the second day. 7:04pm. the sun is out and i can see much more of what i missed in the dark last night. but what i cannot see is the train i keep hearing. an occasional, very brief blast on the whistle, but i guess the tracks must be on the opposite side of the hotel. not annoying, though i can see two train cars plain as day before me. different ones. immobile. one red caboose (are they all?) and one black engine with the number ’134′ on the side in white. the river is flowing east to west, or at least right to left, and it seems incredibly narrow at this point. much more narrow than the tennessee river i know from chattanooga.
the hills roll on forever. an immediate set just over the river, one faded by haze behind it, another obscured to a shadow after. surprisingly, the opposite river bank is rather bare. grass alternating with storage, keeping in mind that knoxville is a port city, albeit a small one. there is a sense of history here, and they seem to keep their old architecture longer than atlanta. the world’s fair exhibitions are still here, or at least the shells that housed them. the sunsphere has been polished recently, and it is occupied by some upscale restaurant of a kind. the other pavilions are being reconfigured and are yet to become parking lots. had the 1982 world’s fair happenned in atlanta, it would all be one massive parking lot by now. no, wait, someone would have converted the sunsphere into one bigass set of highrise loft apartments.
oh. almost forgot. the hyatt is parked alongside the women’s basketball hall of fame. an interesting and respectable structure with a 10-ton orange basketball stuck on top of it.
well, off to meet the co-worker’s for some after-work frivolity…
