From Chattanooga to Nashville through Georgia

We started out this morning with a completely free day. Our only goal was to end the day is Nashville.

We started off checking out the Chattanooga National Cemetery. Thousands of men and women are buried here from the civil war through present. (They were actually preparing for two new gravesites) It was a beautiful place. A huge peaceful hill in the middle of a busy city.

We kept seeing coins on the grave stones and memorials – enough that we realized it wasn’t just dropped money. After some research, we learned that thus tradition was started during the Vietnam War as a way to acknowledge the fallen without getting into touchy political conversations. Each coin means something different too:

A penny = you visited the grave;

A nickel = you were in boot camp with the deceased soldier;

A dime = you served with the deceased solider; and

A quarter = you were present when the solider died. This was particularly special to boys because we saw a quarter on one of the markers.

We then decided to check out the distance to Chickamauga Battleground – smaller version of Gettysburg. Once Michael (both the 40-year old one and the 11-year old one) heard the words “civil war battlefield” there was no turning back. So, off we go to Chickamauga Battlefield in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. It was only a 25 minute drive, so with a free day, it was a no brainer. This was a really cool battlefield. The 2 Michaels were completely in their happy place 😀 Leo and I enjoyed it too but maybe not quite as much 😉

The park service had a great visitors center with a movie explaining the significance of the Battle of Chickamauga and Chattanooga.

I need to pray for Michael’s teacher next week. They just started their Civil War Unit and he is fully charged with new Civil War info. Poor Ms. Brown!

These three had to formulate our plan to see all the battlefield in minimal time a and i must admit admit that did an awesome job!

Battlefields are made for little boys! Grab a stick, it becomes a rifle and you’re all set!

We found Union General John Wilder’s Tower built in his honor after the Civil War . General Wilder led the “lightning bridge” in the Civil War. They were a mounted brigade who used a new repeating rifle – firing 3x faster than a regular rifle which the men purchased themselves rather than wade through government red tape 😉.

The Tower was insanely high! But we figured we were 300-feet below ground yesterday, why not do the opposite today 🤪

The park service also had a audio tour that we could listen to on the internet- we just logged in to listen to each tour stop along the battle. I think Michael and Leo touched every canon on the entire battlefield but these three had a great time together ♥️

We left Chickamauga and headed to Nashville. on the way, we saw a sign for “The Lodge Cast Iron Outlet.” Well, since we had nothing to do, and who doesn’t love a cast iron skillet… Look what we found…

the actual factory where they make cast iron skills and cookware since 1896!!! We really wanted to go on a tour but they only give tours during the Cornbread Festival on April 27th and 28th. (Make your plans now to attend!) We did however score some great cast iron cookware from the scratch and dent section – 50-60% off due to a tiny imperfection, uh, yes please!

We finally made it to Nashville! We skipped lunch due to our battlefield excursion and just filled up on snacks, so we headed out to an early dinner at Hattie B’s. We had heard “if you’re ever in Nashville, you have to eat fried chicken at Hattie B.’s”. So, we went to Hattie B.’s

Hattie’s was delicious! Everyone was in the clean plate club by the time we left!

But wait! What about dessert? How about Jeni’s Ice Cream? This place was awesome! I had a half a scoop each of “coffee with cream and sugar” ice cream and “brambleberry crumble” ice cream. Oh my! It was like having dessert with coffee all at once! We headed back to the hotel with very full bellies. After a bit of down time, we headed to the pool to get rid of the last bit of energy 😊