November 14-24, 2017
Here we are back at the Holiday Travel Park in Chattanooga, ready for some family fun. And, for Jane, a tooth cleaning. Making medical and dental appointments is a challenge when one doesn’t have a set schedule. Jon’s step-daughter Nikki Rogers Sue is a dental hygienist student (only one semester to go!) and made sure Jane’s teeth got a thorough cleaning.
Although we’ve have been visiting this part of the Chattanooga area for 20 years, we’ve never explored Camp Jordan, operated by the city of East Ridge. We found lots of fall vistas and a few geocaches.
West Chickamauga Creek
We met Jane’s brother Jon and his wife Nancy for lunch one day and then Nancy, Dave and Jane walked across the Tennessee River on the Walnut Street Bridge and back on the Market Street Bridge.
Looking across the Tennessee River at the Market Street Bridge and the Tennessee Aquarium.
Nancy on the Market Street Bridge
Jane and Dave taking advantage of the same bit of fall.
Looking toward the Walnut Street Bridge, now pedestrians only. When Jane drove across it on her way home from work every afternoon in 1970, traffic would back up onto the bridge from the signal on the North Chattanooga side. It felt like stopping at the top of a Ferris wheel.
Our daughter Elizabeth flew in from Denver on Sunday the 19th. We did a little adventuring.
None of us had been to the Tennessee Aquarium in years and it now has a whole new building. We went in the afternoon, just missing Jon and Nancy with the grandkids who visited in the morning.
White-blotched river stingrays from South America
Lion fish
Mossy frogs
Here is a penguin collection that requires virtual storage only. Quite a contrast with the boxes of penguins we amassed over the years.
Nancy and Jon hosted a delicious Thanksgiving dinner for a crowd Tuesday night.
First row, left to right: Jon’s step-daughter Nikki Rogers Sue, Nikki and Justin’s son Colton, Kahla and Austin’s daughter Laurel, Nikki and Justin’s daughter Marley, Kahla and Austin’s daughter Lindi, Austin’s wife Kahla, Nancy’s son Austin. Back row, left to right: Nikki’s husband Justin, Justin’s daughter Alyissa, Jon’s wife Nancy, Jane, Dave, Jane and Dave’s daughter Elizabeth Foster, and Jane’s brother Jon.
Same group in its less reserved state.
The Volunteer Army Ammunition Plant occupied 7,000 acres and employed up to 3,500 people when it was producing TNT from World War II through the war in Vietnam. Today the area is occupied by a Volkswagen assembly plant employing over 3,000 people and the 2,800-acre Enterprise South Nature Park. The park contains 100 underground bunkers where TNT was stored. We checked the area out in preparation for a special activity later in the day.
Dave demonstrates how voices echo in the bunker.
Three hand claps and one foot stomp.
Whistles
We enjoyed our exploration of the old TNT site but we didn’t learn anything that helped us in our afternoon activity with Jane’s brother Jon. At Quest 2 Escape, the four of us were given an hour to prevent the sabotage of Chattanooga area rail lines that were strategic for both troop and TNT movement. We were stationed in a depot and had to solve a variety of puzzles: History, math, logic. The game master made sure we didn’t chase too many red herrings. Alas, we were seconds away from solving the puzzle–so few seconds that we got credit for a solve.
Elizabeth flew back to Denver and Nancy, Jon, Jane and Dave had a no-stress Thanksgiving buffet at the Chattanoogan Hotel. Here are some pictures in front of the tree in the lobby.
When Dave and Jane pulled the slide in to leave for Decatur Friday morning, this ice crashed to the ground.
The ice was a harbinger of things to come.
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