On Wednesday, September 11, 2013, we took another Day Ride. We decided to have an urban scooter experience around Knoxville, TN.

We left home around 10am and headed down Broadway to the Fountain City Duck Pond. This park is a quaint landmark, popular among the folks in North Knoxville.


The ducks are so use to people, they barely even noticed we were snapping photos. After hanging out with the ducks awhile, we got back on the scooters and headed back down Broadway toward downtown Knoxville.
First we stopped in the Old City.

Just down the block from the Old City is the Knoxville Dog Park. The park is completely fenced in and nicely maintained.



We left the Dog Park and rode up the hill to Gay Street for a few photos of downtown.


After a few photos, we got back on the scooters and circled around to Market Square.


After leaving Market Square, we rode over toward Neyland Drive, stopping briefly to take a photo of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

Right across from the Hall of Fame is the James White Fort, another historic site.
We then rode down to the Volunteer Landing off Neyland Drive.




Jeff talks about our urban scooter experience in this short video:
After hanging out at Volunteer Landing for awhile, we decided to get back on the scooters and head to Pete’s Coffee Shop on Union Street in downtown for lunch.


Pete’s has been family owned and operated for twenty-five years and is one of those fun places to eat breakfast or lunch. However, we hit Pete’s right at the business lunch hour and there was a line waiting. We decided to get back on the scooters and head west toward Bearden.
We left downtown, rode down Cumberland through the UT campus and then past the historic mansions on Kingston Pike. When we got to Bearden, we decided to stop at Panera Bread. Yes, we know Panera is a chain restaurant and unlike the usual small eateries we normally frequent on our Day Rides. But, we always enjoy eating at Panera Bread because the food is fresh and fast.


Jeff talks about lunch in this brief video:
After lunch, we headed down Kingston Pike, turned left onto Northshore, then doglegged on Westland for a few miles. We got back on Northshore heading deeper into west Knoxville.
Northshore is a beautiful road that runs parallel to Fort Loudon Lake. We made a few stops for photos.



By this time, the heat of the day was bearing down and we decided to drop by Biker Rags (on Kingston Pike in west Knoxville of course!) for a drink and a quick break.

We always enjoy visiting with Silas, who does a great job of running the store when we aren’t there.

We hopped back onto the scooters and swung around the store to see Bryan Willis (owner) and Nick at Willis Cycle Works, just behind Biker Rags.

The guys were really busy working so it seemed like a good time to distract them with a few scooter horn honks.

We then headed down Lovell Road, over to Western Avenue and back into Knoxville.
We stopped in at the World’s Fair Park. It turned out there wasn’t any readily available parking on the site, so we took a quick photo and decided to call it a day.

We arrived home at 3:30 pm and our total ride was 66 miles. We felt like we only scratched the surface of what activities riders can do in the Knoxville area!
Jeff does a final wrap up of our ride in this video:
See our list of Day Rides by CLICKING HERE.
Hey, glad to see you guys like scooters too!! I’ve had a couple Harleys, but the old Triumphs really fit me best…..but love my Aprilia 500cc scooter too……glad you guys like scooters also 🙂
James
James- Ooh- a 500cc Aprilia sounds like a ton of fun! We love Triumphs too.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
Pam
Inherited a TNG 150cc Milano from my Father in Law a few years back, hadn’t ran in years, fooled around and got it running, put about 6000 miles on it, donated it to some friends and I have been hooked on riding ever since. Loved my scooter, but love my bike even more! Thanks Jeff and Pam for the tour thru Knoxville, also Love the Videos!
Phillip- 6000 miles on a 150cc Scooter is quite an accomplishment! Thanks for reading and commenting. I heard someone say that everyone needs a bike- some just don’t know it yet. Haha! Have a great day.
Love this post and the feedback on scooters. My hubby has been after me to learn to ride for awhile, but I’m such a nervous Nellie. He’s a cruiser kind of guy but I’m thinking scooter to start out on. Digging the Piaggo MP3 as a good starter ride. Thanks for sharing your experiences!
Polly- I understand about being a nervous Nellie. Riding is a skill to be learned and taken seriously. We nervous Nellie’s usually know the score.
We are looking forward to the Ride For Jan event on October 12th. Thanks for your comment!
Wow sure makes me miss the ole hometown. Glad you guys had a nice day. Here in Chicago land
there is a ))*((*&&% chill in the air. LOL
Sam and Lori- It’s getting chilly here too. Of course, we wouldn’t make it in a Chicago winter… the south bakes cold weather tolerance right out!
Thanks for the great comment.