MUMBLINGS May 5, 2005

Intentions here are to tell you about my recent trip to Chattanooga, TN.

But something else first: How do you get to that city? Obviously, you have two choices, fly or drive. You could go by bus or train, but not likely.

First thought is to fly, but you begin thinking about it and there are several reasons why to fly and probably more reasons not to. We chose not to.

Chattanooga is about 375 miles from Bay Minette, which amounts to about a six to seven hour drive. Go by plane, you spend about one hour going to Bates Field in Mobile. You have to get there at least an hour early to check your bags and get by security. By then, two hours are gone. You fly to Atlanta, which is another hour. Depending on how long you have to wait to catch a flight to Chattanooga and depending on whether the plane is late, you then may spend two or three hours getting on the flight to your destination. Arriving there you have to get out, check out, get a taxi and drive to the hotel. Thus, you have taken six or seven hours and this is assuming that the weather and flights cooperate.

Another advantage of not flying is you can keep your pocket knife and other such treasures in your pocket, not having to go through security when you drive. Another disadvantage of flying is the cost about $300 round trip. By driving the 750-mile round trip will cost you, gas and wear and tear etc., about $300. If more than one is going, in our case there were three, you can obviously see that it is much cheaper to drive. But we also had to have a driver since neither Karlene nor I can drive safely that distance. We were fortunate in getting Tad Lee, one of Volkert's able engineers, to drive us since he was going alone… his wife could not go since she had to take care of their son at the junior-senior prom in Mobile.

Going I-65, then cutting northeast on I-59, we arrived in Chattanooga in good shape. We stopped along the suburbs of Birmingham and ate lunch at a restaurant you may have heard of, Cracker Barrel. It was a three-day meeting, spending two nights in the Chattanoogan Hotel. We enjoyed the stay, plus attending the annual senior officers meeting of Volkert & Associates.

Returning home, we stopped at another interesting restaurant, Cracker Barrel, near Gadsden. Driving the interstate going and coming back, we did not encounter difficulties with traffic. Interestingly, coming back to Bay Minette, Karlene counted 160 18-wheelers going north (at night recently, she counted 200). One wonders, where are they going? What are they hauling?

The one thing you must say about flying, many may not agree with you but it is several times safer flying than it is driving in an automobile. This is only counting fatal accidents, not fender benders.

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Continued

Now, let's talk about Chattanooga. In the extreme southeast end of Tennessee, this city has a population of 152,259, according to the last census. Driving into down town and observing the many buildings and businesses, you would think it is at least twice or three times bigger than Mobile. Not so, our neighboring city has 200,000 but is scattered far and wide with shopping centers and other businesses. Chattanooga is hemmed in between mountains and the Tennessee River and thus looks bigger from within.

This is my third or fourth trip to the city and I would certainly like to go back and stay several days so all of the interesting sites could be visited.

Listen to their Chamber of Commerce: "Voted one of America's top family weekend getaways by Southern Living's readers and one of America's top vacation destinations for families by Family Fun Magazine." They say, "Chattanooga offers a variety of exciting attractions, scenic beauty, rich history, outdoors adventure and romantic escapes."

Is that enough to make you want to go there? It should be because it is truly an interesting and exciting city to visit. Perhaps the most well known site is their world famous Chattanooga Aquarium. It is quite outstanding and we did have a chance to visit it and marvel at the uniqueness and the great variety of fresh water fish.

This has been proclaimed the world's largest aquarium in the past but I understand that this is not so anymore. However, to regain their reputation as being the best and largest, they are adding to it. The fish that we saw are freshwater fish, although they do have some saltwater. They are adding an addition that will hold many varieties of saltwater fish.

We have visited the aquarium in New Orleans and frankly, I enjoyed it more. This is probably because of the hundreds of saltwater fish. However, I wouldn't dare tell anyone from Tennessee this.

Chattanooga is too good a story to try to cover in one column. Please bear with me and you'll be told more.

See you again soon, I hope.