Day Trip To Jonesborough, TN

For some time, I had been wanting to check out a campground near Jonesborough, TN as a possible site for a rally for our RV club so we decided to use this as an opportunity for a day trip. Founded in 1779 as part of North Carolina, Jonesborough is billed as Tennessee’s oldest town.  It is located in upper East Tennessee about 10 miles west of Johnson City and it is the seat of Washington County and was once the capital of the short-lived State of Franklin.

The old downtown is now a small tourist area with a few places to eat and several shops which were the attraction for my girls.  On this trip, it was Bev, Cindy, the pups and me and I liked that the town was dog friendly with many stores having a water bowl sitting outside.

Many of the buildings were built in the 30-40’s, but they have a replica of one of the originals.

The Chester Inn opened in 1797 and has hosted many famous people over the years (such as Presidents Polk, Johnson, and Jackson). It now contains a museum that chronicles the history of Jonesborough.

The town hosts many events during the year including the annual National Storytelling Festival on the first full weekend in October. Held at the International Storytelling Center, the festival builds on the Appalachian cultural tradition of storytelling, and has been drawing people from around the world for more than 35 years.

My role was to dog sit by walking the streets and trying out several benches while Bev and Cindy shopped. 

All of the stores required masks and the use of hand sanitizer upon entering so the girls felt very safe, especially since they had most places to themselves.

It took them a couple of hours to hit the stores, which they said sold nice items, then we strolled up to Main Street Cafe for a late lunch and got the only table.  The inside is closed for dining so, in addition to the outside tables in front, they have them set up down the alley beside the café.  They have a very good looking menu and our choices were the Athena Wrap for Cindy - Humus, turkey, feta cheese, cucumber, onion, olives, and greens in a whole wheat wrap - $7.50.

The Hot Ham & Kati for Bev - Ham, pimento cheese, and tomato on sourdough - $7.75

And a Greek Philly for me - Beef, feta cheese, caramelized onion, spinach and garlic aioli on French roll - $7.50

We all loved our meals, even the fries were delicious, and we were all stuffed when we left.  We will definitely eat there again if in the area plus we'll be making those two sandwiches at home.

After lunch, we made the five mile drive to the Riverpark Campground to check it out.  Located on the banks of the white water Nolichucky River, I think they have some sites we could use but it is not suitable for a rally for our RV club.

We had driven to Jonesborough via I-40, I-81, and TN- 81 but to come home we opted to see more of the country and took TN-107 to Tusculum (drove thru Tusculum Univ) then US-321 thru Greeneville to Newport and finally US-411 home.  TN-107 runs along the Blue Ridge Mountains and contains some beautiful farm land and several very large tomato fields (one was being harvested).

While we spent about five hours getting there and back, it was still a very nice day and we were all glad we had made the trip.  Since cases of Covid-19 are beginning a new uptrend in TN and our local counties, this may be our last trip for a while.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

10/6/20 trip date