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Daily Archives: February 27, 2019

 Knoxville Tennessee

 

American Press Travel News–Feb. 28th, Crossville, TN. “Bob and Barb On The Road Again.”–An hour’s drive on I-40, from Crossville, sitting on the shores of the Tennessee River, and surrounded by some of the most scenic lands and lakes that Middle Southern America has to offer, Knoxville, Tennessee is as gracious a host as you’ll find anywhere. Stop anyone and ask them about Knoxville, and then be prepared to listen up and smile. “People are very friendly. We like “friendly.”

Several main highways bisect, or are very close to the city. I-75 from S.W. Florida through Atlanta and Chattanooga, I-81 that links the northeast with the southeast, and I-40 that cuts across from Memphis west to the eastern corridor to Asheville, and links up with I-95, the eastern seaboards main highway from the Florida Keys all the way to N.Y., and the north east.

With world class museums, antique shops, and quaint boutique shops that you can shake a credit card at, great accommodations, and really fine cuisine, Knoxville offers something for everyone, and on everyone’s budget too.

Sounds like a Chamber of Commerce ad, huh? Well, no not from me, I call it as I experience it!

Bet you didn’t know that Knoxville is and was home to the Blues phenomenon. Music does take center stage here.

We checked in to the excellent Disney-like, pyramid Hotel Knoxville, with soaring floors open to a courtyard grand space, and a restaurant. The hotel was so conveniently located, that many of the great restaurants and locations (such as the Basketball Hall of Fame) and the Sun sphere left over from the Knoxville, Worlds Fair we visited, were in walking distance.

For a walking tour, we found Paula. Paula A. Johnson created her own business: “Knoxville Food Tours.” Her tour incorporates the history food and fun that Knoxville has to offer for a very reasonable fee. She took us for tastings (yes, its always lunch time for Paula’s guests) to Oliver Royale, Bistro at the Bijou, Dazzo’s, Coolato Gelato, and a for great juice bar on the square. She gave a us a running history of these, and other restaurants, as well as a fine taste of what Knoxville was, and is today in the arts, music, craft beer and food scene.

Paula also has published “The Lost Restaurants of Knoxville.” A great historical read! For reservations, go: www.knoxvillefoodtours.com and give Paula a call at (865) 201-7270. Paula A. Johnson is a great personality, adding to the terrific personality of Knoxville. She helped make our visit “excellent.”
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The next day we attended a early dinner aboard the big Star of Knoxville, on Neyland Drive. This paddle boat is the queen of the Tennessee Riverboat Company, docked at the Volunteer Landing on the Tennessee River. We and other visitors were serenely and quietly paddled past great landscapes, and architectural glimpses of the Knoxville area. We enjoyed a nice meal, great local company, and views of a green land that just wouldn’t quit. www.TNriverboat.com (865) 525-7827

Becky Hancock, Executive Director, toured us through the restored Tennessee Bijou Theatre, the official state theatre of Tennessee. $23-million was spent in the restoration of this former 1928 Spanish-Moorish style early movie palace. They even did over a mighty Wurlitzer organ, and some the interior details included Czechoslovakian crystal chandeliers, and Asian influenced carpets and drapery patterns that hung over and around Italian terrazzo floors in the Grand Lobby. Give a call for information: 865-684-1200 www.tennesseetheatre.com

The Knoxville Museum of the Arts was especially delightful. Their permanent collection exhibits could keep one enthralled for an entire day, all by themselves.
On Gay Street, we stopped in to The Blue Plate Special; a daily live traditional music performance that was broadcast on historic WDVX Radio. The live broadcasts allow everyone to just come in, sit down during the broadcast, a local and tourist treat since it started in 2005. We enjoyed several sets of great country and bluegrass from well-seasoned musicians.

Today, there’s a place for you genealogical minded folks-the Calvin H. McClung Historical Collection at the Museum of the same name. It is an affiliate of the Family History Library in Salt lake City, Utah, and one of the south’s best genealogy research facilities, as well as the Knox County Archives established in 1792 and virtually intact. This museum is also a Smithsonian affiliate, and it emphasizes archeological research in the Tennessee Valley Region with an award-winning permanent exhibit “Archeology and The Native Peoples of Tennessee.

We visited the Ijams Nature Center on 2915 Island Home Ave. (865-577-4717) For a 108 years, the Nature Center is a renowned bird sanctuary on 275-acres, and it has played an important role in the environmental education and outdoor movement in East Tennessee. The Ijams legacy is largely untold in a historical perspective, but it includes Girl Scouting, horticulture, ornithology and hiking-all encouraged by the Ijam’s by example and design. The Center has a Lost Species Exhibition exhibit, and is well worth visiting. Remember, we all live downstream and “A day going down stream puts your head firmly into upstream of life!

Traipsing For the “Sain.”


Ginseng; a Health Panacea for Millions, Or Is It?
Ginseng, the “root” of all evil to several health conditions, and the real and perceived boon to assisting in various medical issues.
Many locations near woods and waters Ginseng can be found and has at least a few die-hard seekers of this profitably sold root, traipsing around in those wild places.
Today, there is so much interest in Ginseng that there are television reality shows that follow ginseng hunter’s lifestyle in their pursuit of earning big dollars sales rewards.
Ginseng today is sold in every pharmacy and drug stores in capsule, pill, tea, and oil extracts, forms. Being one of the most well-known herbs in the natural medicine world, ginseng has been in use for a long time in traditional Chinese medicine and other parts of Asia. It has also been used extensively by peoples of North America as a stimulant and treatment for various conditions.

While there are 11 different ginseng species, the term ginseng is applied to both American and Asian/ Korean ginseng. Among these the true ginseng plant comes from the Panax genus.

The active compounds in ginseng which give this plant its therapeutic properties are known as “ginsenosides.” Various ginseng species have different types and properties. As such, each type offers different health benefits with the following being some of the most prominent ones:

Ginseng offers good stress Regulation. Both American and Asian varieties of ginseng have exhibited the capacity to cope with both mental and physical stressors. Individuals who take ginseng for stress management report an increased sense of wellbeing.
This anti-stress mechanism works by controlling the adrenal glands and regulating the stress response and hormonal changes due to stress. When subject to stress, the stress hormone, cortisol, is secreted to counteract stress, and maintain homeostasis ( a good level of “calm.)” But, too much cortisol secretion can be problematic and ginseng can improve this situation by regulating its functions.

Added Ginseng to this pie!!!!!! Great!

There is a long tradition of ginseng-hunting in the United States. It can even be traced from Daniel Boone, the folk hero frontiersman and locally and far more recently to John Frank Warner who was mentored during walks in the woods of the Plateau by his grandpa Warner. “Johnny” became a sort of guru in the ways of the “sain” as it was called in days of yore. He watched his Papa dry it and make medicine out of it. Today and for the past decades John Warner Herb Co. has been a go-to place for Natural Herb Products right on Highway 127 South.
Ginseng, as a medicinal herb, has become a hot energy-drink ingredient, and a trendy remedy for all sorts of maladies. Modern days; Miller, carrying his $2 ginseng-hunting permit, typically finds the leafy plant in Maryland’s Savage River State Forest on steep, shady slopes and digs up the gnarly roots with a long screwdriver.
Hunting ginseng never made anyone filthy rich, but with the plant picked to near extinction in China, where it is long revered, and with Asians prizing American ginseng’s calming properties, a pound (half a kilogram) of high-quality root can net hunters more than $1,000. However, in 2017, the value of an American pound of Ginseng was from $75 to 135 dollars per pound, based on condition of the roots.
Note* at least 15 states have banned the taking of wild ginseng due to it becoming a scarce commodity and so many people digging up private, state and federal wilderness properties. And poaching as seen on recent TV shows is a problem too!
But ginseng can be grown, and the ban affecting state land could be good news for ginseng growers.
There are a few varieties of ginseng: the wild stuff, which hunters dig up in the middle of nowhere; there’s cultivated, which is grown in raised beds, often in artificial shade. – Wisconsin, although known for cheese, is the largest cultivated ginseng producer in the country – and there’s wild-simulated ginseng, which is planted in woods and left to the mercy of nature.
American ginseng was especially widespread along the Eastern Coast of the US, but, due to its popularity (and selling price on the black market), it has been over-harvested (especially in the 1970s). It is illegal to take ginseng from any national park, and national parks are dealing with poachers by giving stiff fines and even jail time to those who get caught.
Ginseng was one of the first marketable herbs in the US, starting back in 1860 when Wisconsin shipped 120 tons of wild ginseng root to China!
Today’s millennials are mostly home-bodies and they aren’t as interested in hunting. They’d rather sit behind their computer and play with their computer games, and go to health food stores or order everything on-line without getting their hands into the “good earth.”

NOTE* Please read my hundreds of articles new and old at: www.AmericanPressTravelNews.com