Tennessee is within a day's drive of 65 percent of the U.S. population. Given such a broad spectrum of possible visitors, Tennessee offers a mixed bag of attractions, famous and obscure. The twanging guitars of Nashville, flowing brazier flag of Dolly Parton's Dollywood and Graceland, that bejeweled home of Elvis Presley, are only the beginning.
You can find salt and pepper shakers in kitchens or on tabletops all over the world, in shapes and sizes simple and artistic. The Salt and Pepper Shakers Museum, in Gatlinburg, is trying to collect examples of them al,l from race cars to poodles, leggy blonds to wagon trains, naughty kittens to nuns. They are doing a good job of it, too, with more than 20,000 sets from around the world. Long rows of shelves fill the museum, stuffed from top to bottom with figurines that have holes on top. They also sell spices, salt shakers and pepper mills in case you want to add to your own collection.
Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum
461 Brookside Village Way
Gatlinburg, TN 37738
1-888-778-1802
thesaltandpeppershakermuseum.com
Drive down West Main Street in Brownsville, Tennessee, and you will notice the work of author and artist Billy Tripp. It is hard to miss. Since 1989, Tripp has been building The Mindfield, an artistic homage to his parents and his life, using pieces of steel he has salvaged. The large structure juts into the sky with trusses, corkscrew shapes and antennae. A recently added water tower, towed in all the way from Kentucky and reconstructed by the artist's own hand, adds color to the mostly silver framework. The multifaceted, multidimensional monument of art, according to the artist, is a continual work in progress, and if you happen upon it lit up at night, you might just think it is from another world altogether.
The Mindfield
1 Mindfield Alley
Brownsville, TN 38012
sites.google.com/site/billytripp/
According to Horace Burgess, God said, "If you build me a tree house, I'll see you never run out of material." Fourteen years, 258,000 nails and $12,000 later, the Minister's Tree House reaches 90 feet into the forest canopy, has 10 floors and 80 rooms, and incorporates seven trees. Take a tour through the structure and you can sense that the builder was sincerely inspired. The third floor is a sanctuary that also doubles as a basketball court. The fourth floor has a choir loft and stained-glass picture window of Jesus. Go up a winding staircase to the seventh floor and you can see down to a garden where Burgess has used daffodils, irises, narcissus, gladiolas and wild daisies to spell out the letters J-E-S-U-S. Give yourself at least an half an hour to explore. Admission is free.
The Minister's Tree-house
Beehive Lane
Crossville, TN
