Portland, Tennessee Blog

Yes we made it to the Strawberry Festival and we made it to the building of the Worlds Longest Strawberry Shortcake. (That tasted GREAT) the move has gone well. I never knew we had this many boxes of STUFF..... We had made contacts with our Doctor and taken all kinds of side trips checking things out. We did the 100 Yard Sale and had a blast.

Lee,
Did you and your family make it to your first Strawberry Festival? What did ya think?

Hope you're move has gone well!

I think they should offer guided tours of Strawberry Street during the Strawberry Festival for our out of town visitors!

Peyton's is a warehouse for Kroger's stores. It's located on Kirby Dr.

What is 'Peyton's?'

Welcome to Lee & his family!! I hope you enjoy living here as much as I do. I've been living here since I was 4 years old.

I'll be very suprised if Peyton's doesn't have a float. They usually win the big trophy every year. When I worked there it was a very big deal!!

Word has it that peyton's will not have a float this year.

I agree with Chuckster. When we first bought our house here, I noticed the abundance of parades. Also, the Strawberry Parade is indeed mostly ordinary cars with their family business' name and number taped to the door. I still enjoy the festival however, as I often run into old schoolmates and former co-workers, and I really enjoy the food.

The parade is supposed to be a little different this year.I hear they are limiting the number of entries to around 100 with priority going to floats.All the winners from the pagents will be be on 1 or 2 floats.

The festival can be fun if you like that sort of thing, but in my first years of being in Portland I noticed there seemed to be a parade for everything in this town and that anyone with a vehicle and a sign could be in it. Not sure that I'll make an appearance this year.

Also I had heard last year after the McDowell concert they were going to get someone else this year but I bet it fell through and Ronnie is the only one who would do it for next to nothing or free.

Welcome Lee (and family!). Reminder you can visit our library and have internet acess for free, plus learn a lot about the community!

Welcome Lee (and family!). Reminder you can visit our library and have internet access for free, plus learn a lot about the community!

Yes I have been reading.... I am here now living in our driveway (in our Motor Home) waiting for the trailer to arrive with our stuff...... I have been downtown a couple times and checked out the back road to northern Portland so I can avoid the traffic on 109.... I need to know now about the concert... I have very limited internet for now.

I hope the guy that's moving here from California is reading all this, so he'll know to get to the Festival early if he wants to get something to eat. I'm so anxious to hear his comments after he's been here for awhile....LOL

Hey Mack - Loved your post below!!
This is so true, we look forward to the foods available, my favorites are the slow roasted Chickens, some really good BBQ, and didn't see them last year but there was an Ice Cream, I think Mountain Jims that you could die for, wow was that good!! Lots of food, but seemed last year they ran out fast probably due to one of the largest crowds we ever had.

One of the nice things about the Strawberry Festival is that it provides at least one day out of the year that Portlanders have more than fast food and two Mexican restaraunts to choose from as far as something ot eat!

The prospect of Music on Main sounds wonderful !!!

Main Street would be so wonderful for things like that....and if it were a central area of town for food and entertainment and not a parking lot like it is now......

Frank, Do you have connections with talented bands and/or solo artists that would be willing to put on a concert for free? I seriously doubt they would be turned away.

I hear the Chamber is going to be having concerts on main street during the summer months.Music on Main or something like that.I think they're planning one per month.Supposed to be different kinds of music each time.

How do you feel about Ronnie McDowell playing or would you rather see someone else play the strawberry festival? Nothing wrong with Ronnie, but I would like to see other artist play. I know that I am recently new to the community, but just an idea.

As far as parking,there is going to be satellite parking at Richland Park with a shuttle running to downtown every 10 minutes.

Lee no one seems to bee answering your Question so I guess I'll try part of it. I usually get to the Parade about 1 hour before it starts and you can't find a parking space on the Roadside at that time. You can still park in the parking lots and walk to the main road to watch. Just remember if you are going to do that take something to sit on. If there is rain in the forecast take a Unbrella it like to rain on our Parade sometimes.

Parking any where along the route is fine but being closer to the front is better so you don't have to wait forever for the Parade to be over. Also being close to the front means there is still lots of candy still on the floats to be thown out to the kids.

Thats all I can anwser for you hope it helps.

I'm sure Lee will enjoy the Strawberry Festival, especially the events that lead up to it and the Saturday night concert in the park....which I, personally, think is the best part of the Festival, but I have to agree with you about the parade....:)

I think it's neat that this year there is actually going to be a real focus on strawberries at the festival...with the making of the largest strawberry shortcake idea...that should be fun.

It'd be nice if there were more places that featured strawberry shortcake or strawberry dishes on Festival day......or even sold strawberries at the festival....

LOL, I think it's funny too that so many of the pageant participants ride cars in the parade, but then we have more royalty per capita than any town I've ever seen. When you see a car with a sign labeled "3rd runner-up toddler division," though, it gets a little much. I think a lot of parents who were frustrated as kids/teenagers are living their lives vicariously through their children. They should put all of them on one float at least, like they do the queen and her court. But, that being said, I guess it's what makes a small-town festival small town.

Welcome to Portland Lee,

I know you will enjoy your first Strawberry Festival. You have probably found this informaiton, but just in case, you should know that there are a whole lot of activities leading up to the Strawberry Festival on Saturday. I especially have always liked the carnival that comes to town on Strawberry Week. Usually for one or two days of that week (off peak days) they sell wrist bands for a flat rate that lets you ride all the rides, and it is usually pretty reasonable.

As far as parking, if you live on the north end of town, I would recommend parking behind Pharmacy Express off of McGlothlin Street. That way, you will not have to cross traffic to get to the festivities on Main Street and the Gazebo Square (there is a cut through), there is a sidewalk you can enjoy the parade from there as well, and when you return to your car, if traffic is heavy on 109, you can use North Russell and Kirby Drive to bypass the traffic and get to the north end of town quicker.

My wife and I had to go out of town during the Strawberry Day last year and did not get to go to the fireworks show. I hope we get to do that this year. Maybe we'll see you there.

Thanks for your comments. What time should we plan on being there in order to get a descent parking place?

Thanks Lee

My only complait about the parade is they let everyone that wants to drive a car in the Parade do it. You will see what i mean if you make it to the parade. I go to see the floats and hate all the hundreds of Pagent winners which prolong the parade. The Strawberry Queen should be the only Pagent winner allowed in the Parade.

I don't know anything about the concert since I don't like that type of Music.

Welcome to Portland Lee!!!! The Strawberry Festival is so much home-town fun. I would suggest parking at the unemployment office next to Captain Video, and walking. All the goodies and tents will be located in the parking lot across the street. That way, you all won't have far to walk. Bring your lawn chairs, so you have a place to sit during the parade. Enjoy!!! Hope you find it as much fun as the rest of us.

Welcome to you and your family. I hope you'll enjoy living in Portland. I am a relatively newcomer myself, having moved here 3 years ago, and I have to say I actually like living in Portland. There are a few amenities that I miss from living in larger cities, but I do like the smaller town lifestyle for the most part.

I hope you enjoy your first Strawberry Festival immensely. I'll let someone more knowledgeable help you with the details about parking, etc., but just wanted to take an opportunity to welcome you.

Lee contact me at hugs1956@aol.com we have a day camp starting soon that last for 2 weeks for your handicap daughter if your interested here in portland called special friends