{"id":1577,"date":"2018-11-12T04:13:08","date_gmt":"2018-11-12T12:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=1577"},"modified":"2021-02-10T14:27:01","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T22:27:01","slug":"the-chattanooga-choo-choo-chickamauga-chicken-shawerma-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2018\/11\/12\/the-chattanooga-choo-choo-chickamauga-chicken-shawerma-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"The Chattanooga Choo Choo, Chickamauga, Chicken Shawerma, and more…"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve blown by Chattanooga a bunch of times on Interstate 24 and I’ve seen the sign for the Chattanooga Choo Choo.\u00a0 I always wanted to stop to see it.\u00a0 But I never had.\u00a0 Until today, that is.\u00a0 Yep, there really is such a thing…<\/p>\n

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The real deal: The Chattanooga Choo Choo. It’s on display behind a hotel of the same name, just a hop, skip, and a jump from the Interstate and downtown Chattanooga’s other attractions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is my first visit to this fine southern city, and folks, I’m here to tell you:\u00a0 Chattanooga is a fabulous town.\u00a0 I had no idea.\u00a0 This is a wonderful place, nestled along the Tennessee River close to the Georgia border. \u00a0 The Chattanooga Choo Choo.\u00a0 Lookout Mountain and Ruby Falls.\u00a0 Moon Pies (yep, for real). \u00a0 Great walking paths.\u00a0 Nearby Chickamauga Battlefield National Park.\u00a0 An incredible Civil War rifle collection.\u00a0 Dining that makes the word “fabulous” seem wholly inadequate.\u00a0 The verdict is in: I like this place!<\/p>\n

So, what’s the deal with Moon Pies?\u00a0 Hey, if you’ve never heard of Moon Pies, you need to get out more often. \u00a0 And if you’ve never tasted one, well, trust me on this: \u00a0 You owe yourself this treat.\u00a0 It turns out that Chattanooga is where Moon Pies are made, you can get them in just about any local store, and there’s actually an official Moon Pie factory outlet in downtown Chattanooga.\u00a0 That fact, all by itself, makes Chattanooga a bucket list destination!<\/p>\n

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Chattanooga: Home of the Moon Pie.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Heaven in multipack cartons. We bought several to bring home.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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And we sampled a few, too. That other treat? That’s a Goo Goo, another local treat made in nearby Nashville, but that’s a story for another blog.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lookout Mountain is another cool spot in Chattanooga, with an underground cave system that actually includes a 140-foot waterfall (all of which is underground).\u00a0 Think Jules Verne and a journey to the center of the earth.\u00a0 Yep, we hit it, too!<\/p>\n

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Deep in Lookout Mountain, headed for Ruby Falls.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Imagine what it must have been like to discover this while exploring an underground cave. Meet Ruby Falls, 140-ft tall, and all underground.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We had an incredible lunch at The 405<\/a>, a place we just happened upon while walking around downtown.\u00a0 The 405 is a Middle Eastern restaurant (I love Middle Eastern food) and it’s another one of Chattanooga’s best kept secrets.\u00a0 I had a chicken shawerma sandwich and it was fabulous, with juicy roasted chicken, a perfect Tahini sauce, and pita bread made fresh on the premises.\u00a0 I told our waitress I write a blog for the most discerning riders on the planet (that would be you), and the owner was at my table in a heartbeat.\u00a0 It turns out that my new good buddy and restauranteur Rashad is one of us.\u00a0 He rides a BMW sport bike, and we had a conversation about the great roads in the Chattanooga area. \u00a0 Rashad told me you can ride 51 weeks out of the year in and around Chattanooga and the way he described the roads, this sounds like a place where I need to spend more time.\u00a0 From my explorations around this region, I believe him.\u00a0 I have to get back here.\u00a0 And when you get out here, you have to try The 405.\u00a0 Tell Rashad Joe sent you.<\/p>\n

From downtown, it was a short ride to the Chickamauga and Chattahoochee National Military Park. \u00a0 We were lucky. \u00a0 It was Veteran’s Day, and the National Park Service was giving free guided tours.\u00a0 I think they do that every day, but seeing this sacred place on this grand holiday (on the 100th Anniversary of the end of World War I) made it even more interesting.\u00a0 Our guide was another new good buddy, in this case Ranger Chris.<\/p>\n

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Good buddy Ranger Chris on the Chickamauga battlefield.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris led a motor tour to three stops on the Chickamauga battlefield, and he made it come alive for us.\u00a0 If you’ve never been to Chickamauga, my advice is to put it on your list.\u00a0 Chickamauga and Gettysburg (fought just a few days apart) marked the turning point of the Civil War. \u00a0 We thoroughly enjoyed Chris’ presentation and the tour.<\/p>\n

One of the best parts of the Chickamauga stop was the visitor’s center.\u00a0 It has several cannon on display, and a large map showing the battlefield.<\/p>\n

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Chris’s materials and his Ranger campaign hat. Good stuff at the Chickamauga visitor center.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The business end of one of many cannon on display at the Chickamauga site.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Chickamauga visitor center also houses one of the best (probably the best) collection of Civil War rifles I’ve ever seen. \u00a0 It seems a local engineer and gun collector named Claud Fuller had built a collection of some 5,000 firearms and he donated a portion of his collection for permanent display here. \u00a0 They are magnificent.\u00a0 This collection, all by itself, justifies a trip to the area.<\/p>\n

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One of several halls displaying Civil War rifles from the Fuller collection.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Fiddleback maple on a black powder rifle. These are beautiful firearms.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A presentation-grade Spencer. I could have spent all day just looking at these rifles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Color case hardening on a Remington Hepburn rifle. This is amazing work.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Several Trapdoor Springfields on display. These fire the 45 70 cartridge, one of the all time greats. The second one from the right is an Officer’s Model Trapdoor Springfield. I had never seen one before. I would have joined the Army just to get one of these!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After spending the afternoon at Chickamauga, we had dinner at the 1885 restaurant in Chattanooga’s St. Elmo district.\u00a0 I saw something on the menu I had never seen before:\u00a0 Mushrooms and grits.\u00a0 Hmmm, I wondered.\u00a0 That sounded interesting.\u00a0 And wow, was it ever!<\/p>\n

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Well, kiss my grits! This is before…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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…and this is after. Yep, it was that good!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After dinner, our waitress recommended the cheese cake.\u00a0 Hey, everything else had been amazing, so why not?<\/p>\n

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Lemon and cream cheesecake. It came with a discount coupon for the local Coronary Care Unit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My dinner tonight was one of the finest I’ve ever enjoyed.\u00a0 It was a great way to finish a Chattanooga visit.\u00a0 I’m up for a summer ride in this area, and I’ll be back. \u00a0 We’ll be home in California by the time you read this, and we’ll have a supply of Moon Pies for a short while.\u00a0 Like my good buddy Reuben always says:\u00a0 What a life!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve blown by Chattanooga a bunch of times on Interstate 24 and I’ve seen the sign for the Chattanooga Choo Choo.\u00a0 I always wanted to stop to see it.\u00a0 But I never had.\u00a0 Until today, that is.\u00a0 Yep, there really is such a thing… This is my first visit to this fine southern city, and … Continue reading “The Chattanooga Choo Choo, Chickamauga, Chicken Shawerma, and more…”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[235,392,96,89,203,79],"tags":[411,409,410],"class_list":["post-1577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-amazon","category-back-in-the-day","category-feel-good-stuff","category-motorcycle-adventure-ride","category-national-park","category-trains","tag-1885-st-elmo","tag-chattanooga","tag-the-405"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1577"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12099,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1577\/revisions\/12099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}