Knoxville Zoo With Gabe

Fuzzy Hedgehog at the neighbors home

Knoxville Zoo With Gabe

Tuesday April 30, 2019

Nanny Dana 

Nana Debbie

Lydia & Gabe Koogler

Cousin Shelby Mobley

   Nana Debbie told me one day that her granddaughter Shelby's elementary school was going on a field trip to the Knoxville Zoo.  She told me we should all go and take Gabe before it gets too hot to enjoy it.   I jumped at the chance as did Gabe and Lydia.  Nana Debbie's plan turned out to be excellent!  I picked up Gabe and Lydia and met her at the zoo.  We all arrived just behind the school bus from Porter Elementary.    We had done a good job of remembering most of the important stuff.      Our minor troubles began in the parking lot on the way in.  I was thrilled to have remembered the stroller.   I tried pushing it and it was acting wonky.  Lydia tried it and it was no better.   By the time we got to the ticket window we realized it had three flat or nearly flat tires!  The lady at the ticket window told me I could push it round to the stroller rental booth, and they'd air the tires up for me.  We were delighted.  We got in at a reduced rate thanks to being part of the school trip.  The stroller attendant had us fixed and ready in minutes.  All seemed to improve.   

 Above: Nana Debbie Wilborn, Gabe, Shelby and my daughter in law.. Lydia Koogler

 Cousin Shelby Mobley

 Gabe, Shelby, Lydia.  Porter elementary school boys.

Gabe on playground at the zoo. Stepping on the log pillars.

    We went first to the bears. Gabe was liking the zoo, but could not understand why he was not allowed to go pet the bears.  He believes all animals are pets.   He loves them all.   He fears none of them thus far.    The stroller was still not acting 100% right, but better.   We met up with Nana Debbie and Shelby and her friends at the next area. We saw elephants, giraffes, and zebras.   The kids played in a sort of obstacle course and the prairie dog town.   Everyone was having fun.  We went to see the red pandas and macaws and other birds. We saw monkeys. 

 Above: daughter in law Lydia and grandson Gabe riding the carousel!

Our friend Andy's goat trying to get Gabe to pay attention and pet him or her!  

   
  Gabe was needing a drink by about 10:30 a.m. so we stopped for a dry diaper and snacks. 

He had a dance off with his cousin Shelby.  They are hilarious.  She is a sweet girl and so fun.

He adores her and her older sister, Claire.    The stroller was getting worse by the minute. 

I heard my daughter-in-law swear at it, which is so unlike her.    She was over it and so was I.  

I told her not to fret that I would simply park it by the stroller booth and rent a different one for the day.  That is what we ended up doing.   We checked it before we did for wheel latches and any controls we might have missed.   We found nothing. A rental stroller for $10 for the rest of the day solved the problem.  Another link to the dance off video

       Gabe is a picky eater having been diagnosed with a sensory integration disorder. His brain has trouble making sense of incoming signals from his mouth and tongue.  He has trouble with many  textures and smells.   We finally had to stop for lunch. We had brought Ramen noodles of all things.. and I had dragged along a backpacking stove to be able to prepare them.  This is part of coping with this child's special needs.   The bistro at the zoo.. the new dining venue... was amazing!  They have good healthy selections which we enjoyed.  Asian stir fry and rice.

We asked them if they had either hot water or a microwave. They went above and beyond and prepared his ramen noodles!  I can't say enough about how wonderfully Knoxville Zoo staff went above and beyond to make this a pleasant family trip for us.   That includes the attendant.. a young man at the carousel who was able to fill us in on the best deals for value.

It will really help on future trips.  I go so seldom to the zoo that I forget from one time to the next what the best ideas are price wise and other.  

 Mike mike mike mike mike.. what day is it? Hump DAY! Yeah!  

Lydia and Gabe on the camel.  

            Gabe rode the carousel.  He took a camel ride.  He rode the miniature train with Nanny.

After lunch and another dry diaper we visited the petting zoo. He was finally able to handle the animals like he wanted to. This helped a lot and he enjoyed himself.  He liked the goats and sheep. He brushed them and loved on them.    We went to the play area nearby.

He played with other kids and us on this part of the trip.  He climbed rope nets. He climbed towers. He went down slides and through tunnels. All these things are part of what his occupational therapist has said will help his brain make sense of incoming signals.  

  We wore ourselves and him out.  After the play area it was hot and little man was super tired. 

We were over it and ready to go to the car.  We stopped for a break to play in an old utility vehicle that is pretend.   Gabe loved it. I had to work on engine trouble He had to as well. 

We took turns driving. He took turns driving with other kids and pretending with them.

     Finally we made it back to the jeep.  He got a dry butt, a bottle and a blanket and was asleep in no time.    Our ride home was easy and uneventful with little traffic.  All in all a great day!  

 Elephant

Rhinos

Zebras and giraffes

Giraffe

 Above and below.. riding the zoo train

 Next three photos below show Gabe at the petting zoo part of the trip brushing the goats and sheep

 Below: four next photos show Gabe on the Clayton Homes playground at the zoo

We are blessed to live in a town where we have a fine zoo.   It was begun many years ago by Jack Hannah!  

Oakes Daylily Festival 2018

Oakes Daylily Festival 

Kenny & Dana Koogler 

Friday June 22, 2018

Oakes Daylily Festival Pix

   I am real bad to learn of an event, think its neat and want to go, only to have it take an

inordinate amount of time to follow through.  I am sure there will be destinations on my wish list

of hikes or field trips I will never take.   I long ago learned of a particularly pretty daylily festival in 

Corryton, Tennessee. I had wanted to go and since my longer trips have been curtailed this was my 

impetus to go.   One thing about unexpected changes of plans is that they can help force us out of ruts

in the routine if we let them!   Today was a blessing for sure.  Kenny was soon to return to work. He

agreed to go with me for a stroll around the display gardens at Oakes Lily Farm.  

Corryton is up Rutledge Pike north of Knoxville.   They have this event every June, but it only lasts a couple days.  

    We drove up to Corryton and got to the festival about 11:30 a.m.  Kenny asked what
we were going to do about lunch. I told him they had at least one food truck at the event. It
looked good. I had already eaten something light before we left so I could get started looking
around soon as we arrived.   I wanted to see everything and take lots of photos.  He stopped off
by the food truck and let me do my thing.  We'd meet up in a few minutes.

The food truck at the event was The Chicken Coop --Southern With Sass!  Kenny said it was very good.   

   It is worth mentioning that while this event was well attended that parking was not a problem.
It is a free event.  The provided food, light refreshments, shade, a play area for the kids, door prizes,
plant sale, wine tasting, and at some point during the event .. live entertainment.

  

Red barn when you first pull up to the display gardens at Oakes.



Giant rocking chair-- a bit of whimsy



More red barn and old truck. I'm an old truck kinda gal. I can still smell the horse hair stuffing
in my grandaddy's old pick up. I have fond memories of driving Old Gold.. our farm pickup
with the missing gas pedal. You had to use a board to lay over the throttle! 

I walked past several arbors on my stroll round the gardens.   Here is a shady view out from one of them. 

Above you can see an overview of what the grounds look like across the pond.  It is a very cheerful scene. 

One of the visitors to the festival was a beautiful golden winged dragonfly.  It really fit the Fairy Tale atmosphere of this place. I looked up what sort this is and it has a neat name.. "Halloween Pennant".   The binomial is Celithemis eponina.  

This is one very pretty view with tons of color in the scene. 


A pretty view of the gazebo. They were having some sort of nature walk and game in the gazebo for older kids. 

Above is an artsy combination of the fountain, the pond and the lilies. 

   I always walk round and take a photo of my favorite lilies. I get views of the flower and then follow it up with a photo of the name tag.  Some varieties today were marked Not for Sale. I am guessing they are still cultivating them and allowing them to mature before starting to divide them.     I always like the ones that have names of people. I can't help wondering where the name originated? 

Above is a view of the willow tree with wave upon wave of color in front of it. 


Here is one that is so pretty with a fitting name, "Up Mill Creek". Funny since it coincides with my having a renewed fascination with mills. 
This particularly bold colored lily is named Sparks Steve Taunton.


This cultivar has the odd name "Santa's Pants"  


Lily named Amber Rhum

Above is the little white bridge on the grounds.. it is very quaint.


Visitors stroll among the lily beds. 


Dark purple/black lilies.. Night Wings is the name.  

A view across the beds of the Oakes house and grounds.  

  It was getting rather hot as the afternoon went on, but it was a beautiful, bluebird day.

I was really pleased to finally have gotten to see this gorgeous place. It was all I hoped it would be.  I'd definitely go back.   Kenny even liked it.   We had some day left. We tried to stop in Blaine to see the Richland Creek mill.  I found another off limits place where all I could get was a small glimpse of the mill stream and works from the bridge.    We headed back toward Knoxville.  I had seen on Google Maps a country store that looked interesting.  We stopped by there. I realized that until today I had NEVER been in Fountain City portion of Knoxville. 

Below is a photo of the front of Pratt's Country Store. They sell an amazing variety of garden plants, bird houses, honey, local jams and jellies, baked goods and fresh local produce!  We bought some Knox County locally grown tomatoes and browsed around then headed home. 

All in all.. it was a good day.  I am glad we are finally getting round to seeing some of these nice places in our own area.  I'll be back to Pratt's store for certain. It is wonderful!  

Other Garden Related Dream Destinations

Below is a list of some other garden related destinations. I hope
I can get to see some of these before so long.  It would be a real shame not to.


Lewis Ginter Gardens --Richmond, Va.
Atlanta Botanical Gardens
Cheekwood in Nashville