On Thursday we spent the day at various areas on Lookout Mountain.

This is a mountain just south of “Nooga”. (Slang for Chattanooga)

It was pivotal in the Civil War as who ever controlled it had control of the city.

To look at it from the city you see a completely forested mountain. One of the attractions of the is the very steep railway that goes up the eastern side.

At certain places the angle is 72 degrees.

Here we are looking down

Our freeway is somewhere out there.

Now we’re looking up at the station.

From there we drove to a place called rock city. To get there we drove many neighborhoods on small twisty roads. I don’t know how they zoned this mountain, but from below you would not think any homes were there except a few on top.

I imagine in the heat of the summer those trees are very welcome.

This place is literally a rock garden,we ain’t “talkin” pea gravel.

Here’s a look at the waterfall from the top

I love how this was built from the bottom up!

From there we went to Huntsville, Al. Also known s rocket city

Their great Space and rocket museum is very good.

It really takes you back.

Their exhibit on the space race and the moon landing is very good.

I’m still astounded at the size of the Saturn V rocket.

They have a whole building dedicated just to that rocket.

We are now in Muscle Shoales and tomorrow will be going to the Fame and Muscle Shoales studios. In 2013 there was a great movie made about these studios.Check it out for a great history of the music that was made there.

Until later

We left the home of our friend Nancy in Asheville after a very nice stay.

As we headed to the parkway it was overcast and misting. We were not sure how the views would be, but we got lucky with the sun occasionally breaking through and getting panoramas like this.

There is a definite reason they are called the Blueridge Mountains.

As you can see from the second picture the colors are changing. Two days later the change was even more dramatic.

We stopped at Cherokee, the home of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee and toured their museum.

It is very well done and by the end you have a good start in understanding the history of the Cherokee, after they start to encounter the Europeans .

The rains started that evening and continued throughout the night.

Driving through the patches of fog drifting in, while on the parkway was very dramatic and beautiful.

The next day, we drove East into Tennessee and are staying just outside Chattanooga ,or as some say “Nooga”.

Quite a nice city so far.

We drive to an outer part of the it you and get on a free electric bus to get around.

Seems as if the drivers know all the passengers and it makes for a “small town feel” in the middle of a city.

In the civil war,”nooga” was a pivotal place because who ever controlled the city controlled the Mississippi River, and the major rail lines through much of the south.

Finally in 1863, Grant was given command and he took the city. It was a major turning point in the war.

The river runs through the middle of the city so there Is a north and south sides.

The first day we were on the north side.

The day before there had been the 5 bridges marathon so we say a number of people limping around.

Below is one of the window displays.

Check out the runners names!

some of the streets were decorated with these directions.

Or as Nerd Duncan would have called it in the 70’s

Paul’s mad dancing. Might still be so in the 2019’s

Just wouldn’t be complete without this one.

We visited the Hunter museum of art.

I really liked this piece out of Aluminum

The next day we went to a place called Songbirds

combination night club and guitar museum.

Not just any guitar museum, one room alone, called the vault was insured for $250 Million.

This amp was not even in the vault, it was in an outside room. It’s called a Dumble Amp. Hand made. You bring your guitars and you play for Mr Dumble.

He listens to you ,then decides how he is going to build your amp, based on the music you play and how you play.

oh, the price tag if you have to ask……..$90,000.00

No I did not misplace the decimal point.

This was a guitar that Jimi Hendrix saw George Harrison playing and decided he had to have one also. It’s a behemoth, weighing in at about 12 lbs.

Now for the story of 2 sisters

These guitars belonged to two sisters, one right handed and the other left handed. The guitar on the right is 1 of 13 ever made by Leo Fender in a certain year. These were custom made for the sisters.

The collector finds out about it and buys it from the family after the lady had died.

As he’s walking out the door the daughter says you might want to talk to my aunt because she has the left handed twin to it.

So he looks up the aunt and talks to her to get her to sell it. she’s having none of it.

She wants to keep it in her family and doesn’t want it to be sold and resold.

He’s offering 10’s of thousands of dollars.Nope

So for three years he sends her Christmas cards ,each time asking her to reconsider.Nope

He then explains that he has a museum,
and that he will keep it next to her sisters guitar in perpetuity. Nope

Months pass when she calls him,saying she’s interested IF, he will do as he said and keep them in the case next to each other.

He grabs tons of cash and heads over.

The deal is made, he started to hand over cash,and she stops him.

“I said I don’t want any money”

He leaves with the guitar, and here they rest next to each other.

One last thing, when he went to the sister’s house, he had $100,000.00 on him.

In the last drawer he showed us, these were in there

These are the 1st two prototypes built by Leo Fender, of the Fender Telecaster, called The Broadcaster ,until Leo Fender lost a copyright law suit to Gretchen.

Did you know that Leo Fender was not a guitarist?

Ya do now.

Until later.

Paul

When we were in Raleigh we went to the NCMuseum of Art and saw some interesting pieces.

The piece below was done by Ellsworth Kelly.

The idea came from a plastic lid.

I get feelings of fun from it.

Description of above tunic.

• 

Wouldn’t it be nice to have this in your backyard?

This was part of the garden we were in several days ago.

We have now gone to Asheville NC to the Grove Park Inn. Below is one of two fireplaces in the lobby.

Above is the view from the terrace bar.

If you enjoy craftsmanship then Asheville is a must visit, wood ,stone, textiles,metal, glass, on and on.

You’ll want to check this out.

Until later.

Paul

Yesterday we visited Greensboro North Carolina, Where on February 2 1960, 4 college freshmen decided to sit down at a segregated lunch counter. This action taken by young men ignited the modern civil rights movement.

There is an International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro. They have preserved the original lunch counter and developed a place where people can learn the history of slavery,Jim Crow, and the non violent solutions that were successful in helping oppressed people. They did a very good job in demonstrating how horrific and institutionalized the violence was at that time.

I’d strongly recommend this museum and tour. By the time your done, is is as real as can be without having been there in those years.The people who lived through,struggled against and survived , are such a good example are real hero’s.

This is the third attempt to write a post on this web site

We are traveling for 5 weeks checking out Civil Rights sites, Botanical Gardens, Book stores, friends and more

We started by stopping in a Denver for Lunch with our friends Charlotte and Rae

Home

Thank you Charlotte for a delicious lunch, a nice visit and my beautiful journal.

We then flew onto Raleigh NC.

Let’s see if this posts

Paul

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.