Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue.

Please log in, or sign up for a new account to continue reading.

Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.

Partly cloudy skies. Low 61F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph..

Partly cloudy skies. Low 61F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.

Geoff Folsom at Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center. Fortunately, the cannon no longer fires.

Geoff Folsom at Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center. Fortunately, the cannon no longer fires.

We planned to go to Rock City in Chattanooga, Tennessee and possibly attend a Minor League Baseball game on the way back from Atlanta on our trip over Labor Day weekend. But we woke up Sunday, Sept. 4, in our motel in Dalton, Georgia to one of those steady rains that you could tell was going to last much of the day and be fairly widespread.

With one of the draws to Rock City, located atop Lookout Mountain, being the ability to see seven states on a clear day, we decided that was probably best postponed for a future time.

But we did find something fun to do just south of Chattanooga. I’d heard of the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park. We love visiting Civil War battlefields and try to get to as many as we can.

We decided to go to the Chickamauga part because it was free (the Lookout Mountain portion cost $10 to enter). Like many times when you enter land owned by the National Park Service, the road to the military park went from nondescript to a beautiful forest with classic stone bridges. I was surprised to learn that it was the nation’s first military park, created in 1890.

Wanting to stay out of the rain as much as possible, we headed for the visitor center. It was the first place I’ve been in a while that required face masks, a rule most visitors followed. I’m guessing the vaccination rates on the Georgia-Tennessee-Alabama border are not among the nation’s highest.

The museum had some artifacts from the Chickamauga battle, including bullets and uniforms. It also had a large display of military rifles, dating back to around 1600. Some were affixed with bayonets, with one that looked like a full-size sword.

We then watched the 26-minute orientation film on the battle, which was fought Sept. 19-20, 1863. I was not familiar with the details of the battle, so it was an interesting lesson.

For some reason, the gift shop was closed when we arrived, but it was open when we left the theater, so I bought a refrigerator magnet.

Then we got a map from the park ranger and my wife and I headed out on the auto tour. I’d done this previously at one battlefield, Shiloh, in western Tennessee, and thought it was great. This tour was excellent, as well.

We followed signs to different stops where it gave us a number to call on our phones. A recording then described what happened at the sites, which are usually marked with some kind of monument. Other sites had small cabins or other buildings.

With the rain still coming down, we mostly took pictures from the car. But, thankfully, the rain slowed when we got to the Wilder Brigade Monument, one of the iconic sites of the battlefield.

The tower was built between 1892 and 1903 and honored Union officer John T. Wilder, leader of the “Lightning Brigade.”

We first climbed the hill the tower stood atop, and then climbed the 85-foot tower itself (it felt much taller than that).

We slowly made it to the top. I would have broken into song once I saw the light from the top of the tower pour in, if only I could breathe at the time.

Once at the top, we surveyed the area. It’s always amazing to think of the horrors war brought to such beautiful country, where many battlefields are located. I’m usually not afraid of heights, but, with such a tiny space atop the tower, it made me a bit squeamish.

The tower reminded me a bit of the Glendalough Round Tower, which we visited on our trip to Ireland in May. While Glendalough was 100 feet tall, the Wilder Tower was cooler because you could go up in it (I don’t fault them for not letting us go in the Glendalough Tower, since it is nearly 1,000 years old.).

After wrapping up the auto tour, we headed into Chattanooga. We didn’t get to go to Rock City or the impressive aquarium, but we made a quick stop at arguably the city’s most famous attraction — the Chattanooga Choo Choo.

I first visited the Choo Choo, which was made famous in a Glenn Miller song, 40 years ago, when my mother took us to stay in a hotel in the old train station. I remember the area looking much nicer then, even attending a dinner show (where my 3-year-old brother snuck up on stage and asked the singer to perform “Ebony and Ivory”).

But the Choo Choo is still a popular attraction, with lots of people taking their pictures with it.

After getting another magnet, we started heading back toward Nashville and home. We got a shock just after passing into the Central Time Zone on Interstate 24. I was trying to change my car’s clock when traffic slowed. We noticed an SUV had hit the median guardrail. My wife got mad at me for not stopping to help, but I wasn’t going to switch lanes in that heavy traffic or let her cross traffic to get to the SUV.

Moments later, we were crossing Nickajack Lake when we noticed a car ahead of us with something hanging off its side. Not wanting whatever it was to hit my car, I moved to pass it.

When we passed it, we realized the car’s front end was smashed and it didn’t have a front hood. The hood was hanging off the side of the car by one bolt.

I don’t know if it was a coincidence or if that car was involved in the earlier crash, but my wife called 911 to make sure someone stopped it before the car hurt somebody. We saw a state trooper driving down the opposite side of the interstate a few minutes later, so, hopefully, he or she took care of the situation.

I usually consider I-24 between Chattanooga and Nashville to be among my favorites of interstate highways but this time it was a bit strange. The drive had some fun times, but we were happy when we got home.

Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.