I’m here for just a few days to see the Civil War battlefield (what’s left of it, anyway), then I’m making my way to Memphis for a few weeks.  

Well, so far my little “Ziggy the Snail Shell” home on wheels has been very good to me. Mechanically, the only things I’ve had to deal with are typical things like new brake linings and shocks (though I did wear out a ball joint and had to replace that). So now I’ve had my first … More A Problem With the Electrical System

Thanks all the gods and goddesses, it FINALLY stopped raining. So I celebrated the warmth and sunshine by ….. going underground. Ruby Falls is a limestone cave near Chattanooga that has one of the tallest subterranean waterfalls in the US. Lookout Mountain has a series of natural caverns in its interior. In 1905, blasting during … More Ruby Falls

[NOTE: I’ve blogged all these “how-to” posts before, but am gonna re-run them on occasion, since folks may have missed them, and many of them have been updated or expanded since they were first posted.] Van dwelling is a very cheap way to live. Or, more accurately, it can be a very cheap way to … More What’s It All Cost?

Well, it’s supposed to rain on/off all week here. The remaining things I want to see are all “outside” stuff, so I’m not sure how much I’ll get to see, since I’m planning to leave for Memphis next weekend. If the weather is crappy and my solar panel starts complaining, I may leave a bit … More Ugh, Weather ….

Nice place to spend the afternoon. Lots of train engines and passenger cars on display. The main attraction is a one-hour train ride in a 50’s vintage train. Some photos. ​The museum is in the old depot building ​Inside the depot ​Outside in the boneyard ​This locomotive was built in Canada in 1919 ​1947 passenger … More Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum

The Coker Tire Company manufactures reproduction wheels for classic and antique cars. The museum displays tires, as well as a collection of cars and motorcycles. Some photos. The building itself is a classic, built in the 1890s and listed as a Historical Site. A part of the collection Spoke shop, where some of the wheels are … More Coker Tire Museum

Since there is off/on rain in Tennessee (apparently from the remnants of the hurricane), I did an “inside” day at the Tennessee Aquarium. This is a large aquarium in two buildings, divided between “freshwater” and “saltwater”. The aquarium has the largest collection of freshwater turtles in the US, and since I’m a “reptile” guy I … More Tennessee Aquarium

[NOTE: I’ve blogged all these “how-to” posts before, but am gonna re-run them on occasion, since folks may have missed them, and many of them have been updated or expanded since they were first posted.] When most people think of “RV camping”, they immediately picture the advertising images of people sitting in lawn chairs next … More Keeping Warm and Cool in the Van

OK, everyone who knows me knows I like zoos, and I try to see the zoo in every city where I stop. The Chattanooga Zoo (or “ChattaZooga”, as one billboard put it) is a nice midsize zoo with a wide variety of species. I had a good time here. Some photos. ​The Zoo, located in Warner … More Chattanooga Zoo