Thursday, 14 November 2019
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| today's route |
Knoxville
I drove first south to take a quick tour of Knoxville. If I were staying in town for a few days, there are several museums and things I'd like to see, but given my timeframe and the weather, I decided to just take a driving tour of the highlights.
Sunsphere
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| Sunsphere and environs |
It was built for the 1982 World's Fair and is one of the only remaining buildings. In fact, it was closed for some years until enterprising businessmen reopened it a few years ago. The public is allowed free access to the observation deck on the 5th floor and there are restaurants on a couple of other floors.
The 74' ball is just a ball - not something people can go inside. The gold color comes from actual gold dust impregnated in a vinyl film that's laminated to the double-pane glass windows.
I got several good views of it as I was driving around, including a close-up view of the base as I drove alongside. This photo isn't mine, though, it's from the internet, as you can tell from all the greenery. The ball I saw appears more gold than in that photo, for some reason.
Old City
I drove around some of the main area of town that's called Old City, for obvious reasons. For instance, I passed the Bijou Theater with a sign on the marquee saying, "Entertaining Knoxville for 110 years."
One thing I quickly noticed was the amount of public art in the downtown area. In just a few blocks I saw 5 or 6 public sculptures. I couldn't find any noncopyrighted copies of them but this website gives you an idea. https://knoxvillepublicart.com/current-collection A couple of them I noted particularly. In the middle of the 10th row down is a sculpture called The Oarsman. It's in front of the Sun Trust building and is a bit startling to see.
The statue in the middle of the last row is called the Burn Memorial and commemorates an interesting moment in history. Harry Burn was, at 24, the youngest senator in the TN State Senate in 1920. The 19th Amendment to the Constitution had been ratified by 35 states, but still needed one more before American women could have the right to vote.
Harry knew he should vote for it but didn't want to upset his very conservative constituents so decided he'd vote with whichever the majority was. Unfortunately for him, the vote was a tie and his was the deciding vote. His mother Febb (really) had written to him to "do the right thing" so he voted to ratify. I don't know how much of a political career he had after that, but it was that one vote that ensured half the (white) American population could vote. Yet another example of the serious need for us all to vote - even when we think we know the outcome.
University of Tennessee
Only a few blocks from the main part of downtown is the beginning of the school's buildings. Access is up a steep portion of Cumberland Ave. to what's called The Hill. University buildings were all originally built on this hill and On A Hallowed Hill is the school's alma mater song (their words).
From there the ground levels out some and school buildings spread out for quite a few acres along Cumberland Ave. The University was founded in 1794 and now has about 28,000 students.
They abbreviate the name as UT, but I am myself an alumna of what I regard as the real UT - University of Texas. To my Texas-trained mind, even their school colors - (ordinary) orange and white - can't be compared for coolness with UT's burnt orange and white, as you can see for yourself.
Cumberland Ave. is a 3-lane street, and at one intersection I found all traffic stopped for a while because a tractor-trailer rig was trying to turn left. But it was a tight corner and the driver couldn't finish the turn until the young woman in a red Jeep in the turn lane backed up to give him more room. Which she did inch by inch. There was nobody behind her and as far as I could tell, she was just so focused on the left turn she wanted to make, she wasn't willing to move. So about 10 of us sat there and waited for reality to sink in. And she backed a foot more. Then she backed another foot. And another one. Dopey.
Back to PetsMart
Before I left town I stopped off at the PetsMart I'd been to a couple of weeks ago. When I was there before I bought an extra dog bed that was on sale for $22. I put it on top of Gracie's regular bed because I thought she might need extra padding and insulation. Turns out both dogs like it so much they very nearly argue about who gets to sleep on it. I've seen them both sleep on it together.
Dexter's currently sleeping on 2 beds, stacked together, but they're both about 18 years old and I figured maybe they need some extra padding and insulation themselves. Luckily, the beds were still on sale so I got another one. And now both dogs are happy. Glad I could accomplish that for only $22.
Back on the road
On my way into Knoxville and again on my way out of town I encountered a level of traffic I thought was excessive for that time of day. I know Knoxville's a big city, but it's not that big - about 185,000. Yet both entering and leaving I was looking at something almost like Houston's evening rush hour traffic. Weird.
We were driving along the highway when - suddenly - all the snow and ice that had been frozen to the hood of the RV blew up onto the windshield and completely covered it. My wipers took care of it, but it was a little scary for a minute. Dexter was looking at me for reassurance, so I told him everything was fine - but it took me a minute to make my voice sound calm. But I really had tried to chip off as much of that ice as I could before we left the campground, and again when we were in the PetsMart parking lot, so I really don't think I could have avoided it. It just needed to melt. Glad I was only going about 60 mph.
I spent several hours today driving on I-75, my old friend from central Texas. About an hour out of Knoxville it branches off to the south and I continued on I-40.
Out in the middle of absolutely nothing I found an enormous facility labeled H.T. Hackney Co. Curious, I looked them up and learned it's one of the country's largest grocery distributors. There's really nothing at all around there.
I passed a sign saying it was the turnoff to the Y-12 Security Complex and the Oak Ridge National Lab. Oak Ridge is actually closer to Clinton than to Knoxville and I'd vaguely thought about visiting there. I'd heard there's a museum of atomic energy, which I thought might be interesting, and from somewhere I heard there's a national historic park that gives tours. If I'd been staying longer in the area, and if the weather had been better, I would have. Just not this trip.
Actually, I've never heard of the Y-12 Security Complex and looked it up. https://en.wikipedia.org/Y-12-National-Security-Complex From this link it sounds fascinating. And even though it appears to be part of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, this link about the facility sounds more boring. Maybe it's just depending on who wrote them. https://en.wikipedia.org/Oak-Ridge-National-Laboratory
I passed another highway sign for the turnoff to the home of Sgt. Alvin York, the most highly decorated soldier of WWI. His story, as told in this article, sounds completely typical for both the WWI era and for a rural Tennessean of any era. In other words, typically American - but America at its best. https://en.wikipedia.org/Alvin-York
As the highway climbed to a ridge top, I started seeing frost along the sides of the road. Not something to give me confidence in the road surface, but it all seemed okay. Too much traffic along the road today, I guess, for there to still be any frost on it.
From that altitude I could see the foothills again in the distance. Here, though, the hills looked lower and much farther away than those I saw on the other side of Knoxville. Of course, that's probably because they were lower and farther away. Still pretty, though.
I passed the town of Crossville, which claims to be the home of the US Chess Foundation, and also the Golf Capital of Tennessee. I think it bases that second claim on the nearby golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus.
I passed a large manufacturing plant labeled StonePeak - High Tech Porcelain. Wondering what high tech porcelain could be about, I looked it up and found some unusual tile products. You can see for yourself here. https://www.stonepeakceramics.com
And on to tonight's campground. Along the way we crossed back into Central Time, so we were all ready for supper by about 4:15. It looks as though I'll be staying in this time zone for more than another year, so this should be our last adjustment for a while. With Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee all having 2 time zones, we've been going back and forth for quite a few months now. It'll be nice to settle down with just one for a while.
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