Knoxville rests on the banks of the Tennessee River: 

 The good people at the McClung Historical Collection Research Library allowed me the use of their computers to go over the final edits and complete the index for the McCarthy edited collection while in town:

Scenes from around town:  

    
    Jack Neely giving a musical history walking tour:

 Street art in the alleyway behind Market Square:

    
  

  The funky ceiling in Preservation Pub: Market Square:   

Scenes from the Old Town:
  

    

    Random store signage: 

 The thing that first brought me to Knoxville was the fact that Suttree, my favourite McCarthy novel, was set here, and that the story is written in such detail that you can walk the streets in search of the ghosts of that novel (and that time). Wes Morgan, the good friend who has been driving me up and down and round the Smokies, is, to my mind, the most knowledgeable Suttree (and McCarthy) scholar alive (with a particular interest in his Tennessee period). You can view photos of key sites from the novel, along with a map pointing you to their various locations around town, on his blog Searching for Suttree. It’s well worth a look. 

Scenes from Suttree/McCarthy’s life, courtesy of Wes:

     
 You can find anything in Knoxville (though I am still on the hunt for powdered hummus). I even found a store called ‘Everything Mushrooms’ while on a quest for a laundromat. They have books and posters and every kind of mushroom you can imagine. They even have mushroom art and craft:

 After a week in this wonderful city, I am heading back to the trail tomorrow…