Saw Rock City

My peeps

I'm not completely sure how widespread the See Rock City barns still are. I grew up seeing them all around the Southeast, and I think they could be found as far away as New England? This advertising campaign was dreamed up by Garnet Clark, who among other things is known as the Father of Miniature Golf, which he called Tom Thumb Golf. He seems like a guy with a lot of hustle. At Clark's behest, a young painter named Clark Byers started working on the barns in 1936 and eventually painted 800 roofs. A sign at Rock City says that by the 1950's the barns could be found "from Michigan to Texas to Florida," and that Clark Byers lived until 2004. They're an iconic image to me and I imagine, to many southerners.

In Cormac McCarthy's The Road, the father and son walk by a See Rock City barn.

And speaking of books, have you read Neil Gaiman's American Gods? The premise of that book, which is a fun read, is that all the old gods from mythologies are still wandering around, and that they're drawn to roadside attractions. Roadside attractions, the book explains, are "places of power," where in olden times you would find a shrine, a stone circle, or a magic well. Instead, in the modern world, people feel called to by certain places, but they respond by building a house out of beer bottles or creating the world's largest ball of twine.

"Roadside attractions: people feel themselves pulled to places where, in other parts of the world, they would recognize that part of themselves that is truly transcendent, and they buy a hot dog, and walk around, feeling satisfied on a level they cannot truly describe, and profoundly dissatisfied on a level beneath that.”

Rock City is exactly that kind of place (and it's where the finale of Gaiman's book plays out): a nostalgic tourist attraction that started as somebody's wish or their wonky, weird mania. I mean, the mountain and the rocks were there, of course, but somebody had to look at the landscape and say, "What this needs is a gnome village. Right down here. And it should glow in the dark."

Not to be missed.

And you know, it totally works for me! If you require your outdoor experience to be a pristine natural landscape, maybe don't See Rock City. But I thought it was so charming and retro-delightful, and everybody loved it. We want to go back at Christmas. I can only imagine.

There is also gorgeous scenery there. It's on Lookout Mountain, of course.

Lover's Leap

Hank shakes the shaky bridge, Laura freaks out.

Looking towards Chattanooga

Matt told the kids the walls might squeeze together.

Hey honey, let's just duck into the Goblin's Underpass.

If you find yourself in the vicinity of Chattanooga, you should See Rock City. I mean, just See it! It's there waiting, good grief! Have you seen it yet?

More pictures of someone else's vacation are here. This is way better than if I made you come to my house and look at slides. Way better. xoxo