Chattanooga Tennessee is an eight hour drive for us. That’s a little far for a race but this one looked particular interesting. So we thought we’d give it a try.
The race was on Saturday so we headed out early Friday morning. Our first stop was one of our favorites, Joe Sippers in Effingham IL. It seems like we go there quite a bit and that actually proved to be true. Mary’s ‘frequent sipper’ point total was enough to get a free latte! Mary had a wrap and I had the Miles Fancy Breakfast Sandwich.
A couple more hours on the road and we were ready for a caffeine boost. We found Etcetera, “Paducah Kentucky’s original home for coffee and bubble tea”. The shop was just 10 minutes off the interstate and was truly a neighborhood coffee house sitting right in the middle of an older yet elegant part of town. There was even a neighborhood art festival on some closed streets nearby. We ordered their house dark roast and took a look around. They had lots of outside seating and off street parking. The coffee tasted great as well.
We pulled into Chattanooga and scouted the landing and the river where the race was to take place in the morning. The Tennessee River at least in this area, is beautiful. Trees line both sides with houses and cabins peeking out every so often. And the water. At least for the midwest, it’s the cleanest river I’ve ever paddled. I could see down three feet at least.
The next morning, we arrived early and prepped for the race. The weather was perfect-60 sunshine and almost no wind.
There we 70 entrants, everything from stand-up paddlers to outrigger canoes. The race was well organized and we even had food from a vendor when the race was over.
We ate our tacos, clapped for the podium winners and headed to Nashville, where we would stay over night. But not before getting some caffeine for the two-hour drive.
Just down the street from the race was Sunnyside Cup. This place is somewhat unique. It’s mostly a drive through although there were a couple of parking spots and we were able to walk in. What made it interesting was the drive-through, or should I say drive-in. It looks like the building was an auto service type place. So you actually drive into the building to get your order. However, with our kayaks on top of the van, it was a little close so we didn’t go through. We ordered their house dark roast and were on our way.
About thirty miles west of Chattanooga is a town named South Pittsburgh. We’ve been to the town several times to eat and stay overnight but this time we decided to stop for a tour of sorts. Lodge Cast Iron skillets are made in South Pittsburgh and they have a company store and museum. We had some time so we stopped to take a look.
Lodge is a family owned business that has been making cast iron products since 1896. Their foundries are in the South Pittsburgh area.
The company store had just about everything you’d need for cooking including food items such as pies and cornbread mixes. We picked up a vegetable griddle, some utensils, insulators for our skillets and of course some jalapeno cornbread mix.
We then visited the museum. It costs $10.00 per person and we thought it was worth it. They showed the history, the manufacturing process and the largest cast iron skillet in the world. I think that’s the largest fried egg in the world as well but no mention of that.
We were getting a little hungry so coincidentally there is a restaurant in the same building. It’s called BBB-Big Bad Breakfast. It’s a regional restaurant with a dozen locations in southern states. They were pretty busy for 2:00 pm so we sat at the counter and ordered biscuit sandwiches that hit the spot.
We arrived at our hotel in Nashville, grabbed something to eat then went to the 9:30 show at the Grand Ole Opry. Carrie Underwood was the headliner. We got back to our hotel around 12:00am. Geez, that’s late for us.
The next morning, we grabbed some breakfast at the hotel before heading north. Then the traffic started. Then the projected back-ups. But this time we beat the system. Google maps sent us a warning of a faster way around the 20 min slowdown and we managed to get to it before the other thousands of drivers did. We made great time and best of all we found a coffee shop along the detour that we may have not found otherwise.
Street Coffee in Pleasant View TN was a good find for us. Their house dark roast was very good and we got one of the last filled bismark donuts that was glazed then iced! Sorry no images of the bismark-we ate it before we could document it!
We jumped back on the interstate and didn’t have much traffic the rest of the trip. This was a great and full weekend we will remember.
Now I’m hungry for a BBQ biscuit sandwich!