Our Neighborhoods: Washington Pike

By Mike Steely steelym@knoxfocus.com Two routes are main arteries to the North Knox County region: one a main highway and one a local byway with a connection to history. One is Rutledge Pike, which shoots off of Magnolia and runs as Highway 11W through upper East...

A Day Away: Watching Fireflies

By Mike Steely If you are lucky enough to get tickets to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park’s June  Synchronous Fireflies event you may find several surprises. Like most things in the Great Smoky Mountains the waiting lines are long, the expectations high, but the...

TVA Camping is a surprise

By Mike Steely Let’s take a mini-vacation locally this year. Take a long weekend or a week’s vacation, get the kids excited, and let’s go camping. There are so many commercial and public campgrounds in our area from which to choose, not even counting the Smokey...

A Day Away: Those Drive-In Theaters

By Mike Steely I don’t know about you, but when I was a teen and had the use of the family car I often went to a drive-in theater, either with a bunch of other teens or with a date. Taking a date was my preference but it was seldom that a date would opt for a drive-in...

A Day Away: Warm Springs, Georgia

By Mike Steely It’s not what you would expect. The complex is large, the museum extensive, and the grounds well kept, but the house is much smaller than even I imagined it would be. I’m talking about the Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia, the retreat of our...

A Day Away: The Great Locomotive Chase

By Mike Steely Civilian James Andrews was born in what is now West Virginia. He became a merchant in Kentucky and was recruited by the Union Army. He operated along the Tennessee-Kentucky border as an agent, trader, and intelligence spy. It was 1862 and the Union and...