Sunday, August 15, 2010

K-ville

We spent the day in Knoxville, TN Saturday. We stopped by the Ijams Nature Center, rode the TN Riverboat, played in the fountains at the World's Fair plaza and went to the top of the Sunsphere. Not too shabby for 7 hours.


We were in town while an anti-immigration rally of some type was going on. Apparently Neo-Nazis from Wisconsin decided to drop in. Law enforcement was present in spades! Cars, bikes, special ops vehicles: all over downtown. Plus a helicopter buzzing overhead the whole time we were there.

There were no apparent food options near Ijams; we had to fortify ourselves with chips and water and caught a late lunch on the way back downtown. We were on the TN River while a "wakeboarding" event sponsored by MasterCraft was being run and taped for later television broadcast. There's nothing like a thunderstorm to clear out the fountain area. People were leaving in droves as we pulled up. We waited a few minutes and had the place nearly to ourselves. Same with the Sunsphere.


Knoxville felt a lot like Richmond: the riverfront, the humidity, the big-city vibe, the humidity, the history, the humidity. There are a lot more things to do there, so I feel certain we'll head back to enjoy the humidity.


When planning the day, I noted that there is a steam train in Knoxville. This particular weekend was their rail-fest. Tickets for the event were way out of our league. However, we espied a couple of the locos tanking up on water. That was a nice serendipity while we waited for our cruise to depart.


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