Chris woke up at 4am and won The Who gets up first contest today! When you are living inside a box, everyone wakes up when the first person wakes up. This was good for me as I exited the rig at 5:45am to begin the route from Dalton to Ringgold GA. I felt awesome leaving this morning after yesterdays cruise.

First surprise came at around 6am as I was going through run down area a car saw Lucky and I on the road and this old Chevy Bronco pulled - a kid looked out at me and said, “mister, you need a ride someplace?” In the dark morning I told him no and as he pulled up the window I told him hang on and gave him a $20 for being kind enough to offer help to someone. We chatted a bit and I learned he is 26 - the age of one of my sons - and was on his way to work.

Lucky was feeling great - full of energy and with little water sources - rivers, ponds, lakes - it was an endurance event to make the first 12 miles together. A spigot half way through provided some hydration for him but I can tell he is getting really strong again because even without water, he is not falling off the pace. With little shoulder on the roads today it was real teamwork to keep him focused on healing as traffic came at us both ways. The Lucky Cam caught some of the action.

After a break I closed out the day to Ringgold by meeting Chris who had walked back from the parked RV. As we came into the small town, we came upon a monument and park dedicated to General Patrick Cleburne of the Confederate States of America. The story of the battle of Ringgold Gap is a tactically brilliant one:

Catoosa County, GA  |  Nov 27, 1863

Following the Union victory at Missionary Ridge outside of Chattanooga and the subsequent Confederate retreat, Yankee troops set out in pursuit as the Rebels moved south into Georgia. Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne’s division was ordered to fall back to Ringgold Gap with orders to hold the Western & Atlantic Railroad which passed through Taylor’s Ridge there. Control of the railroad at the gap was critical to moving the badly needed Confederate supply trains to the rear. Maj. Gen. Joseph B. Hooker, with about 16,000 men, sent his force forward into the gap on the morning of November 27th to meet the Confederate defenders.  Hooker's forces were committed piecemeal, one division or brigade at a time on the rocky slopes of the ridge.  After five hours of heavy fighting and nearing the end of their ammunition, Cleburne was ordered to fall back to protect the departing supply trains.  Leaving skirmishers in his front, he pulled back and burned the railroad bridge on east side of the ridge after the trains had safely crossed.  Having taken many casualties yet letting Cleburne slip away, Hooker was ordered to fall back to Chattanooga. Because of Cleburne's tough defense of Ringgold Gap, the retreating Confederate army survived to fight on another nine months in the North Georgia hills.

Union had 16,000 troops / CSA had 4,200

Union had 509 wounded or killed / CSA has 221

In the 1990’s his descendant’s began a campaign to have the statue erected for “one of the true heroes of all time” in confederate park and on October 5, 2009 it was finally unveiled.

We strolled into the adorable town of Ringgold and met a fellow runner who was kind enough to give us an interview about the town and of course I had to ask her about Marjorie Taylor Greene…

Ringgold is also famous because Dolly Parton married in the chapel to Carl Dean in 1966!

We found a nice RV Camp around town and at like kings to end a great day.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Georgia and hello to Tennessee.

Thank you for the support.

Cheers,

David.