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| Early morning, French Broad River |
Knoxville Tennessee
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| Norris Dam to Knoxville and Douglas Dam, MAP |
Campground: Tailwater Campground, Douglas Dam. $20 Senior rate. Saved about $7, another Government campground run by a concessionaire… no longer honors the half off senior rate. Nice sites next to the French Broad River below the dam. 30 amp electric/water. Dump station available. 3 PBS Tv stations, weak 4g Verizon signal. Note: just a couple years ago the Senior rate was $11 and it’s still listed on the Gov. website as that.
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| Douglas Dam Tailwater campground |
Before I left the Norris Dam area, I drove back into the small town of Clinton Tennessee where they have all those antique shops. I went back to the shop where I’d purchased the “camp” pillow. Come to find out, the owner is a real-estate agent and ended up purchasing 10 of the building in town before it became the go to town for all those antique shops. He now rents them all out except for the one he owns and runs. He and his wife deal mainly with new items that have a country vintage flair to them. Like the pillows made out of flour sacks, and the metal 3 dimensional signs spelling out Tennessee. He’s obviously done quite well for himself and has built a small town into the success it is today.
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| Clinton Tennessee, lots of Vintage shops |
A few stores down from this shop is another Antique/vintage shop. When I walked in, I saw a few things I liked and as usual took a few pictures with my camera. The owner came from behind a partition in the back of the shop and asked what I was doing in a rather hostile manner. I said I was just browsing around. He said nothing and went into the back again. Near the front of his store, I noticed some neat old shutters that I thought would make a nice composition for a shot so once again I took out my camera to take a few more pictures. The owner appeared quickly and once again asked a couple times in a harsh tone, “what are you doing”. I explained I was a photographer and hoped he didn’t mind my taking a few shots of the unique pile of shutters. Come to find out 20+ years earlier someone had done the same thing and then went to the police and said he had stolen items in his shop. I told him I understood and that I was a full time Rv-er and liked to take pictures of everything I saw. Assuring him I was not trying to do anything that would harm him.
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| park setting to parking lot in back of shops |
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| outside the nice shop I purchased the "camp" pillow |
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| owner of this shop described in the story |
After a brief discussion trying to make him feel better, I mentioned that I really liked the little town and all the shops (not particularly his or his attitude but I didn’t tell him that of course). He went on to say things like “Oh it’s nice enough if you just come for a day visit and leave”. “Look around, but don’t remain more than a day, you’ll be alright” . “This town is too narrow minded for the average person, so don’t think about staying”. Geez, what a creepy feeling I got from this shop owner who obviously didn’t like where he had ended up.
Come to think of it, when I was at the other shop where I had purchased the “camp” pillow, I had mentioned to the owner that I had sent out a bunch of pictures on Face book and that lots of my FB friends had commented on the two silver mannequins, one of a bare butt and the other of a women’s boobs. The shop owner said, yah, you’d understand if you knew the owner of that shop as he had issues and was probably trying to send a message to the town what they could do, so to speak . So I guess you could say, there’s more going on behind closed doors in this nice little town that you’d ever expect and there are many more layers than the average tourist is usually aware of.
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| shop owner apparently making a statement to the town.... opps |
My last day at Norris Dam I of course did laundry once again and even did a second task in one day. I know, I know, I usually try to only do one task a day, but the roof of the camper has been under trees for that last two weeks. Leaves have been falling on the roof and a day of rain helped to stain the top of the camper and I needed to get up there and wash the white back into the PVC roof. Got most of the stains out, but it looks like I’m going to have to give it a second washing once I reach Florida.
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| a real home town laundromat, sit awhile and enjoy |
Distance Traveled:
37 miles to Rv repair/Knoxville.
20 miles to campsite/Douglas Dam.
Arriving at Tennessee Rv Sales and Service around 8:30 am. They checked me in and I gave them the info on previous work on the large slide out unit that was accomplished by the Rv road service technician awhile back. The adjustment took about two hours and cost $260.00. All the cost was for labor. Normally I would have been able to do the adjustment myself but since the slide had been somewhat out of kilter, I felt it better to have some professionals do the work. After all, I wouldn’t want to attempt adjusting the slides myself only to have it once again fail on me and not be able to close the slide. Leaving me stuck at a campsite somewhere.
Just a note to my Rv friends: if you need service in the Knoxville area, they might be able to get you in, though I had to wait over two weeks for an appointment. Service department has the skilled technicians to do most jobs. The Rv parts store is very expensive so wouldn’t make any plans on getting Rv supplies here. Kind of expected that anyway as it’s a very upscale building and someone has to pay for that hey….
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| Built for the Worlds Fair in Knoxville in the 80's |
Knoxville Tn. My campsite is nicely situated between Knoxville, Sevierville and Pigeon Forge. (approx 15-30 minutes to each location). Having already visited the latter two towns, I decided to drive into Knoxville especially for the “Blue Plate Special” in the Visitor Center. What an awesome concept for a town to combine their public radio station, WDVX 89.9 fm, inside of their visitor center. The radio station is noted in the area for playing lots of folk, country, blues music and supporting local musicians. The visitor center has a stage and of course the radio station that airs “live blue plate special performances” every day at noon. I attended today’s music performed by two groups. The second set led by two guitar players (and singing on some songs) were the highlight of the noon day show. One guy was from New York and the other from New Zealand. Some of the best guitar players I’ve heard in quite some time. You can listen to this great Knoxville radio station at: WDVX.com. (click on the link) and enjoy the great music from this region of the country.
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| originally from New York on left and New Zealand on right the highlight to my Knoxville visit |
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| a young act only together for a couple of months excellent guitar playing and soulful sound |
Knoxville has a very nice compact and easy to walk central core around the French Market area. Parking either via metered parking street side or I recommend use one of the many parking garages. Cost: approx. $1 per hour. I’ll probably go back a second time in the next couple of days. I really like this town. It’s clean, vibrant, lots of shops and restaurants, historic buildings including a couple museums and even a fort and zoo.
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| downtown Knoxville, I'll definitely visit this vibrant town again. Hopefully along with visiting my friends Betty and Dave |
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| Knoxville convention center |
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| old YMCA building |
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| French Market area, great walking, shops and restaurants |
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| Farmers Market |
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| great mix of new and older buildings |
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| many converted to apartments and condos |
While in Sevierville I found a jewelry store that could resize a couple of rings I had purchased out west from the Zuni Tribe. Both rings were too large so after finally getting them downsized, I’m able to wear them and enjoy two beautiful reminders of my many visits out west.  |
| Sevierville Library |
I temporarily lost all of my bookmarks, links to photos etc. but it’s all back online once again after it completed the final downloading process 24 hours later. I was able to watch a couple of hours of class lectures online. Wish they would let me download the book, but it’s only free if I view it online.
My good friends Lorraine and Dave are in the area, but we are missing each other due to scheduled conflicts, guess we’ll see each other back in Florida this winter.
Next destination, Alabama
Photos:
Clinton Tennessee
Knoxville Tennessee
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