Day 8 - October 9 - Cleveland, TN to Savannah, TN - 283 miles

    Well, I think I should characterize this day as the day when I learned that trusting a Garmin GPS unit, is sometimes chancy. Today started off just fine, up in the morning, minimal free breakfast at the Quality Suites (what suite?), then off to Chatanooga to find a real Starbucks and some real coffee. I met some transplanted Braintree, MA natives also driving a BMW (4-wheeled type), and chatted with them some about Whitey Bulger.

   Steve Munden (as noted in an earlier post), had read my post about being cold, and sent me an email regarding getting heated clothing for the return to NE. Steve has street cred about this subject, as he's an Iron Butt guy, and has also written for the Iron Butt magazine. Long story short, I looked hard for the stuff here in TN, but problems abound. I'll figure out something Steve. Mike Valentin (Yankee Beemer transplanted to Texas) even looked around some for me.

    After Starbucks, I was off to the Chickamauga Military Park to take a look at the site of the big battle there in the latter part of the Civil War, aka The War of Northern Aggression. As was the case in Gettysburg, there are many monuments scattered around the space. Because the space is bigger, they're just more dispersed. Having seen the field which lies before Cemetery Ridge in Gettysburg, and having stood on the sand at Omaha Beach and looked up at the former German fortifications, I looked for a similar place at Chickamauga. I think such a dramatic situation occurred in the mid-part of the battle when Confederate troops emerged from trees here:

What they found was Federal General Rosecrans sitting in the open at the top of the hill here (in the distance):

Interesting place, but maybe really only really worth a side-trip for Civil War buffs. Seems to be a battle which killed lots and lots of young men, but for no real purpose.

Here's another shot from the monument laden area:

After that, since I was in Georgia, and lacking a good perspective, I let Mr. Garmin try to get me to Savannah, TN,  where I am tonight. I think I went about 40 miles out of my way because of the excursion to Georgia and Alabama. That's not going to happen again.

 I did like the heat of the day (up to about 85F). Above that my protective gear is a bit hot. Both places had pleasant farm smells to them, and every motorcyclist waved to me...even the Harley folks.