Tennessee in the Rain

2025-03-31
Eastern TN

It was a rainy morning. The weather apps predicted this, which is why I pushed to see the sights last night. I killed some time looking out over the mountains from the hotel before heading out of town in a downpour.

I met my friend Tom for lunch. I know him from high school, but I haven't seen him in about 40 years. He lives outside Knoxville. This is the first time on a road trip that I met up with any friends since mostly I'm very introspective on these trips. However, this went great so I'll try it again. Tom was an energy physicist at Oak Ridge, designed several cool features for Apple, and now works for Google. A true twenty-first-century renaissance man. And, as a bonus, the time we spent talking allowed the rain to pass which made traveling easier.

As I mentioned, Tom worked at Oak Ridge, which also happens to have the lowest average wind speed recorded in the US. It sounded like a great place to check out, but tours are suspended "until spring" so that will wait for another trip.

The next stop was about 2 hours away in Chattanooga. Interestingly enough, the tow truck was invented in Tennessee (think more like Mater than the flatback roll-ons). That explains why the International Towing Museum is located in Chattanooga. However, it does not explain why the museum is closed on Mondays.

Once again thwarted, I headed to Ruby Falls. This trip has a number of waterfalls on the schedule, as well as some caves. But this, this is the best of both: a 90-foot waterfall in a cave! There were of course a lot of cave formations on the way to the falls, and as usual I took way too many pictures.

The highlight of the tour (and worth the $40 to me) was the waterfall. They lit it up for pictures, so I have similar shots in red, blue, and green. I guess it's their cave, and their disco too. The falls is 90 feet tall and is quite impressive.

After about 2 hours at the falls, I headed to Huntsville. The highways were more crowded so it was a bit of a slog, but I gained an hour on the way. I just can't shake this niggling feeling that I will have to give that hour back later...