Atlanta, here we come. Slowly.

April 6, 2023

This was kind of a weird week because, for the first time, we moved on a Sunday instead of a Saturday. Ever since our fist move from Johnstown we have chosen to leave early in the day on a Saturday morning. Most full time RVers will travel long distances – sometimes driving for 8-10 hours per day for several days in a row. We decided early on that that method wasn’t for us. Because we do travel separately (John drives the truck and pulls the house and I drive the Kia) we can’t trade off and we find that we do get tired of driving after about 3 hours. We also have the animals to think of so trips longer than about 3 or 4 hours start to make things difficult in terms of bathroom breaks for all of us and in just general comfort for everyone so we prefer shorter trips of 2 to 2 ½ hours but can stretch to 4 hours if we really want to hit a certain destination.  We also like to travel on Saturdays because, as previously mentioned, John works a regular job Monday through Friday. Moving on Saturdays allows us to get where we are going (allowing extra time for any unforeseen issues which we seem to have EVERY TIME WE MOVE) and gives us an extra day to settle in before  he has to jump back into a schedule. Every time we move the house, we have to tear down and secure everything in John’s “office” – his three computer monitors, desk, keyboard, and chair – and then set them up again when we reach our new destination. We also have to reestablish our internet setup and connections and make sure that we have sufficient internet speeds for him to work (and hopefully play PlayStation in the evenings online because I need my alone time!!!). Ideally, everything goes well on move day and we can spend our Sunday sightseeing or doing something fun but, if not, we have that extra day to sort out any issues and recover a little bit. Because I was absolutely NOT leaving the Macon area without visiting the Fried Green Tomatoes and Walking Dead sites we decided to push our departure to Sunday so we could have that extra day to make sure I got my Bucket List items checked off.

We have heard horror stories about the Atlanta area traffic from almost everyone we know who has ever driven through this area but we were still extremely unprepared. Thankfully, nothing crazy happened to the house, car or truck on the way here but our two and a half hour expected drive time turned into about 4 hours thanks to construction and traffic accidents on the outerbelt surrounding the city. If we had just been driving a car, we could have left the highway and taken back roads around. Because we were towing our house (which measures at 13’6’’ tall) we have to follow routes that can accommodate semitrucks to make sure we don’t smack into anything or get stuck on any tight corners. Traffic was bumper to bumper yet drivers were still managing to cut us off and drive very aggressively. Usually, my drive is simple – I follow the big blue box. John leads the way with the house using our special GPS designed for semis and RVs and I just drive behind and make sure nothing blows out of the truck or falls off the house. Because so many cars just started merging in, I got separated from John a few times but was able to keep him in my sight so I didn’t panic too much (even though Harley definitely expressed her concern at being separated from “dad” by whining loudly in my ear) and we eventually caught back up to him. We were doing fine until John realized that we were about to miss our exit. He was able to quickly change lanes and get over but another vehicle sped up and blocked me from getting over behind him. He went on up the exit ramp while I was stuck on the highway. This was our first time ever being completely separated. I knew in my brain that I could just pull up the campground address on my GPS and meet him there (which is what we decided to do) but my heart started pounding and I felt a little panicky. The GPS directions and the actual lanes on the highway DID NOT match up thanks to recent construction but I was finally able to get to the campground about 10 minutes after John had checked in. The nicest lady on Earth greeted Harley and me and  directed us to our site just in time to see John backing the house in.

On move days, we are often a little stressed and nervous and this leads to bad eating habits on these days. John typically doesn’t eat prior to the move and I usually eat junk food in the car on the drive so this usually ends with us getting hangry as we are getting settled because we haven’t had an actual meal yet for the day. We always go out to eat once we get the house levelled and the animals checked on. This lets us get out of the house, finally get a meal, and scope out the surrounding area. Because of the traffic delays, it was around 5pm when we finally headed into the town of Cumming to find some food. We were actually pretty lucky this time, though – instead of just blindly driving around until we found something that we both agreed on, John actually had a destination in mind. In a weird coincidence that we didn’t realize until a few weeks ago – John has been to Cumming, Georgia before! About 2 years ago, he came to a class here to learn to build tiny houses! This was about a year after COVID showed up so we decided that I would stay home with the dog since I didn’t want to be in a strange city by myself during the hours of the class in the midst of a pandemic so John made this trip by himself. While here, he went out to dinner with another member of the class at an all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ restaurant called “Q”. He said that the entire time he was there eating he kept thinking, “Man, I wish I could share this with Angel”. Combine this with the fact that it is all you can eat and we were in. For $36 we got salad, all the meat items we wanted (including bulgogi, shrimp, pork belly, chicken, and even fried gyoza), plus all the little extras like rice, bean sprouts, pickled radish, kimchi, and various sauces. And the coolest part – a robot showed us to our table!

Thankfully, after the craziness of move day, the rest of the week was pretty chill. The campground is really lovely – we are staying at Bald Ridge Creek Campground on the shores of beautiful Lake Lanier. Our campsite is number 80  and it is in the perfect location – trees behind us, the lake across the road, and the bathhouse just a few sites away (we can and usually do shower in our own bathroom in the house but we like being by the shelters just in case we run into any problems and in case of bad weather). The dumpster and the dump station (no sewer hookups at this park) are at the end of our lane and the swimming beach is just around the corner. The weirdest thing about this campground is that there is a curfew! We have been in campgrounds before that were gated but we have always been given a code so that we can come and go as we please. At Bald Ridge Creek, the gates close each night at 10:30pm and they don’t open again until 7:00am. There is a camp host on duty that can open the gates in case of emergency but otherwise there is no coming and going after 10:30.

We have really enjoyed the peace and quiet of this park (and the friendliness of our fellow campers) and have spent a few evenings outside around the fire or lounging in our hammocks. Harley has loved having a such a large site to be able to sniff and roll around and the cats have been spending their days in the windows watching the birds and squirrels in the woods.

The drawback to this campsite is that we have terrible cell reception. Because we run our wifi (which John needs to be able to work) through our phones, we have also had terrible internet service. We previously have been fine with either Verizon or TMobile internet (except for our time in Memphis) but we couldn’t get either to work and our solution in Memphis, which was to rent a workspace for John, really isn’t an option here. We had considered Starlink before but ruled it out due to expense – it’s $150 per month plus about $650 up front in equipment costs. This service uses satellite technology for internet so it requires either being mounted on the roof or being on the ground in an area with unobstructed views of the sky. We had never thought it would be beneficial for us because we like to camp in the woods and that makes it hard to have clear views of the sky. After some research, though, John decided it was worth a try. Thankfully, we were able to find someone nearby selling their equipment so we got it for $400 and it works great. We have been able to work, play video games and stream our television shows with minimal disruptions. Our cellphones still don’t work in the house because the Starlink doesn’t help with cell service but at least we have internet.

We ventured out a few times for food and shopping during the week but nothing too crazy. There are a lot of nice shopping and dining areas in Cumming and in surrounding towns so we have just about any store or type of cuisine we could need within about a 30 to 45 minute drive of our house.

On Saturday, we decided to be adventurous. This was made considerably more difficult by the fact that it was only about 40 degrees outside with a heavy, constant rain. We already had plans for the following weekend so  this was our only opportunity to knock out a few of the things on our Atlanta Bucket List. We decided that, because of the weather, it would be a great day to visit the World of Coca-Cola. I am a HUGE Coke drinker and couldn’t wait to sample all the different global flavors that they offer guests a taste of and I dragged John along for the ride. In a stroke of absolute insanity, we decided to combine our Coca-Cola adventure with a visit to Centennial Olympic park and SkyView Atlanta because they are within a few blocks of each other. Most of our travels so far have been during the winter months and we have grown accustomed to having most places to ourselves and not waiting in any lines. We forgot that this was Spring Break Week and did not get our World of Coca-Cola tickets until we were almost there on the drive in. When I pulled up the website, it said that everything was sold out until 3:45. It was currently just before noon. We bought tickets for the 3:45 entry and decided to use the time we were waiting to visit Centennial Olympic Park.

Centennial Olympic Park was built for the 1996 Olympic Summer Games which were held here in Atlanta. Residents and visitors visited the park during the games for the Festival of the American South and other celebratory events. On July 27, 1996 a bomb was detonated at this park. The blast killed one person and injured over 100 others. The bomber, Eric Rudolph, went on to plant two more bombs in Georgia and one in Alabama over the next few years until he was arrested in 2003. Unfortunately, during this time law enforcement became focused on Richard Jewell, a man that was working at the park doing security at the time of the explosion. The scrutiny from law enforcement and the media ended up destroying the man’s life. He experienced some relief with the arrest of the actual bomber but the damage had been done. Richard Jewell passed away in 2007 and there is a monument to him in the park as well as tributes to the athletes who competed in these games, the people who made the Olympic events in Atlanta possible, and the victims of the bombing. I highly recommend researching this man and the bombing investigation.

Walking through a giant park in the rain was probably not the best choice we could have made but it was still a good time. The park was lovely and, probably because of the terrible weather, we mostly had the entire place to ourselves. We walked the length of the park to SkyView Atlanta,  a 20 story tall Ferris Wheel that offers great views of the Atlanta skyline and of Centennial Olympic Park. We paid around $20 each for 4 trips around the big wheel but were not able to see much out the windows because of the rain. We also had issues with our gondola windows steaming up because of the cold weather outside but, while we didn’t get the amazing views, we did get a break from the rain.

After our wet walk in the park, we headed back to the car and drove to the Sweet Auburn Market (also known as the Municipal Market). This is an indoor market with various food stalls and market vendors selling produce, baked goods, candy and more. We had just eaten breakfast about an hour prior but still enjoyed a meat pie from Afrodish and picked up a few dessert items for later – some macarons, pralines, and popcorn!

We headed back across town to the World of Coca-Cola around 3:00pm. By the time we parked and walked to the entrance, it was almost time to go in. We had hoped that admissions would slow down by the time we got there but there was a huge (and very disorderly) line to get in. Much to the dismay of the staff, we skipped the souvenir photo opportunity and headed in. A large number of people are allowed in in groups and are herded into a standing room theater where staff members decked out in the Coke version of Willy Wonka’s outfit play a little trivia game and give a brief history. The room is filled with Coke memorabilia spanning years and continents and staff do a good job of pointing out some of the stranger artifacts as well as some of the oldest pieces in the collection.

The next stop is a movie theater for a brief film This film has no education value and instead focuses on the many ways that Coke is a part of life’s celebrations. John and I both agreed that this was a very cultish experience and just felt like a feel-good PR piece – which was completely unnecessary because we had already paid admission to get in! We didn’t need any further convincing of how amazing Coca-Cola is and it actually kind of made me question what exactly I had paid $20 per person for. Usually I pay money to be able to skip the ads and just enjoy the main content.

Following the video, the screen was lifted to reveal the entrance to the actual World of Coca-Cola. It looked like a large portion of the building was under construction but they did have little tables set up in the lobby area for the “Scent Discovery Lab” which is an exhibit where guests smell different samples of things and try to guess the scents. John doesn’t have a great sense of smell but I was able to get all 6 scents presented on one set of tables. The other table was a little trickier as everything just smelled like disinfectant thanks to the staff member heavily spraying sanitizer on the samples. It was greatly appreciated for the sake of germs but kind of took away from the experience a little. Perhaps an odorless cleaner would have been best.

We went into the few exhibit spaces that were open which included the “Secret Formula Vault” where, supposedly, the magical formula for Coca-Cola is kept under constant guard in a high tech safe. The exhibit shares a little about the history of the brand and it’s creation as you wander through. The last section reveals an enormous locked safe with very theatrical lighting and an employee taunting guests with lines like “You didn’t actually think we were going to show you the secret formula, did you?” and just laughing maniacally. While we didn’t expect to actually see the formula, I did expect it to be a little bit more like a museum and less like a hokey carnival sideshow. Honestly, at this point I felt like we had paid to just watch commercials and be made fun of for coming in the first place.

The redeeming part of the trip came as we walked up the stairs to the second floor of the building and entered the sampling area. True, we were promised samples of over 100 different Coca-Cola brand beverages from around the world and it seemed like half of them were out of order, it was still a neat experience to dry these different products. We did try every single item that was available to us with the exception of the Italian drink Beverly. We had previously sampled this product at Epcot in Walt Disney World and it was so terrible that we did NOT need to subject our taste buds to that torture a second time. Some drinks were really interesting and pleasant and others were just terrible (mostly the sparking waters-we were tempted to spit several out Ted Lasso style but managed to keep ourselves under control). One of our favorites was BonBon Anglais from Madagascar which tasted like banana candy-John that it tasted like Runts candy but it made me think of a banana Laffy Taffy. One of the more interesting flavors was a Sour Plum flavored Fanta from China that tasted like barbeque sauce. It wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination but it was very off-putting to be drinking it instead of eating it on chicken. I have seen many recipes that call for marinating meat in soda prior to cooking and this would be absolutely ideal for that.

After drinking so much sugar that we could hear our own heartbeats thudding in our ears, we pried our feet free from the sticky floor and exited through the gift shop. There was an amazing variety of souvenirs including t-shirts, hats, pajama onesies, stuffed animals, Funko Pops, drink bottles and basically anything else you could imagine but we managed to escape with only the purchase of a souvenir sticker to add to our collection and a fairly pronounced case of indigestion as we waddled back to the car.

Traffic was terrible, yet again, but we eventually made it home, stripped out of our wet clothes, and slipped into sugar comas until our next adventure.