Side trippin’ from Knoxville to Des Moines

John and I are not all-day or all-night travelers. At most, we drive five or six hours at a time because we like to get out of the car and stretch our legs, and to admire the sights as we encounter them. As a result, we took two-and-a-half days to get to Knoxville, Tennessee when we volunteered at Destination Imagination Global Finals this last week (see previous post). We took three-and-a-half days to return home to Des Moines simply because we wanted a day to rest, give our sore feet a break, and do a little exploring.

When we arrived in Knoxville last week Monday, very few Destination Imagination® (DI) teams had arrived. For the most part, it was Instant Challenge Head Appraisers and Affiliate Directors who checked into the downtown Hilton Hotel on West Church Street. After we got our identification badges and officials’ shirts, we took advantage of the unscheduled time to have dinner at the Downtown Grill & Brewery on South Gay Street.  If you enjoy craft-brewed beers, then this is the place for you. And even if you don’t drink (which pretty much describes me), you’ll love the copper-and-mahogany bar and the hardwood floors that create a warm, casual dining ambiance. The food is appetizing and filling, and the service is great. From the look on John’s face, you can see he is having a good time.

After dinner, we split a decadent brownies-and-ice cream dessert. We weren’t too worried about calories because we knew we’d be spending almost 12 hours a day on our feet for the rest of the week.

We also knew that we’d be taking a long walk after dinner. We spent the next two-and-a-half hours wandering through the downtown/campus area, which is really lovely. The temperature was 82 degrees, and the humidity was in the low 40s. Who could complain? Market Square, the local pedestrian shopping district, sports a city park next to it called Krutch Park. The park, with its gentle stream, play water fountains, flowers and shrubs, is the result of a bequest left by Charles Krutch, a photographer-turned-benefactor who worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority. When he died in 1981 at the age of 94, his will stipulated that $1.3 million be used for  “a quiet retreat with trees, shrubs, flowers, and other planting for the pleasure and health of the public.”

At the entrance to the park, engraved in the sidewalk, is a short biography of Charles Krutch. Around the edges of the sidewalk engraving appear the words of Charles’ younger brother, Joseph Wood Krutch, a writer, critic and naturalist:

We need some contact with the things we sprang from. We need nature as a part of the context of our lives. Without cities we cannot be civilized. Without nature, without wilderness even, we are compelled to renounce an important part of our heritage.

Besides flowers, Krutch Park is strewn with large-scale outdoor sculptures that can be sponsored or purchased through Art in Public Places, a Knoxville program of Dogwood Arts, whose mission is to promote the region’s arts, culture and natural beauty. The origin of Dogwood Arts is kind of amusing. In 1947, a reporter named John Gunther from New York visited Knoxville and wrote, “Knoxville is the ugliest city I ever saw in America, with the possible exception of some mill towns in New England. Its main street is called Gay Street; this seemed to me to be a misnomer.” In 1955, members of the Knoxville Garden Club set out to disprove Gunther’s words with a public beautification project called the Dogwood Trails. The spirit of their efforts is alive and well today in the non-profit organization known as Dogwood Arts.

As John and I walked through one of Knoxville’s public beautification projects, Krutch Park, I noted especially “Madame Butterfly,” designed by Mike Sohikian, which earned 2nd place in the 2012-13 Art in Public Places Knoxville public voting contest. Each sculpture has a plaque with a QR code that viewers can scan with their smart phones, and then use to vote for their favorite outdoor sculpture. “Madame Butterfly” is made of steel, concrete, aluminum and wood.

“Love Arch,” designed by Andrew Denton and made of painted cast aluminum and steel, earned third place in the same contest.

As we strolled on campus, we discovered other outdoor sculptures that are part of the Art in Public Places effort. You can view many of the sculptures, in fact, by visiting the Facebook page HERE, and discover how the sculptures were moved and assembled for exhibition purposes. The sculpture below, “Oak Leaf Horizon,” can be found in front of the Knoxville Convention Center. Designed by Jim Gallucci, it is made entirely of galvanized steel.

Knoxville is not the only place where we enjoyed art. As we have done in previous years, we stopped at the Kentucky Artisan Center in Berea, Kentucky. According to a 2012 American Style list, Berea ranked 21 in a list of 25 small cities of fewer than 100,000 people, representing “arts destinations.” Indeed, you’ll find regional art well represented not only at the Artisan Center, but also in the town of Berea. This year the Kentucky Artisan Center celebrates its 10th anniversary with exhibits by 52 artisans who have worked with the Center since its opening in July 2003. The treasure I took home with me from the Artisan Center this year is the trivet below, although it will never be used in that way in my kitchen, but will instead be displayed on a wall or a stand. The trivet is a scroll saw sculpture designed by Louisville, Kentucky artisan Bob Diehl, who took his fascination with the German paper cutting art called Scherenschnitte to his material of choice: Baltic Birch.

On Memorial Day, John and I took a day off from our trip home to visit Bloomington, Indiana, home of Indiana University. We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn, which is conveniently located near the Courthouse Square. The Monroe County Courthouse, built in 1907, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Surrounding this historical icon are ethnic and vintage clothing stores, jewelry shops, a corner bookstore, cafes and restaurants, and attorneys’ offices. Nearby are the Waldron Art Center and Wonderlab science museum. Unfortunately, because it was a holiday, both of these museums and most shops were closed. However, that didn’t stop John and me from exploring the area, making a list of places we’d like to visit in the future. These include the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center on the edge of town, as well as the university, and further away—Brown County State Park and Bluespring Caverns Park.

One of the places in town where we enjoyed eating breakfast was the Village Deli, which during the normal work week is so busy that people stand in line outside it, waiting to be served. Inside the restaurant is a sign reminding people that “Eat & Get Out Specials” are available. For two mornings in a row, I enjoyed a tasty buttermilk waffle, dotted with strawberries and sprinkled with walnuts, drenched in maple syrup. Yum! I ate it so quickly that I forgot to take a photo, but John snapped a picture of me, and you can see that I am more than satisfied with my breakfast.

For his part, John learned a new term in Bloomfield, yarn bombing, when we visited Yarns Unlimited on Walnut Street and he saw a tree outside the shop, garbed in crocheted and knitted blocks of colorful yarn.

Before we headed out of town for the final leg of our journey home to Des Moines, I persuaded John to stop at The Hidden Closet on East Kirkwood Avenue. It was the sign itself that convinced me to enter the store. “Gild your lily and your pad,” read the sign, and in smaller print another sign announced, “Semi-scientific studies suggest that people who shop at The Hidden Closet are above average in every way.” How could I resist entering?

The owner of what turned out to be a vintage and consigned goods shop told us that the lady pictured on the sign is her alter ego. She grew up in the Bloomington area, but often visits the Southwest. As a result, her shop includes native American jewelry of truly exceptional craftsmanship. John located a lovely dragonfly pin for me, as well as a 1930s-era floral brooch that is probably resin, but looks a lot like ivory.

On our way home to Des Moines, the skies darkened and our smart phones kept sending us flood and severe thunderstorm warnings. Apparently, we missed most of the bad weather while we were away, but were greeted by rain as we entered the outskirts of Urbandale, where we live. That’s not a bad photo below, by the way, but instead what hard rain looks like from a moving car when you snap a picture!

Our next trip will involve a cabin retreat at Backbone State Park, but that’s another story. Meanwhile, I have lots of laundry to wash! Thanks for letting me share our wanderings with you.

© 2013 Judy Nolan. All rights reserved.