Category: Fun

We’ve had a gloomy winter in our hometown.  Our trip to Florida (link) gave us some respite from the gloom, but we returned to nothing but rain and general overall yuckiness. It seems now, however, that the pattern is changing and we are due for a prolonged stretch of clearer skies and milder temperatures. On Tuesday of this week, I peered out the window of the Man Cave and caught an unfamiliar sight…sunshine, glorious sunshine.

Fortunately, my schedule was wide open.  Helen (adorable wife) is still involved with therapy for her healing knee, but she can drive herself leaving me free to roam at will. I quickly checked the schedule for the WDVX Blue Plate Special on the Inside of Knoxville website and made sure that something musical was happening there, then grabbed the camera and jumped into Freddie (my beloved FJ Cruiser).

The plan was to capture as many spring flowers with my camera as I could on my way to the WDVX studio and share them with Easin’ Along readers that may still be shrouded in winter’s gloom. The flowers and flowering trees have bloomed later than usual this year, but when they decided to give us a peek, they came out in radiant colors.

Every year at this time our city hosts a Dogwood Arts Festival to celebrate the arrival of spring and to highlight the beauty and culture of our region.  As part of that event, the festival committee designates a few of our city streets as Dogwood Trails due to the abundance of flowers, trees, and gardens found there. I drove to one of those trails. 

The tulips seemed particularly bright and colorful this year, and it was not difficult to spot some of them right away. Here are the tulips that popped out for my camera. I especially like white ones shown here plus those at the top of the page.

Not to be outdone, the azaleas appeared at their peak in a variety of colors and blossoms. If all goes well, they should stay with us for a while longer.  The few shown here certainly should help to erase some of the hangovers from endless days of gray sky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many of the early daffodils have bloomed and disappeared already, but there was one area near the Dogwood Trail covered in bright yellow.  The picture taken here is just a small sample of what was in front of me. I estimated that there had to be thousands of flowers in that field.

You can’t have a Dogwood Festival without Dogwoods and this year’s crop seemed eager to show their stuff.  Unfortunately, a blight affected the dogwood trees many years ago and resulted in a tree that produced an ugly brown bloom…I have one in my yard.  Nevertheless, botanists and researchers have worked diligently to produce strains resistant to the blight, and we are seeing the results now.  Here is one such tree.

I could take pictures all morning, but it was time for me and the camera to take in some music. The Blue Plate Special, a live radio show, begins every weekday at noon. The WDVX studio is on the edge of downtown in the Knoxville Visitor Center. I can’t think of a better way to introduce visitors to the region than to showcase the music that is such a large part of what is inside native Tennesseans.   

The featured music is predominately Bluegrass, but other forms, including (but not limited to) blues, folk, country, and gospel are featured as well. Often, performers traveling through or performing in the city will come on the show to promote their music or performance at another venue at a later time. There is no charge for the one-hour radio show. I took a seat in the second row.

At exactly 12:00 noon, the studio host, Red Hickey (don’t you love the name), welcomed the modest live crowd and the radio audience to the day’s offering.  In return, Red received a vibrant burst of applause from an enthusiastic crowd. Next, she introduced us to the first group, a quartet of young men from nearby Kingsport, Tennessee who called themselves the Smokehouse Crickets. Ms. Hickey asked them about the name’s origin, but I’m not certain we ever received a clear answer.  What we did receive was some great music.

 

I’m not a musician, nor a student of music.  I do know if I like it, however, and I like the music of the Smokehouse Crickets a lot.  The selections played for us I would call something akin to a lively arrangement of Blues bordering on Modern Country music. The music was heavy on guitar and written by the lead singer.  All are talented musicians, and the principal guitar player also broke out his trumpet on one selection. The audience loved it.

There were two groups featured on this day with each playing approximately thirty minutes.  The second group, Chris Ross, and the North hailed from the State of Maine and were scheduled to perform that night in Knoxville. They had made it to town that morning after appearing in Nashville the night before.  Although they looked a bit road weary, they sounded great and happily told the audience that they were looking forward to being home by the weekend. I would describe their sound as having Country Music overtones and featured an excellent lead guitarist. The lead singer had a very strong voice.

The show ended precisely at 1:00 pm after Red Hickey told us about the shows for the remainder of the week. I parted ways with the crowd a smidgeon early to grab a bite of lunch before time expired on my free two-hour parking permit. Free entertainment and free downtown parking is an unbeatable combination.

My chosen lunch spot is a café within a short walk of the Visitor Center called NotWatson’s, named after a department store (Watsons) that closed many years ago in the same building.

I’ll share my hot and tasty Philly Cheesesteak sandwich and fries with you as you enjoy a snippet of video from the Smokehouse Crickets’ performance at the Blue Plate Special (below). I’ve even placed a few tulips on the table. 

Tulips for the table

 

 

 

It’s a beautiful day for Easin’ Along.

With Gracey (our RV) parked for a few weeks and because it’s Spring Break where our granddaughters live, their Mom and Dad drove them over the mountains to Knoxville to visit BeBe and Big Daddy (you gotta love our grandparent names—we do). Helen, (adorable wife) known as BeBe to our granddaughters, was recovering from knee replacement and doing well, but needed a big hug from the girls to speed up the process. We were excited about seeing everyone.

Before their arrival, our son had heard about an event taking place that he thought the girls would enjoy and brought it to our attention.  The event, a Dragon Lights Festival, sounded like fun and agreed that this is one we should attend.  Helen felt like this would be a good opportunity to give the new knee a test because it would involve quite a bit of walking. I wasn’t so sure, the event covers a 17-acre fairground, but she is one tough girl.

Everyone arrived on Tuesday and settled in nicely.  Helen was so grateful to have someone besides me to talk to; I don’t think her feet ever hit the floor. She showed the girls her latest puzzle, and without any persuading, they finished it for her, minus one missing piece (Helen buys her puzzles from a thrift shop). 

Wednesday was the day we planned to attend the festival, so we learned a few things about what we would be seeing.  The enormous lanterns on display are the creations of about 40 Chinese artisans brought to this country to display their skills at several locations in the United States. The manager of the Knoxville Fairgrounds wanted to bring the lanterns to our city to host a family-friendly event and give our citizens an opportunity to view something unique and different. She succeeded.

An additional highlight of our evening of fun would be dinner at Sweet P’s Downtown Dive, a local eatery that specializes in barbecue. We hoped that by going early on a Wednesday, we would be able to find seats because Sweet P’s is a very popular restaurant and long waits are not uncommon. When we arrived, a line was forming, but it was short, and we found a large table perfect for the family.  Barbecue gets Big Daddy fired up big time!

I love Sweet P’s method of serving guests because everything is buffet style and the servers behind the food counter are friendly, fun, and fast. The food is served hot, and the portions are generous. My usual selection is barbecued meatloaf (exquisite), but it was not on the menu tonight, and I opted for a barbecue pork plate with “Greens and Things” instead. I topped off the pork with Sweet P’s tangy, thick sauce. The meal was heavenly.

My daughter-in-law ordered a meal of the barbecue ribs with the greens and the “Tomato and Blues” salad. The salad is grape tomatoes blended with a dressing that is heavy on blue cheese. I can only describe it by using the word divine. The girls helped her with the ribs and, as you can see in the picture, look great in anything they eat.

As we approached the fairgrounds, the lanterns loomed large over the road leading to the parking area. The girls stared at them in wide-eyed wonder and had to be held back while I purchased tickets. Helen made a wise decision to use two hiking poles to make walking easier on her knee and to steady herself if she got bumped by the crowd. The poles helped.

The Chinese artisans construct the lanterns by welding steel frames in the shape of different characters and covering them with silk in a variety of bright colors. The amazing part of the construction is that the silk is hand-painted by the artisans using an airbrush and the level of shading and striping on each character is truly a work of art. The lights inside the characters bring out the vivid colors.

According to an article in the Knoxville News-Sentinel, the Knoxville festival has 42 lantern displays and is the second largest lantern festival in the United States. Two of the displays feature custom-built Malayan tigers and gibbons lanterns and have not been part of any other festival. These two animals live in the Knoxville Zoo which is adjacent to the fairgrounds.

In addition to the lanterns, Chinese entertainers performed on a stage along the festival route.  We paused to watch a group of jugglers perform a routine of dancing and tumbling while keeping four dinner plates balanced on metal rods.  Throughout the performance, I didn’t see a single plate hit the stage floor. As the family watched the jugglers, the girls took the opportunity to ride a moving dragon.

 

The event accomplished its objective of providing good family fun and everyone in our party agreed that the festival was a hit. Helen did fine on her new knee, and I felt that this was a great way to walk off a big and delicious pork dinner.  Our oldest granddaughter left town with a set of pictures for “show and tell” at school the following week and hopefully will let her grandfather know how it went.

I’ll let readers decide if the pictures scattered through this post would make for an interesting topic. I thought the festival was great fun, a great activity for two retired grandparents, and a very relaxing and very entertaining way to continue the journey we call…Easin’ Along.

In our last post, we told readers about our first visit to Jekyll Island on our snowbird trip. At the time we made reservations, we were only able to reserve two nights because Jekyll Island is a very popular location for snowbirds. When our two days were up and we began packing to drive to our next stop in Tampa, we received a call from the manager of the campground there.  We had reserved five nights in the campground, but the manager said he had to cancel the last two nights.  Although he gave me a reason for the cancellation, I never really understood his explanation very clearly.

We were looking forward to the visit to Tampa and a chance to spend some time with old friends, therefore, we decided to go ahead even though our trip would be two days shorter. Before we left Jekyll however, we checked with the reservation clerk on the possibility that we could return after we left Tampa.  Our luck was good, and we obtained a reservation for three days beginning the day we departed Tampa. 

Many of the details of our Tampa stay are in a previous post of Easin’ Along.  We had a great visit with Jack, my college roommate, and his wife, Jewell.  Also, Helen (adorable wife) had a fantastic visit with her lifelong friend Harriet. They spent some time walking the beach and catching up even though they talk frequently.  Later that evening the three of us went to Harriet’s home to watch the Super Bowl…rather, I watched the Super Bowl while they chatted.

By the time we returned to Jekyll Island, the weather had improved considerably.  The temperatures were close to 70 degrees, and the winds had subsided. We received a very convenient campsite close to the showers.  Almost immediately, we witnessed a familiar sight that told us we had returned.  On our earlier stay, we met Bill, a campground volunteer, who came to Jekyll every year to avoid the harsh winters of Akron, Ohio.  Bill was always roaming around the campground and painting everything that needed paint. He loved to chat with campers as much as they enjoyed him. It was good to see Bill back in action.

Our plan for the next day was to go to nearby St. Simons for some sightseeing and to have lunch with Sally, another friend from high school and college days who just happened to be visiting her daughter in the area. St. Simons is very charming, and we were eager to explore after lunch. We met Sally at Barbara Jeans in the heart of the historic part of town.

Barbara Jeans is famous for crab cakes, and Helen couldn’t wait to order. Sally joined her.  Both agreed that they were some of the best. I decided to try the She-crab soup and was glad I did. The portion was large, and the soup was thick, creamy, and awesome. It was so good; I can’t remember what else I ate with it, probably a fish sandwich. The conversation was as good as the meal which we enjoyed greatly, but it soon was time to walk off lunch. We exchanged hugs with Sally as she left to rejoin her daughter.

Although the streets were busy, the weather was delightful, and it was a great day for walking through this charming seaside village.  A short fishing pier at the edge of town gave us a view of the St. Simons Lighthouse, built in 1872 to replace the original lighthouse built in 1810 and destroyed in the Civil War.  This lighthouse still serves as an aid to navigation and can be seen as far as 23 miles out to sea. A Lighthouse Museum sits adjacent to the structure and maintains artifacts relevant to the history of St. Simons.

The day after our trip through St. Simons was a day to take a break from our furious pace (chuckle). A quick glance at the activities board for the Jekyll Island campground told us that there were many choices available if we needed something to do, but with beautiful skies overhead, we wanted to visit Driftwood Beach one last time to search for shells and soak up some sun. We knew that winter awaited us back home.

Driftwood Beach offered very few shells worth keeping, but it was delightful to be there nonetheless. We resolved to keep Jekyll Island Campground on our list of Best Places to Snowbird, and vowed that we would start earlier to secure reservations for next year. It should be noted that the marsh is a lovely as the beach, and one could sit and enjoy the view and the birds for hours on end.

Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good.  A phone call informing us of canceled reservations ultimately resulted in a stroke of good fortune. Our return stay at Jekyll Island represents precisely our vision of retirement in the years, months, and days leading up to it.  We’re enjoying a wonderful life at a leisurely pace with just enough activity to keep us…Easin’ Along.  Thanks for coming along with us.