Les Jones: Daytrip to Athens, TN

March 08, 2004

Travel > Daytrip to Athens, TN

Distance from Knoxville: One hour
Where to point you car: South on I-75. If you're leaving from Maryville, take 411 South to Englewood, and turn right on 39 West.

Saturday was gorgeous, so we called our friend Jay and set out for a quick afternoon daytrip to Athens.

Athens has a pretty downtown with several gorgeous buildings. A good-sized campus of Tennessee Wesleyan College is directly adjacent to the downtown. If you like old churches, this town has plenty. Athens also has a drugstore with a lunch counter, for fans of that vanishing institution.

Greeks Bearing Gifts is a very nice shop near the courthouse. If you're getting married in McMinn County, that's apparently the place to order invitations, and they have silver gifts and such. The family that operates it is extremely nice.

There's only one antique mall, which was just OK. There's a bookstore with lots of kid's stuff and romance novels. Overall, we were a little disappointed with the small number of stores and restaurants.

Besides the drugstore, we only found one pace to eat, and it didn't seem promising, so we drove back a mile east on Highway 39 and ate at Castillo's Mexican restauarant.

It was a fun trip, but not the best. If you're looking for antiques, you'll have better luck in Sweetwater, Clinton, Etowah, or Jonesborough.

Googling for information after the trip, I found out that there was something called the Battle of Athens in 1946.

On the way back to Maryville via 411 we turned off at Vonore and visited the Fort Loudon museum and historical site, which includes a full-scale reconstruction of the eighteenth century British pallisade fort and trading post. Interesting botanical note: the fort's defenses included a dry moat planted in honey locust, which produces razor-sharp thorns up to four inches long.

No pictures, unfortunately. My camera's LCD conked out. It's still under warranty, so I've sent an email to the manufacturer to stop the clock.

UPDATE: Something else to do in Athens - the Mayfield Dairy tour.

Posted by lesjones

Comments

dammit... you were in my home town, and you didn't let me know you were coming?!!??... man, that's just WRONG...

Posted by: Eric at March 08, 2004

I had no idea you lived in Athens. You could have shown me all the good places. Next time for sure.

Posted by: Les Jones at March 08, 2004

cool.. I look forward to it.. just let me know when you're in the area...

Posted by: Eric at March 09, 2004

Will do. Maybe we can have an RTB pistol shoot at Farnsworth's in Vonore.

Any good bars or restaurants I should know about down that way?

Posted by: Les Jones at March 09, 2004

Well hellfire. I was BORN in Athens. Raised in Athens. Went to High School in Athens. Saw Batman (the movie) in Athens.

It's not a bad place to call a hometown.

Posted by: BSTommy at March 10, 2004

You should have traveled a little further on 39 into the little town of Englewood. a nice museum and Old country store. Also a new restaurant on the front street. Unless you are looking for Big-time entertainment, next time, give Englewood a look around.

Posted by: Alma at August 09, 2004

Alma: we've been to Englewood and liked it. Went to the textile museum and ate at a little place there in town. That was the same trip when we went to downtown Madisonville and Etowah. I need to write up that trip one day.

Posted by: Les Jones at August 09, 2004

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