OK. So I’m not as familiar with South Knox as with some other parts of town. But goodness gracious. I should have been able to find the Augusta Quarry entrance that Betsy Pickle wrote so elegantly about last week. My Saturday afternoon search was in vain. I did, however, discover the Mary Vestal Park, which somehow I had always assumed was on the east side of Chapman Highway.
I ran across one of the old Civil War forts – High Ground Park – that Carol Evans of Legacy Parks Foundation and the Aslan Foundation collaborated to preserve and incorporate into Knoxville’s Urban Wilderness. These are not forts in the traditional sense like the Alamo. Instead, they are high ground earthen forts built by Union soldiers to guard against an attack by Confederates. The views from Fort Dickerson and Fort Higley are spectacular, especially in fall and winter.
Starting on Chapman Highway at Blount Avenue and ending at UT Medical Center, I saw one rebel flag hanging from a porch, several homes and factories that have seen better days, and some spectacular new apartments. I drove up a leaf-strewn, slippery road so steep and curvy that there was no way I was going back down it – even to make another pass at the Augusta Quarry entrance. Oh, yeah. I saw a red hen crossing the road. And then I came home and saw a picture of Carson Dailey, the South Knox county commissioner, with an egg. He said it was the second one from his new flock and his investment was a mere $300, making it a $150 egg.