Holiday Inn

Maybe back in the day Holiday Inns were a nice place to stay. Nowadays unless you get to stay in a newly constructed motel, they all seem like a place going to seed, not yet there, but drifting that way. Our home away from home these last four days has been the Holiday Inn Choo-Choo Hotel in downtown Chattanooga. They have changed the elegant old train station into the lobby, restaurants and offices of the hotel. They have even turned some of the old railway cars into rooms and dining. A nice concept, recapture the glory days of rail travel in America. Unfortunately today’s tourist is not really interested. The kids get a kick out of climbing on the steam engine and standing in the engineers spot, but only for a minute, then they want to go to the pool or play in the video arcade. The place fits my expectations of an older Holiday Inn and it is sad. The rail cars look like they need a renovation instead of the every other year paint job on the roof. You just know that today’s style corporation will use and use just patching things until it stops making money then discard it. Pardon me boy, was that the Chattanooga Choo Choo?