Chattanooga – or We don’t Get Out Much…

The other day we took a road trip to Chattanooga to see what the TV advertising is all about.

Arriving just before noon, the first place we went was Nikki’ Drive Inn, known for their deep fried onion rings and shrimp. Yep, it is southern cuisine. As usual, we beat the lunch crowd by about a minute. After we were seated, hoards of people piled in. I noticed the employees behind the counter knew a good many people by name. We have heard the onion rings and shrimp are delicious, so that is what we ordered. I have tasted better, but they were very good. The large battered shrimp were crunchy and the onion rings were big and tasty. I think Nikki lets you salt to your own taste – the salt is mostly what is missing, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. One table with three people had burgers with onion rings but left the onion rings behind. This surprised us because that is something we never do. Before leaving, we visited their facilities, Anna going first. When it was my turn, I found the men’s restroom out of order, advising the women’s room is unisex. After some serious consideration, I decided when you need to go, you need to go. So, I used the Unisex restroom. The tall gentleman behind the cash register was probably the owner or manager. He was amused that we came all the way from Marietta to try the restaurant, noticing my hat said Marietta History Museum. I was surprised he noticed me at all.



Food - not bad!


A lady on the street giving us direction to Nikki's said, "If you go into the tunnel you have gone too far."

Next we went to Coolidge Riverside Park, which is across the Tennessee River from the Tennessee Aquarium. The park is next to the Delta Queen Riverboat which now is opened as a hotel. Historical signs are scattered telling the stories of the role the river played through history with the Trail of Tears and later the Civil War. Today it is a place for outside family entertainment, exercise and playgrounds for kids. Two blue bridges loom overhead, one for walking and one for autos.







Both bridges lead to downtown and up on the hill to the Hunter Art Museum, one of the main attractions for our trip. An art community has sprung up all around the museum with galleries and restaurants to enjoy. Chattanooga is the home of the Coca Cola Bottling Company, started by Benjamin Thomas, who bought the bottling rights from Coke tycoon Asa Chandler for $1. This reminds me of seeing Chattanooga as one of the bottling sites on the bottom of the green glass bottles of my youth. Benjamin Thomas’s nephew, George Thomas Hunter, came to work in the bottling company when he was 17. Hunter soon rose rapidly through the ranks to become secretary, president and finally, chairman of the board of the company that franchised bottling in almost every state in the union. With his uncle having no heir, he offered to give him his fortune if he would promise to never marry except to the job at the bottling company. Hunter became one of Chattanooga’s most respected philanthropists. One of his finest achievements was the creation of the Benwood Foundation, a private charitable trust still in operation today. The Chattanooga Art Association requested the foundation donate the Hunter mansion for an art museum. Today the mansion is still part of the museum, with a modern building having been added in the 70s.

It is one of the most impressive museums we have had the pleasure to see. I highly recommend you visit! Unfortunately, my “Who Do I Think I Am?” search has yet to find any relation to George Thomas Hunter.





As we approached the museum, there is an interesting nude statue of a famous American dancer* during the 20s. She could no longer tolerate racism so moved to Paris to be free with her interpretive nude dancing. We were looking at the statue when a man with his son walked by. The man had a wicked smile on his face whispering something to his wide-eyed son. I told Anna: “Bob gives his son an art lesson.”

*In the comment Mike points out that the dancer was probably Josephine Baker. I agree, now that I heard that name.

Later we looked for the “Duck” sightseeing tour. The “Duck” is a big amphibian people moving machine – the kind that landed soldiers at Normandy. It travels like a car on ground and swims like, well, a duck in the water. They give tours at noon, 2, and 4 every day. We wanted to ride the Duck, but we arrived too late, so we decided to spend the night. The next day it rained, so no duck for us.

Before the sun began to go down, we decided to drive around Chattanooga looking for the house where my aunt lived during the 40s-50s. Things don’t look like they use to, so we couldn’t find it. On the way back we stopped at a place called Porker’s BBQ. We got out and walked up to the door to discover they were closed. The restaurant next door, an Italian place was opened so we went there. It was not so hot. The décor was very homey and so was the food, nothing impressive at all, unless you like burnt food that was runny. Too bad we chose this place since we later found a lot of nice looking restaurants. Such is life.

By the way, in the close downtown area parking is a premium. There are parking lots with slots to put money in everywhere, even at large walk around parks, and parking meters do a big business too. Most cars back into their parking place where there is a parking meter. It seems to work out better. It may be a little of a bitch to get in, but easy to pull back out into traffic.

Our return date was a rainy day. We drove to Lookout Point on top of Lookout Mountain. The view is a panoramic scene of the winding river. The fort there was commanded by Union General Joseph Hooker after their capture of Chattanooga during the Civil War. General Hooker was also one of the Yankee generals who fought at Kennesaw/Cheatham Hill in Georgia. General Hooker had women hauled in to keep his men “happy”. This is where the term “Hooker” came from. True fact. Hooker’s name comes up in the Battle of Kolb’s Farm, just southwest of Marietta.



On top of Lookout Mountain is Point Park Visitor Center. The center is the very proud of a painting in their possession depicting the “Battle Above the Clouds” by James Walker. Walker witnessed the battle and sketched scenes to render his historically accurate 13’x30’ painting (postcard of it above), which General Hooker commissioned him to paint. Hooker was running for Governor, which he lost. The Museum Ranger said we got the painting anyway.










Afterwards, we drove back to downtown Chattanooga for lunch at Sugar’s Ribs, which was pretty good I thought.

Then we headed back to Marietta in the storm. Willow stayed at the Pet Resort while we were gone and seemed none worse for the experience when we picked her up just in time for the tremendous thunder storms. She doesn’t like storms, but, hey, who does?