Monday in Chattanooga

I woke up around 6am to the sound of leaving RVs Monday morning. I managed to sleep in fits for the next four hours before beginning to break camp. My neighbors had left the day before, and most of the spots around me were already vacant by the time I was leaving. I cleaned up my camp in the hot sun and after making sure all my trash was in trash bags and all my gear packed up, I hit the road. There was a fairly long line getting out, but it moved at a fairly decent pace. We'd wait for about a minute or so and then move up ten cars or so. This went on for about 20 minutes before we were able to just drive. I headed south towards Chattanooga on a scenic highway instead of Interstate. I made a detour to Sewanee to see The University of the South. I had wanted to take a tour, but I smelled like the north end of a south-bound donkey, so I decided not to offend anyone. The campus was absolutely gorgeous, with large stone buildings set into the beautiful landscape. I saw lots of people walking around with everything from fishing gear to dogs to tennis equipment to suits. I then got back onto Interstate towards Chattanooga. Along the way I saw almost nothing but beautiful landscapes, farms both big and small, more fireworks signs and superstores than most likely anywhere in the world, the very occasional car, and "See Rock City" advertisements. I have been to camp in the area around Chattanooga called Lookout Mountain, but had never been to Rock City or Ruby Falls, but had heard much about them. I headed towards Rock City first, and managed to find it pretty easily by following the large black arrows that said "SEE ROCK CITY" in bold white letters. I paid almost $65 at the gate for a combo ticket to Rock City, Ruby Falls, and the Tennessee Aquarium & IMAX. Rock City is basically a nature/garden path through some very cool rock formations. It has some spectacular views from atop the lookout point, where it is reported that on a clear day you can see 7 states. It was a pretty clear day, so I maybe was able to see all 7 at once, but who knows? After going through Fairyland which was a bunch of dioramas of old folklore characters lit with blacklight, I headed for Ruby Falls. Once I arrived I found that the next tour wasn't for another twenty minutes, so I sat down and ate a chili dog and walked around the gift shop. Once the tour began we were led into an elevator that descended 260 feet into the mountain. We came out in a narrow cave that had been enlarged to allow standing. After a half-mile walk passing numerous cave formations we made it to Ruby Falls. The cavern was dimly lit at first and once the entire group had entered, the lights were turned on. The fall is the tallest underground public waterfall in the world at 145 feet tall. The stream is 1120 feet under the mountain, and the water comes from an unknown source. We then made the hike back out, passing more formations along the way. The elevator took us up to an observation tower where we could overlook the city of Chattanooga and the river that flows alongside it. Ruby Falls was much better than Rock City, and more worth the money. After leaving the falls I went to Krystal Burger to use their internet and grab some food. I then headed for the western Chattanooga Kampgrounds of America. These campgrounds were 15 miles away in an entire other state, not exactly how close I had wanted, but the only campsite that advertised wifi in the campgrounds. Once I got there I had trouble finding a campsite, and once I did I set up and headed toward the bathroom. Their bathroom had a lock on the light switch, so I had to use the bathroom in complete darkness, just my iPhone for light. I then headed back to my camper looking forward to being able to finish my blog posts and watch the episode of True Blood I had missed while at Bonnaroo, but alas, there was no wifi signal at all, so I just went to sleep.