Chattanooga Choo Choo

I really feared for Chattanooga, my overnight stop on the way up from Atlanta to Nashville. It's probably really only famous for its status as an old railroad town (subsequently immortalised by Glenn Miller's song), and yet somewhat ironically, it no longer has a rail station. Imagine Crewe without a railway, and you get the picture.


However in such circumstances, the best thing to do from experience is don a pair of running shoes and check it out for yourself, and as is so often the case, my low expectations were well-and-truly exceeded. The town has undertaken a huge urban regeneration project, with the impressive Tennessee River as its centerpiece, and as my run proved, it now has a stunning trail running alongside it.

For some reason, it had a strangely British feel, reminding me very much of Newcastle/Gateshead which has undergone a similarly successful rejuvenation using its river location, impressive bridges and modern architecture in the hope of rediscovering old glories. Thankfully I was spared the sight of thousands of foul-mouthed Geordies in black and white shirts here in Chattanooga however (and I hear the council grits the roads here too).

If you really want to understand America, it's vital to explore the heartland particularly if you are used to wandering through Manhattan asking yourself, "None of these people voted Bush, so who the hell did?" It's a little simplistic, but in many ways the US is really two countries - the richer, left-leaning, progressive North-East and Pacific Coast (plus blue-collar parts of the MidWest eg. Illinois, Michigan) and the more religious, poorer, conservative remainder. This 2004 electoral map sums it up nicely.

Many New Yorkers would like the US to disown states like Tennessee, but whilst I can't agree with the politics here, it is in these areas that one finds the warmest and friendliest people in all of the country. They don't call the women Southern Belles for nothing, and their accent has the same affect on me as mine does on them (if only my wife would let me chat to them of course). I couldn't live here, but if you really want to feel the pulse of America, you have to visit Chattanooga and similar cities.