Need Rural...but w/in 30 min of Knoxville (Oak Ridge, Cookeville: Home Depot, to buy)

[bbkaren]

The countdown is on for our trip to Tennessee...we leave next Friday 5/11! And have I mentioned, we can't wait??

[JMT]

Originally Posted by bbkaren

The countdown is on for our trip to Tennessee...we leave next Friday 5/11! And have I mentioned, we can't wait??

I can't wait to hear how your trip goes! This is such a beautiful time of the year, and the crowds haven't formed quite yet up in the mountains (although it's coming). Be sure to keep us posted.

Bon voyage!

[shareff98]

Hi. New to this, but been catching up on your search. I think we sound exactly alike! I am hoping you can pass on some valuable contact information on a realtor or someone to trust to give us the right info as we start our search. We are not locked into a particular area for a job transfer, but like you, need to be withing 20-30 minutes of a major city for convenience and definitely need a good school system as we are hoping to adopt real soon. Thanks for any wisdom you can pass our way!

[bbkaren]

I'm so excited I just about can't sit still!

I'm having carpal tunnel surgery on Thursday, so I'll be out of work for a few weeks--I figured, why use vacation time to investigate Tennessee? So we'll travel during my recuperation time.

We leave on Friday for Nashville, then after a day there we head to our friend's house in Crossville, where we'll be staying on and off. We're gonna make a big circle, looking in a circle around the western side of Knox. We'll be in the area from Saturday 5/12 to Sunday 5/20, returning to NJ on Monday 5/21.

We intend to take a day to explore the Smoky Mountains, although we don't want to get too sidetracked! The Museum of Appalachia has been suggested to us as well, and we're thinking about the Secret City Train Trip.

I also want to do a cruise on the Watts Bar Belle on Watts Bar Lake. It's a riverboat, I have a flyer about it...and they have a special Mother's Day lunch or dinner cruise. Has anyone else ever taken this cruise? I know they have dinner cruises regularly as well.

Being musicians, we're thinking it'd be neat to check out the Bluegrass & Ole Timey Music (Rockwood) as well as the Bradbury Club Bluegrass Concert (Kingston). We're not country/bluegrass musicians but still, I think we'd really enjoy it. Have any of you been?

What else, folks? What to we need to not miss in Knoxville or the surrounding Counties? We have some of the books, "Hidden Tennessee" and "Tennessee Off the Beaten Path" but there are so many interesting-sounding things in those books! How to choose!

One thing we don't want is to do a lot of touristy things. Dollywood holds no real interest for us, nor anything like that. We'd like to do something in Nashville to give us a taste of Nashville, but we're only going to be there Friday night, into Saturday, so any suggestions?

We really have to think through what all we want to do because we really want to get a feel for the area and see the more interesting sights, as well as investigate communities for our future land purchase.

I feel as though either the outskirts of Maryville, or somewhere in Roane County, are going to be real possibilities for us. But that's all sight unseen; we might change our minds once we visit these areas, and with our luck, we'll have a dozen different places we'd love to live!

Looking forward to our visit, and we're planning to take a ton of video and post it in my picasa gallery so it's available for anyone to take a look.

Did I mention I'm SO excited???? lol

[Brasstec]

bbkaren....understand your desire to see the "real" Tennessee, but don't cut Dollywood completely out of the picture. We were there a few years ago - spent most of the day going from show to show - they were really great! (We're musicians, too! )

[bbkaren]

Seriously, it's not just cheesy Disney-style tourist stuff? I never even really considered it...I just always figured it's just silly entertainment; I pictured the area kind of like the boardwalk here in NJ sorta, kind of fake? If not, then we'll add it to the agenda!

[bbkaren]

So...here we are! Well, we're in Tennessee; Nashville. We're heading to a couple of downtown music clubs and then tomorrow are heading to Crossville to meet up with our friend. Any picture requests here in nashville we can try to get for anyone?

[hiknapster]

Hope you're having a great time! I bet you are!

[bbkaren]

Boy, are we ever!

And I'm taking pictures ad nauseum. I'm going to post them on my picasa gallery in sections, since I've taken a million pictures of just driving down the roads in particular towns. Of no interest to most I'm sure, but I really enjoyed getting a feel for the communities I saw pictures of on this forum, just everyday trips down the roads and houses...

So far we've been to Nashville, Crossville, Fairfield Glade, Rockwood, Harriman, and a bit of Kingston.

And we made a special detour (until my camera's battery died that is!) for one of our friends' towns that's SOOOO dear to his heart!

Incidentally, trying to get to the music clubs in Nashville on a friday night is just like going out in Hoboken. Yuck. We wound up going back to the hotel in frustration cuz we couldn't find a parking spot.

Speaking of Nashville, we thought a deep fried pickle was unusual (which we ate last time we were in Knoxville--and it was tasty!)...but in Nashville we ate at Jack in the Box, and had deep fried Macaroni & Cheese. Amazing--the yummyness of mac & cheese, in a crispy shell! Who thinks of these things...it was cholestrol and fat supersized!

I'll check back in a day or so with the latest.

[hiknapster]

Thanks for checking in!