6:15-6:30pm: We will meet in front of the Phipps Plaza AMC Theatres on the top level of the mall before the movie. You need to arrive early as the number of tickets distributed exceeds the seating capacity of the theatre. The movie starts at 7:30 PM but we will be inside before then. We will try to be out front until about 6:30 PM unless the theatre is full before that time.

After the movie: We will go to a nearby restaurant for dinner/drinks and to socialize.

Cost: Free movie pass (Supporting Members); Your food/drinks.

Location: Phipps Plaza is located at 3500 Peachtree Rd NE, Atlanta 30305 at the corner of Lenox Rd NE across from Lenox Mall, one block from the MARTA Lenox station. [Google Maps · MapQuest] 

Reservations: This event is for Supporting Members only. Space is limited. [RSVP details posted to our eNewsletter.]

9:30 AM: We will meet in Atlanta for breakfast then carpool to Chattanooga.

We will take a 4-hour guided wild tour of Raccoon Mountain Caverns which is noted for its incredible variety of passageways, large waterfalls, diverse formations, abundant fossils, and spectacular scenery.

The wild cave tours are designed to permit us to explore the inner portions of the cave system with a skilled guide. These areas are unlit and are presented in their natural state. Emphasis is placed upon safety, ecology, and proper technique. Their tours are regarded by many as the most challenging and rigorous expeditions in this part of the country. 

We will experience the challenge of a vast network of underground chambers, canyons and tunnels requiring us to walk, crawl, and climb over, under, and through a rugged maze of rock formations. This will be an exciting and unforgettable adventure!

After our tour, we will have use of their shower facilities to clean up and change clothes. We will then have dinner before heading back to Atlanta Saturday evening.

Cave Geology: Raccoon Mountain Caverns is located in a band of limestone from the Monteagle Formation, which formed during the Mississippian Period (approximately 320-360 million years ago), on the bottom of an ancient sea. In this sea, fragments and shells of various marine animals sank to the bottom and became compacted over time to form limestone rock. We have fossils of crinoids, coral, bryozoans, and echinoderms throughout our cave. Although fossils in the limestone tell us the age of the rock, they are not much help in determining the age of the cave. Most caves, including ours, are less than ten million years old. 

By the end of the Permian Period (about 225 million years ago), tremendous mountain building forces resulting from the collision of the continents forced the seas to retreat and pushed and folded the layers of older rocks high above the level of the sea. This produced the anticlines (rocks folded into an arch) and synclines (rocks folded into a “u” shape) which are now the Appalachian Mountains. Raccoon Mountain caverns is at the edge of the Sequatchie Valley which is one of the largest and most spectacular anticlinal valleys in the world.

Limestone caves are formed when acids attack and dissolve the calcite contained within limestone. This acid is usually carbonic acid (also known as soda water or carbonated water) which is formed when carbon dioxide combines with water. Most of the carbon dioxide comes from decaying leaves and vegetation in the soil. Scientists believe that most caves form below the water table by slowly moving water. After a rain, the rainwater mixes with the carbon dioxide in the soil and dissolves the limestone underneath.

Two factors control the formation of cave passageways: vertical and horizontal fractures in the limestone, and the water table. A cave is formed by water moving slowly in the small fractures below the water table. The rate of flow below the fractures changes as some limestone is easier to dissolve than others due to variations in composition. (This is evident at Headache Rock which is viewed along the Crystal Palace Tour.) Some channels grow larger as they take in more water and, as a result, they grow faster.

The cave forming process may take thousands of years and can be stopped by either the lowering of the water table or the formation of air passageways in the cave system due to surface erosion. As outside air enters the cave system, the water quickly becomes supersaturated with calcite and the dissolving process eventually stops. This change usually marks the beginning of the depositing of calcite in the form of stalactites, stalagmites, and other deposits known as speleothems.

Cave History: Up until the late 1920’s, local farmers would come by the exposed limestone rocks at the base of the portion of Raccoon Mountain known as Mount Aetna. There they would sit and relax on hot afternoons as they enjoyed the cool air which would blow out of the cracks in the limestone rocks.

Finally, in late 1929, they invited Leo Lambert, a famed local caver who discovered Ruby Falls the year before, to explore the area for a cave. After crawling through a small opening in a horizontal crack, Mr. Lambert found a pristine cave which appealed to his love of caves. He decided to open it as a tourist attraction and spent the next several years working on trails around the Crystal Palace Room. He named this beautiful cave “Tennessee Caverns” and opened it to the public on June 28, 1931.

The original tour, now known as the Lambert Tour, circled the Crystal Palace Room which was, at that time, the largest room in the cave. Some twenty years after its opening, the Smith Brothers were managing the cave and discovered a small hole just off the Crystal Palace Room. It is said that it was so tight that they had to exhale so they could squeeze through the tiny opening. Less than twenty feet later, they found the passage opening into a larger room and continued their discoveries. Eventually, they were able to enlarge the tour to include these newly discovered areas. Today this tour is known as The Crystal Palace Tour. To date, they have found and mapped over 5-1/2 miles of passageways with new discoveries still being made.

Over the years, the name of the cave was changed from Tennessee Caverns to Crystal City Caves and eventually to its current name - Raccoon Mountain Caverns in the early 1970’s.

Costs: Guided tour: $40 (Supporting Members), $45 (Basic Members/Guests). They will provide everyone with a safety helmet, headlamp with battery pack, kneepads and gloves.

You should bring money for your breakfast, lunch, and dinner in addition to gas money for your carpool driver. We will have some drinks and snacks.

Location: Atlanta meeting location TBA.

Reservations Required: Space is limited. Deposit required to hold your spot. [RSVP details posted to our eNewsletter.]

Click any of the above photos to view a larger image size or click here to see them all.

6:15-6:30pm: We will meet in front of the Phipps Plaza AMC Theatres on the top level of the mall before the movie. You need to arrive early as the number of tickets distributed exceeds the seating capacity of the theatre. The movie starts at 7:30 PM but we will be inside before then. We will try to be out front until about 6:30 PM unless the theatre is full before that time.

Lucky Number Slevin stars Josh Hartnett, Lucy Liu, Ben Kingsley, Bruce Willis, and Morgan Freeman. Set in the world of black and Jewish gangsters and spanning four decades, this thriller involves a Rabbi, a hit man, a horse and a case of mistaken identity.

The hapless Slevin (Hartnett) just wants to visit his buddy Nick in NYC and have a good time. Instead, he ends up wanted by two competing mob bosses and an assassin (Willis) -- all of whom think he's Nick. Thanks to Nick's smokin' hot neighbor (Liu), however, Slevin does get a little 'Lucky.'

Synopsis from MyMovies.net: The drama is set in a world where African–American and Jewish gangsters collide. Hartnett plays Slevin, a man who has to kill the son of a rival crime boss. Ben Kingsley plays Shlomo (aka the Rabbi), the head of the biggest crime syndicate in New York. Slevin is caught in a case of mistaken identity and used by the mob boss as a patsy in a murder conspiracy.

Synopsis from MovieFone: Josh Hartnett stars as Slevin, who stumbles into something decidedly shady when he goes to visit his friend Nick and runs straight into a henchman's fist instead. "The Boss" (Morgan Freeman) is looking for Nick -- and not in a good way -- but Slevin can't prove he's not Nick, since his wallet got stolen earlier that morning. It's a case of mistaken identity that gets Slevin way in over his head with some of the highest-profile heavies New York City has ever seen. Also stars Bruce Willis, Ben Kingsley, Lucy Liu and Stanley Tucci.

There will be a Q&A session with the Director, Paul McGuigan, immediately following the screening.

After the movie: We will go to a nearby restaurant for dinner/drinks and to socialize.

Cost: Free movie pass (Supporting Members); Your food/drinks.

Location: Phipps Plaza is located at 3500 Peachtree Rd NE, Atlanta 30305 at the corner of Lenox Rd NE across from Lenox Mall, one block from the MARTA Lenox station. [Google Maps · MapQuest] 

Reservations: This event is for Supporting Members only. Space is limited. [RSVP details posted to our eNewsletter.]

Learn to save a life at this FREE, community-wide event.

9:00am-2:00pm (start times): Adult CPR 4 hour training class. Class start times are staggered.

You will receive a one-year certification in Adult CPR with your passing test grade. This class is suitable for ages 12 and up.

Cost: Free (normally a $45 class fee)

Location: Kaiser Permanente, Glenlake Medical Center, 20 Glenlake Parkway, Atlanta, GA 30328. From GA 400N: Exit 5B (Abernathy Road, Sandy Springs), go west (towards Sandy Springs). Turn right on Glenlake Parkway. KP is on the left. Park in the parking garage.

Reservations: This is not an official Hotlanta Adventures event. Visit the Red Cross Atlanta Chapter website, call 404-575-3094 (8:15am - 4:30pm, M-F), or visit your nearest Red Cross District Office to register for this important class.