January 22-24, 2009

We experienced a bout of déjà vu as we headed from Ashville to Atlanta, a route that we had taken two weeks earlier. Our GPS led us to a Chick-Fil-A that was closed but luckily we were in the same parking lot as the Mall of Georgia. So we checked the food court and wouldn’t you know it they had both a Chick Fil-A and an Orange Julius (I passed on the Chick-Fil-A). For those of you counting this would be Emily’s fifth serving of Chick Fil-A.



We battled through the Atlanta traffic and arrived at Emily’s Aunt & Uncle’s house in Marietta, a suburb of Atlanta around 8pm. Friday morning we went to the Atlanta Aquarium, which opened in 2006 with the claim to fame being the world’s largest. They have whale sharks, Beluga whales and the world’s largest viewing wall; its 60’ long by 30’ high. They were also holding a limited exhibition of artifacts recovered from Titanic; it was really interesting to see things that they had discovered. I learned a lot about the Titanic that I never knew and it made Emily want to watch the movie. The aquarium was amazing; I really enjoyed it and was glad we went. We only encountered four school groups so it wasn’t too busy. After spending most of the day there we left the aquarium and headed back to Marietta in time for dinner.

We woke up early Saturday so that we could head to the Atlanta Cyclorama. The Cyclorama depicts the Battle of Atlanta and is the world’s largest oil painting; it’s 400’ long and 60’ high. As they tell the story the auditorium seats rotate and allow you to view the whole painting. It’s a pretty impressive piece of art. There is also diorama in front that makes the painting appear 3D. After leaving the Cyclorama we headed to one of the few remaining Don Pablo’s (a Mexican restaurant that is Emily’s favorite but they closed many locations in the Northeast). It was as delicious as we remembered!

And then we were off for the third and final time! We never thought we would be happy to see “Welcome to Alabama” signs. After 17 days we have finally headed west. Next stop Mentone, Alabama.



We originally thought that we would spend the night in Mentone but once we got there, we realized there wasn’t enough to do for an entire day. We stopped at Desoto State Park to view the Desoto Falls and take a quick hike through some of the trails to look at several smaller waterfalls. We left the state park and drove along the scenic Little River Canyon, it took us awhile to locate it as Doris got lost a few times but we made it and we enjoyed seeing the “Grand Canyon of the East.”



By the time we left the park it was dark and we headed on to Birmingham. Our destination was Dreamland BBQ. Dreamland did not disappoint, we enjoyed the best ribs I have ever had. The ribs were crispy with a delicious tangy sauce. The sauce was so good I just had to buy a jar!

We found a cheap Best Western outside the city and decided to stay there for the night. My Cousin Vinny was on cable and we both enjoyed watching a movie set in Alabama while we were in Alabama!

This concludes our broadcast day.

Dave