A BIG WEEKEND IN ROANE COUNTY TENNESSEE

This past Saturday was a big event day in Roane County, Tennessee. Both Rockwood and Kingston held annual events that brought people back into the little rural communities to socialize.

I visited Rockwood's 2009 Fall Festival which was held on the main drag. The event included a beauty pageant, dunking booth, and lots of bouncy things for kids, crafts, hot dogs, baloney sandwiches, fried apple, peach, cherry, lemon, and vanilla pies, popcorn, fried chicken legs and much more!

There was an old tractor and car show and many musical acts including Bill Wright, Russ Roberts, Joanne Cash Yates and more. The music played constantly, one act at a time, while people strolled the street eating and looking at the crafts offered for sale. The antique stores had a continuous stream of "lookers", while child giggled and screamed in glee!

Over in Kingston, about 10 miles away, hundreds of cars were parked on the acreage surrounding the old Southwest Point Fort, and crowds walked to see the 2009 Kingston Country Fair. Craft and food booths were lined around the ball field, and inside the field fence was various things to do like listen to bluegrass music, climb a rock wall, face painting, ride a slow pony to nowhere, or bounce or play in the colored balls!

I missed the antique car show, which, by that time, was cruisin' over to Rockwood's event! Darn! I sure wish the events had been on different weekends!

It was a beautiful day in Roane County with low humidity and fall like temperatures, a bright blue sky, and a warm wind coming out of the west. As a matter of fact, I saw folks having lots of trouble keeping their booth canopies firmly grounded. At Kingston, one tent lifted up and flipped over backwards, leaving one booth worker rubbing her head! At Rockwood, one worker held on to the tent while another made my sandwich!

Anyway, I had a great time eating my fried baloney "samich" and cherry pie! Wish you had been there...you could have held my drink for me!

There are more photos of both events posted HERE!

FINALLY, A KNOXVILLE KIND OF PLACE TO EAT IN ROANE COUNTY

I went to lunch today with my wife and daughter, and it was our first time at Redbones on the River in Kingston, Tennessee. The luncheon turned into the day’s big meal!

The old home, situated across from the Kingston City Park on Watts Bar Lake, has been turned into a very nice looking restaurant, with beautiful shiny wood floors, dark wood tables and chairs, with just the right amount of light coming in from outside. You can also sit outside, on one of two decks (upper and lower), if you prefer the summer heat to refreshing air conditioning! Not us, we appreciate old fashioned AC!

There are sitting areas all over the place, including upstairs near the tastefully decorated bar, which features a good selection of pulls, including my favorite – Fat Tire? After the wonderful meal, I sneaked up the stairs to get a “bar shot” for my bar collection on Flickr.

We ordered the fried green-tomatoes as an appetizer and, wow, they were fantastic! They were those droopy, soggy kinds you get some places, these were crunch fried with a horseradish dip. They were simply a wonderful way to prepare your palate for your entrée.

Judy and I ordered half-rack of Baby-back Ribs, baked potato, and Spinach Maria, while Tracy wanted the Chicken Alfredo with broccoli.

We had thought about a club sandwich, a burger, or a salad for lunch, but after seeing all the steak, seafood, pasta dishes, we decided that lunch would be our dinner meal as well. There was no forcing us to only eat one meal today either. After finishing the generous meal, we were too stuffed for dessert, even though the Chocolate Bar Cake kept calling our names!

So, the next time you are looking for a classy place to eat, or just have drinks with friends, but don’t want to drive the 40 miles to Knoxville, check out Redbones on the River in Kingston. You’ll be glad you did.