American Art

Our last excursion before leaving Chattanooga was to visit the Hunter Museum of American art. It is dedicated to American Artists from the early 1700’s until the present. The museum takes its name from the gentleman who donated his riverfront mansion to create the museum. Since those beginnings, it has grown to include a modernistic building surrounding the mansion. When you tour the museum you will find yourself seamlessly entering the mansion on the second floor.

We enjoy all types of art exhibits, wherever we find them. I have to admit that modern abstract art is not among my favorites. This museum has a number of pieces that fall into this category. My personal problem is that I find it hard to think of some of this stuff as art. In this museum there is a classic example of my problem. It is a painting of painted stripes of canvas. Even I could do this. To add insult to injury, the plaque notes that this particular piece was purchased with federal funding. Why does that not surprise me!

The vast majority of the pieces depict life in the USA during various periods of our history. This includes Native American life, immigrants and the simple life of most Americans along with some of the more noteworthy in our history.

One painting from the late 1800’s I found particularly interesting. It depicts horse shoe falls at Niagara Falls. It has a structure in the river above the falls that looks a little like a lighthouse base and a plank walkway from the shore to the edge of the falls. How would you like to walk that plank?

It is well worth a visit.

Happy Halloween!!

We hope you all have a fun Halloween.

Along the Tennessee River

Our last stop before we visit our daughter’s place in GA was Chattanooga, TN. We have been here a number of times and really enjoy this city and area. On this stop, our first outing was to see the fall colors along the Tennessee River onboard the Southern Belle. It offers a three hour tour including a lunch and onboard entertainment.

The lunch was fine and we could escape the entertainment by spending time out on the deck. The weather was good and we enjoyed the colors and river traffic. We did get an extra event during this trip. Two of the tour buses managed to miss the departure time and the company agreed that they would pick them up along the river. This was apparently a very special exception to the rules. The captain noted that we would get to see how the real paddlewheel steamers picked up passengers and cargo in days gone by, namely by lowering the bow boarding ramp.

The captain allowed visitors to the bridge and he provided some lively conversation as we moved along. I should mention that he was a retired Coast Guardsman, who was in charge of the navigation aids on this river just before he retired.

It was a pleasant afternoon on the water and another look at the fall colors.

Bluegrass

We managed to extract ourselves from our campground in Salvisa, KY, only meeting two small vehicles in the process, without the complete road blockage we feared. We then headed the short distance south to check out The Renfro Valley Entertainment Center in Mount Vernon, KY. The music center has been in business since 1939 and is primarily into country, gospel and bluegrass music.

We pulled into the nearly empty Renfro Valley campground on Monday. There is an older 30 AMP section and a newer 50 AMP section. Both have level sites and full hookups. There is more room in the 50 AMP area with views of the open fields that I assume are for big outdoor events.

We walked over to the complex and found it nearly deserted, as well. There were not going to be any big concerts until the weekend. It appears that the place is winding down for the season with just a few big events left. There was a small restaurant open and the visitor center of a very small Appalachian village on the grounds. The village was not much and while the doors were open there was nothing going on. We talked to the lady in the center about her basket weaving and he history of the music center. It seems that an older couple bought the place in 2005 to try and get it back on its feet and make it better. Unfortunately, they both died shortly thereafter within a few weeks of each other. One of their children is continuing to try and run the place.

There was a gospel group in the small red barn on Monday, but we passed on that preferring to get settled in to our site. Tuesday night, it was a blue grass group , so we walked over to the barn and enjoyed a great concert from the All American Blue Grass Band from Indiana. They have been coming here for years, as often as three times a week. It was a great performance and the small crowd did not seem to bother them at all. We had a brief chat with one of them during intermission and he mentioned that this was the last Tuesday concert of the season, but that they would be back for a big Dance Barn event in Nov.

We just wanted to see what the place looked like, so a good concert was a bonus. If you enjoy this type of music, it could be a good place to enjoy it, with the campground in walking distance of all the buildings.