More Good Knoxville Times

Big Fatty's. My favorite restaurant in Knoxville and a must every time I visit.

Ready for our meal.

Good old southern favorites...fried okra, spinach casserole, red beans and rice, turnip greens and cornbread. With unsweetened iced tea to drink. YUM!!

Fourth of July parade! It was down home, a bit funky and not anywhere near Hawaiian standards. Plus it was HOT that day.

Boaters have their fun.


The best, and one of the few floats.

There was glitter and glamor.

A couple of cute oldies in the crowd. I'll bet they wear those outfits every year.

The sheriff got into the spirit.

This was the creed of a girls club of some sort. Wow! A lot to live up to.

This was our favorite group. The Any Griffith Rerun Watchers Club. Seriously! A police car followed them with Mayberry on it's license plate and several men dressed like serie's characters walked behind the sign. We also loved the ladies book club group that was celebrating its 100th year.

More parade going up the hot road.

Isn't she a looker? She's from the roller derby.

Mr. Sun in the sun..bet he is HOT!

This guy brought his red tractor.

There was a band, with tubas.

A pretty red car, probably in the parade because it is red.

Our group...Sara, Jen, Maddie, Kali and Buck.

The Venables invited a few friends over to celebrate the fourth. An evening of fun and sparklers.

We drove into the Smokey Mountains to spend the day with Sara and Rick's friends who were camping for the weekend.
Fun wading in the cold stream.

Kali holding baby Hazel.

An outdoor nap.

We had a lovely visit to the Ijams Nature Center in Knoxville. A scenic walk along the lake and fun looking at the creatures in the center itself.

A turtle for three.

A log for three turtles.

A pretty reflection.

Another great place to hangout with the Venables on a summer evening.


Capcup can be very funny.

Saturday market in downtown Knoxville.

Rock climbing is more fun than shopping.

Love that ice cream.


Even dogs are welcome.

Watching the dogs and people walk by.

Nana and Kali entertain themselves in the car.

Girls love to get their nails done.

Drinks on the porch on a summer evening...great!

Kali and Nana cuddle.

The fan dancer entertains us.

Georgia Side Trip

I took a 4 day trip to Georgia which started off a bit rough. I flew from Knoxville to Atlanta (about 40 minutes) and then the fun began. To make a looong story short, my flight was delayed for 8 hours. Flying time from Atlanta to Brunswick was about 30 minutes. I could have walked!
Why Georgia? I spent my freshman year of college there (another story for another time) and had 2 roommates. They and their families took me in as their own and we have all remained friends ever since. Janice was dating the man she married (his name is Buck) at the time. Buck's family was also wonderful to me. Sadly, Janice died in April. She had been diagnosed with Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) which progressed very rapidly and took her at the age of 66. Betty, the other of our threesome, lives on St Simmon's Island near Brunswick while Janice and Buck live in Statesboro, 2 hours away.
Brunswick is on the Intercoastal Waterway and surrounded by lovely marshes. The trees drip with moss and are beautiful in a mysterious sort of way. Very deep south.
A view of Bloody Marsh site of a battle between Spanish and English soldiers on July 7, 1742.

A tree dripping with moss.

Buck and Janice had 3 children - 2 girls and a boy. They have 10 grandchildren. Four (2 boys, 2 girls) live in Texas and in Statesboro they have 6 grandsons ages between 15 and 4. They are wonderful boys, fun, cute, well behaved. A joy to be around. Their parents and grandfather are pretty special too.
The only one who heard the call for picture taking.

The boys.

The Gracen-clan missing 2 dads. The Mom on the left is daughter-in-law Celena and on the right is daughter Kimberly.

Some of the little guys peeking in the window of the Mexican restaurant where we had lunch. They are watching their father/uncle getting a table for 12. (We ended up with 2 - one for the little guys and one for the rest of us, which included the 15 year old.) A rollicking good time we did have.

Zuco Pops

We learned about the Zuco Pop machine from Jackie's Mother, Jessica, and her mother, Linda. It is wonderful. Put it in the freezer for 24 hours. Then take it out and pour in your own creative (and healthy?) mixture and in 7 minutes there are pops.
Sara removing the pops.

Kali gets the first taste.

Which one to eat? Banana/peanut butter or strawberry/chocolate chip?

Both!

Knoxville Fun - Lake Norris

The Venables rented a pontoon boat on Lake Norris and we had a marvelous afternoon. The weather was perfect, especially enjoyable after all the thunder storms we had been having. Captain Rick takes the helm first.

Then Sara has a turn.

Kali enjoys the ride.


Sara, Buck and Kali relax on deck.

Time for a refreshing nap.

Captain takes the wheel.

Swimming is delightful especially with our Kali.

The Venable family enjoying the ride.

We saw some fauna.
An egret high on a tree top. Just below there appeared to be a nest with another egret flapping its wings and making quite a fuss.

This little guy peeked at us over the leaves. Is he a young egret?

A regal goose.

One of the many turtles we saw.

A glimpse of lovely lake scenery.

Flying Adventures

We start off on our journeys feeling confident that all will go smoothly. However, that is not always the case. Take my trip on June 20. The first 2 legs were long but on schedule.I took a red-eye to Vancouver and then after a 4 hour layover I headed to Chicago and my rendezvous with Buck. He was at my gate to meet me. We boarded our flight and on the runway, after sitting for a while, we learned we were number 19 in the take-off line. (See first picture. Not a great shot but it does show aircraft awaiting.) One factor in the delay was that VP Biden had arrived at O'Hare that day and the airport had been closed. After more waiting the pilot announced we were returning to the gate for more fuel and to allow us to get off and stretch our legs. We learned some flights had been sitting on the field for 3 hours.
In an hour or so we once again boarded our aircraft. We called Sara (again) who told us there was a terrible storm in Knoxville..lightening, thunder and wild wind. We pulled away from the gate and sat again. We could see black clouds and lightening in the distance. Then the pilot asked us to be sure our seat belts were tightly fastened because there was a tornado warning for O'Hare airfield. Things immediately got much worse. It was very dark, lightening was all around us and wind was buffeting our plane. A plane nearby was being blown towards us and large baggage containers were bouncing around the field. Wild, crazy and terrifying!!
After about 30 minutes things eased and we were told the plane had been hit by 87 mph winds and we had had a front row seat to a tornado. It took a while for ground personnel to get back onto the field and to clean things up so we could get back to the gate. Our flight was canceled as were many more from O'Hare that evening. None of the aircraft on the field when the tornado hit were allowed to fly until they had been carefully inspected.
There were no hotel rooms available in the area and no cars to rent either. Lucky for us we have Dee (Buck's sister's partner) not too far away. We called and begged shelter. (Buck had been there for 2 nights previously.) The taxi line was miles long, we persisted and finally were at Dee's safe and sound but worn to frazzles.
The only flight we could get the next day was the same one we had been on, departing at 4:50 pm. We had a relaxing visit with Dee and saw many trees and branches down in her area of Chicago.
The next afternoon we arrived at the airport in plenty of time only to learn we were delayed because our flight was missing a pilot and flight attendant. They showed up an hour or so later and at last we were bound for Knoxville. The flight attendant evidently was not happy about his assignment because he was very grumpy and surly. He was grumpy? We were some 26 hours late.

Driving around Sara and Rick's neighborhood we were saddened by the number of trees down. They had a large branch from their magnolia tree down. We have continued to see trees down wherever we have gone in Knoxville.



Buck is hauling magnolia branches to the curb. The most amazing, huge truck with a big claw came by and gathered all the trees and their debris.

Twins, belonging to Sara's friend came, to visit. Here are Owen (in red) and Henry (in green) helping Buck.

Kali brings a stick to the pile.

Taking a break at the park..Sara, Kali, Owen and Henry.

Three cute kids in a tub.