Train to Toccoa Georgia

Photos

It seems like it has been a long time, but I just haven't posted mainly because I didn't get photos from Clay, or any good photos in a timely manner. But, we went to Ayden, NC for the Collard Festival, we went to the Raleigh Greek Fest, the 1st Annual Oakwood-Mordecai Oktoberfest, the Cooke Street Carnival and we went to the NC State Fair. So, it isn't like we've just been sitting at home. In fact, by traveling this weekend we missed the annual Oakwood Pig Pickin' and the Oakwood Confederate Cemetery Lantern Walk.

Anyway, I saw this trip advertised in October 2011 issue of Our State Magazine. This subscription is our annual Christmas gift from Clay's brother Warner and his wife, Vivian. Thanks W & V! The ad was from Salisbury, NC and the NC Transportation Museum. Now we have done a long weekend trip here before and spent a day at the museum (which is enormous and amazing) and a historic homes tour along with other historic sites nearby while spending our nights at The Rowan Oak B&B and having a fancy dinner at La Cava (excellent, still remember the chocolate souffle) and more than a couple of meals of Western NC-style BBQ. So, we were looking for something completely different if we were going back again somewhere and we found it.

The one day round trip train trip was $145pp. We were in Coach Class. Evidently, First Class and Dome Class were about double our fare and in addition to 2 meals, they got to ride in collectible cars. We were in standard Amtrak coach cars. They were nice enough, but Clay and I both remembered having foot rests in Amtrak coach last time we traveled that way. Not anymore apparently. Anyway, by the time I saw the ad and went to the website, all ticket classes except the cheapest were all sold out. People in the cheap seats could still go to the commissary car and buy sandwiches, snacks and beverages. We could also have prereserved a box lunch w/beverage delivered to our seat (we didn't, but noted that they included a souvenir insulated lunch bag which was a nice touch). Also, you could carry on small coolers of food and drinks (we didn't, but did have a couple of sodas, water and some snacks in a backpack).

It seems that Autumn Train Excursions are an annual event of the NC Transportation Museum. I'm not sure why this had never come up on our radar before. On Saturday, October 29, they went north to Roanoke, VA. Now this is another place we had previously done a weekend trip, so that held no appeal. Also, it turned out they had snow, rain, freezing temps up there that day, so just as well! On Sunday, October 30, they went south to Toccoa, GA. We chose that one since it went somewhere we'd never been. In addition to the 2nd or 3rd tallest waterfall in the USA, they were having a street fair, Harvest Festival. We would only have about 3 hours off the train there, so that sounded about right.

Since we had done the deluxe version of Salisbury before, this time we did the budget, freeway exits version. Very different! There were a lot of people in town this weekend, to judge by the shortage of available hotel rooms! They claimed there were about 1000 people on our over 1/2 mile long train on Sunday, so that may have accounted for it. In any event, we wound up at the Days Inn at I-85 exit 76 in Salisbury, NC. It was a great deal at $103.87 total for 2 nights with Clay's AARP discount. It was clean, convenient and very cheap! It was fine, but not really nice. We enjoyed the free HBO and free Internet, not so much the free breakfast. We certainly got our money's worth though given that all the other freeway exit motels looked about the same and they were twice the price.

So, to be sure that there would be no problems, we drove over on Saturday to pick up our tickets. You could buy your tickets online, but then you had to print out a confirmation letter and exchange it Friday, Saturday or Sunday during certain times in certain places for your actual tickets to ride. We got there in the early afternoon and went straight to the museum to get our tickets in Spencer, NC. Then we drove straight over to our motel and checked in. After checking out our room and unpacking, we went out to the nearby shopping center and had a light lunch at East Coast Wings. Then we went back to the room and watched Gulliver's Travels on HBO. We didn't see it at the theater when it was out, because it was only shown in 3-D at our local theater and that gives me a headache! I always enjoy Jack Black. After that and Clay's nap, we went back out for dinner. We wound up at Capriano's in the same shopping center. It was an interesting mix of Greek and Italian food. The prices were surprisingly low for the amount of food. We enjoyed it and filled up. Back at the hotel, we went to the vending machine by the ice machine and had microwave popcorn for a $1. Then back to the room and we watched Love & Other Drugs. We had seen it before and I still found it just as disturbing, if not more so. On Thursday, my tremor expanded its territory from just my right leg to my right hand. One day, I will have to get further medical opinions on this thing since I cannot find any information about resting benign essential tremors being unilateral. But, that is a whole other subject and we are not going there today. Just sayin', it's why I can't like Love & Other Drugs. Otherwise, it is pretty enjoyable entertainment. Then to sleep. We had to get up early, early for the main event. All aboard was scheduled for 6am on Sunday!

Complimentary breakfast at the Days Inn starts at 6am and we needing to be boarding then, so we got up even earlier so we could get breakfast at the nearby IHOP. We pretty much had the place to ourselves. The help was cleaning up from what was evidently a costumed rush of young people from about 4am to 5am, so we just missed them, but we got caught in the aftermath cleanup. No real complaints, it was as expected and we were on our way to Spencer.

The train was about 1/2 mile long. Our assigned train car on our tickets was 5. We had to walk about a mile from where we parked our car to where we boarded the train, then we had to walk through 5 train cars to get to ours. We were 5 cars back from the engines. We counted 4 engines! They explained to us that yesterday in Roanoke, they wyed the train to turn it around for the return trip. In Toccoa, they can't do that. So, they moved the locomotives from the front to the back and all the seats that could be and were occupied had to be flipped so we would be facing front again. So, going down in the AM we were the 5th car from the front. Coming back in the PM, we were the 5th car from the back. Also, the seats didn't line up as nicely after being flipped. The windows didn't line up as well, and it seemed the leg room was reduced. At least we didn't have to ride back facing backwards!

Everyone got loaded between 6 and 7am and we were off right at 7am on the nose. It was still dark for the first hour or so and the tracks were very rough to start out, so we couldn't go very fast. It made me feel bad. I was on 2 meclizine and seabands and MotionEaze. Eventually, the track improved, our speed increased and the sun shone and all was better. I made the trek to the souvenir and commisary cars, from car 5 to cars 11-12. I bought Clay a pack of nabs per his request. I had preordered his souvenir T-shirt with the tickets and we had picked it up yesterday at the Gift Shop with the tickets. I should note that it looked like they still had plenty of them available onboard. We had only one short stop in each direction. That was Spartanburg, SC to pick up and drop off passengers.


Clay spent most of the trip watching his 6-hour BBC Pride & Prejudice video on this tablet, or on the Amtrak complimentary Internet or sleeping. He sat by the window so he could take pictures. I will post some of them now.

We arrived in Toccoa, GA about noon. We went directly to the line for shuttle buses to the falls. That was a nice touch, providing complimentary round trip buses. It was crowded but scenic and we got t-shirts as we passed through the Toccoa Falls College Bookstore to reach the trail to and from the falls. Then, it was back to downtown Toccoa for the Harvest Festival. It was nice. It was bigger than Ayden's Collard Festival I think, but with fewer rides. We ate some good street food. Clay had ribs and I had a Creole Roast Beef sandwich on onion roll. We shared a corn and cheese patty thing at a crepe stand. Clay bought a big bag of kettle corn. How have we been missing this? I know we see this alot at fairs and festivals but we have never had any before. Just as well, I went at it like a crackhead! I loved it! Anyway, we walked the whole thing and contributed to Toccoa's economy and we were very welcomed there. They have a population of about 5000 and we added 1000 for 3 hours. They welcomed us, treated us great and waved us off when it was time to go. Couldn't have been nicer. Couldn't have been a more beautiful day. I'll end with photos from Toccoa, GA.

We got back to Spencer on schedule at 8pm. It felt much later. We wound up further away from the car than this morning and we were next to last off the train! We went straight back to the hotel and to sleep. We were very happy that we decided for Clay to take Monday off work and spend the night here and wait to drive home in the morning. We slept in on Monday but still made it to the Days Inns' complimentary breakfast before it ended. We needn't have bothered. It was crowded and not well done. Though they did have 2 self-service waffle irons! Anyway, all the rest was a non event and we got home just before it started raining again! We had a great weekend.

In a very strange postscript, Toccoa was in the news. Truth is stranger than fiction.

Photos

Three Wrights Historic Roadtrip, Day 3

Photos

We rose fairly early today at the Bavarian Inn. We loaded up and checked out in the pouring rain and headed for the closest Interstate headed west. It ran parallel to the National Road that we had a picture of the mile marker from Monroe's home. Since we were time pressed this morning and there was no included breakfast, I had a cup of coffee in the room and we ate our complimentary apples in the car.

We actually arrived early at Kentuck Knob which was very fortunate since it meant we went on the next timed tour and got a private tour. This was probably our favorite of the 3 Wright homes. Of course, Falling Water was the most spectacular, but Kentuck Knob was the most elegantly livable. We had a great tour guide in Suzie and regret that we failed to notice any feedback forms at the Visitor's Center to compliment here before we left.

We had purchased our tickets online in advance for both Kentuck Knob and Falling Water.

We had some of the Hagan dairy ice cream before we left. The Hagan's were the family that built Kentuck Knob. We bought a container of hummus and chips and an extra bag of chips to snack on for lunch as we went to find Falling Water.

Let me just say that if you set off to do this, make sure you have a very detailed map, and good directions to each of the Wright houses in Pennsylvania. They need to post their latitude and longitude coordinates or people can't find them with their GPS systems. They are on tiny roads that don't appear on most maps! The roads were not in the databases of any one of the 3 GPS systems that we had running. I had even picked up a Laurel Highlands Travel Guide 2011 with all 3 houses shown on a map and we still couldn't find all 3 easily. Especially Duncan House, as the critical road Clay Pike was missing all street signs! So, we had some stressful times in the blinding rain, looking hard for little roads that were not signed or not on maps, etc. It may take longer than you think! We were told repeatedly that usually in summer you can just follow the lines of cars... but not today!

That said, it was crazy crowded anyway at Falling Water. It was especially appropriately named today. Water was falling through the ceilings, through the rock walls, over the rock floors, running off the overhangs in sheet, shooting in arcs out of drain pipes, etc. Amazing and crazy. There is a covered walkway from the main house up to the guest house. The rain running off the low side of it was forming a virtual wall of water. Again, amazing and crazy. I just wish we could post photos, but they told us on our tickets that we are not allowed to publish or post or reproduce images we photographed where photography was allowed. So, visit the websites to get an idea of what we saw, but we cannot share ours. Sorry!

We left Falling Water after eating our snacks under their covered walkways making up their Visitor's Center. From the parking lot, we had a cell signal. (Rare in the Laurel Highlands area for us anyway!) We tried to call the PolyMath Park to get instructions for check in around 3pm as per instructions. No answers at any of the 3 numbers they had emailed us. I had picked up little slips of paper with driving directions at each home to get to the next. So, we decided to follow those directions and see what happened. What happened was missing street signs, a critical failure in the printed directions as to which side of the golf course Clay Pike Rd. was on, as well as not one of the 3 GPS systems being able to get us there! Then there was the intermittent phone signal and the flooding rain, Polymath Park hosting a large wedding the next day that was all hands on deck and no one available for us, the only overnight guests, and the ceiling of Duncan House falling in from the famous leaking flat Wright roof. Oh well. We did eventually locate it by driving around eliminating possibilities. We arranged by phone to have a host meet us at the house to pay the other half of our night's rent on Duncan House and to get directions to find a place to eat.

Before I tell you about dinner (our first real meal in 24 hours!) and show you photos. Let me say a word or 2 about Frank Lloyd Wright houses. I did not know prior to this trip that FLW was opposed to window treatments. Also known as curtains, drapes, blinds, shears...  He did not even want people to have screens to interfere with his clear glass. Huh, you say. Well, until the sun sets and you are in a lighted house surrounded by darkness in the woods with all you can see is reflections. I have a thing about that, so this was pretty nightmarish for me! Geez. Who'd have thought? Anyway, no curtains, not even in the Master bathroom with its clear glass shower stall. What the heck? Was he some kind of closet nudist? In any event, we have been there and done that now. Once was enough. It was an interesting experience. Duncan House is a Usonian home, so we imagined it would be smaller. But, our hostess when asked told us it was 2900 sq. ft. That is bigger than our home and we have 2 floors, so the trip from the Master bedroom to the kitchen was quite a trek!

We picked Nino's Italian in Mt. Pleasant for dinner from our hostesses suggestions. It was good, and 2 towns (I use that word loosely) away. There were only about 9 people eating there, so I guess the flooding rains were keeping people in at home. We were worried about getting in and out of Polymath Park because there is a small one lane bridge across a stream with a gate that you have to get out and open and close when you come and go. That little stream was a raging waterway with whitecaps as we came and went and right up to the bottom of the bridge. As I understood the photo policy, we can only not photograph or share images of the houses. So, posted above are a couple of the bridge and gate. Notice the left side of the bridge got washed away! Scary! But, we cannot post photos of the buckets throughout the kitchen catching the roof leaks or the chunks of ceiling falling into the carport. It was very sad. We hope they will be able to repair the leaks, roof, etc and keep the Duncan House open.

So, It was a pretty quiet dinner and we were hungry and enjoyed it despite worrying about the potential flooding in the continuing deluge of Lee. I'll report on the meal in photos.

As we were leaving Nino's I pointed out a small glass display case which contained boxes of homemade candy. We were needing some snacks for the long drive home tomorrow... So I went in the bar and asked about it. I got a story and a sample, we found out they were out of 1/2 pound boxes, so after eating our delicious samples, we bought a one pound box. Nino's Homemade Butter Toffee was originally made and sold by an old woman whose name I forgot in a town nearby that I was told I wouldn't know about (no kidding!) but anyway... When the old woman was about 90 years old she couldn't keep up with demand and no one wanted to inherit her legacy evidently, so she offered her recipe for sale to local store owners or restaurateurs who would keep her candy available for sale. Nino agreed to buy it and now they make a big batch every week at the restaurant's kitchen. It was like a very chocolaty Heath bar. Yum.

The next morning we were up with the sun for the long ride home. We studied the multiple GPS systems and a set of paper maps for an hour before packing the car and leaving Duncan House. Now, honestly it should not have been that hard. And trust me when I tell you that it got even harder once we got in the car. Geez Louise! The first problem, was that the quickest way out was to take the Pennsylvania Turnpike that was probably within 5 miles of us and we had passed on the way here and could definitely back track to. But, since we had blue skies and sunshine for the first time this morning we were hoping to make the most of some scenic drives we had not had views of coming in. Clay's GPSs all said that any scenic route would add an hour to our trip and he did not want to do that. I am not sure what operator error led to it, but I agreed to give up the scenic routes and take the Turnpike and Clay's preferred GPS tried to first avoid the Turnpike and then route us to DC and I-95. So, we headed out down some windy little one lane turkey track headed North and West and wound around for about an hour before I insisted Clay get on the PA Turnpike 3 exits away from where we began and go EAST! Don't believe me.. click the photo, we just stopped the car and got out to photograph the wild turkeys!

The rest was Interstate driving and not terribly interesting. We had sun until we went through a tunnel on the PA Turnpike and crossed the Allegheny Mountains and wound up back in the soup of Lee remnants for most of the rest of the trip until we got pretty far south.

One interesting point about this trip was that we were in 5 states in just a day! We covered parts of NC, VA, WV, PA, and DE. Pretty cool. Around Antietam, you could drive in 3 or 4 states within about 15 minutes, which sounds cool unless it is getting dark your competing GPS systems fail you again and you have to keep flipping atlas pages to find the little corners of map for each of the states! Just an observation.

The other observation is that VA must have the lowest gas prices because gas was 10 to 30 cents per gallon cheaper than neighboring states depending on where you were. Anyway, we made a point to fill up twice in VA. Clay got his best mileage yet on his new Hyundai Elantra, but still no where near the EPA estimates!

Oh, we passed a sign on one of the Interstates that was in the median and said "Mason Dixon Line". That just cracked us up for some reason, but we blew by it so quick there was no chance of getting a photo. Of course, you know it must be an actual line on a map like the Equator, but somehow we didn't expect a sign! I mean we must have both crossed that line numerous times, but neither of us could remember seeing a sign for it. It happened on either Interstate 70 or Interstate 81. Sorry can't be more specific. I am just not sure where it was.

So, we stopped for dinner in Henderson, NC at Skipper Forsyth's BBQ. It was OK, we wouldn't make a special trip out there. I had the vegetable plate and we once again got a laugh. Only in the South. I ordered macaroni and cheese, baked beans and corn pudding and Brunswick stew. The baked beans had ground beef in them, they were sweet and meaty; weird, but not suitable for vegetarians. Don't say I didn't warn you. So, I'll end here with photos of dinner. We got home around 5pm and back to work and routine. We'll go to the Ayden Collard Festival this weekend. So, I'll see if Clay takes photos there for here.

Photos

Three Wrights Historic Roadtrip, Day 2

Monday, Labor Day September 5, 2011

Photos

So sorry that the photos are not arranged in the order they were taken. PhotoBucket officially sucks!

Clay had a long night's sleep. Mine was a bit more fitful due to the very loud A/C unit in the wall. I was first up between 6 and 7am. The complimentary breakfast began at 7am. Nothing else for us in the area began before 9am though. We were not the first people into breakfast, but we were out before it got really crowded in there. It was a buffet, self-serve hot and cold breakfast in a large room just across from the reception desk in the lobby. Clay stayed with cold food and I stayed with hot. They also had 2 waffle irons. I made one while we ate and we shared it for dessert!

After breakfast, we had time to kill. We found the fitness room in good use and then went back to our room. We brushed our teeth and packed up. Then Clay went back to sleep for an hour or so. I stayed quiet! I woke him about 9am and said everything is open now. We packed up the car and checked out. We drove about 10-15 minutes to Ash Lawn - Highlands, the James Monroe home.

Ash Lawn - Highlands was probably most what we expected a president's private home to look like and our least favorite tour. First of all, the home was most altered after the Monroe's left it. The reconstruction of a portion of the original home is odd. It is 2 stories instead of 1 and the floor is about 3-4 feet higher than the remaining original home. Also, it was very hot and humid that day and the A/C in the home was not working. We were told that it was not as unbearable as the previous day had been. But we had a good-sized tour group and even though we were the first tour of the day, it got uncomfortable in the house. Also, it was a very small house compared to Monticello or Montpelier, yet the tour was over an hour! Our guide droned on about the date and provenance of practically every piece of art, furnishing, wall covering, etc. We had not planned on that much time at a minor (in our minds anyway!) home. Anyway, that put us off our schedule for the remainder of the day. Remember that we had not originally planned to see Ash Lawn and Montpelier. We had planned to drive to Antietam and see what else there was to do. But, once we realized we could see 3 presidential homes and 3 Wright homes, we liked the symmetry and changed plans. One thing that we learned about that was new and after Williamsburg, etc. I am not sure how it never came up before, but tea bricks. They had them for sale at several of our stops! I am positive that I had never heard of or seen such a thing before. But, our guide assured us this is what was thrown in the harbor at the Boston Tea Party. So, there you go. That very comprehensive tour was not a complete waste of time!



It was getting overcast and humid as we left. We stopped in to use the restrooms outside the gift shop as we left. The walls and doors and windows and ceiling under the covered area had an inordinate number of green grasshoppers clinging to them! We wondered if it was like flies becoming clingy before a storm. In any event, the great rain of Lee was on us!

Montpelier was further away than we thought. Clay would not have added it to our things to do, if the maps we had picked up in Charlottesville advertising the 3 had been to scale. I was willing to use the new Virginia state map I had picked up and not Clay's 3 competing GPS systems. So, I thought it was not putting us out of our way. The GPS debate will undoubtedly continue as Clay cannot find North nor read a map to save himself! And I find every GPS system he has put us through to have enough differences and enough unreliablities to make them an annoying hazard rather than a useful tool. Just sayin'... makes road trips a challenge.
 

Making up time we skipped lunch today. We snacked on some nabs and cinnamon almonds I had in the car. Along with some bottled water I had packed and some Coke Zero for Clay that he had picked up at a grocery store in Charlottesville. Which reminds me of Clay's brief money magnetism. He scored an extra $5 back at the self-checkout for an otherwise very overpriced small cans 8-pack! Then walking up to Ash Lawn, someone must have had a hole in their pocket because he picked up close to a dollar in change off the brick walkway to get our tickets.

  

On to Montpelier, I think this was my favorite of the houses. Home to James and Dolley Madison. James Madison actually died in the house. They play a recording of an actor reading what the slave that attended his death had to say about it, while you are standing in the actual room. It was dramatic, if not a little ghoulish and morbid. Montpelier was owned by the DuPont family for a number of years and they added 31 rooms. Those additions have been removed now and it is restored to its state at the time of Madison's death. We saw where Madison wrote the Constitution, but we did not see his view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I am afraid that the rest of our trip was of the "On a clear day you can see... BUT not today" nature. There was lots more to see here than just the house, but we were pressed for time by now and it was pouring rain!



We drove through the afternoon in mostly rain to get to Antietam Battlefield National Park about 2 hours before closing. We were happy to be able to just flash Clay's new $10 lifetime NPS pass for our entry! Technically, they close at dark, but it was nearly dark at close to 4pm when we arrived. I think official sunset a couple of days ago was after 7:15pm, so apparently the Park Service was working off something like that rather observed darkness. We had time to buy Clay a t-shirt, see the film and visit their small museum of artifacts before setting of f on the drive. Here is the problem with history, it can be hard to see. Even on a clear sunny day! On a dark and pouring afternoon, it is next to impossible. But, what we saw was well done and moving.

We were glad though that we spent the morning touring presidents' houses rather than rushing up here. The down side was that we wound up with no spare time to check out the C&O Canal park running along the Potomac River across from our hotel. Clay says we'll save that for a return to PA to visit Hershey. We had debated adding a day to go east to see that and ultimately decided no. In hindsight, an excellent decision since we would have gotten caught up in the flooding over there. We saw enough rain in southwest PA! Anyway, at dinner at the Rathskeller at our hotel for the night The Bavarian Inn, we sat near a table of people bicycle touring the C&O Canal and we definitely were happy not to be having their vacation! 



We checked in to the Bavarian Inn overlooking the Potomac River in West Virginia (Antietam was in Maryland) after dark and ready for dinner. They have an excellent German restaurant there, but Clay was inappropriately in shorts after 5:30pm already. We asked and they serve the same menu in the very small but casual Rathskeller downstairs. They suggested we make reservations since space is limited. We did and parked the car in front of our Schwarzwald Haus building. Got our bags settled in and washed up and then walked back over to the Greystone Mansion for dinner.

Probably the best meal of our trip was here at the Bavarian Inn. Clay was not really happy though, because he mis-ordered. He had something very specific in mind (which was not on the menu!) but he ordered pork in gravy which he hates anyway! Oh well. I had a roast pork dish too. I thought both were very good. Clay might have enjoyed one or the other but he had crispy pork knuckles on his mind and nothing was filling that need. We both had a starter and were too stuffed for dessert.

We waddled back across to our building and up to bed. The room here was nice, but not sure if it was worth the price difference with the Comfort Inn last night. Comfort Inn included breakfast. Comfort Inn had a mini fridge in the room. We missed that at the Bavarian Inn. But, BI had bathrobes (which we didn't use), a 2nd sink (which we did use), a balcony (um, OK we used it to take a photo of the Potomac while we were still rain drenched, but that was it!), and most importantly, the A/C unit in the wall was very quiet (for the win). Bavarian Inn had 2 apples on the table and did not include breakfast. We took the apples with us the next morning for breakfast.

We had to get up and get a really early start in the morning to make sure we had time to find Kentuck Knob by 10:15am the next day. So, we went straight to bed. We both slept soundly right through the night.

I'll be back soon with the main event of our trip, the 3 Wright houses.

Photos

Three Wrights Historic Roadtrip, Day 1, Charlottesville VA

Photos

Sorry the photos are not displayed in order taken. Photobucket sucks!

This trip was inspired years ago by a newspaper article which was reprinted in our News & Observer's travel section one Sunday many years ago. I cut it out and stuck it on my bulletin board and finally an opportunity arose and Clay agreed to take this trip.

Note: Frank Lloyd Wright images are closely held, so we will not be able to post any photos here. Be sure to click any links, as those will be the only FLW photos you will see of what we saw! Remember that any photo posted in this blog, you can click to view full-size. Since we took the time for this trip now to accommodate Clay's work, we had a specific number of days to use, since they were on the way we added Monticello and Antietam to the trip to the Wright houses in Pennsylvania. While we in Charlottesville, we realized there were 2 other President's homes within 30 miles, so we also visited Ash Lawn-Highlands and Montpelier.

We were up early this Sunday morning, September 4, for a quick breakfast and to start our 4-hour drive to Charlottesville to see Monticello. We had purchased tickets online for our timed entry at 1:15pm.  Instructions were to arrive at least 30 minutes in advance to pickup our tickets and take the shuttle bus up to the house from the visitors center. We got there about 11am and just beat the crowds to get our tickets. We used the restrooms and took the lay of the land.


Then we drove just a ways back down the road for the southern buffet lunch at Michie Tavern (ca.1784) at $16 or so each. It was OK. We had chicken, fried and barbecued, pulled pork barbecue in a slightly sweet, vinegary red sauce, black-eyed peas, green beans, mashed potatoes and I don't really remember what else. Dessert was extra, so we skipped it. The cornbread was very spongy!  We wandered all the grounds and visited all the shops and spent some money and got a card stamped at all 4 shops to enter a drawing for a free return trip. Drawing to be held in November, if we win we'll be back.

We were back at Monticello about 1pm to catch the bus up to the house for our 1:15pm regular tour. Today turned out to be very hot. Then, after we had our timed house tour and were taking the Plantation Life tour along the lane of house gardens and slave house foundations, it started raining. (It rained the rest of the trip. It was what was left of Tropical Storm Lee. It was a LOT of rain. I will say it has been a busy time for the mid-Atlantic states starting with the earthquake that everyone who felt it is still talking about, then Hurricane Irene and now Lee.) Anyway, we had not brought an umbrella up with us since it was so sunny and hot. So, when it started raining we left the tour and walked back down the hill, past the Jefferson family cemetery and to view the film at the Visitor's Center.

Everything was very well done and impressive. We were a bit disappointed that the tour of the house was only about 20 minutes. It was very crowded and the groups were large. I guess there is no avoiding that, but in hindsight after the hour+ long tours at the other houses, we really felt we had missed a lot. I will say that there were other tours than the one we took and we did look at the longer, more intimate and detailed tours but they did not fit our schedule. So, that is our loss.

After we left Monticello, we drove backtracking about 15-20 minutes to our hotel for the evening, Comfort Inn-Monticello. It was in a great location, a value priced for what we got. It was a standard room, clean, nice bathroom, included buffet breakfast and Internet. There was a pool much in use as it was so hot. We did not realize there was a fitness room until we went to breakfast the next day! Also, a note for light sleepers, the A/C unit was excessively loud!


But, we decided to go see UVA! We had dinner at The Virginian across the street from Jefferson's Rotunda at UVA.

The UVA campus is gorgeous with a very traditional university feel. We had a good dinner at the very conveniently located The Virginian restaurant. We were so hot and sweaty though and we were seated right by the kitchen and it was so hot and noisy there that we really didn't get the best experience I fear. Clay had ribs so he was happy anyway! We were done for the day and drove back to the Comfort Inn and to bed. That is it for today.  More tomorrow...

Photos

No Shelton Vineyard with Bob Garner!

We just got an email today letting us know that they did not have enough people signed up, so they have canceled the Shelton Vineyard trip. We are just gutted! We were really looking forward to it. The saving grace is that weekend is the Ayden Collard Festival, so perhaps all is not lost! More later...

Guilford Courthouse, NC

Photos

We made a quick afternoon road trip to Greensboro, NC today for one purpose. To at last obtain for Clay a $10 Senior Lifetime USA National Parks pass! Incredibly, this no-fee Revolutionary Battleground Memorial Site is the closest place to our home where we could buy one. So, spurred by a trip coming up in 2 weeks, we drove over to Guilford Courthouse National Park and got one today. We also toured the park and visitor's center for an hour or 2, saw the film about the battle and Clay bought a T-shirt. (Made in Honduras! For those keeping track of such things...) Anyway, it was a nice park, trails, roads, visitor's center all well done and well maintained. The Park Rangers were all very friendly and helpful. It was a nice afternoon.

Then of course, we had to eat. We chose Lucky 32. We still, years later, really miss Raleigh's Lucky 32 and their building still sits empty! It was relatively near the park, so it was also convenient. We arrived after 3pm so Sunday Brunch menu was over and we ate off the dinner menu. I had the chicken & dumplings. I enjoyed it, but it was far from NC traditional! Clay had a Black & Blue draft and pulled pork on johnny cakes with collards and a salad. He enjoyed it, but again, it was far from NC Traditional. They brought us breads which were very seedy! Good! For dessert, I had peanut butter pie. Clay has been craving chocolate chess pie since seeing The Help at the movie theater on Friday! Fortunately, Lucky 32 had one on their menu. Clay ate it. It was a huge slice! I am afraid that after the movie, Chocolate Chess Pie may be ruined for me. I don't see myself eating a slice again until I cook my own. Just to be sure! I won't say anything more so as not to spoil the book or movie for anyone else!

So, now we are all set for our next upcoming road trip. We are calling it The Three Wrights Historical Road Trip. We will be visiting Charlottesville, VA to see Monticello, then to Antietam, then the 3 Frank Lloyd Wright Houses in Southwestern Pennsylvania. They are Kentuck Knob, Fallingwater and the big finale (Did you know you can spend the night in a Wright house?) the Duncan House. We will be spending the last night of our little trip at the Duncan House! Very exciting... stay tuned!

Sorry the photos are not captioned. At some point in time due to Photobucket policy changes, meaning this is the 3rd time I've had to rework these photos since 2011, the captions were lost.

Photos

ADF - week 6

Well, so our ADF season is over. Happily, it ended on a very high note! Paul Taylor Dance Company was flawless! It so met and then exceeded our expectations. Best of all was that it was just dancing to music in costumes. How low really are our expectations! If this year's ADF has had a theme it must have been naked twitching to nerve-wracking noise. A little of that goes a very long way for us. I suspect from the size of the audience over the summer, we were not alone in that opinion. Honestly, we will look long and hard at next year's line up before committing again. Once burned, twice shy and all...

I am chagrined to say that The News & Observer did not review Paul Taylor! After a sorry season, the biggest remaining name in classic modern dance goes ignored. I don't even have words... Anyway, I did find this. And this!

For our last meal in Durham this summer we went to Pops. I think this is only the 2nd or 3rd time we've been since it changed hands and locations and we just don't really love it anymore. It was just okay. We skipped dessert since they did not have anything that tempted us and went for a final visit to The Mad Hatter. Good as usual.

Anyway, that is it for us and ADF for the year. Next little trip scheduled for us right now is a Bob Garner road trip in September. Clay says he needs to take some leave time between now and Christmas, so we'll have to see how that shakes out. I'll keep you posted! Later.

ADF - week 5

Another painful hour of our lives is past. We are thanking God for Paul Taylor next week. Give us some old-fashioned modern choreography with real music. Please! If the economy doesn't do in ADF, then another year of programming like this season will. Good grief. Here is a link to the local paper's review. I hope it isn't that we've become old and jaded as far as modern dance is concerned, but I think we can still trust our judgement and ADF has just not been up to the par of recently past seasons. Though I think that when I feel the best part of a 65-minute sound track is the 10 minutes or so of listening to the computer-generated voice of the National Weather Service reading the current conditions and short-term forecast, that it is a negative reflection on the artists and not on my judgement! As Clay said as soon as we got outside, I think I really prefer an evening of rhythmic motion... I am really looking forward to Paul Taylor. Amen!

This evening for the first time this season, we took my car. The weather is still hot, but it wasn't unpleasantly humid and there were no thunderstorms for the first evening in a while. So, we aired out the SLK with the top down. When we first left DPAC, we couldn't see the moon. We didn't see it until we exited I-40 for Wade Avenue. And then, what a moon! It was a low-hanging, huge orange ball! The man was clearly visible. It was an impressive lunar display! So, I guess we aren't too jaded to appreciate an impressive show yet.

We repeated our first and best meal out in Durham at Rue Cler. But, this time with the added bonus of free desert with entree upon presentation of a current ADF ticket. That was a nice bonus. But, here is a warning, they fill up fast upon their 5:30pm opening and without reservations once the 2 tall 2-tops and bar seating is filled, people were turned away! We have not seen that kind of full house business in a restaurant during ADF in a number of years. It may just be a Rue Cler thing, because we haven't seen it at any other places this season. Just a heads up.

Well, one more week of ADF and then we have another Bob Garner Road Trip coming up in September...

Alegria

Alegria was amazing as all Cirque du Soleil shows are! We very much enjoyed it. Clay got a T-shirt, so he is happy. We went to eat beforehand at Salsa Fresh. Hadn't been there in a long time. They take credit cards now. It was the otherwise the same and as good as we remembered it.

ADF - week 4

Man, time flies. There are only 2 weeks left to the American Dance Festival this summer. So, far this season seems uninspired. But, Emanuel Gat's Brilliant Corners was painful. I mean it isn't the most painful hour I have survived in my lifetime, but it was up there. Not like it was in the top 10 or anything, not like anything involving blood or tears. But in the pantheon of painful hours spent without blood or tears being shed, oh yeah, top 10. It was a good waste of 10 talented dancers for one very long hour. Clay was happy there was no intermission and second half and I had to laugh and assure him that would not have been an option. If they had closed a curtain and raised the lights, people would have stampeded out of that auditorium like a building afire. Oh, well. It is an evening we will be sure not to repeat in the future. Cacophony and twitching. The sound track was composed of what artists refer to as found sound. Laypeople will know it as atonal and non-rhythmic noise. It went on for about 20 minutes and then they "danced" in silence for about 20 minutes. At that point, I was having trouble deciding which was more painful, then the "music" came back and I still am not sure.

We had dinner at Piedmont. It was strangely disappointing too. I won't go on about that. I'm done.

We love Black & White cake at Mad Hatter Bakery. Clay loves their Chocolate Whopper cookies. Mad Hatter now closes at 9pm so we haven't been able to squeeze in a visit yet. We took over a cooler and ice packs and brought home treats, so we still have that to look forward to next week.

We have a Cirque du Soleil performance to attend tonight. So, still something spectacular to look forward to. We have tickets to Alegria. We are looking forward to it.

ADF - week 3

This July 4th weekend was as traditionally covered by Pilobolus. This is their 40th Anniversary and their 38th straight year performing at ADF. So, kind of an institution! Had a disappointing dining experience this week and one we probably won't give a second chance to, though their predecessor in the same space was a favorite and we will miss them! Boo to the loss of Tosca and boo to Cinelli's at 604 West Morgan.

ADF - week 2

Today we are going to have dinner at Clay's brother and sister-in-law's house. So, I will not be writing a review about that! I will post this link to a review of this evening's performance from the News & Observer. Also, I forgot about last week's review. Enjoy!

ADF - 2011 American Dance Festival is underway

So, I am going to count this as a mini-road trip! Summer always feels like one to me because I know that every Saturday for weeks we'll be going to Durham. So, last night was the first of the ADF season for us. We saw Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Co. We have seen them many times over the years and they did not disappoint. One thing we noticed this year is that there was no warning of nudity. They have used it in the past, so we weren't too surprised and the N&O reviewer noted it so we were expecting it. But I did hear the woman behind me gasp at first. It was a whole stage of a lot of very naked people! All but one of them did eventually dress. The funniest thing was the guy that originally only donned a ballcap! They kept changing around their clothes as they came and went. Clay was funny when he told me that first he thought they were saving money on their wardrobe budget, but that they wound up having more than enough clothes for everyone. A little surprising that we did not see the choreographer, Bill T. Jones, this year. I think he has come onstage to take a bow at every previous performance we have attended. In any event, we well enjoyed it.

We had dinner for the first time at Rue Cler. We knew about it last year and Clay's sister-in-law, Vivien, had raved about it to us, but somehow we just never made it. This year since Tosca, one of our favorites had closed down, we decided to try Rue Cler. It did not disappoint. We will be back there sometime. We ordered a la carte. Clay had salad and Moules Frites. I had steak frites. Clay had the strawberry sorbet (tasted like orange juice!) which neither of us liked. I had the chocolate terrine and a mocha latte. The chocolate terrine was a gooey slab of chocolaty deliciousness. We couldn't figure out how they could even slice it, it was so sticky! Anyway, I could only eat about half of it, so it helped Clay's weird orangey sorbet go down.

I don't know yet where we will eat next week. But, ADF has 2 companies sharing the stage next week. Evidence and Dayton Contemporary Dance Company. I can't recall Evidence from past seasons, but I always really enjoy DCDC. So, looking forward to that...

Never Say Never Again

Seriously, when we backslide we do it in a big way. Next year will be a huge one for us with big new adventures! I think that we'll have to do standalone blogs for the 2 semi-long cruises we have planned for next year. Again, all a long way off, but here is a photo hint for you. It looks like we'll finally be making it to 2 faraway places that we've never been before. Very exciting times...

Not too far down the road...

Clay & a big pile of ribs

is an excellent and venerable restaurant. We made a short trip over there on our 26th Wedding Anniversary this week. We'd like to thank our neighbors Paula, Trevor and Jeremy for the gift card that made our visit to The Angus Barn possible! We loved it!

Never Say Never

Well, just when I start a blog of running small trips, we finally plan a big one. Don't panic; it is a long ways off yet and we'll have plenty of time to take smaller trips beforehand. Though in all honesty with American Dance Festival in Durham over the summer, we'll be staying pretty close to home all summer! I will have to decide once we've gone on the big trip whether to do a separate blog for it as I've done for others or to integrate it here. Time will tell so stay tuned...

Anyway, I won't tell any specifics about the big trip yet, except to give you this clue.

Atlanta, the end

Photos

We were both up before sunrise on Sunday. Worried about getting out with the Atlanta Marathon going on. You could see thousands of runners out our window. From the Publix Atlanta Marathon website, it looked like we were going to be landlocked! Clay was up and showered first and he went out to see about bringing back breakfast and if he could ask someone about driving out of the parking garage and away. I showered and made coffee and worked on packing up. Clay came back in a bit of a panic and said we need to leave now. So, after the race had started but before dawn we left the Hilton Garden Inn. I had called in for express checkout and left a voice mail message. The instructions for express checkout were to leave keycards in your room or in a basket at the front desk on your way out. But, I thought we had to have a keycard to exit the garage. Clay thought that all keycards should be left behind and a garage attendant could let us out. I kept my keycard and a good thing because there were no employees working in the garage that we could find, nor any signage indicating how to exit. I drove past a cone going the wrong way and drove a half block to a police woman working a gap in the barricades. She pointed us out to the left and off we went. We zigzagged our way around downtown with u-turns, etc. trying to find a spot ahead of the runners to get out of the race route. After about 15 minutes and the sun rising, we finally got ahead of the pack and got out. We turned back in the direction of the zoo, now needing to kill a couple of hours and started looking for a place to park it and eat some breakfast. We found an open Krispy Kreme with Hot Doughnuts Now in neon, and while that would have been fun and interesting to compare to ours at home because it looked identical, we didn't think we could spend much time there and really didn't feel like doughnuts. A bit further on we found an open IHOP and pulled in. Clay ordered the Senior 2x2x2 and lamented the absence of hash browns, though he wouldn't take any of mine and I had way too many. I saw Eggs Benedict on the menu and that just sounded perfect to me even though I always get pancakes at IHOP. I liked IHOP's Eggs Benedict and thought they did a pretty good job on them and in the end I had some of Clay's pancakes. We almost forgot to take a photo of our food!

We killed as much time as possible at IHOP and then we set off early towards the zoo thinking to stop in at Oakland Cemetery to kill some more time. We could have spent much more time in Oakland! It was a beautiful cemetery, a few years older than our Oakwood Cemetery, smaller but lots more money in theirs than ours.

We set off again for the zoo trying to approach from a different direction to get to the parking lots we saw right in front of the entrance. We found it easily enough and got a parking spot on the front row! We got in line behind about 7 other people with advance tickets or zoo memberships and stood waiting for 9:30am opening. We still wound up entering behind people who started out behind us in line and without tickets, so go figure. Zoo Atlanta handed out nice maps with the day's schedule of events listed on the back. Oddly enough, Po on 1 hour display was not listed, but they just started that on 3/11 so maybe they have had a chance to print new maps up. We also did not find any Po merchandise which sorely disappointed me! I guess Po is just too new yet! Anyway, we made our way straight back to the panda exhibit to look for Po. That is all we did look for Po. He was buried under his mom's bamboo and sound asleep. She was an eating machine on that big pile of bamboo and slowly uncovered him, but he stayed asleep. Oh well, we saw Po! (Click the link at the left to see our video of Po and Mom. Back arrow should return you here to the blog when done viewing. Sorry we did not get a good still photo of Po.) I am looking at the PandaCam now over a week later and Po is out and active and in the same public viewing room where he was only out an hour every morning when we saw him. It is afternoon now! I guess the other reason Zoo Atlanta has printed up public viewing info on Po is that it is still constantly changing. Oh well.

The weather on Sunday was very different from Friday and Saturday. It was cooler and overcast, but no rain. So, it was still nice. Zoo Atlanta is pretty small and compact, so we took the rest of the morning and wandered it all before heading out of town between 11 and noon. We watched some orangutans playing tag, along with some monkeys and apes. But, here is video of Orangutan Tag (click the link!).

Man, the signage for the interstate was crazy! We saw one to I-85/I-75 pulling out of the parking lot and followed it and the others all over downtown Atlanta, but they would never give a sign to actually turn on an entrance ramp so we kept missing it! Finally, I saw a street saw that was something like I-85 Entrance Ramp Road or something and I pulled a quick turn on it and onto a highway while we looked for additional signs to tell us where we were. It turned out OK and we were on our way.

Clay started surfing the Internet on his phone after we were well into SC. He finally picked a place outside Charlotte, NC called Bubba's. Now for those of you who know NC barbeque, you know that there is a pretty firm geographical divide between Eastern Style and Western or Lexington Style Q. Well, weirdly enough here in the heart of Lexington barbeque land, Bubba's specializes in Eastern Style Q. So, that is the exit we started looking for and found around 3pm. I had a chicken white meat quarter with slaw and baked beans. Clay had the Q combo plate with slaw and potato salad. The hush puppies had onions in them! Yuck! We skipped dessert. Clay had to ask for another to go box. We added it to the little cooler sack I had improvised in the trunk with a ziplock bag of ice and a frozen bottle of water. One other fun thing here was the photos around the dining room of people with or in Bubba Shirt T-shirts around the world. After seeing those Clay had to get a T-shirt with its very visible giant font. He also bought a giant apron! Also, last meal and we completely forgot to get a photo of the food!

We had one more stop for oil for the car once we figured out that was the light that kept going on and off on the dash. We were home by 5pm. End of Atlanta road trip!

Photos

Atlanta, the middle

Photos

Sorry the photos are in completely random order! I couldn't find any way to organize them properly.

After me getting not much sleep last night, I finally got up and in the shower between 6am and 6:30am. Clay was still snoring away. I knew we had to be at the GA Aquarium at 9am for our timed entry tickets and if I finally went to sleep now, I wouldn't be awake until then. So, I got an early start. I made coffee and had it in the room while Clay got off to a slow start. I could have made hot tea in the room as well with the supplies provided and that most certainly would have helped Clay's head cold/sore throat but he wouldn't have any.


About 7:20am we went out looking for breakfast. There was a $15pp or so buffet on the 4th floor of our hotel, but we had a look and just weren't that hungry. We went on out through the lobby and across the street and 2 doors down found a Subway and a coffee/ice cream shop both open. So, Danish or breakfast sandwiches? I chose Subway. We picked our ingredients and got our garnished egg white omelet/English muffins to go. We took them back to the room and had them with our now chilled short souvenir Coca-Colas. Cleaned up the room, brushed our teeth again and headed out again to the GA Aquarium. Oh, I should mention here that Atlanta Segway Tours was only another couple of doors down. That would have been a cool thing to reserve if I had known about it. We picked up a brochure and the prices were about the same as in Raleigh.

There were self-service kiosks outside the Georgia Aquarium. Since we were outside before they opened that would have been doable vs. ordering online in advance. But, with the huge crowds at everything we did in Atlanta (outside of the Cyclorama!) I would still be leery. If I had known that we would be there for half the day on Friday, and that it was going to be beautiful weather etc., we could have purchased an Atlanta City Pass or a combo ticket and saved some money, just FYI for future visitors. But, we just had $24.95pp general admission tickets. There are lots of other levels of visit to the GA that you can buy for behind the scenes tours, 3D movies, diving in the tanks, etc. We just wanted to look at our own pace from the public side of the tanks. Anyway, we got our tickets scanned and our photograph taken and then we got packed in the lobby to wait for the rope drop. Again, glad to have gotten in early and glad to be done and ready to leave by the time the crowds got unbearable. When we purchased online, I was given the option to download a free audio tour of the aquarium or could pay for one when we got there. I downloaded it. We tried to visit the aquarium using the audio tour, but it was scrambled and not flowing well through the building. Also, there were staffers everywhere with microphones giving all kinds of talks and information in each section and it was competing audio, so we gave that up. I am glad we didn't pay anything for an audio tour! But, just an FYI for future visitors, don't bother. Interacting with the staff is going to be much more rewarding. About the time we were ready to leave, Clay was ready for a drink. They had finally opened the cafe/snack bar area by now and he wanted to head over there. I convinced him to wait for lunch. So, after browsing the gift shop as exiting we headed uphill through Centennial Olympic Park to Googie Burger. We found a T-shirt on sale for Clay and a blown glass seahorse wine bottle stopper for me that matches our dinnerware.

To sum up, I guess the Georgia Aquarium was impressive! I guess I am just not an aquarium girl. I got motion sick waiting in the lobby to enter. We were surrounded by 2 schools of fish traveling by continuously. I had to sit down and take another meclizine and put on my sea bands before we got inside the aquarium proper. Once in there it was fine. The only other place I was iffy was on a moving sidewalk through and below the big main tank. So, it was a pretty amazing place, but just not my cup of tea. I am not sure what Clay thought of it. He seemed ready to leave before I was though. So, I guess he didn't love it either. I think the main problem was that although they gave us a big map of the place as we walked in, it did not have a schedule of events, feedings, etc. listed. You had to enter each area and view a monitor there to find out when and where their events were taking place and some times things were really nonevents. Anyway, between that and the scrambled audio tour, it made the visit more chaotic and disorganized than even the massive hordes did and we just didn't enjoy it that much.

Googie Burger wound up only about a block away at the Centennial Olympic Park Visitor's Center Building. It was walk up ordering, with a pick up window on the other side of the building and lots of tables and chairs around outside. It was such a beautiful day that it was a very pleasant way to have lunch. We both got our burgers without the special sauce, so all I can say is that we both liked our burgers. They were served on some kind of egg bread rolls. The french fries were better than The Varsity's but still not to our liking. The shakes were very, very thick and delicious. I had PB&J and Clay had peach. In case, like me, you are curious about the name Googie, it refers to the style of architecture of the building!

Clay wanted a nap now. I wanted to visit the Atlanta Cyclorama before it closed at 4:30pm. I was not averse to a nap. We had checked the free HBO schedule in our room yesterday and the premiere of Pee Wee's Playhouse on Broadway was airing tonight at 10pm. That was going to mean a late night for me after no sleep last night. We walked back to the Hilton Garden Inn to drop off our bag from the GA Aquarium and to look at a map before deciding naps or Cyclorama. When we got there around 2:30pm after being out since 8:30am, we found that it looked exactly as it had when we left it. Meaning with the fitted sheet off the 2 top corners! We did not spot any housekeeping carts in the vicinity. So, that decided it. We used the bathroom and headed out again.

It was only about a 15 minute drive to Grant Park which is where both the Zoo and the Cyclorama are located. We lucked into a free parking spot right in front of an entrance to the park and walked down. There were long lines at the zoo and we were worried about tomorrow looking at them. Po (Zoo Atlanta's new baby panda is on public display for 1 hour daily from 9:30am to 10:30am. The zoo opens at 9:30am! So, we did not want to be waiting in a ticket line tomorrow morning on our way to see Po before leaving town!) We decided to look again on our way back out of the park. We went into the Cyclorama and bought 2 adult tickets at $10 each. It turns out that while the museum part is self-guided, the Cyclorama part is timed groups! We arrived about 30 seconds after the movie started and they let us slip in to some empty seats down front. The film was about the Battle of Atlanta, which is the subject of the Cyclorama as well. After the film, they herded us together down a narrow hall and up a narrow flight of stairs to the Cyclorama Theater. It was awesome! There is a giant painting surrounding a giant round room, with about 15-20 feet of forced perspective diorama in front of the painting. The visitors are seated in steeply tiered stadium seating on a rotating platform! There is recorded narration, music, sound and lighting effects as you slowly turn to see the entire thing. When the recorded presentation was finished, a live narrator came in and turned us around once more with stops and starts as he shone a flashlight to point things out to us. We had about 5-10 minutes after that to walk around the seating area to look again at the whole thing. It was just amazing! The soldier figures ranged from just over 4 feet tall to just over 12 inches tall. You really had to look to tell about the foreshortening scale. We wandered the rest of the museum as the busload we had gotten mixed in with got rounded up and reloaded their bus. We realized that we had parked pretty far away in Grant Park from the attractions and made a mental note to find a different approach back tomorrow. But, the good news was that the way we had come we had finally seen a CVS with a surface parking lot that Clay needed to visit on the way back ASAP. When we came out the lines at the zoo were very short, so we got in line and waited to buy advance tickets to come back in the morning. We bought 2 adults tickets with our $3 off pp coupon from the Atlanta map we picked up yesterday on I-85. Our total was $38.86 and we got tickets valid until 09/18/2011. We'll be back tomorrow!

We drove back the way we came and stopped at the CVS and bought Clay more Benadryl since he didn't pack enough with him. He also bought a 2-liter Diet Coke since it was less that a .5 liter from the cooler. We have ice and a fridge back at the room. We were now both hot and sweaty and looking forward to a shower and a nap back at the room. Well, you might imagine that when we got back to the room after 4:30pm it had still not been serviced by housekeeping. We tried to phone the front desk to request it be serviced now, but no one ever answered the phone during a 15 minute period. We got out of there again and headed downstairs as 2 fairly unhappy campers. Clay stopped a maid with a cart as she exited a room about 12 doors down from ours. He asked her about getting our room serviced today, and when it might happen so we could schedule the remaining daylight hours... She pretty much snapped at him that she was doing what 1 woman could do and she'd get to it when she could. Now that was wrong, but I'm sure she was having a hard day and it was probably no more her fault than ours. But... a man in a green uniform with a walkie-talkie appeared out of the elevator lobby and overheard the last of the exchange. We heard him tell her as we left that she couldn't speak to us like that and to go clean our room immediately. Clay did tell her our number, he caught us before the elevator left and asked us our room number, apologized and said she would go clean it now. We headed on downstairs. I stood in line to register my complaint to management. Clay took a sofa in the lobby. It was hot and crowded and very noisy in there. They had a popcorn machine in there during the day. Clay got some the afternoon we arrived, other than that it sat with a few unpopped kernels in the bottom the rest of the time we saw it. I was bummed because I was hoping to score some popcorn to watch Pee Wee with later tonight. About cocktail hour, they take away the popcorn machine and replace it with peanut butter cookies. They are pretty good. But, there is something about the smell of popcorn that is addictive, and that's especially cruel when you can't have any! After about 15-20 minutes, it was my turn in line at the front desk. I drew a young woman from Kyrgyzstan. We had a bit of a language barrier. But, she did radio housekeeping and tell me while they were short staffed our room was being serviced now. No apologies for the inconvenience or ETA on when we could get back in the room. I mean if the woman up there had actually gone to our room when we left her, she should have been finished by now since we had been gone about 30 minutes at that point! The man working next to her was the one who checked us in yesterday and he must have been listening because he took me from her and we started again with what is the problem. He did apologize and acknowledged that we did not pay to come here and deal with the Hilton's staffing issues and the least he could do was offer us a cold beverage while we waited. Although he could not offer us a cold beverage in a cool, quiet space as I requested. He took us to the "Pantry" off the lobby. This is like a tiny convenience store where they sell snacks. We looked in here this morning hoping for microwave breakfasts, but there were none. Only microwave dinners. Anyway, during the course of the day, the coolers had been emptied out! He was happy to find a few bottles on ice in 2 rolling stand up display tubs since he had offered cold drinks. Clay got a juice (he had put his 2-liter Diet Coke in our fridge upstairs while we were up there) and I got another Coke. We sat on sofas in the lobby while we waited for the man to notify us that our room was ready. We got in there a little after 5pm. Clay had taken more Benadryl with his juice and he went directly to sleep. I was afraid if I went to sleep now, I would sleep til 10pm and we would miss going out for dinner. We had plans to go to Mary Mac's Tea Room for dinner.


Clay slept until about 7pm when I rousted him to go now or never since Mary Mac's closes at 9pm. We got there during probably their busiest moment and their rear parking lot was full. We circled around and found a street spot with a $2 per hour meter on it. We did not have any quarters. We had to go in and put our name on the list and get 8 quarters and hope we would be back out in an hour. Clay ordered the full slab of ribs with collards and stewed okra and cracklin' bread. I ordered the vegetable plate. Only in the South! Gotta love it. I had macaroni & cheese, Brunswick stew, chicken dumplings (no chicken) and squash casserole. Now we know if we came back, Clay would only get the 1/2 rack. I would not get the mac & cheese or the squash casserole. I would get 1 fried chicken breast with the dumplings and maybe the Brunswick stew, or just the chicken and dumplings. I ordered the assorted breads which included the cracklin' as well as yeast rolls and cinnamon rolls. The cracklin' bread was small cornbread muffins with pieces of pork skin in them! Vegetarians should be very cautious in the South! Up front the the waitress brought us complimentary appetizers of pot likker with cracklin' bread! This was listed on the menu at $2.25 for the cup size which is probably what she brought us. We were surprised. Clay ate mine! He liked it. He said it was very hot (heat) and made his head and throat feel better. Duh! Still not having any hot tea from the room setup though! For dessert, Clay ordered chocolate ice cream and I order peanut butter pie. The desserts were not too tasty and we wouldn't get them again. Clay had to get a take away box for half his slab of ribs! I think things might have gone better for us at Mary Mac's except that they seat you with a menu and an order form, pencils on the table. We didn't see a waitperson until she arrived to pick up our forms. So, you can't really ask questions to find out more about the menu or what you are ordering! Also, we had already caused enough trouble and delay when I refused the first table we were shown. Mary Mac's occupies what was originally at least 3 store front buildings along Ponce De Leon Avenue. Where the floors meet now in open space is not even. That table sat atop one of those joins and it was tilted at least 10-15 degrees off level. There was no way I could sit there without triggering vertigo and hurling, so I asked to be seated at a level table. Evidently those tables are in lesser supply and greater demand. Anyway, by the time all that had happened, we just filled out the forms by guessing about the answers to our questions and lived with the results. I got back to the car just as the meter was expiring. Clay arrived shortly after it expired and someone was waiting for me to pull out. Busy place!

Traffic was much lighter on the way back to the Hilton Garden Inn. That is until we reached the parking garage! For $18 per night, HGI offers self-parkers covered parking and the ability to come and go at will using your key card. But, not tonight. We drove all the way up to the 12th floor and uncovered parking before we found any vacant spots and we were clearly up there with the evening's celebrants as evidenced by the vomit against the driver's side the next morning! Another mark against HGI and downtown Atlanta in general is that when I was planning, I could not find any kind of general calendar of events. So, we could try to not be in the middle of something big. We learned on our walk through Olympic Park earlier in the day that the Atlanta Marathon was occurring on Sunday. Even as we transited the parking garage and hotel lobby the night before, we could find nothing about the timing or road closures.

Well, we watched the remainder of a Bruce Willis/Tracy Morgan cop movie on HBO and I stayed up and laughed my way through Pee Wee. It was bittersweet. The NY audience was awesome in their participation and reactions. The show was very nearly a verbatim remake of Pee Wee's original HBO live show. They had to change some of the characters though as for example Phil Hartmann is dead and they did not reprise his character. And there was some updating, for example, the Playhouse being wired for Internet. I enjoyed it very much though. We slept better tonight, though the A/C was still overly noisy and the sheets kept popping off the top corners of the bed.

I'll end here and finish off the Atlanta trip with a new final entry.

Photos

Atlanta, the beginning

Bob Evans - my mush, Clay's Sr. breakfast and a side of sausage

When we originally planned this trip, we did not know that Clay would be in India for the previous week and a half! (See the link to the right for Clay's solo trips.) So, we had originally planned to head out after he got off work. Since he was so jetlagged already, and with a cold/cough, that he took off Friday and we left early. That meant Bob Evans breakfast! That's right our first stop was at the 15/501 exit in Durham.

We had a couple of more stops for gas and the restroom. But, we were heading for the Georgia welcome center on I-85 to get a new map. This was a really worthwhile stop. We each got a complimentary pack of Georgia peanuts, which made a timely snack since we were skipping lunch. Also, we picked up an Atlanta Street Map & Visitor's Guide and it had coupons on it! So, we saved $3 each off the price of our admission at Zoo Atlanta.

I-85 GA Visitor's Center

Hilton Garden Inn Room 1213

We arrived at our hotel, the Downtown Atlanta Hilton Garden Inn after checkin time, so after a bit of a wait for the line to clear, we were in our room 1213 and unpacked. ($157 per night/1 King bed city view/nonrefundable rate + $43 or so in taxes + $18 per night self-parking) The main goal of our trip was to go to the GA Aquarium and those were the only tickets we had purchased online in advance. (Adult general admission $24.95pp + $3.99 tax + $2.50 processing fee) (Side Note here: both the Aquarium and World of Coca-Cola had self-service kiosks for purchasing tickets onsite!)

GA Aquarium opened in 2005. I don't know whether this hotel was here before that or built after, but it was aquarium, under-the-sea themed. Nice or creepy, you decide. I say, keep away from the water!

Hilton Garden Inn Room 1213

View from #1213 - GA Aquarium & World of Coca-Cola

Another view from #1213 - Centennial Olympic Park

A few words here about Downtown Atlanta's Hilton Garden Inn. I chose it based on location, pricing and availability. It was a good enough choice without benefit of hindsight. The Holiday Inn a bit further away might have been a better choice. HGI was clean and a great location, just across the street from the aquarium and World of Coca-Cola. Downsides were the alarmingly loud AC unit under the window, the lack of soundproofing at the door (though we heard nothing from our side or upper or lower neighbors!). We were in the next to the last room on our section of hall, so by all rights there should not have been much traffic by our door. I don't know what to say, other than they skimped here on soundproofing, it sounded like people were just inside the room stomping, hollering, screaming, etc. Not good. We liked the minifridge, as oppossed to minibar which is just a hassle! There was a coffee maker, ice bucket and even a microwave. Wireless Internet worked well and was complimentary in the room, as well as a couple of public stations on the 1st floor. The HGI had a display at the checkin desk about their comfortable, adjustable beds. That seemed promising! Not. Our bed was broken, permanently set on firm. It was supposedly serviced on Saturday, my dial was fixed but the bed was still very firm even when I changed it to the softest possible setting. Even worse, though was that apparently because of the bulge of the controls at the side of the head of the bed, the fitted sheets did not fit and during the night they would pop off and you would be left on bare mattress. In this case, the mattress top was sheepskin, so weird and gross! Between the noise, the bed among other things, we did not get much rest. The real downside was that our room was not cleaned/made up during our day out on Saturday. We came back hot and sweaty and Clay really wanted a nap, but our room had not been serviced. That was a bit of unpleasantness that we had to handle and within 45 minutes it was resolved and Clay was napping, but really not what we expected. I will only say that I have probably not stayed in a Hilton since a 3-night stay at Chicago's Palmer House in the 1980's when our room did not get made up once! To the best of my recollection, Hilton is the only hotel chain where I have ever experienced this housekeeping dereliction. I guess given the amount of choice in hotels it will be another 20 years before I give another Hilton a shot.


Um.... Bob?

 We freshened up and unpacked and Clay decided since he could see the World of Coca-Cola that we should go there this afternoon. We set out. Now, notwithstanding my previous post about the highlight of the trip happening in the World of Coca-Cola with the polar bear photo interaction, I was a little disappointed and not all that happy with the experience overall. It was very crowded and extremely noisy! You are herded through in huge groups. After a brief wait in a lobby area, you are herded into a display of historical artifacts, but you are packed in there and can't wander and look at any of it. A woman with a microphone blares over the roar of the crowd describing what is on display, until the film in the auditorium lets out its previous group and we move in. It is a rather disgusting cartoon imagining of life in a Coke machine. If I thought it was anything like that, I would never buy another Coke from a vending machine again! Eeuuw! By the way, the big kissy lips dog above is one of the characters from the film. It was not that long, I am going to guess between 6 and 10 minutes. But, it was mandatory when it would have been better to be optional!

Clay in World of Coca-Cola

Bob & Debbie in World of Coca-Cola

They released us from the bottom of the theater (we entered from the top) and into a big open space where the polar bear makes an appearance at quarter past the hour. We got out there too late and the line was roped off. We had to come back and get in line for the next quarter hour. Our hostess had earlier announced that we were one of the last groups of the day. They closed at 6:30pm and last admission was 5pm. We arrived about 4:30pm and we checked out of the store at the exit at 6:27pm. Admission was $16pp. There is a working production line, but we got there after they had ended production for the day. We did get to see the last capped bottles still moving, but everything before capping was already shut down. That was disappointing. There were a couple of more theaters, both optional. One had Coca-Cola products commercials from around the world airing continuously. One was scheduled showings of an imagined flavor/essence of Coke laboratory in a 4-D theater. Clay said it was very rough. I sat in one of the 8 non-moving seats in the back and got only the water sprays and wind puffs and watched the heads in front bumping around. The other big attraction was the tasting room with over 60 different Coca-Cola products from around the world. This might have been cool if we hadn't done it at no extra charge in Epcot at WDW in Orlando in the last couple of years. In Epcot, it is in an enclosed and air conditioned room to take a break for some refreshing beverages and get out of the FL sunshine. Here it was a loud, hot, sticky-floored room right before you pick up your cool souvenir short Coke in a bottle and exit through the store.

Souvenir bottles traveling overhead in the tasting room

Pick up souvenir bottle of Coke & exit through store

Clay got a retro-styled T-shirt that lists the 63 tasting flavors with their countries of origin on the back. It was cool and it cost $18.95+tax. I bought the photo of the polar bear chomping Bob show in the previous post and it was $21.59. (Oh, BTW during the polar bear photo op, there is a professional photographer there taking photos, but there is another guy there that will take a photo with your camera if you give it to him. So, the photos on the previous post are the After one we purchased and I scanned in here and the Before one that was taken with our camera!)  I also got a red Coca-Cola apron for $19+tax.

We exited and walked back up to our room. We put our little Cokes in our fridge, dropped off our sack, picked up a map and headed out to eat.

Dinner at The Varsity

Clay has had a hankering... been on a quest for... a good chili dog. Go figure. It has been harder to satisfy this yen than you might imagine and we have eaten a lot of chili dogs in the last quarter. So, tonight we are off with the top down on the SLK to The Varsity, the world's largest drive-in, serving chili dogs since 1928. They sell their chili in a can. Clay got one and a t-shirt (mainly so I could justify the shipping charges!) for Valentine's Day. That weekend he had 3 different cans of chili open and in a blind taste test, we both picked The Varsity as the best. So, you know that we are eating our first meal here if not multiple meals here.

I should mention that we had glorious weather on this trip. It was hot, but not humid, with rarely a cloud in the sky. I would say 60s at night and 80s during the day with lots of sunshine. It turned cooler and overcast on Sunday, but still very pleasant weather.

The Varsity - Drive-In!

Back to The Varsity. It was very easy to get to from the HGI downtown and we were there in about 10 to 15 minutes. Traffic was crazy! So, it turns out that on arrival in addition to being a drive-in, there is also inside seating. We wound up parked in the area of drive-in only/cash only dining and since it was so nice out, we decided to stay put and we paid cash and ate in the car. It was fun. They brought us each paper hats to go with! What did we have? I had a chili dog with fries. (Bad, bad fries! Blech!) I also had a chocolate shake. Clay had a chili dog and a grilled pimento cheese sandwich and a chocolate shake. (Clay did not like the pimento cheese sandwich or the fries. He wished he had just ordered 2 chili dogs.) Oh, and the onions. I think their deal is that they serve Vidalia onions. I ordered my dog without and Clay ordered his with. They brought about a cup of diced onions wrapped in a couple sheets of wax paper! Clay couldn't possibly eat them all. I don't know what that was about, if they always serve onions that way or if it was because they weren't sure whose dog got onions and whose didn't. But, anyway they came on the side, a lot of them! I don't have our receipt, but if you're interested in prices, you can check the website's menu from the above links.

There was an amazing, enormous full moon out that night. Unfortunately, none of Clay's night photos turned out very all, all pretty blurry, so I will spare you night time photos. We went to bed pretty early. Clay was exhausted from his jetlag and cold/cough and from his exertions today. I was exhausted from the drive and the overheated, crowded World of Coca-Cola. So, we headed to bed pretty early. I read for awhile and then tried to sleep. Between getting up in the middle of the night to try to get the fitted sheet back on the bed and my gas, I only slept about 3 hours. Clay was out of it except for remaking the bed around 3:30am. What gas you say? It was like something out of science fiction... I was farting like respiration, about 1 fart per every 6 breaths all night long! It should not have been a physical possiblity for any human to have that much gas inside them. Clay asked at the 3:30am bed remaking and I couldn't explain it. I still can't explain it. But, we did decide that Clay's chili dog quest notwithstanding and the excellent chili dogs, I was not eating at The Varsity again this trip!

Well, tomorrow morning we have tickets for 9am at the Georgia Aquarium. So, I will break here and start a new entry for Saturday.