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re: First visit to Knoxville - What a town

Posted on 6/30/26 at 12:57 pm to
Posted by Pickle_Weasel
Member since Mar 2016
5443 posts
Posted on 6/30/26 at 12:57 pm to
quote:

4. Savanah, GA


My wife and I have always enjoyed vacationing there and hitting up Tybee Island.
Posted by AGGIES
Member since Jul 2021
12694 posts
Posted on 6/30/26 at 1:08 pm to
Wife and I went up for the A&M-Vols game a couple of years back.

Didn’t see a real college town strip either. Tailgating was all over. People were friendly enough.

Neyland is old, but it still has its gameday charm.


Posted by madmaxvol
Infinity + 1 Posts
Member since Oct 2011
22335 posts
Posted on 6/30/26 at 1:16 pm to
quote:

Sorry bout your tiny pecker, bro.




yeah...it seems like you are really fond of large ones.
Posted by UKWildcats
Lexington, KY
Member since Mar 2015
20278 posts
Posted on 6/30/26 at 1:22 pm to
quote:

6) Everyone there was from out of state. The school is a real national draw now.
Everyone there was from our of state because it's summer and they're going to the Smokies.
Posted by Cimarron
Member since Jun 2024
1051 posts
Posted on 6/30/26 at 1:22 pm to
quote:

To this specific point, I don't think Texans have ever considered themselves as part of the South or wanted that status except maybe in the eastern most regions.


Eastern Texas and Southeastern Oklahoma were more like the South than the rest of their states because of the migration of Southerners after the Civil War and the cotton trade.
Posted by VFL67
Member since Feb 2025
2437 posts
Posted on 6/30/26 at 1:25 pm to
quote:

Just enough to learn it is a real lightning rod of a project. The garage, I was told, has tailgating history to it and that will be done away with and it also is an important parking area for students.



Shhhhhh you are going to attract that idiot from yesterday who will tell you everything you just said was wrong
Posted by VFL67
Member since Feb 2025
2437 posts
Posted on 6/30/26 at 1:31 pm to
quote:

5) I was surprised there was not more of a college strip. Cumberland avenue was a lot of hotels, chain restaurants and fast food.


The strip used to be great, but PE bought every college bar and hole-in-the-wall restaurant to turn them into off-campus apartments.
quote:

6) Everyone there was from out of state. The school is a real national draw now.

The explosion of out-of-state people in East TN as a whole is insane.
quote:

I didn't realize Knoxville fell to the Union without a shot fired and that Eastern Tennessee had a mixed view on the war with lots of Union sympathizers.

Yes, East TN is too mountainous for slave driven agricutlure, so there were lots of Union sympathizers
quote:

do the old alums feel that way?

I miss what the area and school used to be before everyone started moving here for a tax break. Transplants have caused so much traffic, insane property taxes, and overdevelopment of what I consider the most beautiful land in the country.
quote:

Great school and great city, Vols.

Thank you. Glad you enjoyed our city and school. We are very proud of it
Posted by Knocksville
The Holler
Member since Jul 2014
1215 posts
Posted on 6/30/26 at 1:33 pm to
The new Smokies Double A park is fantastic. Xul Brewery is blowing up. Lots of great stuff… I do miss the strip of old. So many great times and memories.

But I agree, I hate having to keep my head on a swivel any time I’m driving through there. I-40/75 are chaos. I dread driving anywhere west in our state because you have to navigate through Knoxville to get there.
Posted by Windy City
Member since Jun 2019
2300 posts
Posted on 6/30/26 at 1:45 pm to
quote:

Eastern Texas and Southeastern Oklahoma were more like the South than the rest of their states because of the migration of Southerners after the Civil War and the cotton trade.


Agreed. Culturally SE Oklahoma feels somewhat like the Ozarks. East Texas and Louisiana blend as well on the furthest reaches.

Texas in general though has too many distinct cultures, too much of an affinity for its creation story as a separate nation, and too much investment in its state identity to think of itself as a member of a larger region.

Love this scene from the movie Bernie.

Posted by skrayper
21-0 Asterisk Drive
Member since Nov 2012
35614 posts
Posted on 6/30/26 at 1:54 pm to
quote:

But I agree, I hate having to keep my head on a swivel any time I’m driving through there. I-40/75 are chaos. I dread driving anywhere west in our state because you have to navigate through Knoxville to get there.


I swear this isn't hyperbole...

I drove down from Virginia to Alabama for my grandfather's funeral a few years ago; the traffic was so bad that my GPS rerouted me through Georgia to avoid the jam at Knoxville on the return drive.
Posted by geauxbrown
Louisiana
Member since Oct 2006
27680 posts
Posted on 6/30/26 at 2:00 pm to
quote:

Compare that in contrast to the chemical plants and ghettos of Baton Rouge


You think Tenner may take one ghetto for a national title in football since 1997?
Posted by VFL67
Member since Feb 2025
2437 posts
Posted on 6/30/26 at 2:18 pm to
quote:

You think Tenner may take one ghetto for a national title in football since 1997?


Given that we have won a natty since 1997, no, we don't want y'all's living situation.
Posted by AGGIES
Member since Jul 2021
12694 posts
Posted on 6/30/26 at 2:29 pm to
Good call. Richard Linklater rules.
Posted by SouthlakeTiger
Southlake, Texas
Member since Mar 2005
6905 posts
Posted on 6/30/26 at 2:48 pm to
But Serraneux is a fan.
Posted by Gunga Din
Oklahoma
Member since Jul 2020
3632 posts
Posted on 6/30/26 at 2:55 pm to
quote:

Didn’t see a real college town strip either.


Cumberland Ave was never a true campus strip because it was a main thoroughfare.... . But there was about a three or four block area just north and adjacent to campus that would qualify as a campus strip in the old days.

I guess that area that has been completely transformed over the last couple of decades. In the '80s it was pretty rowdy with college bars and the like the few times I was around there.

Posted by parrothead
big salty ham
Member since Mar 2010
5272 posts
Posted on 6/30/26 at 2:59 pm to
Wife grew in Sevier County Tennessee and my MIL got her undergrad and masters from Tennessee. I tell her all the time to let me know when she wants to move back to east TN but haven't got her to budge on it yet. East TN and West NC is one of my favorite parts of the country.
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