6-24-18 running around Knoxville with Tim

We decided to spend a whole weekend with Tim.  So on Sun. we headed off to breakfast.  Forgot the name of the place, but breakfast was good. 

Then Tim took us for a ride downtown.

You know you're in Knoxville when you see the iconic sunshere in downtown.

Knoxville is another neat city.  Only about 186,000 population---about 30,000 more people then Macon.  Same tree lined streets and historic downtown.

Lots of little boutique restaurants and stores.

And today they were holding the Road Bike Nationals in downtown.  We happened upon the end of the women's race.  In fact, by the time we parked and got out to watch a little of it, all we saw was the last woman rider and the enterage of medical and chase vehicles.

So we hopped back in the car and continued on. 

Part of the city that was closed off for the race.

more of the city.

just outside the city is Fort Dickerson.  We had never been there before. 

Tim and I walked up and around the little hilltop earthen fort. 

The forts was constructed to prevent the Confederates from bombarding Knoxville to drive out the Federals.  Confederate cavalry attempted an attack on November 15  & 16, 1863 but retreated when they decided they couldn't take the fort due to the steep terrain and strength of the defending troops.

Tim did his own battle there----some game on his phone where he was able to "take" many spots within the fort.

Not much of a fort, but I guess it didn't need to be.

a wild flower growing along the trail

about the battle

one of the 3 replica cannons that stands there now---I think there were originally 4.

About the siege of Knoxville.  In 1863, Confederate General James Longstreet placed the city of Knoxville under siege. After two weeks and one failed attack, he abandoned the siege.

Near the fort is this lookout to the 350-foot deep quarry

Pinkish gray marble-like limestone was quarried from here up until the start of the Great Depression. 

Now it's a park with swimming and kayaking

Back at Tim's house, the sky opened up and poured on us. 

Still no mountains, but an interesting day none-the-less.

6-23-18 hanging out with Tim

Tim treated us this morning by cooking breakfast for us.  He's embracing being a Southerner now and makes a great biscuit!

After some hymning and  hawing about what to do the rest of the day, Ken suggested Tim and I go out looking for a new laptop for me.  Since I wasn't going to get to go into the mountains, I was happy to take this suggestion.  So we went to Sam's.  Tim explained the different computers to me and I settled on an HP.  It wasn't the most expensive one, but not a cheap one like Ken's.  He's always complaining about how poorly his works.  So for $799, hopefully this one will do what I want it to do.
After all that hard work, we went to Tropical Smoothie Cafe for smoothies.  I was very impressed!  Possibly the best smoothie I've ever bought!  Not too sweet, but lots of flavor.

Back at the house, Tim set up the new laptop for me.  Sure glad I got it then!  I would have been lost at all the stuff it wanted you to do at first.  Tim being an IT guy for the federal courts, quickly got through all of that and even loaded a professional security program on it, Office, a video player, and I have no idea what all else! 

For dinner, we took him to Lakeside Grill.  One of my favorite places there!

not much of a sunset again.

But it was really pleasant dining with the windows open.

back at Tim's, I marveled at their plants---like this one.

Not the typical vacation day, but a very productive one!

6-22-18 to Knoxville

Now that the stress of buying the house was done, it was time to hit the road towards St. Louis.  By way of Knoxville.  And by way of Lane's Farm for breakfast!
Love all the crepe myrtles blooming all over the place---like here at the entrance to Lane's restaurant and gift shop.

about a forth of the store.

some of the peaches that I bought.

my senior $2.49 breakfast!

When we were done with breakfast, we thought we knew of a way to get around Atlanta by way of back routes.  Turned out to be a pretty drive, but we didn't miss Atlanta!  We did see signs like this, though.  I guess if we had taken a different road we might have avoided Atlanta.

Another thing that reminds me of Oregon---log trucks.  We see quite a few of them in middle Georgia.

Also love all the mimosa trees that are in bloom.  I think their flowering season is just about over.

Lots of farmlands, too.  What's not to love about them?!

Even a Christmas tree farm!!!!  Maybe we are in Oregon?!

Nope, now we're in Forsyth, Ga.

Apparently it's another historic old town.   The Forsyth Commercial Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a tourist attraction. It includes the Monroe County Courthouse and Courthouse Square as well as the surrounding area, including several examples of 19th-century architecture. Forsyth is also home to the Confederate Cemetery, Tift College and Rum Creek Wildlife Management Area

From there we got back onto I-75.  Our hour or so detour was done.

Wasn't too long 'til we could see Atlanta looming in the distance.

Even as much traffic as there was, we went straight through the city.  Turned out to be pretty fast!

One of the decorated areas along 75 in Atlanta.

NW of Atlanta.  This is the kind of traffic we put up with on the NE side for the last 2 years.  I don't miss the traffic.

It wasn't until after we got out of Atlanta and closer to Chattanooga that we hit major slow downs.  But we eventually made it to Knoxville.  Faith wasn't there this weekend, but we decided to spend the weekend visiting Tim anyway.  Even went for pizza that night.  I liked it.  I think Tim liked it.  But Ken said he wouldn't go back because they didn't have straws.

Lots of cloud cover, but we got a tiny bit of a sunset.

We had thought of going straight to St. Louis since we had to be back in Perry on the 1st, but I'm glad we stopped in Knoxville.  Hopefully Tim is, too.

6-21-18  We own another house!!!!

We had planned to be in St. Louis right now.  Time to hit the Dr.s again.  But when Ken contacted the bank to see if they needed anything else before our closing on the 30th, they informed us that we were closing on the 14th!  Wait.  What????  Really!!!!  So after some kibitzing back and forth with the bank, the lawyer, and the seller, we came to an agreement to close on the 21st and rent the house out to the seller until July 2nd.  Turned out our loan rates were only good until the 21st.  With rates now at 4.625 we didn't want to have to pay a higher rate just to move the closing date to the 30th.

So, today was our closing day on our house in Perry.  We had started this whole procedure by checking out home rentals for a couple monthsm but with the good ones getting rented before we could even look at them, we decided to just buy one.  It's our first real adventure in buying a house, at least the conventional way with a loan and all.  Since it was a for sale by owner house, we didn't have the help of an agent.  So we hired a lawyer to draw up the offer and do the closing and trusted the seller (who was also a partner in the building company who built the house).  He lived in the house for 6 months; bought it when it was almost finished and put his special touches in it---upgraded carpet, lights, cabinets, windows, insulation, ... .  So we basically got a new house-with a lot of upgrades.

Time to celebrate!  Decided to have dinner at the Italian restaurant in Perry, Rusty's.

And who better to celebrate with then family!?

Still have a trip to St. Louis planned---but that'll start tomorrow.