Day Three - CAUTION: FUNERAL ZONE

We awoke this morning in our first developed campground of the trip, providing us a welcome chance to get a shower before hitting the road. Since we were just outside Chattanooga we ventured into town and sought out the one and only International Towing & Recovery Museum and Hall of Fame. Curious? So were we.

Unbeknownst to us, Chattanooga is the birthplace and subsequent Mecca of the towing industry. It was here that Ernest Holmes, Sr. created the first known dedicated tow truck, and an industry was born. The museum and memorial are dedicated to those unsung heroes who serve everyday and those who were killed in the line of duty. On display is a variety of towing apparatuses ranging from an early unit integrated into a Packard Limo to a 5-ton truck used by the Redball express to support the advance of troops across Europe to the world record holder for fastest tow truck (which I now plan to try and beat....). We were also joined by the Peachtree Miata Club of GA, who attempted to ruin our museum experience by getting in the way of photos, causing a ruckus, and generally being rude... If you happen to end up at the same museum as the Peachtree Miata Club, go down the street, have a cup of joe, wait an hour, THEN go to the museum.

While in Chattanooga we ventured down town and were pleasantly surprised by its charm. There were plenty of nice looking shops and stores, and the town happens to be the home of the "Chattanooga Choo Choo". Chattanooga grew to the town it is due to its rail network and the original rail depot is now home to a hotel, antique steam locomotive, and several passenger rail cars, which have been remodeled and are available for guests as hotel rooms.

Heading out of Chattanooga, we decided to take a more southern route to Tupelo and Oxford, so we dipped down into northern Alabama. The more direct route was through Huntsville and Florence, so we hopped on the interstate. Not wanting to be consumed by long highway stretches on this trip, however, we turned off into downtown Huntsville. While Huntsville is home to large industry and the space center, we were more interested in the town itself. After passing by the rail museum we headed into the "historic" district, which features several ante-bellum homes mixed in with later additions. We found a nice quiet street to pull off, unloaded the mutt, and fixed sandwiches under the watchful eye of the lady whose home we were parked in front of... After a stroll and photo session we returned to find that our truck had NOT been towed, and stopped in the Harrison Brothers Hardware Store before heading out of town. This store is practically a time capsule. Though the items on the shelves are generally no longer for sale, it conjures an image of the way things used to be, a more simple time when there were few power tools, less technology, and NO METRIC BOLTS.

The highway we were on to Corinth, MS crossed the Natchez Trace parkway. Having read about it online it seemed like a nice detour, so we headed down what was a straight-shot to Tupelo, the birthplace of Elvis. Apparently the scenic beauty shown online must be on a different portion of the trail, as we soon became bored of the nothingness. We pulled off after seeing a sign for a state park with camping. We never found the campground, but in the crossed the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. We wanted to go back for photos and decided to head down a local highway, which paralleled it and offered several views of the various locks and passages. We quickly found this to be a "bad" decision, as the skies opened up and began dumping rain upon us. We wandered down the backroads with no easy way to the highway, where we counted six (6) wandering dogs spaced out about 5 miles apart, and passed through a "funeral zone". Coming into Tupelo it was apparent that the weather was not going to break anytime soon, so a call to Lindy's friend Chelsea resulted in an invitation for us to stay the night and get out of the stormy weather.

Chelsea and Matt were great hosts, and took us into the square in downtown Oxford, where we had a delicious fried seafood dinner at Irie on the Square. Back at the house, JD had a nice area to walk around indoors, and was able to play with Matt's miniature snouser, Millie, while we had a warm bed to sleep in for the night. Thanks again Matt & Chelsea!