2013 Yellowstone and Beyond - Part 6 - Chattanooga - Atlanta RV Rally

As we left Kentucky through the mountains of Tennessee, we again had an issue with our engine overheating. We decided to stop at a Camping World RV Park in Chattanooga to see if they could recommend a mechanic. Praise the Lord. They had a service center and could repair it for us.

While waiting for the repair, we visited the downtown area, walked on the Walnut Street Bridge across the Tennessee River and went to the Moon Pie General Store. Larry was really excited about the last, since Moon Pies are his favorite, but was a little disappointed when no factory tour was available.

The repairs were completed and we were ready to go but alas, the government decided a shutdown was in order. This put a kink in our plans. We had originally thought to drive on to a Corps of Engineer Park near Atlanta, but those parks were now closed. We decided it was best to stay where we were until time for the RV Rally in Atlanta. The Camping World park was nice and convenient to many things we wanted to see in and around Chattanooga.

Since we had really enjoyed the previous festivals we had discovered, we looked for ones in this area.  First was the Annual Fall Festival in Etowah, TN, about 45 miles away. It was slightly larger than the previous two with lots of local vendors and food. Beverly and Sophie checked out the booths before we all enjoyed fried apple pies. As we were leaving, we saw a sign for the Car Show. You know we had to track it down and again saw several beautiful classics. We had seen many garage sales along US 411 as we traveled to the festival (reminded us of the Hwy 80 sales at home), so we stopped at the one Larry called the "Mecca".  Although there was lots of stuff available, all we bought were what Larry and Sophie said were the "best" tomatoes they had eaten in a long time.

A few days later we took a trip to the Mayfield Dairy Farms in Athens, TN.  After putting on a "lovely" hairnet, we went into the plant where we saw them making the jugs and them filling them with milk. We also got a glimpse of them filling ice cream cartons.  Although we enjoyed the tour, we all agreed the best part was the ice cream we got to eat at the end of the tour. On our way back we drove down the Cherohala Skyway scenic bypass which was a narrow, curvy road through the Appalachian Mountains.

The next day we went to Rock City and had a great time squeezing through the skinny places along the trail, walking on the swinging suspension bridge (even though someone in our group kept jumping up and down on it) and looking out over the beautiful countryside at Lovers Leap. It's unbelievable to think that this was one family's property when it was developed.

We finally thought it was time for a guys and girls day out. David and Larry went to a 3-D showing of "Gravity" while Beverly and Sophie went shopping of course.  They didn't buy anything but did find another Walmart for future purchases.

On our last weekend in Chattanooga, we traveled to Ellijay, Georgia for the Apple Festival.  We parked downtown and proceeded to the square where we roamed through vendor and food booths, thinking this was smaller than last weeks festival. When we saw school buses picking up people, we realized this wasn't all. They transported people to the fairgrounds where hundreds of vendor and food booths were set up. There were dozens of kiddie type rides and blow-ups and at least 250 classic cars and trucks. Amazing. We sampled the food,  some more than others, and had the best fried apple pies of the whole trip.  This festival was over two weekends and unfortunately the parade was the following weekend.   I'm sure it was larger than the last one we saw.

It's finally time to leave Chattanooga and head to the RV Rally at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, GA, just south of Atlanta.  We checked in and found our parking spot in one of the main parking lots.

This was "dry camping" which means no electricity, water or sewer, but since we are self contained, this was not a problem. We would run our generator for a short time in the morning and evening to keep the batteries charged.

We had great fun at the Rally, checking out the latest in motorhomes, learning all kinds of good and important things in the many seminars and finding all of those "must have" items offered from the vendors.  

Evening entertainment was provided by the Beach Boys and Vince Gill plus a spectacular fireworks display. They were great.

Unfortunately, on our way to Atlanta, we again experienced engine overheating so after talking with the people at Camping World, we headed back to Chattanooga for them to check it out.  The part that was replaced earlier was found to be defective.  After replacing it again, all was good and we were on our way home.

It's hard to adequately describe how awesome this trip was. August thru October 2013, we were privileged to see many of God's magnificent creations as well as many He inspired man to create. We don't know what lays ahead but we look forward to new adventures in 2014.