North on Dixie
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Day 10: December 24, 2018 North on Dixie Comment via blog |
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I spent the night in Cleveland, Tennessee, and, even though I-75 and US-64
shared pavement for several miles, that's essentially where I bid adieu to
the US route. I hurried to my favorite restaurant and got there when it
was busy but not yet full. It would be when I left. Some things at
Aretha
Frankenstein's remain the same but some have changed. The most notable
of changes, in my opinion, was replacing the double-headed fan
(as seen in 2010) with a
bright eyed skateboarder. The fan never worked in the eight years I've
been coming here and rumors that it might be getting repaired are very
unreliable but... maybe. There has been no change in the
waffles which remain insanely great.
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As would any sensible person heading to Knoxville, I picked up the Dixie
Highway just a few blocks from Aretha's and slipped through the 1909
Stringers Ridge Tunnel. The current road to Dayton is mostly US-27 but
pieces of Old Dayton Road appear from time to time. One of those times is
pictured.
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In the town of Dayton, I noticed a mural I thought I should photograph,
and discovered this brewery when I turned at the next corner to circle
back. I got excited when I learned that they normally opened within half
an hour of when I took the picture but the excitement went away when I
learned they would not be doing that on Christmas eve. I did photograph
the mural.
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This is where Dayton earned the nickname "Monkey Town". The Rhea
County courthouse is where John Scopes was put on trial in 1925 for
teaching evolution. He was found guilty of violating a Tennessee law that
forbade teaching "any theory that denies the story of the Divine
Creation of man as taught in the Bible". A statue of the trial's
prosecutor, William Jennings Bryan, was erected on the courthouse lawn in
2005. He stood alone the last time I was here. The statue of the trial's
defense attorney, Clarence Darrow, has been here only since July 2017.
Bryan's statue was paid for by the local college that bears his name. The
Darrow statue was funded by the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
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I believe this is the first time I've driven this section of the Dixie
Highway northbound, and it's likely that new details have surfaced since I
drove it in any direction. One or both of those could explain why I'd not
been on the small fragment of the curiously named Dixie Lee Highway
before. The second picture was taken from where I turned around after
driving past, or rather through, the trucks, tires, and transmissions in
the first picture. It's about a quarter mile from the intersection.
The other four pictures are from what was once a connected segment. I'd driven it before but wasn't quite certain of that until I reached and recognized the blocked rail crossing in the third picture. That earlier, 2009, visit is here. A closer look from today is here. The remaining pictures were taken while driving northbound from the blockage and include proof that narrow roads always have the coolest mail boxes and the only physical evidence of the name Dixie Lee that I saw. |
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The 1931 Kinger Station continues to slowly deteriorate. The north wall
of the circular building has collapsed since my
2009 visit.
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This lovely -- and open! -- brewpub popped up just blocks from the end of
the Dixie Highway Knoxville-Chattanooga connector. It would be closing in
less than an hour at 3:00 but I had time for one beer.
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