Top Five Destinations of Knoxville, Tennessee

I doubt it is a thing like visiting every Major League Baseball ballpark, but I wonder if there are people that visit every college stadium. I mean the basketball, football, baseball and even swimming stadiums. (I have visited the University of Florida natatorium as part of a tour, but didn?t watch a swim or dive meet.) In fact looking at the Google autofill for ?Visit Every?? I see two references to baseball, a couple to countries, a couple to taverns in ?Assassin?s Creed,? one to every U.S. state and one to every McDonald?s. (That last one scares my heart and arteries.)

It turns out there is one such person, but the fact that the article is by Frank Deford and the quest was done in 56 years, you can probably tell the demographic of that piece. Plus, it was only 120 stadiums. No Football Championship Series stadiums or one of the 351 NCAA Division I school stadiums for basketball made the list.

Maybe it?s just too many places, when the pros make it easy to visit at most 32. However, if I want to visit and watch games at a school, the first thing on my destinations of Knoxville would make the essential list.

Catch a game of some sort at the University of Tennessee

I know virtually nothing about NCAA Women?s Basketball, but I do know that Pat Summitt made the University of Tennessee team a national power. This is also the alma mater of Peyton Manning, where they sing ?Rocky Top? at every football game. On the baseball side, knuckleballer, author and adventurer R.A. Dickey played there in the early 90s.

Check out the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site

Seventy miles outside of town is the Andrew Johnson Historic Site that contains a museum devoted to the 17th president of the United States, the man who took over after Abraham Lincoln?s assassination. The museum also houses Johnson?s original tailor shop.

Eat at The Bistro at the Bijou

There are at least two good reasons to eat at The Bistro at the Bijou. First, there is the blue corn meal catfish with pickled okra remoulade. Second, there?s live music at least three nights out of every week there.

Fish the 3 Rivers Carp Cup

I just missed the 3 Rivers Carp Cup this year, but I can still make next year?s event sponsored by 3 Rivers Angler, the local fly-fishing shop. In the meantime, when I visit, there are 621 miles of mountain streams where I can fish dry flies for trout all day.

Survey the mountains at Clingmans Dome

Lastly, I have to get a taste of the Appalachian Trail and hiking around Clingmans Dome seems to be a good place to take a bite. But, if I?m too tired, I?ll just take the half mile trek up to the observation tower and just look out over all the area where I could get a little AT time. Just mentioning it though makes me tired and not so strangely hungry.

Any suggestions for things that I missed? Any additional recommendations for the area? Just let me know in the comments.