Installment #11

Remember, you can click on the pictures if you want to see them ‘close-up and personal’

Our last installment was in Florida. We have now travelled through Georgia and Alabama (our second time in Alabama –now in the north end). Our last adventure in Florida was in Plant City where we had an appointment to get the power steering pump replaced under warranty. Unfortunately, we had to wait another day for the repair shop to get to us. We spent the day doing laundry, checking the internet, and then spent the night in the Bill Heard (World’s largest Chevy Dealer) parking lot. After waiting six hours for the repair, we were on the road, headed towards Georgia on Interstate 75. We came upon a traffic jam – three interstate lanes of traffic came to a stop while all drivers were looking at five buffalo and one zebra in a field.






We found our way to the Museum of Aviation at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia (http://www.museumofaviation.org/). They again had several airplanes on the perimeter of the several buildings – one of the buildings shaped like the U.S. Forces star and bars insignia. One item Tony found of special interest was an aircraft engine that was steam driven. Further up the road we stopped for lunch at the Tanger shopping center (http://www.tangeroutlet.com/) Note to Rich and Luci – we finally found a butter crock for home.

Arriving in the Atlanta area (Forest Park, Georgia) to visit friends, Phyllis & John, we were given permission to stay in a church parking lot just one house away from our friends. Unfortunately, the person granting permission failed to tell the rest of the church staff and we ended up with a note on our windshield asking us to give the church a call. All was straightened out by John & Phyllis and we continued our four night stay in the church parking lot. With Phyllis and John as tour guide and chauffeur, we had a very relaxing and interesting visit in this area. The Georgia state capitol was our first major tourist stop (http://www.sos.state.ga.us/state_capitol/) We were able to get into the both the House and Senate chambers and heard a little of the history from a volunteer in the House chambers. On the way we passed the "Olympic Rings" and "Olympic torch" (picture).

Next we travelled on to Stone Mountain to see the Confederate carving in the stone and walk around the attractions at the park including a fanciful water clock. (http://ngeorgia.com/attractions/stonemountaincarving.html)

We were introduced to the Chick Fill-A (http://www.chickfila.com/home.asp) chain of restaurants where spicy chicken sandwiches are on the menu – all the rage in US right now. It seems the creator of Chick Fill-A chain started out by having a sandwich truck at the Chevrolet plant in Georgia, and tried different recipes out with the workers telling him what they thought about the sandwiches. Later we took a walk through the William H. Reynolds Memorial Nature preserve http://web.co.clayton.ga.us/reynolds/about.htm) where they had an interesting display of a bee hive and working bees we could watch.


Our second full day began with a scheduled tour to CNN studios (Cable News Network – originally associated with Turner Broadcasting). The tour wasn’t the greatest, but just being inside the CNN building was quite an experience. There was an eight story escalator (the world’s largest, of course), taking tourists up into a room at the top which looked like a world globe. We did get a short glimpse of the live CNN news room and all the "behind the scenes" reporters in the news studio. The most entertaining part was trying to get out of the parking lot afterwards – after reading signs, watching other cars, and attempting to find the right exit, and after the third attempt, we ended up having a parking attendant help us – folding up and crinkling a ticket you receive at the entrance gate is not a good idea. Tony telling the helpful attendant with his British accent, "we’re not from here" explained it all.

On drives, our tour guide/chaffeurs took us past the Georgia Aquarium (shaped like Noah’s Ark) and on a walk through a confederate cemetery. We saw huge magnolia trees and Wisteria (purple vining bushes in full bloom). We went to Captain D’s fish house so I could get "hush puppies" – Tony wondered if we were going to a shoe store at first (hush puppies are one of my favorite foods from the South – deep fried corn meal with onion flavoring). We experienced the Georgia pollen falling – evidently it was the worst it has ever been – a high count is 300 and during our stay it was 5000. All vehicles everywhere looked as if they had been spray painted with a slight green overcoat (see picture of our car).

One evening’s entertainment consisted of a 9 piece puzzle that none of us could work so we went late at night to Angie’s home to have her 12 year old son work it – unfortunately for him, he couldn’t do it either – we were very happy to leave the puzzle at their home to end our frustration.
During our stay, we often got to see Phyllis & John’s kids – Tim and Angie (who messed with our camera) & her family. Quite an unusual bed we saw in the grandson Austin’s room (picture). His bedroom light was the front grill of the vehicle (lights showing through the headlights.




Another day we went to the Atlanta Cyclorama (http://www.webguide.com/cyclorama.html) – one of three cycloramas in the United States – which houses the world’s largest oil painting and is claimed to be the longest running show in the country. After being seated, the whole seating section is slowly turned 360 degrees while the painting of the burning of Atlanta during the Civil War is described, complete with background music. The painting display has been extended to include in 3-D more railroad track, soldiers, trees, etc. After a visit by Clark Gable, he hinted that Rhett Butler should be included in the display because of the "Gone with the Wind" Georgia setting. He was later included, but the tour guide thought he probably didn’t mean to be portrayed in the way he was - as a dead Union soldier.

Our last entertainment in Atlanta was "Geocaching". This fad seems to be catching on worldwide. We now have a "travel bug" that we are responsible for – somewhere we have to either make a new cache and let the world know, or find another cache and put the "travel bug" in the cache, and then report what we have done. The picture shows Phyllis, John, and tony looking at their find. We had more fun finding three different caches with the handheld GPS…it’s certainly a good way to be entertained and get exercise at the same time. Check it out. http://www.geocaching.com/ or look at the travel bug I have – JPWFYX – from time to time to see if I have disposed of the little jeep – http://www.jeep.geocaching.com/

On the road heading west from Atlanta, we saw this cute sign – advertisement for a car with the car headlights on.







Our next little visit was to a temporary high-security private museum of antiques collected in the lifetime of an elderly couple. This museum was crammed ($9.5 million value) full of very high value artifacts (dresden, faberge, tiffany, capodimonte, remington, royal dux and many more) which were described in detail (dating back to 1600s) by the dear old lady herself – Evelyn Burrow (www.wallacestate.edu/museum)



Today we visited a the Ave Maria Grotto (http://www.avemariagrotto.com/) – by Brother Joseph, a monk at the St. Bernard Abbey for almost 70 years – more than 125 miniature replicas of biblical structures and world-famous buildings (using stone, concrete, and unwanted donated materials such as broken plates, costume jewelry, ceramic tiles, beads, marbles, seashells, etc.), such as leaning tower of Pisa, Pantheon, the Alamo, Colosseum, City of Jerusalem, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Noah’s Ark & the Tower of Babel, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and much more. (pictures).

Thanks again for all the phone calls, emails, and blog messages. We enjoy hearing from everyone.

~~Sharon and Tony