Marietta to Chattanooga on Highway 41

[burkbuilds]

Today I decided to make my weekly trip home without using I-75. I just wanted a more relaxed ride and I wanted to see something other than Interstate signs about all the places I pass each week. I had the time, it was a beautiful sunny day, so off I went. From Marietta I decided to pass through the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield, so I headed out Kennesaw Avenue and noticed some early 1900's houses before I entered the Park.
Kinda reminded me of the house the Munsters lived in on TV. Next I spotted this old southern Mansion, man I really like those massive columns on the front.



The Battlefield was nice, shady and all the trees were fully greened out, but nothing much to snap a picture of. When I came out of the Battlefield I had to detour over to old Highway 41 North for a while and then when I got around Acworth I took "New" highway 41 North. In a couple of miles I came across Altoona Lake. It's been really low the last several years because of an extended drought, but that all broke last Fall and it seems to be at normal Summer levels now.



Just after I passed this, there was a sign pointing to the Dam and since I've never seen the Altoona Dam I decided to side trek a bit. This is the river just below the dam.

I wanted to get some shots of and near the dam, but they had a gate and fence that would have made Fort Knox proud as I got close. I could just barely see the dam through the trees and had no chance for a photo opp, sorry.
Well, back to 41 and on up to the big City of Calhoun, Georgia.

Nothing much grabbed my attention in Calhoun, but a few more miles up the road I came across this historic marker in Resaca.


Basically it tells the history of the battle fought there in the Civil War as Sherman was heading to Atlanta.
It was getting hot in the afternoon sun and as I came through Dalton, Ga. I noticed a few bank thermometers hitting mid 90's, so I stopped and got some fluids on the North end of Dalton and then headed up towards Tunnel Hill. My wife's grandmother grew up there and I wanted to poke around a little. Tunnel Hill is only about 1200 people in the City, so it's not very developed, which I like. As I drove along the Old Dixie Highway, I found some young girls taking riding lessons at a stable.



I probably spent 30-40 minutes just riding down side roads in Tunnel Hill before I headed North again on 41. Just a few miles up the road I entered the City of Ringgold. There's an old train station there that was built around 1850 and took some heavy hits during the Civil War. It's been restored now and is open most days for visitors, but I got there after 5 and everybody was gone and the place locked up.







Ringgold is the county seat where I live. It's got a more "modern" section, but this is a shot of the old Historic main street from the Railroad station.

I considered jumping back on I-75 at this point simply because this is "home" turf for me and from here on up I ride this stretch fairly often, but I decided just to stay on 41 till I hit the Tennessee state line just so I could say I pretty much went the entire way from Marietta to Chattanooga on Highway 41. Of course this is nothing like the ride BillinGa did a few weeks ago when he rode from Kennesaw to Nashville and back in one day, way over 500 miles. I just put about 125 miles on my trip today, but it was nice to stop for gas and only need 1.9 gallons to top off the tank! Not bad for a 500 Vulcan, about 65 mpg, I know that's below GZ250 numbers, but pretty respectable considering it's twice the cc's. Well, I finally hit East Ridge, TN around 6 PM and then took a few side streets over to my house in Rossville, Ga. Great afternoon ride, I really enjoyed it, and it's nice to get home at the end of the day.