Friday, October 14, 2005

We loaded up the car and checked out of the motel around 0830 hours. We had breakfast at a local Shoney’s Restaurant and headed in I-75. We stopped at Chattanooga Station 13 and I got photos of Quint 13 and Rescue 3. Karyle wanted to go to the Chattanooga Zoo. I dropped her off at the zoo and then I headed to the CFD Drill Tower.

When I got to the drill tower, they were testing some new recruits. I saw a bunch of old Seagraves at the far end of the training complex and asked one of the drill staff if I could take photos of them, he told me “sure.” So I got photos of three old Seagrave 1250 GPM pumpers from the mid-seventies and a 1969 Seagrave 85-foot tractor-trailer truck. All of them were to be sold.

I headed to Station 10,about a block away. It is adjoining the CFD Offices. No one was home at the station. The same was true at Station 6 and at Station 15, where I got station photos only. About the time I was Station 15, Karyle called to say she was done. I went through a very hilly area of the city and made my way down the curvy hills and into the flat lands of the city. I drove by Station 5, but no one was home.

I picked up Karyle and we headed by Station 1 (home but not anyone out) before going through downtown to get across the Tennessee River. It is really a great downtown area. I talked to a firefighter today that said,“You should of seen it five years ago!” He said that he wouldn’t go downtown five years ago by himself. Now, he’ll take his wife and kids downtown anytime. Karyle and I were both very impressed with all the new buildings and vibrance of the downtown area.

We went over the river to an area that used to be called the “Hilltop Area.” One firefighter at Station 12 said 10 years ago the area was a hot bed of arson. Today it is full of fixed-up old large dwellings with huge new houses replacing older tear-downs. Station 12 is at the top of the hilly area. It was built in 1996 replacing an older tudor-style wooden-frame station that still stands two doors away. The apparatus bay was so small in the old station, that they couldn’t put any of the new rigs in the old house.

We went back accidentally took the wrong turn and ended up going back over the river again. We followed the River Road down towards Lookout Mountain. We stopped at CFD Station 14, home of Squad 4 and Quint 14. They pulled out the rigs at Station 14 and I took a photo of the Squad 4 and Lookout Mountain. We decided to go to RubyFalls and check out the parking. We decided not to stay as we were worried about all of the luggage in the car.

We drove down past CFD Station 20 and I took a photo. Karyle saw a community center that had the name of someone she knew back home. She took a photo of it. Then we caught I-24 and started heading back. We stopped to get gas ($2.68/gallon) at a Sam’s Club store on the way back. There I saw a fire truck in the lot and decided to get a photo. It was a Luverne built chassis used by the Ruthford County FD. We had lunch in Murfreesboro and then headed to the timeshare in Nashville.

We checked into the timeshare around 1500 hours. We were assigned a new unit in building 24 of a huge timeshare complex near the Grand Oprey complex. We drove through the huge complex, which was celebrating its anniversary with a free concert. The place was packed. We got out of there as fast as we could as there hundreds of buses coming to drop off loads of people for the weekend event.

We went to dinner and then stopped at the local Kroger’s to do some shopping for the timeshare. We didn’t get back until 2000 hours. It was time for me to set down and do this report for Ya’ll.