Welcome to Georgia Y'all

I got up Sunday morning, grabbed a quick breakfast and got on the road. In a few minutes I entered Georgia.

I went to church at the singles ward and ran into an old college friend that I haven't seen in 5 years. The temple was on the same lot but surrounded by a fence that made it hard to get close and get good pictures. I didn't really love the outside of this temple.

Then I rushed to Margaret Mitchell's House before it closed. She wrote Gone With the Wind, side note: mom called that afternoon and I 'acted' out what I had done earlier that day, I made loud blowing noises and she got it. Haha! Below is the actual painting used in the movie in Rhett's bedroom.

Look at this picture, Margaret was only 4'11"!!! Teeny, little lady. She started the book in 1926 and it was published in 1936 and the movie was made in 1939. The entire filming of the movie was done in California at the studio. They had a painter that painted all the scenes and ceilings. It was impressive what he did and especially for that time.

Here is the apartment she lived in while writing the book. It was quite small. A tiny living room, a bedroom with a bed bigger than a twin but smaller than a full they called it a three-quarter. And the table was in the bedroom, the kitchen was about the size of a walk-in closet and that was it. I was quite surprised. Oh and her husband was 6'1", why do tall guys marry short girls? What are tall girls supposed to do, marry midgets?

Her apartment is the bottom left one.

Then I drove to Coca-Cola World. I don't really like Coke but it was fun to tour the factory.

Here is a statue of the inventor, who sold it all after only two years.

I got my picture with the Coca-cola bear. He was quite cuddly and soft.

Back in 1886 when Coke was invented, this is how it was served at a soda shop like this.

The new owner wanted Coke to be accessible to everyone so it was bottled and sold. For the first 50 years the price never changed, it remained at 5cents so everyone could afford a Coke.

At the end they have these six stations. Each station is a country with 8 different drinks Coke makes and sells in the country and you can try all and as much as you want. I probably tried 50 not all 64. Some were really good and some were NASTY. Then they also had a coke station with diet Coke, cherry coke, vanilla coke and a few other varieties of coke to try. I kind of liked the vanilla coke.

At the end we got to pick a bottle to keep, included in the tour and because last month was 125 years of Coke, the bottle has a special anniversary lable. It was fun watching how they processed and bottled coke and tasting all the different drinks but I was totally full of carbonation and a bit sick walking out.

I walked across the street to Centennial Olympic Park. Atlanta hosted the 100th summer Olympic Games in 1996, in case you forgot.

It was a beautiful park and still completely in use. They had a water fountatin that probably had a few hundred kids playing in it, it was CRAZY busy. It was definitely a hot day.

Then I went to see the MLK Memorial. Here is the Baptist church he grew up going to. His funeral was also held here.

Right next to the church is this eternal burning flame for equality and peace.

And right across from the flame is MLK Jr and his wife's burial site.

Then I went to the Oakland Cemetery where Confederate and Union met and died and were all buried here. Also buried here was Margaret Mitchell and her husband.

And if you are familiar with Bobby Jones the gold legend, he is also buried here. I thought it was cute how a lot of people have put golf balls instead of flowers at his grave.

This is the statue over the graves of the unknown Confederate soldiers.

Below is the memorial to all soldiers who died.

Then I ate a quick dinner, checked my front drive-side tire's air pressure, broke the air gauge and got on the road. I stopped in Augusta to spend the night in Georgia. The bed was a little funky and it totally sounded like it was breaking everytime I got out of it. It was a hot, sticky day and I was super exhausted. I fell into bed and didn't shower or wash my face or anything. I really liked visiting Atlanta but it was far too big for me. I could never live there. Thanks for being such a peach, Georgia, I think I'll visit again sometime.