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Sightseeing

Now that the chaos of Gustav has died down a bit, I was finally able to relax today. I drank some coffee, studied quite a bit and enjoyed some Memphis-style barbecue.

Plus, I did a little sightseeing, which included -- OF COURSE!!! -- the Chattanooga Choo-Choo. Yes, there is such a thing, not just a song. Apparently, it was a train route that went from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Chattanooga. It was the first, according to the little placard in front of the one of the trains, to connect the north to the south.

Many years ago, Holiday Inn turned the old train station into a hotel. Guests can even rent one of the train cars that have been turned into guest suites.

But that wasn't all of my Chattanooga site-seeing and information gathering. For instance, guess where they make Moon Pies? Yep, Chattanooga. And this one sign on an old building downtown said that Chattanooga was the site of the first Coca-Cola bottling plant.

The best tour I took today, though, was of the International Towing and Recovery Hall of Fame and Museum. It was dedicated tow trucks -- the first of which was designed and built right here in Chatty -- as well as the men and women who drive them.

Surprisingly, it was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be. When the guy running the museum asked me where I was from, and I told him New Orleans, he commented that he'd had a good handful of folks from down there who've been through the facility in the last few days.

Apprently, evacuees like a good towing museum.

(In case you don't believe me, I actually purchased a T-shirt at the museum. I'll take a picture and post it, as soon as I can locate my camera. It reads: "My grandma is tow-riffic" which a picture of a tow truck, of course.)

Posted by Lara Richards at 7:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)