Tennessee, I Might Be A Cow

 

 

With a few days free we decide to take a short road trip and explore a bit more of America The Beautiful. This time our journey takes us to venture around the “Choo Choo City”, Chattanooga, Tennessee where after walking across the Walnut Street Bridge we enjoy a free “Moon Pie” and tea onboard the Delta Queen. There we marvel at how this old steamer once sailed the “Mighty Mississippi” and accommodated a President and his family.

Before long it is time to head over to Market Street where we get a good share of laughs, decent food and cheap draft beer. We are at Vaudeville Cafe for its regular Friday night comedy show.

 

 

 

 

 

Walnut Street Bridge

 

 

 

 

Next, we are being entertained by some of Chattanooga’s yet to be discovered vocal talents at Sing It or Wing It, just a few doors down from Vaudeville Cafe. Our first night turns out to be a lot of fun.

It is not until the next day after stumbling on a great local restaurant for lunch, Don Juan on Ringgold in East Ridge then driving about 2 hours north of Chattanooga that I discover that I might be a cow or at least a calf.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don Juan Mexican Restaurant Tacos Muy Deliciosos

 

 

 

Did you know that if you ate 360 cheeseburgers a day and drank 600 cartons of milk a day you would be eating like a cow not a pig? I think I came close once or twice.

For about US$7 per person we are taking a tour of Mayfield Dairy Farm in Athens Tennessee which according to Time Magazine is “Home Of The Best Ice Cream In The World”.

At the end of our tour we will get to test this claim as an ice cream serving is included in the price of our tour ticket.

 

 

 

 

It is interesting to watch milk and ice cream manufacturing taking place and to learn some fun facts. For example, Mayfield Dairy was the first dairy in the country to package milk in yellow plastic bottles which protects the milk from harmful light and preserves its nutrients and flavor.

Also, this plant requires 20,000 cows to be milked twice a day to support its production line which produces over a million gallons of milk a week, uses around 25,000 pounds of chocolate a day for its ice cream products of which it produces 50,000 gallons a day.

Even if I might be cow, I am sure glad they produce 50,000 gallons of ice cream a day especially “Banana Split” with pineapple, pecans and some of that 25,000 pounds of chocolate all swirled in.

 

 

 

For this I would definitely … “Mooooo, mooooo”.