Canyon Grill

Posted on by September 15, 2007
Reply

Well the CurbCrushers intended to eat most all their meals at the campsite. But after arriving at the Cloudland Canyon State Park, Mrs. CurbCrusher noticed an add for a place named the Canyon Grill that was located close to the park. CurbCrusher got a little worried about going out to dinner when the family stopped by the Ranger Station to return a book and asked about the place. “Oh its a 4 star restaurant. People come from all over to eat there.” Now this can be good or bad. When people talk about fancy eating places, CurbCrusher immediately assumes that your talking about dressing up nice, getting food that looks real pretty, but there just isn’t much of it. Seeing as how we were in our camping clothes, jeans t-shirts and sneakers, I figured we might soon find ourselves back at the RV fixing dinner.

The Canyon Grill is only open from five to nine at night Wednesday through Sunday. It is also located only about a mile from the park entrance, so we got there about fifteen minutes before they opened. Mrs. CurbCrusher decided to walk in and see if they had a menu. When she returned to the car, she said there wasn’t a “set” menu as they fixed items that were available fresh, and there was no kids menu. The lady she had talked to did say that they had a chicken strips kind of appetizer that would probably appeal to kids. Well, we had fifteen minutes to kill, and in CurbCrusher’s mind this place was looking worse and worse. All the clues, “fancy restaurant”, “no kids menu”, “fresh items only”, pointed to a hoity toity unfun place to eat. We drove toward Chattanooga and enjoyed the scenery and decided we’d give it a try.

The CurbCrusher family arrived back at the Canyon Grill about five minutes after five, and were immediately seated. So at least were dressed decently enough to get in the door. The menu was a pleasant surprise. Some seafood, and a selection of beef, pork and poultry along with a couple of pasta dishes. The person seating us and the wait staff were very friendly. I started to think this might not be to bad afterall.

Little CurbCrusher ordered the chicken strip appetizer, Mrs. CurbCrusher ordered a pan seared pork dish with black beans and a backed sweet potato as sides, and I ordered the grilled chicken breast with lima beans and baked sweet potato as sides. Then they brought the bread. The bread was warm from the oven, and very light, with a heavenly taste. This was looking much better. While we were waiting for our food another half-dozen diners were seated, and it became clear that we were dressed just about right. Some folks were dressed up a little more and others a little less.

The meal arrived and all doubt about coming to eat at the Canyon Grill was removed. The chicken strips were breaded and fried, but the breading was light and flavor of the chicken was preserved and it was excellent. The pork was fixed with some kind of sauce, but it melted in your mouth when you chewed it. The chicken was moist and tasty. The vegetables were so good, that I’m not sure they were really vegetables. If I could have, I’d have seconds and thirds of the lima beans. Little CurbCrusher loved the baked sweet potato, between Mrs. CurbCrusher and myself giving her parts of our sweet potatoes, I think she may have eaten a whole one.

All in all it was a wonderful meal. Little CurbCrusher and Mrs. CurbCrusher did not finish their meals, and we took a go-box back to the RV with us. We had the left overs for lunch and dinner the next day while driving back to Orlando. From the maps and advertising, the Canyon Grill is about eighteen miles from Chattanooga, so if you find yourself in Chattanooga on Wednesday through Sunday nights, find your way out there for a great meal.

Raccoon Mountain Campground & Caverns

Posted on by September 15, 2007
Reply

The CurbCrushers stayed at the Raccoon Mountain RV Park and Campground located on the southwest side of Chattanooga off of I-24. There was not a lot of research to picking this campground, CurbCrusher Googled Chattanooga Campgrounds, and then checked for reviews on the rvparkreviews web site. That combined with the Raccoon Mountain web site helped determine that we’d give this park a shot.

This park has about 157 sites, but not all are RV sites, and four cabins. We arrived on a Saturday afternoon, and checked right in and parked and hooked up. We were in one of a number of pull through sites that had electricity, water, sewer, cable TV and wireless. The only real issue with hooking up was that the utilities were located toward the front of the site. That placed the sewer outlet more than 20 feet from the hook site on the rig the way I first parked, so I had to move up about six feet to get the long sewer hose hooked up. There was a concrete pad with a picnic table that served as a porch, placed perfectly for the RV door and steps to open onto.
We never had anyone located next to us, so we didn’t suffer from the closeness of other sites. The sites were not as far apart as you would find in a state park, but were not so close that you couldn’t open slides and awnings. During our entire stay, the park probably never had more than fifteen rigs in it, so it was never crowded.

There is a pool, go-cart track and cave tour located at the campground. When we arrived on Saturday, the go-cart track and pool were open. On Sunday they closed the pool around 6:15PM. On Monday they had no intention of opening the pool or the go-cart track. Mrs. CurbCrusher went to the office and chatted with the manager for a while. The go-cart track opened for a couple of rounds. She made a second trip to the office, and the pool opened. Interestingly enough once the pool opened, about a dozen folks headed over to it.

Monday afternoon, we visited the caverns. The cave tour last about 45 minutes. This cave was discovered by local farmers, and they hired Leo Lambert (the man who discovered Ruby Falls) to explore the cave. Leo then gave guided cave tours for a time here at Raccoon Mountain in the 1920s. Our guide’s enthusiasm left something to be desired, but the cave was interesting. You see a lot of the same geological features that you see at Ruby Falls. Raccoon Mountain Caverns is also a lot less confining feeling than Ruby Falls was. Of course we only took the “Crystal Palace” tour, where you can pretty much walk standing up the entire time. There is a “Wild Cave” tour that last two hours, and you get to crawl around and get muddy. I imagine that tour is not for the claustrophobic.

All in all the CurbCrushers enjoyed their time at Raccoon Mountain. If we find ourselves in Chattanooga again, we would probably stay there. Since the park is so convenient to I-24, it might also make a good overnight park when transiting the area.

Pictures can be found here.

Chickamauga National Military Park

Posted on by September 15, 2007
Reply

For the second day of our Chattanooga visit we started off with some history. The CurbCrushers drove back into Georgia to the Chickamauga National Military Park. Point Park located on top of Lookout Mountain is considered part of this park, but the battlefield from the Battle of Chickamauga is located about 15 miles southeast of the Incline Railway.

This park is one of the first (or maybe it was the first) National Military Park. One of the interesting things about this park is that is was created while a number of the vetrans of the battle were still alive. The survivors of the various units returned to the park, and placed a variety of monuments and markers that show where their units were located during the battle. This makes for an interesting visit. Probably about a close as you can get to standing next to a Civil War veteran on a battlefield an have them tell you what happened.

Entering the park from the north, you come to the Visitor’s Center. There you can pick up a map of the park that has a self-guided auto tour. In addition there is a good presentation in the museum area of how the battle unfolded. With that overview, what you see driving around make a lot more sense.

The drive takes about an hour to an hour and a half if you only stop at the seven points on the tour map. You get a real feel for the scope of the battle that took place. When one thinks that this all took place communicating by messengers on foot and horse back, it is no wonder that all of the miscues that took place happened. This battle took place toward the end of September, and if the weather when the CurbCruhsers was there the middle of September was anything like what the Union and Confederates experienced in 1863, there was a lot of hot marching that took place.

Pictures can be found here.

Rock City

Posted on by September 15, 2007
Reply

Our final stop on the tour of Lookout Mountain sites was Rock City. This is the place of “See Rock City” fame, and once again classifies as one of the “Original American Theme Parks” in CurbCrushers book. Once again, the sign of a classic, Free Parking.

Rock City is an attraction that grew out of an individuals garden at one point. There are a number of natural rock formations that you walk through. It is very much of a self-guided tour. There is pretty much one way through the park, and you just follow the signs and walk through. Little CurbCrusher’s two favorite places were, Needles Eye and Fat Man’s Squeeze, where the rocks get very narrow and short. Everyone enjoyed the Swing-A-Long Bridge, and the waterfall on the side of the mountain. The final thing you walk through is a cavern that re-creates scenes from fairy tales and Mother Goose.

It took about an hour and a half to walk through the gardens. Everyone enjoyed the trip. This is a garden, so there are various botanical features throughout the park. However, the CurbCrushers visited in September, the fall, not spring time, so there were not a lot of blooms and color coming from the plants. We all imagined that this would be a really pretty place to visit in the springtime. Little CurbCrusher enjoyed her trip to Rock City so much that she wanted to visit again the next day.

Pictures can be found here.

Incline Railway and Point Park

Posted on by September 15, 2007
Reply

Following the spelunking that led to Ruby Falls, the CurbCrushers did a mostly outdoor activity. We drove to the top of Lookout Mountain and headed to the Incline Railway. This railway runs up the east side of Lookout Mountain, and drops the passenger off about three blocks from Point Park. Point Park is a National Park, part of the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park, which is one of the first National Military parks ever created.

We visited Point Park first. This is a self guided walking tour that visits the positions the Confederate defenders of Lookout Mountain held, and some plaques that discuss how the battle unfolded down below. This is actually the end of the battle for the area around Chatanooga, which started in September of 1863 and lasted through the end of November when Lookout Mountain fell to the Union forces.

Following the tour of the park, we simply rode the Incline Railway to the bottom of the mountain, and then back up. There is really nothing at the bottom of the railway except the parking and the gift shop and snack shop. Of note is that if you drive to the top of the mountain, as the CurbCruhser family did, you pay a dollar an hour to park at city run meters. If you park at the bottom and ride the train up, it’s free.

The brochures here say this is the steepest inclined railway in the world. It does seem to have a fairly steep grade right at the top, and I think it is that last 100 yards that gives it that claim. CurbCrusher was not overwhelmed by the Incline Railway, I’ve been on others. As a matter of fact if Little CurbCrusher had not been with us, we probably would have skipped this attraction.

Pictures can be found here.

Ruby Falls

Posted on by September 15, 2007
Reply

Well when in Chattanooga, you head to Lookout Mountain. So the CurbCrushers started their Chattanooga tour with a trip to Ruby Falls. Ruby Falls is an underground waterfall that was opened up for access to the public in the 1930s. CurbCrusher loves the “old school” tourist attractions and this one lives up to being a great place to visit. Start off with the free parking. Living in the tourist “hold-up” country of Orlando, Mr. CurbCrusher has come to expect that you not only pay outrageous admission prices, but you also pay through the nose to park. So when we pulled up to Ruby Falls and no one had their hand out for a parking fee, I knew it was going to be a good day.
There were no real lines at any of the three places we visited in Chattanooga, so once we bought our tickets, we waited about five minutes until the elevator was ready to head down 260 feet below Lookout Mountain. A short elevator ride, and you find yourself exiting into a cave. For the next hour and ten minutes you are guided through the cave. The guide stops and explains various rock formations that you encounter along the way. The trip culminates with the arrival at Ruby Falls.

The tour lets you spend about ten minutes in the falls room. The only negative is that the falls are never lit with good white light that lends itself to photography, they are constantly changing from blue, to red lights, with mood music in the background.

The trip back to the elevator is fairly quick. You walk along the same path that you took to the falls, but don’t stop to talk about anything. As you come upon groups making their way to the falls, the guides call out for the group making their way to the falls to move over for the “survivors.” The people on their way to the falls suck it up, and squeeze against the narrow cave corridor, and those going back suck it up and try and move by them without getting stuck. As CurbCrusher found, depending on your size (and CurbCrusher is not small) and the size of the person you are passing, you may get real friendly.

Another elevator ride and you’re back on the surface, at the level of the observation deck. A quick trip to the observation deck, gives you some great views of Chattanooga. Of course this is followed by the required trip through the exit gift shop.

CurbCrusher says the trip is worth the price. There are warnings that it is cold in the cave. While Mrs. CurbCrusher and Little CurbCrusher both wore long pants and jackets due to this warning. CurbCrusher himself wore a short sleeve shirt and some zip off cargo pants. Everyone was comfortable on the cave tour.

Pictures can be found here.

Suwannee River State Park

Posted on by September 15, 2007
3

One of the reasons the CurbCrushers stopped in North Florida was to visit some family. It so happens that the family being visited lives right around the corner from the Suwannee River State Park. Since we were right next door, we decided to pay the park a visit since we are planning on camping there next July with the Florida Pop Up Campers.

We would have camped in this park, but their campground is pretty torn up at this time, hence we stayed at the Stephen Foster Culture Center mentioned in the previous post. They are in the middle of building new bathhouses, and will be putting in full hookups (electric, water and sewer) for each site. When this work is completed this will be a very nice campground. The playground is right across from the campground. As it is named, this park sits on the Suwannee River and there is a boat ramp and canoes for rent. There are a number of hiking trails in the park.

All in all we look forward to returning after the campground opens and enjoying this park.

Pictures can be found here.

Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park

Posted on by September 15, 2007
1

Well, the CurbCrushers are on the road, taking a week long trip from home in Orlando, to Chattanooga and then back home. First stop on the trip is two nights at the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park in White Springs, Florida. This is a Florida state park that was opened in the 1950’s as a tribute to Stephen Foster, the guy who wrote “The Old Folks at Home” better known as “Way Down Upon the Suwannee River.”
There are 45 RV camping sites located in the park, and most of them are very large. We were in a pull through that was at least 80 feet long. Only water and electricity, no sewer. The bathhouses were new, and very clean. As a matter of fact the entire park was immaculately maintained.
The park has a craft house area. This is a collection of building where craft people come and demonstrate how to do a variety of things. Unfortunately this was empty during our stay, but talking with the rangers, there are folks that do pottery, quilting making cane syrup and other things. A number of these items are available for sale in the gift shop. In addition there is a carillon that plays notes on the quarter hour between 8 AM and 6PM. At 10 AM, 2 PM and 4PM the carillon plays a mini concert of four songs that lasts about 15 minutes. It is a beautiful instrument to listen to and both days we were there we sat outside for the 4 PM songs. There is a museum in the base of the carillon tower, and another that is in a separate building.
The park is also part of the Suwannee Wilderness Trail, a canoe trail along the Suwannee River. There is an outfitter right outside the gates of the park that will deliver and pick up canoes and kayaks if you choose to spend some time on the river.
The park is very quiet. In addition, there is very little light pollution in the area, so the night sky is absolutely gorgeous to watch. We didn’t see any wild life during our stay. This would be a great place to spend some time just relaxing and reading.

Pictures can be found here.

Salt Spring Recreation Area

Posted on by August 28, 2007
Reply

The Curbcrushers were on the road again last weekend, off to one of our favorite campgrounds in the Ocala National Forest, the Salt Springs Recreation Area. This is a campground with full hookup that is about 90 miles north of the house, and sits between Ocala in the west and Ormond Beach in the east. The campground is clean and large, with lots of room at your site. It is a great place to go in the heat of the summer as there is a fresh water mineral spring that you can swim in. The water in the spring stays about 72 all year round, so it makes for a refreshing swim on a hot day.
We were once again camping with the Florida Pop-Up Campers. That means good food and good company. We had the traditional meet & greet on Friday night, with some great deserts. I was particularly fond of the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, they just sound healthy. This was followed by a great feasting on traditional cook-out food, hamburgers and hot dogs on Saturday. The really great part was the there were three new families joining the group for the first time.
The Curbcrushers tried out a new toy this trip, a screen room. We’ve had a couple of those quick-up sun shades (the kind that collapse down into a carrying package) for the last few years. Mrs. Curbcrusher found an add on screen for these at walmart.com. Basically it is a set of screen panels that hook onto the frame that supports the canopy, and then tuck up under the canopy. It worked pretty well, we say out both nights in it and didn’t get bug bit near as much as we did when we were outside the screen room.

Pictures of the trip are here.

Anastasia State Park, FL

Posted on by July 22, 2007
Reply

The Curbcrushers were on the road again this weekend. We headed up I-95 to St. Augustine, Florida and Anastasia State Park. We headed up that way for another weekend with the Florida Pop Up Camper (FPUC) group. We had avoided camping at Anastasia as we had heard that it was very tight and anything over 30 feet would be tough to park. We found that this is partially true. There are some five or six camping loops in the park, and only one seems to have sites that will support 30 – 40 foot rigs. We had a site in the Coquina and were not the only 30+ footer in that loop. A triple axle 36 foot fifth wheel showed up and parked across from us, and there were at least two others that size elsewhere in the loop. The reputation for only being a place for small rigs is undeserved and we’ll head back here again some time.

We made our way north on Friday afternoon. Left Orlando before the afternoon storms hit, and we were able to make it to Anastasia dodging all the regularly scheduled afternoon storms along the way. We were set up in about 20 minutes, and then headed out to the beach. The park has about 4 miles of beach on the Atlantic. You could walk it from the campground, but it is probably around half a mile to a mile from the Coquina loop, further if you’re walking from the others. There is plenty of bike and car parking at the beach though. We spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach, and then attended the FPUC pot luck supper on Friday evening.

During supper, one of our fellow campers had said they had heard about a farmer’s market on Saturday mornings that was out the back gate, and then about a block to the right. So we got up Saturday morning and headed out the back gate and turned right. We were in the middle of a neighborhood, but we wandered on. As we exited the neighborhood onto A1A, our fellow campers showed up on their bikes. We laughed about the one block, and headed North on A1A toward the park entrance. When we got to the St. Augustine Amphitheater, and low and behold a farmer’s market was under way. We wandered through the market, there was some produce, artwork, breads and other items. At the rear of the farmer’s market, we noticed a small path that seemed to go towards the park. We followed this, and it dumped us out right on the road that leads from the Coquina loop to all the other camping loops. This was the shortcut that people had been talking about.

We followed the long walk to the farmer’s market with a whole day at the beach. There is a concessionaire named Island Joe’s that offers water toy, and chair rentals by the beach, in addition to a little store that has basic beach and camping essentials. There is also a concessionaire at the “Salt Run” area where you can rent kayaks and other water toys to enjoy that area. The beach does have lifeguards from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

Having made two trips to St. Augustine in the last five months, we didn’t make any trips to visit any of the sites in town. We spent the entire time in the park (with the exception of the walk to the farmer’s market) and had a great time. Pictures can be found here.