Music Festival

We made our 5th trip to the Bimart Willamette County Music Festival this year. As always we had a great time. The music was good, the weather cooled of and we got to take some much needed down time with friends and family.

Th music was pretty good too.

Jackson Mickelson

Scotty McCreery

Rascal Flatts

Dustin Lynch

Luke Bryan

Tracy Lawrence

Chris Young

The Band Perry

Heading Home

Flying east we always leave early. Flying west is another story. Our flight was schedued to leave at 3:00 pm, so we had some time to fill before leaving Birmingham. We decided to check out the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Wow. It was an excellent museum with so much history and emotion. It's located right across the street from the 16th Street Baptist Church, which was bombed in 1963, killing four young girls. We didn't go into the church, or fullly explore the park across the street, but it was definitely worth the visit.

Exclusion Diorama

Separate was not equal

Rosa Parks Diorama

16th Street Baptist Church

The flight home was uneventful. It's good to be home.

Back to Alabama

We left Chattanooga after breakfast and headed south into Georgia. We drove back through the Chickamauga battlefied and then drifted southwest toward Alabama. We stopped for gas at Mentone, Alabama. It's a small town that is reputed to have some great little artisan shops. Unfortunately, they open at 11:00 am, and we were there at 10:00 am. With nothing to do, we kept driving and made a brief stop at DeSoto State Park where we got some information about Little River Canyon.

Our next stop was the Little River Canyon Center where we picked up a park map and had a nice visit with the park ranger on duty.  She said Little River Falls overlook was a good place for a picnic, so that's where we went. The falls are pretty, and accessible for swiming. However, I wouldn't want to be there when the water was running fast.

One of the sign board at the overlook shows a photo of the falls in December and the water covers the entire rock face. 

We drove through part of the Canyon. We had to stop for a photo at Mushroom Rock. When the road was built, they left this really cool rock formation and built the road around it. 

We left the canyon and drove into Fort Payne. It's the hometown of one of my favorite bands - Alabama. We stopped at the city park so I could take a photo.

And we visited the Alabama Fan Club and Museum. They have a new album coming out next month and I am really excited.

From Fort Payne, we drove to Birmingham, had dinner at O'Charley's and it was time to crash. We go home tomorrow.

Tennessee & Georgia - Day 2

We spent most of today in Georgia. The morning was spent at the Chicamauga Battlefield, another part of the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park. We started at the Visitors Center where we watched a short video and went through the museum. Then we drove the seven mile loop and stopped several times to get out and walk around the monuments.

Wilder Monument

View from the top of the Wilder Monument

I climbed the 136 steps to the top of the Wilder  Brigade Monumment. And we found a picnic table and ate the lunch we had packed. 

We left the battlefield and heade into Rossville, Georgia. We had seen a sign for the home of Chief John Ross of the Cherokees. I make the kids read his letter of protest written in 1836, so I was curious. Unfortunately the house is not open on Mondays. 

Our next stop was Rock City Gardens. Some of the cousins had recommended it, but I wasn't sure if we should do it. We finally decided to bite the bullet and I am so glad we did. It was awesome. The Gardens started as a private estate in the 1920's and winds though these massive rock formations.There is an awesome waterfall, and the view from the top is impressive. You can see seven states on a clear day. 

Walking into "Fatman's Squeeze"

Lover's Leap

We spent about 3 1/2 hours walking through Rock City. By the end of the day we were tired. We wanted a meal and decided on Italien. A quick internet search and we found Provino's in Chattanooga. Good choice. The place was packed and the food was excellent. 

After dinner we headed toward the river and ended up driving out to Lake Chickamauga before heading back to the hotel. 

Alabama - Day 6 / Tennessee & Georgia - Day 1

One final meal with the cousins and we said our farewells with everyone scattering back to the winds. We headed north and made our first stop of the day at Russell Cave National Monument. This location has been used by humans for 10,000 years. The actual cave is off limits, but the boardwalk from the visitors center does enter the cave overhang and has dioramas of prehistoric peoples.

It was an interesting contrast to Cathedral Caverns. Russell Cave has a large bat colony, while Cathedral Caverns doesn not. Both caves are huge, and have water running through them. 

Our next stop was Chattanooga, but to get there we had to enter Tennessee, enter Georgia, and then reenter Tennessee. Oh, and we changed time zones. We deviated from our normal chain hotel routine and checked into The Chattanoogan. It is very nice. 

None of us were very hungry, so we headed out to Point Park. It's part of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. Point Park is located overlooking the Lookout Mountain Battlefield. The park was nice and cool in the evening. 

The view from Point Park

On our way down the mountain, we stopped and rode the Incline Railway. At the bottom we had some ice cream at Clumpies and then rode back up the mountain. The Incline Railway has a grade maximum of 72 degrees at one point. It was cool.

Alabama - Day 5

This morning was similar to yesterday, but for lunch we headed into town to The Rock House Eatery. It was recommended by our hosts, and I had an excellent hamburger. Some of the cousins went for the pimento cheese sandwich, but I just couldn't do it. I love cheese, but I don't love pimentos.

This afternoon we hung out at the lake. The cousins live on the lake, so we spent some time on their pontoon boat and visiting at their boathouse. 

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A view of the Lodge from the lake

Lake Guntersville is on the Tennessee River. It's a very long lake and has about 900 miles of shoreline. As a student of history, I knew about the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in the 1930's, but I didn't think about how massive that river must have been. The dams on the river that created lakes have lock systems and navigable by barges. 

This evening we had a reunion banquet and business meeting. Our 2016 reunion will be in North Carolina.