Steve’s Retirement Trip to Tennessee June/July 2024: Part 3: The Lodge Museum - FINALLY!

Big Bad Breakfast, The Lodge Museum and Ruby Falls Zipline!

Sasquatch Farm, Site #17

Monday, 7/1

The day started early for us, as we planned to have an early breakfast and hit up the Lodge Museum - the main reason for our trip to this part of the country!

As we prepared to leave, Auntie was exiting Geraldine but Lila was also trying to get out and Auntie was holding her back, stepped down from the steps onto the rocks that were our site and twisted her foot/ankle.  She first said she thought it was a pretty bad sprain, but didn’t want to go to the doctor.  (Later, after walking around on it for a week, she went to the doctor at home and found out it was a break on the side of her foot called a “Jones Fracture” and she was relegated to a boot with no weight bearing for 6 weeks, then a boot to walk in for several more… ;( )

We had a nice breakfast at Big Bad Breakfast, which is attached to the museum, though we actually struggled to find it at first and drove through the back roads of town around the museum, which were, admittedly a bit sketchy.  

The Lodge Museum opened at 10 and we were right there. Lodge is a family-owned business with a fascinating history, being passed down for 5 generations between siblings and cousins.  It is a really cool process that has remained relatively unchanged for over 100 years, but has gotten faster/easier with large scale manufacturing machinery.  We were able to see a lot of recipes and even build our own cast iron cookbook!  Afterwards, we spent a good amount of time in the store and Steve stocked up on “slightly imperfect” pans while I acquired some smaller decorative pans. It was a lot of fun.

We headed back to the campground after the museum to take the dogs out and let Auntie put her foot up and wrap it in ice.  

We played a few games and painted some more rocks before we headed out to Chattanooga and Ruby Falls to go zip lining!

Auntie wasn’t sure she was going to be able to go zip lining, but at the last minute decided to come and though she had to hike up a big hill to get to the zip platform, which was probably NOT good for her foot, she went and had fun.  Grace was super excited about it and while Kaety was excited, when it came time (and she went next to last out of a group of about 15 of us!), she was definitely not sure.  Eventually they got her off the first platform and she LOVED it!  She had NO problem transitioning at the second platform and jumping off right away! What a fun time :) 

On the way back to the campground, we had to take pictures of the mailbox we passed every time we went back and forth up the hill to Sasquatch Farm - it was honestly a row of mailboxes, but this one was the FUNNIEST/weirdest!  There was an old engine block made into a mailbox stand, a huge fish with its mouth as the mailbox, and … THIS…a buck with the mailbox opening from its butt.  I can’t even believe how this must make the mailman giggle every time they stop to put post in this thing.  Without the pictures, I honestly would not even believe this was such a thing!  LOL!!!

To each his own!!!