Adventures in Tennessee
Part 3
Friday was the day that we set aside to do Knoxville, and do it we did. Our first stop in Knoxville was a spontaneous one: O.P. Jenkins Furniture & Design. That store is unique for having the oldest working elevator in Knoxville. So with the help of a store employee, we gave it a ride.
Elyse poses for a photo with a plastic artichoke at O.P. Jenkins.
After that, we headed back to the Langley garage, where we parked up on the top level. There, I got some photos of the Sunsphere and the immediate vicinity.
The view from the Langley Garage in the daytime.
The Sunsphere.
The Duncan School of Law at Lincoln Memorial University, viewed from the Langley Garage.
Cupola of the Howard H. Baker, Jr. United States Courthouse.
Woomy sits on the ledge on the top deck of the Langley Garage and ponders the view. I’ll bet he didn’t like it.
Then, we started walking towards the World’s Fair Park in order to visit the Sunsphere. After all, I watched The Simpsons in the nineties. If we were going to Knoxville, we had to go and see the Wigsphere. And truth be told, I had been referring to it as the “Wigsphere” the entire trip, and accidentally made Elyse a little nutty over it.
Walking over, we first stopped at a Masonic building that was near the parking garage. Elyse had wondered if they had an elevator, but they unfortunately were not open. From there, we took a few pedestrian bridges to the World’s Fair Park, and then we found the entrance to the Sunsphere.
Traffic lights, viewed from one of the pedestrian bridges leading to the Sunsphere. I noted that while these have no backplate like most Maryland traffic lights, they were all-black, rather than black on the front and yellow on the back like Maryland lights.
The Sunsphere, viewed from a block or so away.
Wheelock ET70WP speaker/strobe at the base of the Sunsphere.
Interacting with the Sunsphere was not exactly intuitive. The ticketing for the Sunsphere was all online, and in order to visit, you would buy timed tickets for a 30-minute visit. Then at the designated time, an employee came down to the ground level and brought everyone up via one of the elevators. Our appointment was at 1:00, so we had some time to kill before going up. I spent that time photographing around the immediate area.
The Sunsphere, viewed from the grounds of the World’s Fair Park.
Bridge carrying Clinch Street over the World’s Fair Park, painted in bright colors. This paintwork is relatively recent, as Street View imagery from December 2019 shows the bridge with a plain underside.
Elyse also commandeered my camera for a little bit and got some photos of me.
Then at 1:00, an employee came down in the elevator to meet the assembled group, and brought us up to the observation deck.
Coming off of the elevator, the first thing that we saw was something of a makeshift gift shop, where they sold stickers and other knickknacks. One thing that I was absolutely tickled about was how much they embraced their appearance on The Simpsons, as there were multiple references to it in the facility.
Elyse holds up a “Wigsphere” sticker that was being sold, showing the Sunsphere with Marge Simpson hair. We ended up buying one of these.
Sign in the Sunsphere about a shattered glass panel on the exterior, referencing the moment on The Simpsons when Nelson threw a rock at the Sunsphere, causing it to fall over. Though in reality, the glass shattered in place because of temperature differences on the inside of the sphere and outside. Coincidentally, the location of the shattered panel matches the location where Nelson hit the Sunsphere in the episode.
As far as the rest of the Sunsphere went, though, it was kind of underwhelming. The tinted glass was difficult to see out of, and you couldn’t get close enough to the windows to even try to photograph from them. So I mainly focused on the various small displays that they had in there, as well as the space itself.
I was also quite disappointed there were no wigs to be found anywhere.
Viewing area, which spanned the full circumference of the space.
The Sunsphere had EST pull stations.
Elyse plays Galaga on one of those Arcade 1-Up cabinets. I always find it interesting the way that Elyse and I break when it comes to Namco titles. She tends to be great at Galaga and terrible with Pac-Man, while I’m the exact opposite, as I can kill it in Pac-Man, but I’m no good with Galaga.
The Sunsphere’s shadow over Clinch Street, viewed from the observatory.
A Google Home Mini, used to play music. There were a number of these throughout the space, which functioned as a de facto PA system. The red lights indicate that the microphone is turned off, meaning that it will not respond to the “OK Google” wake word.
I also got a couple of selfies on a kiosk that was available to visitors for this purpose.
The restroom at the Sunsphere. I don’t know quite what I was expecting, but here it is, with paneling and Knoxville posters on the wall. Seems fitting, I suppose.
The Sunsphere elevator was a ThyssenKrupp mod with C.J. Anderson fixtures. The upper levels, including the observation deck and event spaces, are keycard access only, while the lower levels, which help facilitate movement around the park, are available to the public.
Leaving the Sunsphere, we walked over to the transit center, which we had visited the day before.
Another view of traffic signals in Knoxville.
Looking upward at 625 Market Street.
KAT bus stop sign. I found this interesting because each route has a separate sign attached to the pole.
620 South Gay Street, at the intersection of South Gay Street and Church Avenue.
Arriving at the transit center.
I found the way that they designated the smoking areas at the transit center to be relatively interesting. Rather than just signage, they painted the benches bright red, and have “SMOKING AREA” designed directly into the bench itself.
When we got into the building, we took a break for a moment at some tables on the bottom level. We hit up the vending machines, where we each got a bottle of water, and Elyse also got an ice cream treat.
Our waters were Cumberland Gap Mountain Spring Water, which is a brand produced by the local Coca-Cola bottler. According to the marketing material, the water is “fresh natural spring water from the source in the pristine Cumberland Gap Historic National Park” and “comes straight from the mountains of Cumberland Gap.” I suspect that this language is overly flowery, and that it’s probably just filtered tap water, like most bottled water. The municipal water supply may very well come from the location that they claim, but that doesn’t negate that it’s still probably just tap water. I know that I shouldn’t consume bottled water for a whole host of very good reasons, but we were both feeling quite parched, and I did not have my reusable water bottle with me at the time, so… any port in a storm.
We left the transit center on a bus, taking the Blue Line trolleybus route around the downtown area. Elyse was in charge here, and I was just along for the ride. We ended up completing the entire route, and then did part of a second lap in order to actually go somewhere. Elyse and I commented on some of the scenery that we went by, and that it might be interesting to photograph some of it. We commented that one building looked a little like the Contemporary Resort at Disney World. Our destination was ultimately the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. However, I saw drone targets while I was on the bus, so Elyse and I got off the bus separately, as I got off near the Langley garage in order to retrieve the car, and she got off near the basketball museum.
Returning to the car, I first did a quick flight from the garage around the Sunsphere. In doing so, I planned my flight carefully so as not to overfly people or cars, and stayed over building rooftops and vacant land as much as I could. I also made sure to look both ways before crossing the street. Yes, even at 300+ feet in the air, you still have to look both ways so as not to overfly anything that you’re not supposed to, because safety demands it.
The Sunsphere, viewed from the air.
Looking back towards the Langley Garage after photographing the Sunsphere. The Langley Garage is the building to the right of the FirstBank building, and if you look really carefully, you can see the Renegade parked next to the wall. (I’m flying from inside the car.)
Flying back to the Langley Garage.
Finishing my flight, I drove over to the basketball museum to join Elyse.
The Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame was a very interesting place, discussing the history of women’s basketball through the years. I found it interesting to see how the style of the team uniforms changed over the years, as they evolved from something very old-fashioned and relatively formal-looking to the style of basketball uniform that we think of today.
All-American Red Heads limousine on exhibit at the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
We probably spent the most time on the ground floor, where they had three basketball goals of various styles and heights set up, and had plenty of balls for people to try their own hand at it. Elyse made the comment about seeing how much better she was at basketball than I was. We didn’t play the game like we meant it, but rather, we each took a ball and saw how many baskets we could make.
Elyse wrangles a basketball in the play area of the facility. Out of all of the shots that we took, Elyse made five baskets… to my seven. Who’s better than who at basketball, now?
Finishing up at the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, Elyse wanted to do some more bus fanning and explore the city via bus, while I wanted to do some flying. So we parted company again, and would meet back up later.
I moved the car from the basketball museum to a small park across the street from the museum. There, I was able to fly a few things that I had spotted earlier. First, I got more detailed photos of the giant basketball on the top of the basketball museum than I would have been able to get from the ground, and then flew over to the “Contemporary”, which I later learned was the former Hotel Knoxville, which closed in March 2020, and has been vacant ever since.
The giant basketball on the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, designed to look like a basketball going into a net.
The former Hotel Knoxville.
Neyland Drive (left) and the James White Parkway (right) as they pass under the transit center.
The transit center, viewed from above.
While I was up in the air, I was also going to fly over the Tennessee River to get some photos of the bridges that spanned the river. However, despite my getting LAANC authorization to fly in the area, the DJI Fly Safe functionality locked me out due to one of their own authorization zones related to Knoxville Downtown Island Airport.
For the record, I find DJI Fly Safe to be extremely annoying. I don’t want the manufacturer to get in my way when it comes to what I want to do with my drone. After all, the public airspace is regulated by the federal government via the FAA. The only authority that I should need to work with in order to be cleared to fly is the FAA. And the LAANC system is the FAA’s way of giving permission to fly in airspace near airports. If Uncle Sam says it’s okay, then that should be the end of it. But DJI will still lock you out of certain areas despite this, and require that you apply to them to unlock these areas for specific periods of time in order for your drone to enter these areas, or take off within those areas. My problem with Fly Safe is that legally, I am solely responsible for my own flight. If I violate FAA regulations, it comes back on me, and only me – not on the manufacturer of the drone. I’m going to be the one paying the fines, not DJI, and if they’re going to rescind anyone’s drone license over problems with my flights, it’s going to be my license and only my license. So DJI needs to stay out of my business. They have stymied far too many flights, either for refusal to take off or limiting my altitude, where I’ve gotten approval from the FAA to fly via LAANC, and then DJI won’t let me take off. If I could find a way to bypass DJI Fly Safe, I would do it in a heartbeat. DJI makes great drones, but their Fly Safe system goes too far and becomes entirely too paternalistic when they go beyond simply warning you and actively restrict flight movements.
End of rant.
I then headed downtown to get some photos of the sign at the Tennessee Theatre. I photographed it with my DSLR and then with the drone. The drone flights were somewhat tricky, because it was a downtown street. In order to get the views that I wanted, I needed to be airborne, but I also needed to make sure that I wasn’t overflying anyone (FAA rules prohibit drones from overflying people and cars). I accomplished this by doing flights that were primarily up-and-down, only traveling slowly up and down the sidewalk. And most importantly, I ensured that I didn’t overfly any third parties by standing directly beneath the drone at all times. In other words, to prevent overflying people, I made sure that I was always overflying myself. That way, if it fell out of the air, the only person that it could potentially hit would be me, and I was the one flying it, and would get at least some warning that things were going wrong via the remote before it would fall out of the sky. The flight ultimately went well, and I got decent enough shots. But nonetheless, good planning is important.
The Tennessee Theatre, photographed with my DSLR. It’s clear that I got over here late in the day, as the sun was low in the sky, which cast some very heavy shadows on my subject.
Then there’s this phone shot.
In the middle of shooting the signage at the Tennessee Theatre with the DSLR, I got distracted by some birds flying around nearby.
And now with the drone, ready for takeoff.
Some aerial views of the Tennessee Theatre’s sign. Much better.
After I finished up, I got a low angle on the Renegade. Also realize that once someone is a bus driver, they are always a bus driver, considering the way that I curbed the wheels.
From here, Elyse let me know where she was, and asked that I join her. She was at a Kroger store on Asheville Highway (US 11E), which is northeast of downtown, near I-40. This was a lower-income part of town than the areas that we were in previously, but it was somewhere that I would love to photograph in more detail in the future. I found so many vintage commercial buildings as well as converted restaurants and such along this road that it is definitely worth exploring further. Arriving at Kroger, I quickly found Elyse, where she was enjoying finding brands that we don’t see in the DC area, as well as regional variations on others. For one thing, we didn’t know that Musco Family Olive Company had two brands: Pearls and Early California. We have Pearls near us, but had never heard of Early California. And at this particular Kroger store, it was sold alongside Pearls. I don’t know if the two brands are actually different from each other, or if it’s just different regional nameplates for the same product.
Leaving Kroger, Elyse wanted to see where the transit buses lived. We found it on Google Maps and, seeing that it was nearby, headed on over. There, Elyse chatted with an employee, and got to see a vintage bus that they had on the property while I waited in the car. Elyse was also kind enough to share her photos of the bus.
The vintage Knoxville bus, a GM Old Look.
We then headed over to an Arby’s that we had both passed earlier that had another vintage sign, with the intention of getting out the tripod and photographing it. Unfortunately, when we got there, the sign was completely dark, as were the lights and signs on the outside of the building. The restaurant was obviously open, so we went in, introduced ourselves, and asked them about why the signage was dark. Good news: the signage was dark only because they had forgotten to turn it on, so they quickly turned it on, and I went out and did my thing.
These photos did not come out as well as I might have wanted. I was starting to tire a bit, and the neon, while more illuminated than the other sign, was still not at full blast, which, together, left me feeling a bit uninspired, and that showed in the results. I also lost the remote control for my camera while I was here, too.
Finishing up there, considering that we had found two Arby’s locations with vintage signs, I did a little skim through Google Maps to see if there were any more Arby’s locations with vintage signs. As it turned out, there was one more location with a vintage sign, on Broadway, so we headed down there next. When we got there, though, we found that the sign was not in good repair, as a lot of the neon was out there, so I didn’t even bother to get out of the car. Oh, well.
However, while we were over there, we explored a nearby Food City grocery store. For those not familiar, Food City is a regional supermarket chain that operates in parts of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. As far as the store goes, it’s pretty much what you would expect for a grocery store, but we enjoyed seeing the store brands and the regional brands that the store was selling. We also enjoyed the skeletons that they had placed around the store for Halloween, many of which were wearing Food City shirts. We also got some food to take back to the hotel for dinner.
Woomy holds Elyse’s parking placard while hanging from the mirror, and complained about how much he didn’t like hanging from the mirror.
A Sun Drop machine! That’s not something that you see around DC, since the DC-area bottlers tend to focus mostly on the basics, depriving us of all of the fun flavors. (Not that I’m allowed to have carbonation anymore in any event, but still…)
One thing that we saw at Food City was plenty of Halloween decor, as they had these plastic skeletons posed around the store. It was pretty fun, as they had them in all kinds of interesting poses. This would become a recurring theme at other Food City locations that we visited.
The inside of Food City.
Food City-branded ice cream.
Checking out, when prompted for a loyalty card phone number, since we didn’t have a Food City card, I tried (202) 456-1414, which is the number of the White House switchboard. Surprisingly, it worked, so we were able to get all of the various discounts that came with that. Excellent.
And that was our day. We fueled up the Renegade at Food City’s gas station, and then we headed back to our hotel. I considered the day seized, and then Saturday would be another adventure.