See Seven States!

I grew up about an hour and half from Panama City Beach, Florida and took more family trips down there than I can remember. We had a Skamper pop-up that we pulled behind my mom's white '79 Caprice Classic (my dad's truck occasionally supplied the power but it got tough to fit four on a bench set, especially when the grandparents tagged along).


For some reason, the trips to the beach stopped. I think it may have had something to do with MTV discovering Panama City in the 80's and my dad not holding that 80's rock in very high regard - either way, "the beach" stopped being as family oriented as my folks would have liked, Petticoat Junction at Long Beach closed and it just lost the appeal it once had. It was soon replaced with a new destination.

We always took the same route to get to our new destination, passing barns along I-59 to Tennessee that had "See Rock City" painted on the roof. I do remember asking my folks what they were about and they'd always dodge the question. Maybe they knew that if they explained it, I'd never let it go until we went. So, for the majority of my youth, we drove through Chattanooga, without stopping, with some sort of camper in tow.

Eventually my folks gave in and we set aside a day to visit Lookout Mountain overlooking Chattanooga. By this time I was a little older, maybe nine or ten and I remember things well. I wanted to check out the two places I'd seen over and over on billboards; Rock City and Ruby Falls.

This post isn't about Ruby Falls and as you can imagine I'm not going to talk about it. I remember enjoying Rock City much more than Ruby Falls and chose to introduce it to Nic..... -Todd

Much like Todd bugged his parents to take him to Rock City, I haven't stopped talking about going to seeing the leaves change (she checks the Georgia Leaf Watch every other day) since the day I met Todd. I knew my persistence would pay off and soon enough we made an impromptu trip to Chattanooga in search of some fall color.The drive up Lookout Mountain is lined with homes with a view. We even zillowed them and I think with the sale of an organ or two, we could buy one! We made our way up to the ticket counter at Rock City and chose to purchase our admission tickets with passes to the corn maize (which we ended up skipping). I guess you could consider it a walking tour... As we made our way through The Enchanted Trail of rock crevasses (there should be a weight limit sign on Fat Man's Squeeze!), caves, and pathways, Todd told me how Rock City came to be. I have to admit, I think that Frieda had done lost her mind back in the 20's but that's neither here nor there. Todd kept reminding me to slow down and enjoy the plants and flowers (which were all nicely labeled) around us when all I really wanted was to get to the top. We passed a random white deer and every once in a while we'd see a garden gnome (more on that later). After what seemed like miles of walking we finally reached the lookout at Lover's Leap.

Despite the above average temperatures and hoards of people, the view was breathtaking. We've had a strange fall this year which have caused the leaves to delay their turn but that did not take away from the beauty. I pulled Todd aside and did the obligatory-embarrassing-girlfriend-thing of asking strangers to take our pictures approximately 14 times at every angle. There were countless photo opportunities! I also snagged a couple of beautiful orange leaves from the maple (I really haven't the slightest clue what kind of tree it was. I'm not a "horti" as they call them.) to press between books. There was an Oktoberfest celebration going on (which didn't help the crowds) complete with a band, beer, and girls in lederhosen.

photo from pluckysurvivors.com

Little did I know, they had saved the best for last! We had continued onto the second half of The Enchanted Trail when we reached the Fairyland Caverns. The gnomes we had seen earlier apparently came from the dark crevices of the Fairyland Caverns. Not only were there nursery rhyme characters covered in day-glo paint under black lights, there were hundreds of gnomes! These weren't your average garden gnomes! They were making moonshine, breaking out of jail, and swinging on swings. I think Todd put it best when he said, "I feel like I'm at a Grateful Dead concert!"
Aside from the cheesy and a bit bizarre ending to the trail, the view from lookout mountain was more than worth the trip up. I only wish we had seen it a month later when the leaves were at their peak. If you've got a little extra time while you're up there, stop by Covenant College. It's hard to imagine going to school perched at the very top of a mountain!