Sloppy Floyd S.P. Part 3

Monday was another cool day so we decided to make another trip up toward Chattanooga - this time to the Chickamauga Battlefield. And we were glad we did - VERY interesting place. There's a very nice visitors' center, with a 25 minutes film (anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE the little films at these places - right, Brenda?) and some interesting exhibits and displays. After our stop there, we went on the self-guided auto tour, which takes about an hour - if the weather was nice enough to walk around it would certainly take longer than that. At the visitor's center they gave us a slip of paper with a phone number - you call the number on your cell phone and punch is which stop you are at (#1 through #9 on the map) and you get a three minute recording that gives you more of the history of that specific part of the battlefield. Kind of snazzy! (I have to admit, we didn't listen to any of them except for #1!) Anyway, what makes this place kind of unique are all the markers and monuments - there are over 1,400 of them throughout the park! Every state that took part in the battle has erected one or more monuments. I only found one from Michigan (pic attached) but we noticed probably dozens from Ohio. They are scattered throughout the battlefield, so it almost looks like a huge cemetery with monuments spread far apart (in a way, that is exactly what this IS). There were over 34,000 casualties from this battle - which last only TWO days. It's very sobering - and makes you realize again how incredibly awful the Civil War was for this area. But it's good to be reminded.

Anyway - on Tuesday morning we decided that enough is enough! It's time to MOVE ON! We were supposed to stay here until Wednesday but heard that it was going to be extremely windy that day - and we do NOT like driving the RV in high winds. So we took off a little after noon and headed out for the next park, which is the R. Schaefer Heard campground at West Point Lake. We got here about 3:30 - no problems - and got settled in to a beautiful campsite right on the edge of the water. It sprinkled off and on all day so I couldn't get a good picture yet, but one will be attached to the next post. We really love these Army Corps of Engineers campgrounds - they are always located right on the edge of reservoirs and the campsites are large and clean and very, very nice. It seems that the Corps tries to put all the campsites right on the waterfront whenever they can and it sure seems to us that there is not a BAD campsite anywhere in this park. NOW all we need is some decent weather (....yeah, I know - you guys back home are about to have a BLIZZARD so you don't feel sorry for us at all, do you?)