Knoxville

 

Today we had an afternoon in the Knoxville area.  Besides being stuck in construction traffic, we enjoyed two museums.  The first was the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge.  There is a LOT of things to see in this museum related to work done to help make the nuclear bombs in World War II and displays on energy in general.  For instance, this is a model of Little Boy that exploded over Hiroshima.  During the war, not only did scientists need to learn how to separate uranium, but the project had to build a secret city of 75,000 people quickly.  One method was to build these small houses.  Given that our RV is half the size of this house, we’re jealous!

The best part of the museum is the toys…oops; I mean scientific equipment that you can operate.  There is a Jacob’s ladder, Tesla ball, and things like this mechanical arm.

 

The Frank H. McClung Museum is a bit bizarre.  While most of the museum has fossils and Native American artifacts from the Tennessee area, there is a great section on Egypt.  Some of the items were replicas, but a surprising amount were actual Egyptian pieces.

 

Finally, the Sunsphere was built for the Knoxville World’s Fair in 1982.  We considered going to the top, but couldn’t find a parking space plus we were exhausted after a long afternoon.