Raccoon Mountain Campground and Caverns, Chattanooga, Tennessee
The sons of Jacob (I’m guessing the whole clan is involved now) came upon the dead bodies and looted the city because their sister had been defiled. They seized their flocks and herds and donkeys and everything else of theirs in the city and out in the fields. They carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taking as plunder everything in the houses. ~ Genesis 34:27-29 I’m in shock over all this. What a horrific slap in the face of God and Jacob! God was not in this, this was unbridled anger on the part of Simeon and Levi, and an anger that has persisted and grown over several days. What they did was diabolical and dishonorable. It demonstrated a total disregard for God and His covenant with them. It was a disgrace to Jacob. Matthew Henry had the following to say, “The gross misconduct of wicked children is the grief and shame of their godly parents. Children should be the joy of their parents; but wicked children are their trouble, sadden their hearts, break their spirits, and make them go mourning from day to day. Children should be an ornament to their parents; but wicked children are their reproach, and are as dead flies in the pot of ointment: but let such children know that, if they repent not, the grief they have caused to their parents, and the damage religion has sustained in its reputation through them, will come into the account and be reckoned for. And I don’t understand, nor could I discover, why they’d take the women and children. Did they sell them into slavery? Did they keep them for themselves? I don’t know.
It’s truly amazing to me how a tiny adjustment in my seat position makes all the difference in the world! Remember our last bike ride? I have zero facts to state today! Even though we road for nearly four hours (five if you count our lunch break) and covered 24 miles!
Most of what I have today is pictures. It’s a week later as I write this, I have no notes in my phone because my hands were busy holding on, and we’ve had other adventures since. I really need to do better at least making notes when I get home. . . .
and they didn’t provide very good signage as to how to get around.
There’s a pretty massive project going on.
I don’t know why the colors sometimes come out different . . .
Behind where we’re standing is an enclosed carousel.
As you can see from the next picture, it used to be someone’s house!
One thing I definitely remember is lunch! Those of you who know how much I love to eat, probably aren’t surprised by this. 😊
When we left this morning, our plan was to ride to “The number one restaurant in Chattanooga”, Uncle Larry’s. It’s a small diner that serves fried fish, and we’d thought to have a filling late lunch. As it approached that time, we realized that in order to get there, we’d have to bike the busy roads and we weren’t interested in doing that. When the revelation hit, we’d stopped near a restaurant called “The Boathouse”, so Blaine looked it up and saw it had good reviews. We rode a bit longer to avoid the lunch hour crowd, turned around and parked.
We were offered a table outside on their balcony and it was lovely! Our server was friendly and knowledgeable and offered just the right amount of attention. And the food? Oh my! Blaine ordered the catfish special, but I wanted a burger. It was probably one of the best I’ve ever had! Soft, juicy and cooked perfectly over their wood-fueled grill! Blaine’s fish was also excellent, but he didn’t particularly fond of the cole slaw they make. I tasted it and I think it was sort of an Asian slaw because it tasted like it had sesame oil in it. Their fries were also very good! They call them Olive Fries, so I asked about the name. Seems they brine their hand-cut fries in salt and olive oil before frying them up in vegetable/canola oil (I can’t remember which they use) like everyone else. Sorry, I have no food pictures.
just as we were ready to leave, this yacht came by.
It’s only 3pm, but when there are big mountains around, it seems to set earlier. : )
What a spectacular day! We’ve plans to hit Uncle Larry’s later this week so Blaine can compare the catfish. 😊