We spent yesterday afternoon and all of today exploring Knoxville, our first city on the western leg of our journey to California.

Blessedly, the humidity we have in Florida is not present here and it has been sunny and cool (low 80’s) with a breeze. Knoxville has a beautiful City Hall complex, with courtyards, gardens, and statuary. Our favorite was a head entitled Beloved Lady of Justice.

Then we toured the Eastern Tennessee Museum of History. Always interesting to learn about how a state came about and see artifacts from people’s lives. A couple of good tidbits were seeing Dolly Parton (born in Tennessee) singing in a group as a teen with a boy-short haircut, and a miner’s hat with a teapot-shaped oil lantern that was a literal headlamp!

There was a mock-up of an old-fashioned apothecary shop that we could have spent hours in. The names of the tinctures, powders, and compounds were so antiquated and funny. Amazingly, they even had a bottle of tincture of opium and atropine, with actual pills inside. We hope they were placebos!

From there we went to Market Square where there is a farmer’s market each Wednesday and Saturday. There was abundant fresh produce and herbs, baked goods, hand-tooled jewelry, plant-based cosmetics, a splash fountain for the kiddos, everything you could want.

Next, we walked to the Tennessee Museum of Art. Outside was a children’s festival. Children’s voices, laughter, and occasional shrieks filled the air as they got their faces painted, created art projects, met Scout Leaders and Police officers. The Museum itself featured Contemporary Art, with exhibits that ranged from the awesome e.g. (huge time-lapse projections of flowers closing and opening) to the absolutely incomprehensible.

The Sunsphere, a 261-foot hexagonal steel truss structure, topped with a gold-colored glass dome, loomed behind the Museum, so we had to check it out. It was built as a symbol of the 1982 World’s Fair, which was held in Knoxville, and the last successful World’s Fair in the US. Paula wrestled with her acrophobia but did ascend and walked around the 360-degree walkway up top, enjoying the bird’s eye view of the Tennessee River, the University of Tennessee, the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, and more. She just didn’t come close to the guardrail and edge. At the foot of the Sunsphere were landscaped gardens and water features and an impressive outdoor amphitheater overlooking the water.

Then we had lunch outside at Cafe 4. Tommy had a Tennessee cheesesteak and crispy Brussels Sprouts, (delicious) and Paula had the Strawberry Field Green salad (also great) and bites of Tommy’s food.

Now full, we found, after some searching, the downtown mural walking tour, which turned out to be a narrow alley, trash cans and all, but with the most varied and amazing murals painted on every inch of the walls of the alley. Unique!

We stopped at the Spice & Tea exchange, and Paula bought a few new spice mixes she hadn’t seen in Florida. After that, we took a tour of the Blount Mansion, which was a lot more interesting than you might imagine. William Blount, Tennessee’s first governor and Senator, apparently was quite the rogue and shyster, and our very enthusiastic docent gave us a great picture of his life and times. The mansion contained artifacts useful for a very different way of life than we have now. We loved the kitchen best. It’s in a separate building outside the main house, to diminish the risk of a fire engulfing the whole. We saw cookie presses ornately carved of wood, huge bread kneading bowls, a giant hand-rotated rotisserie spit for fowl and game, butter churn. Clearly, a lot of hard physical labor, performed by slaves, went into making the necessities and occasional treats that life back then afforded.

By now we were tired and took a rest back at the hotel. Paula’s watch told us that we had walked over 5 miles. Hmm, wonder if that’s enough work to merit desert at dinner…