Secret Cities and Appalachians

Hey Guys!

We made it back to Tennessee!

We didn’t get much done in our two weeks in the Knoxville area. Our first week in the area was spent in the rain as Hurricane Ida went over us on her way north. We didn’t get any bad storms or flooding like so many other places did with this storm…just lots of rain. Days of it. We hung out in our home-on-wheels…played games and watched movies as we tried to stay dry.

Did you know…there are some National Park Units that are split up into different locations? The Manhattan Project National Historic Park is broken up into three places…that happen to be in three different states. Oak Ridge, Tennessee is one of the three “secret cities” that was formed and used to build the United States atomic bomb. It was so secret that most of the scientists there didn’t know what the other scientists there were actually working on.

Starting in 1942, Oak Ridge was the home to several huge facilities that employed thousands of people both during and after World War II. Oak Ridge was the part of the Manhattan Project tasked with enriching uranium to use in the world’s first atomic bomb. There’s still some exciting stuff happening in Oak Ridge…I get the feeling some of it might still be secret.

The Manhattan Project National Historical Park is different in another way too…not only is it split up between three states… each park within the state isn’t found in one building. The two units we’ve been to are more of a walking history tour of the city with a few drives to get to a building or an old guard gate thrown in. We, of course, went to the Science Museum…we’re nerds at heart…we can’t resist a good science museum. We were glad to see that the interactive exhibits were still interactive even with the whole Rona thing going on. Each NPS unit has what’s called a cancellation stamp that people collect. The Manhattan Project NHP has a unique set of stamps that when you stamp them beside each other they make one big stamp. We’ve collected two of them from New Mexico and Tennessee…we just need the one from Washington. Unfortunately, the Washington unit has been closed since last year (2020) and there isn’t any information on when they’ll open back up. We’ll get there eventually.

We found the Museum of Appalachia by accident. We were out driving around the last time we were in the area and stumbled across a sign for the museum. We went late in the afternoon not really expecting there to be too much…Guys, we were so wrong. There are two big indoor museums and an entire village to explore. Several of the cabins are open to explore and have information about who lived there or what kind of business was conducted there.

We spent so much time exploring The Museum of Appalachia that they were closing up when we finally left. This pioneer mountain farming village is definitely an all day thing. There’s a restaurant where you can order southern comfort food if you get hungry. We didn’t eat there…we didn’t know it was there before we went or we would have…but it smelled heavenly.

We loved seeing all of the cabins and the farm animals, but my favorite part of this museum was learning about the actual people who lived in the area. There are so many mementos and pictures and stories of the people and families that you’ll feel like you know them after you’ve gone through the museum. The life they led was hard and they didn’t have much, but they had what mattered most…

If you’re ever near Norris, Tennessee you definitely need to spend a day at The Museum of Appalachia.

The food in Tennessee never disappoints. We found a couple of new favorites and visited a few old favorites. We were thrilled to find a Duck Donuts. Guys…Duck Donuts has the best donuts you’ll ever have. They make them after you order them so when you get them they’re still warm and fresh and sooo good! We also found a place called Archers BBQ where you’ll get spot on smoked meat and you’ll have the option of all the sauces! So. Many. Sauces! And all of them were good.

Well, I think that’s pretty much it for this stop! We’re heading to Pigeon Forge next to explore the Great Smoky Mountains before heading south to Florida… stay tuned for more adventures!

See Y’all down the road!

#NationalParkTour