Tennesseestorm

Here is my southern photo of the day. Another of Charlotte. I took this when we were there in September of 2006. Here is another since I have not posted in awhile. This was taken going up I-77 in southwestern Virginia. This is looking back southeastward into North Carolina. Its beautiful through here. The elevation drops off rapidly.

Hint hint. I agree- that is an amazing shot of Charlotte.

We do- its called Tri-Cities metro. There are several smaller towns/cities in and around Bristol, Kingsport and Johnson City. Some are even embedded in between the three.

Sorry for the delay in reply. I had not been back to this topic. I do not even know if Bristol is going to get a 20 story building now. There was talk of a 15-25 story hotel building near downtown, but I have not heard anything else about it. I even e-mailed the city and a lady replied and said there was no use for building that tall around here yet. They should have combined two of our 11 story buildings.

Thanks for posting that link..... I live here and I did not even know about this. I just drove by that spot on my way home from work tonight, as I had to detour by there, as there was some sort of candlelight ceremony (later found out that it was a Hispanic service) at the corner of North 7th St. and State St. and I could not get through State St. There is all sorts of Christmas activities going on downtown this week. I am going to try to get some Christmas photos of the downtown area within the next couple of days.

Cant forget one of these. We also went into downtown Charlotte... got a few photos. Here is one of the tallest buildings down there. . . Again, sorry not Tennessee photos, but seems like I should post something. Not much action here lately. Enjoy.

Sorry I have not posted any "E. TN photos of the day", but I have not had a chance to get any. We just got back from Charlotte, NC and Lancaster, SC area over the weekend and did get several photos of those areas. I thought I would share this photo - sorry not Tennessee, but of North Carolina-Virginia. This photo was taken from the I-77 area (northbound) just before the North Carolina state line, looking southeast into the foothills of North Carolina. This photo was us going back up the mountain looking back down from the area of which we came. One of my most favorite views. At the bottom of the summit, the temperature was 83

Hmm. That is interesting. No, I have not heard anything about it myself, but if you find out, please pass along the information. There is so much going on right now in Bristol, TN-VA, its hard to tell.... Here is more info that I just posted on the "Virginia" forums for some things going on in the Bristol, Virginia area- which will also compliment Bristol, TN residents - since the cities are connected.... I am just going to copy and paste the info below.... "At exit 7 I-81, it is a booming little area- with nearly a hundred (or more) restaurants, several shopping centers, Lowes Home Improvement, Wal-Mart supercenter, Home Depot, Food City and soon to be Cracker Barrel and several more shopping centers and most recently announced, a potential "low cost" housing project near the area (which is opposed by local residents in the area) and just announced tonight another huge shopping center complex, which will include a TJ Maxx, Best Buy, Pet Smart, Books a Million and Old Navy and another major retailer- not mentioned now, but I suspect a Target. Before, Bristol residents had to travel to Kingsport or Johnson City, TN - about 20 miles away to shop at Target, Pet Smart or Best Buy. This will be a very nice addition to Bristol, VA-TN. Oh, and don't forget the new Sam's Club that is also to soon be built between Wal-Mart and Lowes next year. Here is the story directly quoted from our local newspaper: BRISTOL, Va.

Wow, not much action here lately. We lost our 9 year old beagle and on top of that, its been hectic, so I have not been posting much, but I am on vacation this week (starting tomorrow) and will post more when we get back from out of town at the first of next week. We are going to Charlotte, NC and Lancaster, SC. Well - quickly, here in Bristol, TN - there is some sort of huge shopping center going in across from our 3 year old, newly relocated Wal-mart Supercenter - not sure what its going to be yet though. Also a new credit union being built in the area, as well as a new bank and the new Wendy's was completed. Also, some talk of a Makatos Japanese restaurant going into the old Cheers building on the Volunteer Parkway. The stage 2 of the Raceway condominiums is underway across from Bristol Motor Speedway. Building 1 was completed and now 2 of 6 will be soon completed. More on that later. On the other side of the city (on the VIRGINIA side), tons of development, especially at the exit 7 area of I-81. The new "Village" shopping center is still under construction, which will have several shopping malls and a Crackel Barrell restaurant- the FIRST in Bristol. To eat at Cracker Barrell before, Bristolians would have to go to Blountville (exit 66, I-81) or Abingdon (exit 10, I-81 - VA side) - both about 20 miles from Bristol. Also, Bristol to get its first Starbucks coffee house- located at exit 7 - opens next week in Bristol, VA. For some reason, the "only a few years old" Damon's restaurant, which did high volumes of business was torn down. I have heard everything from poor management, to the city needing that part of the street corner to revise the roads to accommodate the heavy and increasing traffic in the area. The new parking garage in downtown Bristol is still supposed to be a "go". Biggest news is that of a large low-budget housing complex (projects / ghetto - which we already have plenty of) near the exit 7 area of I-81, where business is booming as mentioned. The local residents are complaining, because they said it is going to decrease the value of their homes, increase crime, traffic, etc. Still having hearings on this project. Oh, the "big bridge" being built in the downtown Bristol, TN-VA area is being built to direct traffic away from the railroad crossing in the downtown area. This new bridge will allow downtown traffic to go over the train, without being diverted to much. It is supposed to be the longest and tallest bridge in Bristol. It will run from north Pennsylvania Avenue to north Edgemont Avenue, near the Fort Shelby Towers building. I am sure I left something out. I am sure there is much more to report for the Johnson City-Kingsport areas, but I have not been there for about a month, so I cannot comment on those areas, despite only being 20 miles away.

Johnson City has a couple of tall buildings already, but really not quite at the "skyscraper" classification. They are around 10-11 stories high. About the same as Bristol, but Bristol has about 4 or 5 buildings around 10-11 stories high already. I am waiting for the 20+ story one.

Yeah, in various parts of the city on road that cross "north-south", there are "Welcome to Tennessee and Welcome to Virginia" signs on each side. Yeah, we will probably get to Columbia soon.... depending upon the health condition of grandpa and our dog, both of which are undergoing some health issues now, so its not easy to get away. BTW- great photos of Columbia! That is a neat house. Those palm trees really make it more neat looking with the SC setting. I wish my palm trees were that big now. Here is my little palm in my front lawn..... This first one was taken in May I think..... Do you know of any large, old, historic houses there in the Columbia, with the old Southern Live Oaks in the front lawn?

Great Chattanooga photos! As promised, here are some photos of the Elizabethton cruise. The host of "My Classic Car" was there that day. Instead of putting these on my photo albums, I will try to post them here by the site instead. If they turn out poorly, I will post them on photobucket and post in that fashion. Most of these were taken in the evening hours, because in the morning and afternoon hours, there were so many people, you could not get photos. It was that crowded. Over 700 cars in the show and over 6,000 spectators arrived.

Thanks. Yeah, Bristol is in Tennessee and Virginia. The state line runs right through the old downtown main street. In this photo, you can really see better. This is looking west. The right side of the road is Virginia and the left side is Tennessee. Bristol VA population is about 19,000 and Bristol TN population is about 26,000. However, population of the entire metro area (Tri-Cities) is about 450,000. Those Columbia photos are neat. I am going to visit Columbia one of these days. Perhaps on the way to Florida. I have relatives in Anderson, SC, so perhaps then.

Finally, here are the last ones..... The new library Another of the downtown skyline One of the old original Bristol post offices..... Photo of a old houses in urban Bristol, not too far from downtown....

I have not posted any here in a LONG time, so here are some "photos" of the day. I took these in downtown Bristol, Tennessee-Virginia on the morning/afternoon of Tuesday, July 4, 2006 on the "historic tour".... Most of these were taken after the tour however, as it was difficult to take photos with all of the people around at the time of the tour. You may notice that downtown is also undergoing a "facelift" on many of the buildings. Enjoy. This street downtown is always loaded with "out of towner's". There are always numerous cars down there from out of state. I am guessing they are visiting the theaters and antique shops.

Sorry I did not reply sooner.... with all of the posts, I missed your post. Anyway, no, I did not get on that ride. I cannot stomach all of those. My cousins however get on anything there and have a grand time. That thing is called the "Timber Tower". Dolly announced on Sunday that she will be adding a new roller coaster in the park that will cost $17.5 MILLION to build. To be completed in 2007. I did not realize that either. I will have to post my Bristol photos over there. Thanks! QUOTE(krazeeboi @ Jul 2 2006, 06:32 AM) You guys should post some of your photos in the Southern Photo of the Day thread. Tennessee has absolutely zero representation on that thread. I wasn't aware of that thread. We'll get some pictures posted over there.

No problem. Hopefully all the ones I got the other day in Bristol turned out OK. I have not had a chance to resize the Dollywood photos, but will soon. We were supposed to go again today (Tuesday), but we will not be able to. We want to wait until next week and take grandpa and some other family members with us. I have some of the Elizabethton Super cruise-in that I will try to post tomorrow evening. It was a huge turnout. Over 700 cars in the show in the downtown area and over 6,000 spectators arrived. The TV show host of "My Classic Car" was also there filming.

Yeah, a lot of the locals were devastated that it crashed. They were talking of refurbishing it, but I do not know.... When you return to the Tri-Cities, do you know where the next project will be? Seems as if there is a rumor that a Burger King will be built in southeast Bristol, at the Highway 394 (Bristol Beltway) and Highway 421 intersections. It is supposed to be built in the lot to the left in this photo. I am sure some minor changes may have to take place at the intersection... probably not the traffic lights, but definitely the curbsides.

Yep, thats the one! That intersection is much better now. Interesting that you had a hand in that project. I did not know you did that type of work. It only was completed about a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, that ice cream sign is gone. Something happened and it was severely damaged. I never got the whole story. It had been there since 1969. My grandparents just live up the street from here on Georgia Avenue and I always used to go in here as a kid and get ice creams. I remember the sign well. When I was really little, a little kid used to be on the ladder to the ice cream, but he broke off years ago and only the ice cream remained. Anyway, the parts of the ice cream sign that did not get damaged was supposedly kept by the store owner and he was going to repair, but I later seen part of the sign setting in an antique store window, located downtown. He must have sold it or something. Sadly, we never had any photos of the sign. Had I known it would have been damaged and removed, I would have made an extra effort to get some, but I never thought it would be removed. I will soon try to get a photo of that street corner, so you can see what the entire intersection looks like. For those who do not know what we are talking about, there is an ice cream shop (Kay's Ice Cream) (also sells food) on the right hand corner of this photo. On the corner was a huge plastic or ceramic ice cream figure up in the air that lit up at night. It had a little kid standing on a ladder trying to get to the ice cream obviously. He fell off years ago though. The "Kays Ice Cream" sign was below that also lit up. Anyway, it is now gone, because something went wrong and I was told the sign was damaged. Here is another photo of that intersection (that shows the new traffic lights and road signs)....

I found one more that goes along with the above photos... This old house is HUGE!

Here are more..... The new library Another of the downtown skyline One of the old original Bristol post offices..... Photo of a old houses in urban Bristol, not too far from downtown.... Lastly, here are some on the drive back toward my house. BTW... I only live about 8 miles southeast of downtown..... OK.... heading out of the city limits and heading toward my house..... These are some of the last of the houses in the extreme southeastern city limits, but not nearly all of the neighborhoods.... this is just heading out of the city limits and into more rural areas, but the city limits extends about 2 miles from this photo. In fact, a Burger King will soon go in down the road from here. The intersection of Highway 394 (Bristol Beltway) and Highway 421. To the left of this photo (which is just beyond the above photo), a new Burger King will be built, which will be the first one of this stretch of highway in this area.... About a mile down the road from there going down highway 421... looking southeastward.... The next road on the left is the road we live on.... Finally in my lawn.... looking southwest Now looking west / southwest......

Ok.... here are several. Again, these were taken on the morming of the 4th in downtown Bristol, Tennessee-Virginia. I have many more, but did not want to overload the system. More to follow in the next topic....... As you can see, some of the buildings are undergoing renovations. I will post more Dollywood photos later. Most of these photos were taken after the actual tour, as it was too difficult taking photos with all of the people around. I would estimate that about 80 people showed up for the guided tour. Most businesses were closed, due to the holiday, but that made it less crowded.

Oh, in that case, I have several more that I can post of the park. I will resize them and get them posted here soon. I had never been in Dollywood either until this last trip. We are planning on going again next Tuesday. Yeah, when we go back to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg, I will get photos of those areas. We went on a tour of downtown Bristol today. A local historian who we know well held the tour. I took a lot of different photos (some of the same buildings, but at a different viewpoint) that I will soon resize and post here.

Those are grand photos of Chattanooga.... especially one of the bridge. Here are some I took on Thursday morning on our way to Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, TN. Being the high tourist attraction that it is, I am sure that many here have been there before and on the road photos posted below, but since I have not posted any in awhile, I thought I would go ahead and post. I actually have many more, but did not want to flood out the board. These first ones are heading southbound on I-81 and then on I-40 westbound. These were taken in Sevierville..... This was taken in the park.... I had never been before, despite only being 101 miles away. I have been to Pigeon Forge before, but never in the park. I thought it was really neat. Some other relatives that go all the time went with us, so they took us to the best spots. Still not enough time to see the entire park. Would take at least 3 days to do that. It was so hot here this day. The high was 98* here that day. It was hot at my house to according to my father. It was 96* at my house that day. I am sure that most east Tennesseans know how hot it was that day.

Great photos. I have not posted anything in awhile, but I have some to post tomorrow evening. We ended up just going to Pigeon Forge last week. Did not get too many photos however. Many were when we were on the freeway ( I-81 and I-40).