly the favorite of Columbus. These two ships are an educational traveling armada with many volunteers that give of their time to man them.

REPRODUCTION OF THE NINA

DAN IS READY TO SET SAIL

Our next adventure involved catching the city bus #15 that would take us to the National Tow Truck Museum. Having seen a segment on Sunday Morning about this unique little gem, we were unable to resist. Ernest Holmes invented the first tow truck and began manufacturing them here Chattanooga. The museum houses 17 beautifully preserved tows and scads of towing memorabilia, from toys to needlepoint, to quilts.

THIS BE THE PLACE

INVENTED BY ERNEST HOLMES

OVERVIEW OF THE MUSEUM

DAN IS IN TOW HEAVEN

TOY TOW

NEEDLEPOINT TOW

TOW QUILT

From here we, once again, caught the #15 bus and continued on to the base of the Incline Railway. We boarded the trolley railcar and ascended up the steep bank to a breathtaking view Lookout Mountain. This little railway holds the record for being the steepest due to its 72.7% grade near the top.

LOOKING DOWN THE TRACK

PASSING THE OTHER RAILCAR

After taking the city bus back to town, we boarded the free electric bus and took a ride over the river to North Chattanooga (we walked to this area last night) and the co-op type market for some fresh produce.

Returning back to Quest, we found that Hal and Connie on Mas Bueno (they had befriended me while I was stranded in Green Turtle Bay) had made it back to their home port and were docked right in front of us.

We walked to Sugar’s Ribs for a BBQ dinner then back to Blue Water for a margarita for dessert.

10/21/2010 NICKJACK MARINA TO CHATTANOOGA, TN

THURSDAY

TOTAL MILES TRAVELED TODAY: 28 NM

We were back on the Tennessee River and heading up river by 9:30. It was strangely familiar. Oh yes, we traveled seven miles of this yesterday, up and back again. Now we were seeing it in the morning’s brilliant sunlight. Still beautiful!

We are seeing lots of bass fishermen in the river. I don’t know, the fishing stuff can be pretty boring but I do love the catching part.

HOPE HE'S CATCHING

We pass homes perched on the river’s banks and enter the 32 miles of narrow, twisty-turny passage. The towering rocky peaks were frosted in a colorful pallet of autumnal colors.

TENNESSEE RIVER HOME AND DOCK

RIGHT ON THE BANKS WITH THE COLORFUL WOODS

RIVER ROCK AND FALL COLORS

Our wildlife spotting consisted mostly of turtles, clinging to the floating stumps.

A COLONY FOR TURTLES

"ONE IS THE LONELIEST NUMBER"

Just after passing into the Eastern Time Zone at MM 451.8 (taking us from 11:45 to 12:45) we sighted the Chattanooga Paddle Boat then passed by the huge Signal Mountain Cement Company. This is the facility that processes the raw materials mined from the quarry near Hales Bar.

CHATTANOOGA PADDLE BOAT

SIGNAL MOUNTAIN CEMENT COMPANY

As we came nearer to Chattanooga we began to have glimpses of civilization with houses again appearing on the bank, some tour boat travels and the highway skirting the river. We heard the aquarium’s tour boat offering to make a slow passage by A Frayed Knot and immediately thought of Richard Hoffstadt and his corny joke with the same punch line. I know you will appreciate this one, Steven.

TENNESSEE AQUARIUM TOUR BOAT

A FRAYED KNOT

As we rounded a curve, Chattanooga came in to view and sighted several river cruise tour boats along the way. We made our way to the town dock and tied up before jumping off to explore our surroundings.

THE SOUTHERN BELLE

APPROACHING CHATTANOOGA

Right off we found the Tennessee Aquarium and ducked in for an up-close and personal look at the aquatic life. We adored the seahorse exhibit and spent quite a bit of time there. We saw alligators, butterflies, untold numbers of fish and the charming penguins before viewing their IMAX 3D presentation on the waves of Tahiti.

Image via Wikipedia

TENNESSEE AQUARIUM

SEAHORSE WITH GRASPING TAIL

STICK-LIKE SEAHORSE

COLORED TO BLEND

HONEST, THIS IS A SEAHORSE

JUDY, FROM THE INSIDE LOOKING OUT

After leaving the aquarium we continued to wander the streets until we were drawn into the upscale little Blue Waters bistro. We had an early dinner of appetizers and the best margarita ever.

We are docked right near the Hunter Museum of American Art and under the Walnut Street Pedestrian Bridge. After changing into some warmer clothes we set off to make our way across the bridge. Live music was drifting down in the night air from the museum and the lights were twinkling all around us. This bridge was built in 1909 as a main artery to downtown Chattanooga for the population north of the river. After being declared unsafe for modern traffic and scheduled for demolition in the 1990s, the Chattanooga citizens banded together and fought to keep it open as a pedestrian bridge. We encountered joggers, couples strolling hand in hand and families with children laughing and enjoying the freedom of no vehicle traffic. Nice job Chattanooga!



Image by Frank Kehren via Flickr

HUNTER MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART



Image by southerntabitha via Flickr

HUNTER STREET PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE