Knox County has several great parks but my new favorite which I visited for the first time today is the Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge in east Knox County along the French Broad River. Located just about 15 minutes from downtown Knoxville, this 360 acres of unspoiled landscapes is a great respite from the regular world. In addition to the six miles or so of great hiking trails and about two miles of paved road that's closed to traffic; there are 4 miles of river frontage along the French Broad River. Lots of Canoests and kayakers put in here at the boat launch ramp and go downriver to Knoxville about 19 miles by water. The French Broad and Holston Rivers meet in east Knox County to form the Tennessee River which flows through downtown Knoxville. The nice wide trails are cut through the f... 02/08/2009

Here's a collection of truly hard to understand traffic signs. I'm sure some of them make perfect sense to area residents but if happen to just be passing through.................watch it.   For instance, does the sign below mean you can't make a left turn unless there are no planes in sight? Only very small planes are landing? Photo credit flickr "Aviation" is actually Aviation Street and if a very light amount of cars are on it; you're cleared for a left turn. Roger that tower, turning left now.   This sign below gives instructions on how to make a "Michigan Left" turn..........say what? What the heck is that all about? Photo credit: flickr It seems to me that going straight ahead here and then making your left turn onto the northbound street would be much simpler than the convolution... 09/05/2008

Each week our local newspapers prints a list of real estate closings (sales) from the previous week as recorded in the Knox County Registrar of Deeds. Today I counted 309 residential and condo property transfers ranging in price from under $50,000 to 2 transfers over $1,000,000. Here's the price breakdown $1,000,000+                  2 $500,000 - $1,000,000  11 $300,000 - $500,000     33 $200,000 - $300,000     44 $150,000 - $200,000     64 $100,000 - $150,000     73 $50,000   - $100,000     50 Under $50,000              40 That number of sales in Knox County alone tells me our Knoxville, Tennessee market is pretty healty compared to the bad news you read about and hear every day in the media. 07/13/2008