The South Riding RV Travels

April 27th - Townsend TN - Chattanooga TN - Nashville TN

We liked Townsend as a place. It was close to the National Park and thus home to many tourists but did not have the bits about tourism we don't like. We also liked the campsite which had swinging seats down by the river. We spent a few hours sat on one of these watching the wildlife including kingfishers and butterflies.

But it was time to move on.

We were heading for Nashville but we took the scenic route heading south west to the city of Chattanooga. Well, I just had to see the train. It was hidden in a hotel. It seemed a bit tacky to me but the carriages were real enough and were used as hotel bedrooms and dining rooms. No doubt at an extra cost.

The city had a free electric bus service between the car parks and the downtown area so we used it to go down but walked back. The main attraction was an aquarium but it was full of schoolkids so we passed. There were a number of interesting sculptures including this 15ft high set of stainless steel books outside the library.

This is another of Chattanooga's claims to fame. America does have its icons and I guess Coca Cola must be one of them. The building actually houses a collection of ex Army DUKWs (amphibious vehicles) which are used in the summer as tourist transport. We had hoped to find the museum of Towing and Recovery but it had been moved 33 blocks. I think we felt we had run out of time.

Just outside Chattanooga heading northwest for Nashville was quite a collection of lakes. The Interstate went one side and we took the smaller road to the other side. There were just too many trucks and we weren't in that much of a hurry. We did join the interstate later on and it does increase your overall travelling speed.

So we arrived in Nashville at our chosen campground which proved to be very peaceful despite its close proximity to the major ring road nearby