Road Junkies: Georgia

Showing posts with label Georgia. Show all posts

Day 61: Asheville, NC to Peachtree City, GA
After replacing the logbook again for the Sister's Sixty letterbox we planted in Asheville in honor of Jeanne's 60th birthday, we set out for Charlotte and a lunchtime visit with Ken's mom. We began this odyssey with a visit to her on May 1, so it seemed fitting to slide toward trip's end with her today.

Along the way, Vincent (our van) reached a milestone birthday. As for his name, when he was younger, we once heard someone say, "Look at that van go!" (no doubt Dianne was driving). When we heard that remark, we figured his name must be Vincent....

Anyway, we crossed the 150,000-mile bridge today and hope to do a great deal more traveling together. None of us was thrilled when we reached the Atlanta area around rush hour this afternoon. The temp wasn't as bad as it could have been, but the traffic was certainly a wake-up call.

We're definitely back in the real world... for as long as we decide to stay. We found everything in the apartment just as we left it. Tomorrow we'll get to the post office to pick up two months' worth of mail. Then we'll start planning our next odyssey.

Daily Stats
Miles driven: 426 (most for any day of the trip)
Letterboxes: 1 F, 1 M
High temp: 88° F
Bumblebees: 3,612
Day lilies on NC highways: 451,708

Peachtree City, GA to Charlotte, NC
The great East Coast road trip has begun. We left a hot and humid Peachtree City and headed north, hoping to find cooler weather.

Gainesville, Georgia, was our first destination. We had a letterbox to plant at Poultry Park, where there is a monument commemorating Gainesville's self-proclaimed title of Poultry Capital of the World. The park has an obelisk with a rooster perched on top. Interestingly we had seen this photo on the internet and thought the monument was 50 or more feet tall. Turned out to be a good bit more humble-- maybe half that. Mr. Rooster seemed happy enough with his view, though.

Across the street were some old trains on display. While we were returning a letterbox we found hidden on one of them, we encountered this couple visiting from Mississippi. When Ken noticed the husband taking a photo of his wife by the trains, he took the opportunity to practice one of his favorite travel activities.

"Would you like to get in the picture, too?" he asked the gentleman. Obviously, the answer was affirmative, as it usually is. When Atlanta hosted the 1996 Olympics, we spent many days at Centennial Olympic Park where Ken took many photos of tourists in this same manner. What a great service!

Upon our arrival in Charlotte, we visited Ken's mom, who served us a delicious dinner and entertained us with stories about her childhood and the goings on in her apartment building. We retired to what may be our new favorite hotel, very spacious room and nice amenities...

...but as I type, a party seems to be developing on our floor. Time will tell....

We've gone to Wordle again to portray a summary of our year. Visit the original here and try one of your own.

For the most part, 2009 was a good year, if a year of big change for us, especially at the end when we sold our house unexpectedly. The low point was certainly when we lost our dear friend and stepdad Morris.

After a couple of false starts generated by a busted kneecap, the time finally arrived for Dianne's mother to visit. A primary event during this visit was the gift to Sylvia of some fabulous dental work by our longtime very dear friend Jamey. Jamey calls Sylvia her American grandma and gave her an incredible 80th birthday gift in the form of a new smile.

During the visit we took the opportunity to see some Atlanta sights, including the Atlanta Botanical Garden. How it has grown and improved since we moved away from the neighborhood six years ago! The orchid house was too gorgeous for words.

Since it's so difficult to get Sylvia in the Christmas spirit (yeah right!), we took her to the Henry Players' production of "A Christmas Story," which, of course, left all of us exclaiming repeatedly, "You'll shoot your eye out!" This community theater company produced an admirable show, casting a girl as Randy, who is usually the younger brother. She was excellent and stole the show!

After all the dental work was completed, Dianne and Sylvia headed to Franklin, Tennessee, to visit Woodie and family. On the way, we just had to drive through the beautiful University of the South campus in Sewanee, takking this photo of All Saints Chapel just for sister Jeanne, who has fond memories of the campus from the days when son David was a student there.

The yayas selected pink and black tie dye for this year's yaya shirts. A great choice!

We were sad that Emma had to go home a day early. Everyone wants her to be sure to come on next year's trip, especially Avery.

Once the shirts were dyed, the big event of the day was the concert. Our yaya girls were the cutest ones in the audience at Gwinnett Center.

Demi Lovato and David Archuleta put on a very entertaining show. Both seemed quite humble and down to earth, repeatedly expressing appreciation to their fans. Great role models!

And tomorrow everyone goes home. Well, except for Demi and David. They're off to Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington... and that's just the next two weeks! Whew!

There was quite a line on this summer day to get into the popular Georgia Aquarium, so we bought our tickets and went over to the CNN Center food court for lunch.

Just a brief wait when we returned from lunch and we were in!

Since yaya girls are brave and bold, they didn't hesitate to participate in the touch exhibits.

After a long visit with the fish, we stopped at Mellow Mushroom for dinner. While waiting for our pizzas to arrive, we all learned an important lesson.

Don't challenge Avery to a staredown!

As Whitney demonstrates, all the yayas enjoyed the water slide at our neighborhood pool. With afternoon temperatures in the 90's, it was a much needed relief from the heat.

After swimming, the yayas transformed our basement into a full-service salon, where a select group of clients could get a manicure...

a pedicure...

a hand massage...

hair and makeup.

There was no shortage of lipstick or eyeliner.

Once the audience and cast had received the full spa treatment, it was time for the traditional Barbie and Kendall show, complete with celebrity interviews and performances.

After the show, a secret yaya ceremony was held.

Don't get excited thinking you know something about the secret ceremony. We're just showing off our manicures here.

We are very happy to be selected as the site to host the 2009 Yaya Trip. Like the Olympic games and the political conventions, this is a highly sought after event and we were thrilled when our bid was accepted. Even though we're very disappointed that Taylor, our "senior" yaya, won't be able to be with us for this trip, she'll be with us in spirit.

In preparation for the girls' visit, Ken has been putting food out in the back yard to entice the neighborhood deer into making an appearance for the yayas. Sure enough, this doe brought her fawn with her for a feeding performance. Later we saw this pair and another doe with her twins!

Even without Taylor, we ended up with five yayas visiting since Emma joined us to give Avery a buddy close to her age. And on night one, we were treated to the traditional yaya fashion show and talent extravaganza.

Showing what great sports they are with their bathroom tissue sashes, our fashion show winners (from L to R): Miss Sassy (Emma), Best Style (Karoline), Best Hair (Rachel), Best Walk (Whitney), and Best Makeup (Avery).

The Saturday of Memorial Day weekend was declared the date for the sixth annual Southeast Letterboxing Gathering at Stone Mountain Park in Atlanta. We joined more than 100 other letterboxers for a full day of meeting and greeting and letterboxing.

A group of us decided to search for the boxes on the walk-up trail up the mountain. We had no difficulty recognizing the "gum pole" referenced in the clues for several boxes.

Although the socializing that goes with searching as a group was fun, stamping in definitely took a bit longer.

We were fascinated with all the plant life that grows on the mountain, which is just a big mound of granite. This tree in particular seemed amazingly resilient.

Our friend Cathy was determined to find the Gnarly Head letterbox this time around, having spent more than an hour hunting it in April. Her efforts were rewarded when she found the box.

And, of course, finding Gnarly Head called for a celebration... with some Gnarly Head!

We all huffed and puffed a bit before making it to the top of the mountain, where we were rewarded with some awesome letterboxes planted there and a terrific view of downtown Atlanta.

The hands-down winner of the prize for most unusual sight we saw while letterboxing at the park was the "passy" tree. Who knew these grew in Georgia?

Spring break arrived in Atlanta and we happily joined some friends on a four-day trek to Stone Mountain Park with four gifted teen boys. The trip was designed as research for a doctoral dissertation on the benefits of outdoor adventures for bright young people. Our role in the event was to teach them the art of letterboxing and lead them on some letterboxing hikes at Stone Mountain.

Despite the fact that it was spring break, it was quite chilly most days. One day we even had a few snow flurries, adding to the excitement.

The young men were a delight to be with, and we enjoyed watching them quickly develop letterboxing skills and intuition. Yet one box eluded all of us, even though we were so "certain" this was the gnarly cedar tree described in the clue. Happily, even though we were in the wrong place, we stumbled upon a different box anyway. The benefits of boxing in a place that is as saturated as Stone Mountain Park!

We all hiked the walk-up trail to the top of the mountain, a first for us. The view from the top was beautiful and we were able to locate three letterboxes at the summit. This was the second day of the trip and Ken had already started his role of picking up after everyone and carrying others' things that they didn't want to tote (like a half-eaten box of popcorn).

The Georgia Bubble Man was entertaining people in the park with his spectacular bubble making prowess. Knowing when to keep a good thing to himself, he declined when asked to share his bubble juice recipe.

Many metro school districts had spring break this week, so SMP had lots of special activiites available for the kids. We never found out if the hair sculptor was there only for the week or permanently. These two clients were happy to pose with their new 'do's.

As we trekked our way around the granite monadnock that is Stone Mountain, pools of wildflowers greeted us occasionally. Even on top of the mountain, these tiny plants took full advantage of all the soil that was available.

Over four full days, we hiked 20.7 miles and found almost forty letterboxes. We are optimistic that these enthsiastic novice letterboxers found a new hobby, and the research will benefit other young people like them.

Our niece Heather and her daughter Emma are visiting Ken's sister Marion (Heather's mom) this week so we just had to get together and go letterboxing today. Emma (trailname: Miss Butterfly Lady) is a very enthusiastic letterboxer and was ready to hit the trail at Leita Thompson Memorial Park in Roswell. Without the adult tendency to overanalyze, Emma found the first box when none of the rest of us could. Her grandmother has ingrained in her the need to wear latex gloves when handling things that aren't so sanitary... when Emma remembers to do so. She is very careful about rehiding the boxes better than we found them.

After finding six boxes and hiking four miles, we were ready for a picnic lunch. Following lunch, Emma was ready for another kind of hide and seek. Thinking outside the (letter)box, she "hid" herself as part of this statue in the park. So creative!

View the original of our word cloud at the Wordle web site. According to their web site, Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

Now go make and play with your own. It gets you thinking and it's lots of fun!

Heather and Emma are visiting Marion for two weeks. Emma has her own stamp now, so a letterboxing adventure in Woodstock is a must. But first a little game of Guess Who, one of Emma's and Dianne's favorites. Of course, Emma won...again!

Emma really liked the idea of wearing the gloves Mimi (Marion) brought to keep her hands clean while searching for letterboxes in the forest debris.

Once the box was found it took a while for Daisy Lady (Marion), Miss Butterfly Lady (Emma), Ladybug Mama (Heather) and Catface (Ken & Di) to stamp in.

By the time Miss Butterfly Lady and Uncle Ken found the last letterbox of the day behind the Dairy Queen, the sun had set on a perfect day.

When Alison and Kyle came for a visit, mystery followed. In spite of the 20 degree weather, we set out to search for letterboxes at Stone Mountain Park

Home to the annual gathering of the southeastern letterboxing association, the park is teeming with letterboxes. By the end of the day, we had found around 30.

In addition to more letterboxing around Peachtree City, our fun-loving cousins' visit also inspired a murder mystery party, where everyone took on a role, most of us suspects in the murder of Ron McDonald, who flipped burgers at the diner our characters worked at or frequented.