(9/6/08 – 9/8/08) – Guild, TN Day 4: We slept in a little today as we were not in a rush for a long travel day. Our first stop along I-40 took us to Nashville. There we spent about 45 minutes walking the grounds of their Parthenon exhibit. It is a full-scale replica of the Parthenon in Greece. We toured the downstairs museum (where no pictures were allowed…it wasn’t THAT exciting, although part of it did give the history of the exhibit which was) then took a few pictures on the main floor. There was a bride or bride-to-be getting her pictures taken on the front steps…ah, young love, wait till they get an RV and spend a month in it on the road (just kidding)! Bacon loved the pond. There were many ducks there
for him to observe. When Tara saw the picture of him overlooking the ducks, Kevin got into trouble for letting him get so close to the water--his mama spoils him! He has been quite the trooper along the road. He has endured many hardships (loud trucks passing the RV, pee stops in scary locations, and the dreaded windshield wipers). Yes, our dog is a wimp (but he is cute). Any time the windshield wipers come on, he spirals into anxious shaking and panicked climbing up to Tara’s shoulders. This has required the development of “a system”. If the rain starts falling, Bacon is quickly placed onto the couch behind the driver’s seat so that he can secure himself out of view of those evil wipers (see pic below).
After Nashville, we hopped onto I-24 South toward Chattanooga, TN. Just before Chattanooga, was our exit to Guild, TN and Hale’s Bar and Marina “Resort”. We’ll consider this a low point in our journey. While the “resort” was positioned in a prime location along the river, it had much to be desired. It appears that someone had made an effort to create the perfect resort, but then got tired and never finished. It is a fine “fishing village”, but far from the resort they claimed it to be. The views across the river were beautiful in the mornings,
but the facilities had much to be desired and we ended up completely cut off from civilization (no cell, no internet) during our stay with the exception of the two brief visits we made into “town” where we could get a cell signal. On a positive note, we were able to get a satellite signal and we did have electricity to run the A/C, so all was not lost. J
Day 6—Guild, TN During our three day stay at Hale’s (why, oh why did we choose this place for a 3 day lay-over?) we drove into Chattanooga to visit Lookout Mountain. This mountain hosts, some beautiful homes and three tourist attractions—Ruby Falls, Rock City and the Incline Railway (for more information visit their website at
http://www.lookoutmountain.com/ )
We visited Ruby Falls and then Rock City (the Incline Railway will have to wait for another visit; Kevin visited this back in ’81). We started with Ruby Falls. This is a waterfall ___ft below the ground. It requires a ~30minute walk through caverns (Kevin spent at least ½ the time slumping down to keep from hitting his head on the cavern ceiling). The waterfall was beautiful. They even let you walk around behind it (more stooping for Kevin). After leaving the falls, we moved on up the mountain to Rock City. Definitely a tourist trap, but a fascinating use of the rock structures in the area for the creation of a stunning garden walk. We had to have walked for 3 miles around the park. In one area, you can look out
across the horizon to 7 different states. There was another waterfall there and a swinging bridge. Very nice and we didn’t go broke in the gift shop! The only bad thing about this day was returning to the campsite in Guild. When we returned to the campsite, we decided to get everything packed up for an early AM departure (don’t know why we were in such a rush; just this inveterate desire to get out of Guild)
(9/6/08 – 9/8/08) – Guild, TN Day 4: We slept in a little today as we were not in a rush for a long travel day. Our first stop along I-40 took us to Nashville. There we spent about 45 minutes walking the grounds of their Parthenon exhibit. It is a full-scale replica of the Parthenon in Greece. We toured the downstairs museum (where no pictures were allowed…it wasn’t THAT exciting, although part of it did give the history of the exhibit which was) then took a few pictures on the main floor. There was a bride or bride-to-be getting her pictures taken on the front steps…ah, young love, wait till they get an RV and spend a month in it on the road (just kidding)! Bacon loved the pond. There were many ducks there
for him to observe. When Tara saw the picture of him overlooking the ducks, Kevin got into trouble for letting him get so close to the water--his mama spoils him! He has been quite the trooper along the road. He has endured many hardships (loud trucks passing the RV, pee stops in scary locations, and the dreaded windshield wipers). Yes, our dog is a wimp (but he is cute). Any time the windshield wipers come on, he spirals into anxious shaking and panicked climbing up to Tara’s shoulders. This has required the development of “a system”. If the rain starts falling, Bacon is quickly placed onto the couch behind the driver’s seat so that he can secure himself out of view of those evil wipers (see pic below).
After Nashville, we hopped onto I-24 South toward Chattanooga, TN. Just before Chattanooga, was our exit to Guild, TN and Hale’s Bar and Marina “Resort”. We’ll consider this a low point in our journey. While the “resort” was positioned in a prime location along the river, it had much to be desired. It appears that someone had made an effort to create the perfect resort, but then got tired and never finished. It is a fine “fishing village”, but far from the resort they claimed it to be. The views across the river were beautiful in the mornings,
but the facilities had much to be desired and we ended up completely cut off from civilization (no cell, no internet) during our stay with the exception of the two brief visits we made into “town” where we could get a cell signal. On a positive note, we were able to get a satellite signal and we did have electricity to run the A/C, so all was not lost. J Day 6—Guild, TN During our three day stay at Hale’s (why, oh why did we choose this place for a 3 day lay-over?) we drove into Chattanooga to visit Lookout Mountain. This mountain hosts, some beautiful homes and three tourist attractions—Ruby Falls, Rock City and the Incline Railway (for more information visit their website at http://www.lookoutmountain.com/ )
We visited Ruby Falls and then Rock City (the Incline Railway will have to wait for another visit; Kevin visited this back in ’81). We started with Ruby Falls. This is a waterfall ___ft below the ground. It requires a ~30minute walk through caverns (Kevin spent at least ½ the time slumping down to keep from hitting his head on the cavern ceiling). The waterfall was beautiful. They even let you walk around behind it (more stooping for Kevin). After leaving the falls, we moved on up the mountain to Rock City. Definitely a tourist trap, but a fascinating use of the rock structures in the area for the creation of a stunning garden walk. We had to have walked for 3 miles around the park. In one area, you can look out 
across the horizon to 7 different states. There was another waterfall there and a swinging bridge. Very nice and we didn’t go broke in the gift shop! The only bad thing about this day was returning to the campsite in Guild. When we returned to the campsite, we decided to get everything packed up for an early AM departure (don’t know why we were in such a rush; just this inveterate desire to get out of Guild) 
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