Food - Restaurant - Knoxville - Tennessee /  by Dave Hileman

Sami’s is a local place off Kingston Pike in West Knoxville. It is a gathering place, like his brother’s Pete’s in downtown was for decades. It is decent food, served quickly and they fill you coffee over and over. Nice. Lots of chatter among the 30 tables which is nice as well. You can order any number of combos but the unique thing is you can order one or two or three or eight of anything on the menu. Want 3 eggs, 1 pancake, I biscuit, and 17 orders of hash browns, no problem.

On the way in to Sami’s for good food and good conversation

National Park Theme Week Two .2 Canyon De Chelly National Monument /  by Dave Hileman

You have to plan to visit this site located on Navajo land in Northeast Arizona not too far from the more popular Monument Valley, site of many western movies. Canyon De Chally (de shay) has a nice camp ground run by the tribe and two drives along the north and south rims of the canyon. You can also hire a Navajo driver to take a jeep ride into the canyon. The day we were there that was a very limited option because of some flooding in the canyon. We did both drives and several short walks. There are people living and farming in the canyon much as they have done for many years.

National Park Theme Week Two, .1 (actually part 4) I know, confusing. /  by Dave Hileman

I am doing one more day at Wrangel St Elias National Park. Tomorrow we move to Arizona where I will post three more NP sites this week. HOWEVER, eye surgery is on Wednesday and I am having a difficult time seeing my screen and will for the next four weeks or so. Therefore I may miss a few posts, I may (snicker) misspell a few words - you have never seen that before! I will try to keep up but I am not sure how successful it will be.

Random shots follow: Sorry the captions did not work today.

Sunday Scripture: Photo from a Glacier at Wrangle - St. Elias National Park /  by Dave Hileman

Dazzling! A word used to describe being in God’s presence as well. On the glacier the brightness and the glare was so strong the rangers would not let you on the lice without sunglasses. it will of course pale in comparison with God’s presence, any analogy must be always less that what God is but it was a good lesson on the idea of dazzling presence and power.

Food - Restaurant - Kennecott - Alaska /  by Dave Hileman

At the Wrangle St Elias National Park you have two choices for food (plus a small enclave by the bridge that I did not visit that have some bars and food. Turns out both of the options were very good and fairly priced. They bring in a food truck. It was very popular, chef run and the food was really good. We also ate lunch on the porch of our hotel on the Fourth of July and had not only great food, fine service but spectacular views. Actually both places had nice views the food truck had a covered patio where you could eat.

National Park Theme Week .4 Wrangle St. Elias -- The Plant /  by Dave Hileman

The town of Kennecott derived from the copper mining company is now a part of the National Park. The railroad was built to here to haul the copper ore to the shipping areas on the coast. That RR is the base for the road into the park today. There were several mines but they all fed to this 17 story plant that dominated the town and the only way in or out was the railroad. The small structure in the foreground of the first photo was the station.

assayers office and lab

Ore from several mines was conveyed to the top of the processing plant

Entering the plant at the 17th floor

Looking south along the road that was the railroad line

End product loaded onto the railroad cars

National Park Theme Week .3 On the Road to Wrangle St Elias NP /  by Dave Hileman

This is now a three part section on W-St Elias NP. The shots today are from the 59 mile dirt and gravel road that leads to the park. It is occasionally one lane wide often 1.5 and sometimes two. The scenery is amazing and yet you are not really prepared for the beauty of the park which exceeds or at least exceeded my expectation. Tomorrow more from the park itself.

National Park Theme Week .2 - Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve /  by Dave Hileman

Yesterday’s park was huge this one is massive, at 13 200,000 acres it is America’s largest National Park and often when I say it is my favorite in Alaska people respond with “What, I never heard of that park.” It is glorious. You can walk on the ocean shore, walk on a glacier, walk along wild rivers, walk to the top or a 17 story ore processing plant or on top of an 18,000 foot mountain. Well, you can do the latter. There are two roads one in the extreme North that meanders in a few miles - we turned around at a deep river crossing and one that requires a harrowing at times, 59 mile drive on an often single track (two way) road. You park at the end of the road and walk across a bridge where you can shuttle to the only hotel, an historic inn run by the park service. It was so much fun. We walked on a glacier, where the guide made us hot chocolate on the glacier, toured the remnant town, traversed all 17 stories of the decrepit ore processing plant and so much more. What a place and it is bordered in Canada by three more huge wilderness parks making the total the largest wilderness tract ln the world. Wow.

This will be a two part post - too many photos I have never processed so several more tomorrow.

National Park Theme Week: .Sitka National Historical Park /  by Dave Hileman

Sitka is located in the lower portion of Alaska, an island off the southern coast, and is often a tour stop for the cruise lines. We flew to Sitka from Haines to Juneau on a tiny, tiny plane with plywood floors and fold up up seats and then on Alaska Air to Sitka. We had a rental of a tiny apartment and stayed three days. It was a very neat place and a great experience. The Russian Bishop’s house was just down the street and was built in the 1820’s. It is part of the NP and still houses an active Russian Orthodox Church in a room upstairs. The heart of the park here is a walk through a woodland with many totems - some quite old, others more recent. We actually were staying next door to the official park carver and he was working on a totem outside next to our temporary home. One of the park rangers and I got into a long discussion about the home and she suggested that since she was off work the next day that she would take us on a tour of the island. We drove from the extreme ends of the pavement up to the highest peak on the island accessible by car, to small villages and native settlements, and to a lake. We picked berries by the buckets mostly for her. We then took her to dinner to thank her for the day. On our last day we toured the town, the remains of a fort and the docks plus dinner at a wonderful outside fish restaurant that was on one of the docks.

We flew back to Juneau and then took a water taxi for the 40 mile trip back to Haines and along the way saw whales, seals, and lots of seabirds as well as two old lighthouses. Super trip and well worth the time and effort to see it.

The mountain on the left is the one we drove to the top of with the ranger.

It was about a two mile hike to this lake and time for a picnic.

Lots of eagles

A part of Sitka harbor

The natural settings added a lot to the 30 plus totems on the park grounds.

Food - Restaurant - Elizabethton - Tennessee /  by Dave Hileman

Good food comes in a variety of places, food trucks, white table linen fine dinning, tiny places in strip malls and some of the chains have great food - if they have great management. In fact, that is a major factor in choosing a place with great food. This small, nondescript BBQ had great food and you could tell it was well run. It was efficient, it was well staffed and they were friendly and the place was well kept. The fact the owner was sitting in a booth may have contributed to the nice meal but I think it would be more the regular than the exception. We all had pork BBQ in one form or another and it was well done, tasty. They had at least four sauces and good sides, fired okra was good. The portions were generous and prices fairly. I hope to try the burnt ends next trip.

More about Big Dans: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063483045774

No Theme Week .4 /  by Dave Hileman

This is in Elizabethton, TN. About 150 yards downstream is a modern bridge that survived the flood along with this 137 foot long bridge dating from 1882, so a mere 142 years old. It survived an early 20th century flood when a barn crashed into it as the barn floated down the Doe River. Another couple hundred yards further downstream is the most modern of the three. It did not survive and traffic is re-routed on the city bridge and into downtown while the bypass bridge remains closed for repairs. Seems to me the safest place for the next flood is on the bridge!

The debris in the last photo along with washed out foot bridges in beside the city bridge.

More on the old bridge: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabethton_Covered_Bridge

No Theme Week .3 /  by Dave Hileman

It is definitely a theme!

I was asked to photograph a small house and delighted to do so for a friend who is a realtor. It was interesting and a challenge to get as much of the lines inside straight as possible. Also poor lighting and very small rooms did nothing to help. Here are a couple of the 35 photos. But I learned a bit and enjoyed being of some limited help to a friend.

PS, if you need a good deal on a small house in Johnson CIty let me know!

No Theme Week .2 /  by Dave Hileman

Is “No Theme Week” a theme? Dilemma!

This was so interesting. Friends Bob and Marsha who live in Elizabethton, TN, took us to see an old dam that originally was built in 1912 to provide electricity for Johnson City and the area. It is one of the countries first hydro-electric dams. I am sure it has been rebuilt and it is now called Wilbur Dam and following the hurricane and the resulting torrential downpours every bit of space behind that dam and a much larger one further upstream are very full. So they are releasing all the water they can. Just as I took this photo the sirens went off and that means get out of the area as they are going to release much more water. We wasted no time and headed for higher ground.