50 Miler

Back when I was in the Boy Scouts of America, there was a major patch you could get for well, ... something major.  It was the 50 Miler award.  You had to go 50 miles in one week by foot or afloat.  I earned mine with a combination of canoeing and backpacking 50 miles with my troop over spring break. 

Here's the old version of the patch I earned.

In real life that patch is huge.  It's the biggest patch I own.  And you know, it should be.  It's a hard patch to get. 

So this brings me to this past week.  I have been performing maintenance at an apartment complex in Clearwater.  Mainly, they have me do the things they don't want to do.  That means I deal with a lot of garbage.  They had me walking all over the property picking up liter, and taking care of the trash cans. 

After each day my feet were killing me.  So I got to thinking...  There was one morning when I walked non-stop the first half of the day.  So even if I walked only two miles per hour, I knocked out eight miles just before lunch.  And then I went out and walked some more.  I figured each day I walked between ten and fifteen miles.  So at the end of the working week I easily had walked fifty miles. 

Buy alas, there is no 50 Miler patch for life.  But sometimes I think there should be.  At least in my heart I am glad to know that I was able to walk that much in one week.  Some of the other maintenance men at that complex said they just couldn't do what I did. 

The funny thing?  I might have to do it again this week.

Adrian Visits Rock City Gardens, Part 4

When I was at Rock City Gardens I took some video.

Here is video of the top of High Falls.

Here's the view of High Falls from Observation point.

Here is video of the Fairytale Caverns.  Due to the darkness it didn't come out too well.

If you have the chance to visit the Chattanooga area I would definitely suggest you visit both the Chattanooga Aquarium and Rock City Gardens.  Both run about twenty dollars per adult.  Around twelve dollars per child.

Adrian Visits Rock City Gardens, Part 3

Continued from, "Adrian Visits Rock City Gardens, Part 2."

As I kept walking I came up to Observation Point.

Obviously.  But the views from it are pretty amazing.  You can overlook the town, and then get a great view of High Falls.

Next you have to go through the Rainbow Hall to get a great view of High Falls.  I guess Rainbow Hall is the kind of place that Gnomes like.  Well maybe gay Gnomes.  Who knows.

Here's a great view of High Falls.

Then comes one of the tight squeeze places that kids love, and most Americans can't fit through.  I couldn't really take pictures in there due to the lack of light.

Then came a neat kind of formation.  The 1000 ton rock.

Well, what do know.  I found the Enchanted Trail.  It was in Georgia all along.  Woundn't have thought that.

So then it appears that Magic Valley is located right next to the Enchanted Trail... in Georgia.

Next came the Fairyland Caverns.  (No Smoking.)  I didn't expect Fairyland to have so much sea corral in it.  Kinda strange.  I would have taken more pictures, except that it was so dark in there I none of my pictures would come out.

At the very end of Rock City Gardens there was this semi-older water wheel.  You don't see too many of them these days so I took a picture of it.

More to come in, "Adrian Visits Rock City Gardens, Part 4."

Adrian Visits Rock City Gardens, Part 1

When I was in Chattanooga I decided I needed to take a long walk or do something to take my mind off things for a while.  I had been to the Aquarium.  I had been to Ruby Falls.  I even went up and down the Incline Railway.  But I hadn't been to Rock City Gardens.  I'd always seen the advertising signs for it, but didn't know much about it.  But I thought, "What the hay, I might as well see it while I'm here."

Rock City Gardens is located just 6 miles from Chattanooga on Lookout Mountain, Ga.  For the website, go to www.seerockcity.com .  So as not to commit a copyright crime, here is the Rock City story from the Rock City website:  http://www.seerockcity.com/pages/Our-Story/ .  I will tell the story of my visit through pictures. 

When I first walked up to the ticket booth, I saw a magnolia tree.  At the old house we had a huge one right in the front yard.  Since then I have always liked them.  So I took a picture of one of the flowers on it.

When I took a closer look, there was a honeybee inside the flower.  He was just going to town on the pollen.

Here is the entrance.

Once inside the entrance there is a little stream that flows along the path.

When you enter they give you a very nice map that tells you the names and places of all the structures.  The first one is called the Grand Corridor.

Next up was the Needles Eye.  It's one of those things that kids will love as they can run though it with no problem.  However, adults will have to squeeze though.  Oh, and that's not the first of these that are in the park.

Once you go through the Needles Eye, this is what it looks like.

Next up comes Gnome Valley.  One thing I was beginning to notice was that someone had a serious Gnome fetish.

I have to say, the stone pathways were really nice.

Mushroom Rock?  I wonder how it got it's name?

Uh-oh.  More Gnomes.

But there are Goblins as well.

One of the coolest things I ever saw was the stone trashcan.  What a novel idea.

Due to the amount of pictures I took, I will be posting my trip across Rock City over four blog posts.  More to come in, "Adrian Visits Rock City Gardens, Part 2."