Meandering the Country

October 31 – November 7, 2022 It was Halloween Day when we arrived in the Huntsville, Alabama area.  The end of the growing season, right?  Well, when visiting the US Space and Rocket Museum (USSRM), I was taken aback by the gardeners who were busy PLANTING pansies!  This Iowa girl was shocked!  I’m accustomed to having the flower and vegetable gardens pulled and cleaned up for the winter well before November appears on the calendar!  Apparently, pansies are the flower of choice for winter gardens here.  We’ve made it far enough south that we found flowers in bloom almost everywhere we went! If it's November, it must be time to plant pansies! The USSRM was so interesting and educational!  We learned that, following the end of WWII, Redstone Arsenal was established in Huntsville.  It was at Redstone Arsenal , under the direction of Dr. Wernher von Braun, that the Saturn V rocket was developed and tested, enabling the US to make it to the moon and...

October  24-31, 2022 We had heard wonderful things about Raccoon Mountain Caverns and Campground and were looking forward to our stay there.  I have to agree that it is a great place to base yourself out of for a visit to Chattanooga, Tennessee! Our first full day in the area took us to downtown Chattanooga where we stopped at the Visitor Center and picked up some tips.   In October of 1969, Walter Cronkite famously called Chattanooga “the dirtiest city in America”.  Well, that got the attention of the city leaders who were instantly challenged to do something about their stained reputation.  One of the changes made was updating the city center.  I don’t know what was here before, but today you find (in addition to the Visitor Center) some pretty unique and creative art.  The area is supposed to be representative of the greater Chattanooga area, including the formation of the Appalachian foothills as the tectonic plates collided millions of years...