The Peacocks in Dalton

Yesterday Riley and I went down to Dalton for our day of adventure.  We try to take one day of adventure a month on one of my Friday off days.  Yesterday we wanted to check out the peacocks and visit family.  We planned to drop off some flowers for Mom (thanks for such a beautiful arrangement Creighton's Wildflowers!), take Mom out for lunch and hang out with any other family who happened to be around town.

I first learned about the peacocks from an artist named Donna who had posted about them. [You can connect to Donna Godwin's Art Studio Facebook page HERE.]  I didn't even know my hometown had them.  I had seen Buffalo statues in Buffalo, MN and a bear in Murphy, NC, but I hadn't heard nor seen of the peacocks. Having seen live ones at the Cenacle Retreat Center in Houston, TX, I wanted to see these.

We parked behind City Hall at Selvidge St. and Waugh St. to start our adventure.  That was neat because the parking lot allowed me to see my Dad's former insurance building that now belongs to John Robertson.  I have many fond memories of hanging out in the Selvidge St. office building as a kid and remember the days of Rock Hill school when it started there.

We went to check out the peacock on the corner and while we were standing there, one of the "Guy With a Truck" trucks passed by.  I waved at it, wondering if my brother was working.  The guys in the truck must have wondered who the crazy lady on the street corner was-- I was waving with one hand to them and pointing to myself with the other, as if to say, 'it's me'.  Like they were going to know who 'me' was. It was funny.  When they passed by, I snapped a quick picture and sent it to my brother.  It turned out he WAS working that day, but he wasn't in that truck.  He was in the smaller green truck.  Oh, well.

back side

Guy With A Truck

What I liked about this peacock was the variety in the scenes.  There were multiple scenes with activities in them, including kayaking and hiking.  Admittedly, I also liked the colors.  I matched this peacock and another one best.

After admiring this peacock (both front and back), we walked down to the courthouse to see another one, across from the courthouse, almost at the corner of Selvidge St. and King St.

Even though Mom had told me about where they all were, I looked them up and we used Peacocks on Parade-- 1000 Words as our tour guide.

We walked down King St. and saw two more peacocks.

This peacock is at 115 King St., sponsored by Laughter & Jones Financial.  I took close-ups of two of the financial sayings as they are relevant to us in this stage of life.

The second peacock we saw before lunch was located at Hamilton St. and King St. and was adopted by the Dance Theater of Dalton/Toys in the Attic.

We saw one more peacock before we before we met up with the crew for lunch. This peacock is located at the Historic Post Office on Hamilton St. and  Crawford St.  It's the Civitan peacock.  I took some extra pictures of this one because it had quite a bit of writing on it on the front.  I really liked the back of it, with the people in a circle and the butterflies.

Lunch was at "More Than Greens", a salad bar restaurant.  Well, as the name says, it did have more than just a salad bar.  It had quiche and some other hot items and dessert. You pay by the ounce.  The chicken salad was very tasty, as were the variety of olives.

Because it had begun to warm up quite a bit, Riley and I got a ride back to our car before finding the remaining peacocks.

Our next two peacocks were on Hamilton St. They were close to each other and we were able to find them easily.  The first one below is in front of Crescent City Tavern at 311 S. Hamilton St. and the second one is at The Sweet Spot at 336 S. Hamilton St.

From there we walked around the corner,  by some cool wall art on corrugated metal, by the Moonshine Distillery, and to find one more peacock.  It was on Depot St. and Morris St. in front of the other side of the Crescent City Tavern and by the Chamber of Commerce. We got to look at the Pullman car that was in the yard.

As we headed back to the car, I noticed the metal owls on the front side of the Crescent City Tavern and went inside the patio area to try to get a better picture.  There are quite a few of these metal type sculptures around Chattanooga on Amnicola Highway, but I don't know much about them.  I thought the owls were neat looking.

After finishing our tour of the peacocks (well, what we think is "finished"-- we found a total of 8 and per other sources, there may be 9), we decided to find some local coffee before going over to Mom's house.  Upon searching for local coffee, it showed up that a coffee shop, Common Ground (Facebook page), was in Christ Church Presbyterian on Tibbs Road.  We decided to give it a try.  We weren't disappointed.  [Here is the link to Common Ground via the church website.]

We got there and found a wonderful coffee shop serving Mad Priest coffee.  There was a spacious outdoor area (that they are working on to make more user friendly) and a spacious indoor area with tables, sofas, a chess set, and bar seating.  The atmosphere was great.

Now this next line might sound weird coming from a pastor, but here goes.  Even though this coffee shop is inside a church, it doesn't feel "churchy". I say this in case you're looking for a local coffee shop, but you are unsure about walking into a church building.  It's okay.  You're not going to be attacked by any Christians trying to convert you.  If you bring up any churchy-type topic, I imagine  you will be engaged, as I was. (I asked questions that brought up church and I shared that I was a pastor.) The main thing you need to know about this coffee shop is that you will be served coffee.  Good coffee.  It definitely gives new meaning to the term "church coffee".

We had good conversations with the barista Cade and another guy, Kinzer, who was telling us about the Chattanooga Coffee Crawl, a meetup group, and a blog he is starting about coffee with videos and podcasts.  It was fun.  And the coffee?  Riley had the cold brew and I had a latte.  Both were excellent.

We headed back over to my parents' house and got to visit some more with the family before heading back home.

It turned out to be a great day of adventure.

Blessings on your journey,

Debra