Plan B Already!!! September 2, 2023 |

On Sunday, we were going to begin our month-long trip to California and back, but we moved to Plan B as a method of survival. On Thursday, our air conditioning went out and even though our repairman came the same day, the part he needed was in Tennessee, so it wasn’t getting fixed before we left. We turned the secondary air unit upstairs down which helped some, but NOT ENOUGH!

After two nights of rough sleep, we decided to leave a day early if we could find a hotel room close to our route since it’s a holiday weekend. We found one in Douglas, Ga which was about 40 minutes out of our way, but a room with air conditioning and a good night’s sleep were two priorities. Leaving a day early put real pressure on our brains and we did have to go back one time for things we forgot, but we finally made it out about 4:30 pm.

Douglas is south central Georgia where the latest hurricane passed through, and we saw some of its destruction firsthand. We also saw lots of linemen and trucks working to restore power to people who were probably very grateful for the electricity to be back on soon.

After a good night’s sleep, we headed to our first stop in Chattanooga, Tennessee rolling in about 3:30 pm. We thought we would go to the Aquarium or Ruby Falls as soon as we got here, but both places required online tickets purchased ahead of time and they were already sold out for the day. Plan B again, we went downtown to see the Chattanooga Choo Choo from the infamous song. This vintage station house was once a hub of railroad traffic between the South and the West.

In later years, the railroad cars were converted to hotel rooms and people were able to stay in them. We were disappointed to see the level of disrepair these cars had been allowed to fall into, but supposedly, they are working to restore them to new splendor with a completion date of November 2023. Based on what we saw, don’t make any plans or reservations until well into 2024.

With only one more day in Chattanooga, we had to fit all our plans into one day, so we started early with 9:30 tickets to the Tennessee Aquarium. It consists of two buildings: River Journey and Ocean Journey. We took the River Journey first, not wanting the River Journey to be anticlimactic. We were blown away by the exhibits in the River Journey. I had no idea there were that many different kinds of creatures in rivers. I was expecting water snakes and trout! Check these pictures out.

After the River Journey, we walked over to Ocean Journey ready to be overwhelmed! NOT!! It was good, but fewer exhibits.

After leaving the Aquarium, we had time to drive up to Lookout Mountain up the narrow winding row only to find parking costing $9 for one hour and nothing to eat but fast food. Plan B again.

Back down the mountain to the Purple Daisy and much better options for lunch.

Ruby Falls was next on the agenda, and we arrived in plenty of time for our 2:30 tour. The Falls opened originally in June 1930 after construction started in 1928. The owner and founder crawled 17 hours, much of it in a space only 18 inches high, over one mile to discover the open cavern with the falls coming from the water on top of the mountain. He named the falls after his wife, Ruby and it has been in operation ever since.