Not One, Not Two, But Three of the World's Largest!

Heiskell, Tennessee
Raccoon Valley (Escapees) RV Park

Can you imagine finding not one, not two, but three of the world's largest in one day?

Number one on the list was the world's largest Rubik's Cube.

The 1982 World's Fair featured the Rubik's Cube designed by Hungarian Architecture Professor Erno Rubik which became the Fair's most well known icon.  

Number two on the world's largest list is the Sunsphere.

The Rubik's Cube and Sunsphere were located in the World's Fair Park.  The weather called for heat index numbers of 105 degrees, but it was really a nice sunny breezy day.

Matter of fact, it was such a beautiful sunny day that we parked the truck in the free parking lot with the windows down, but have no fear, we locked the doors.  

The Sunsphere was built for the 1982 World's Fair.  It is designed with hexagonal steel trusses.  The sphere is 75 feet with 24 karat gold dust colored glass spheres.  

It is 266 feet high  and weighs 600 tons with the stairs in the middle.  Bill and I kept saying we needed to exercise.   

In 1982 a shot was fired outside the fair site which shattered one of the sphere's windows.  No one was ever arrested.

On May 15, 2000 nuclear weapons protesters scaled the tower and hung a large banner that said "stop the bomb's". They remained there for 3 days before surrendering to the police.  It was opened to the public in 2007.

The views inside it were fantastic!

We really enjoyed the Sunsphere and the city had some interesting information about East Tennessee displayed.  

I guess I forgot to mention that in 1982 the World's Fair charged $2.00 to take the elevator to the observation floor.  There was no charge to take the elevator so we decided to save our exercise thoughts for our next stop and take the elevator to the observation floor.

 As we were walking back to our locked truck with the windows down, we walked past this Veteran's Memorial.  It was very well done, but nothing as impressive as Huntsville, Alabama.  

They had all the wars represented and the names of those from East Tennessee who lost their life for our country.  

Bill and I both agreed the East seems to have nicer and more memorials to veterans than our part of the country.  

As we left Knoxville, we realized what a landmark the Sunsphere is for this city.  

We drove out I 40 to the flea market in Kodak.

As we drove past it, we realized we'd been to it before when we owned the Cardinal.  At that time we parked the rig in the parking lot.  It was just a bunch of wanna be store owners.  

We continued down the road at a very slow pace.  

Bill drove past miles and miles of bumper to bumper traffic.  This is not the kind of place we enjoy visiting.  

Can you see what's hanging from this crane?  Is this a red necks version of an air boat. 

Number three on the world's largest tour for the day is the Smokey Mountain Knife Works.  

I have no way of knowing how many floors there are in this store.  There are ramps everywhere and you go half a floor and then on up again.  

There were all kinds of displays, this one moved and played music.

Of course Bill's favorite was the Relic Room.  These were historical original items for sale.  He didn't seem interested in the snow shoe on the left.

No, this wasn't one of Bill's parking jobs.

All of these water displays were covered with coins in the bottom, but I don't know if these coins were given to any charity or not. 

I saw this sign for turtle man, but not my kind of turtle.

There were all kinds of stuffed animals like Cabela's has. 

On the top floor they have a small museum.

Unfortunately, nothing was marked so it was just a bunch of old stuff behind glass.

I took this picture of this fish and wondered if Jim is catching them this size in Montana.  

We spent all that time, looking at all the things they offered and didn't buy a thing.

Bill took highway 441 back instead of going through all that traffic.  We did top off the diesel tanks at $3.54.  It was 4 pm when we returned to the park, just in time for the ice cream social.  

Yesterday Bill had to repair the brake light on the truck.  Yes, he did it! 

 Then he decided to wash and wax the truck.  

Do you know what that means?  Yep, the sky has turned black and there's thunder in the air.  Look's like it might rain tonight.

Turtle Safely........