On friday I left the Cincinnati area in the early afternoon, after writing and grabbing some groceries. I found it a little difficult to leave due to traffic on the holiday weekend, and also, as I was getting onto the highway, there was a huge accident. Ambulances had a motorcyclist on a stretcher (he still had his helmet on). When I got past the ambulances, I noticed the bike... it was sandwiched between 2 cars, absolutely smooshed, and looked horrific.

I headed west from the Cincinnati area, on I-74 through Indiana. Passing into Indiana, I am back on central time. On I-74, a mini van passed me on my left, and I wasn't paying much attention to them, but they seemed to be sticking next to me on purpose, so I gave them a look, and in the back, a little girl was holding up a poster of the UConn Huskies. They must have seen my Connecticut license plates, so I gave them the thumbs up and a big smile.

So far I have seen at least 5 Hawaii license plates. They are hard to miss, they contain a big rainbow. I just find it odd that I have seen so many thus far.

When I reach Indianapolis, I transfer to I-70 which will take me through Illinois to St. Louis. In the late afternoon, I passed into Illinois, Land of Lincoln. One thing you really notice is, each state has it's own particular smell, faint but distinctive. Southern Illinois smells of manure, and I am driving past corn fields and wheat fields. Southern Florida smells like wet, Virginia smells like tobacco, Tennessee smells like smoky air.

Driving on through, I come upon the junction of I-70 and I-57, where I spy a huge cross, at least 40-50 feet high, no signs or anything, just a huge cross. Shortly thereafter, I stop quickly at a rest stop to stretch my legs, throw out some trash, and check on my car. The weather is beautiful and cool, so I realize I must camp out tonight, for the first time. Thus far, when trying to camp, it has been too rainy, or I haven't been able to find a camp that has room or that allows tenting. So I check Woodall's guide, and find a spot just down the road in St. Elmo, Illinois that looks promising.

The camp is about 3 miles off the interstate, on a country road. I pull into the place and pay $8 to camp. The folks who own the camp are an older, retired couple, I'd say in their 70's, and you can tell they just love what they do, and just love talking to all the people that come through their camp. So I chatted with them for a while about my trip and what I do. The camp is by a little pond, and there is fishing, boating and swimming. I set up my tent by the pond and walked around and said hi to some other campers.

I settled in to sleep for the night, and enjoyed the sounds and smells of camping. Frogs croaking in the pond, echoing clacks from the other side, camp fire smoke, and the cool air of the trees.

Finally, I wanted to link to this article I found on Fark the other day, entitled The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race.

Current Location: still in Florence, KY, N 39 00.221', W 084 38.916', elev. 875 ft.

Yesterday, I slept late, and got up and drove around Florence, KY a bit, exploring, before venturing north into Cincinnati, Oh. My purpose here was to see the Reds play the Astros on thursday night. So I drove around Cincinnati getting my bearings, seeing what there was to do before going back to the motel for a little wrest and writing before the game.

I left the motel about 6:30, just as a few drops of rain were coming down, and by the time I had made the 10 miles to the stadium, the temperature had fallen from low 90's to low 70's. It was really pouring, but it was merely a thunderstorm, so I expected it would pass. I turned on the game audio on XM to gauge whether or not the game was going to be played, and the announcers proclaimed that Great American Ballpark has a great drainage system, so they were going to delay, but expecting to play. I drove around the city some more, in the rain, scouting out parking locations. I found some ball park parking for $10, and I cruised out further, seeing if there was anything cheaper. Each block further away from the stadium the parking was cheaper and cheaper, until I found some $2 parking about 6 blocks from the stadium. I made a mental note about this place, and drove back to the stadium to gauge whether it was walking distance, and it seemed to be. At about 7:30, the storm started turning into hail and high winds. I have never experienced hail before, and these seemed somewhat big and were very loud hitting the roof of the car. The wind was so powerful, you could actually see it, moving through the rain and hail. I have had a rain or thunderstorm practically every day since first entering Florida three weeks ago.

At about 8 PM, the rain cleared up completely and the sun was back out. I parked at the $2 parking and walked the 6 blocks or so down to the stadium. The Cincinnati Reds serve fans from Kentucky and Indiana, as well as Ohio, since Cincinnati borders both of those states. Great American Ballpark is right on the Ohio river, in between the Bengals football stadium and the basketball/concert arena.



Once again, I paid $5 for the worst seat in the house, a seat that wasn't that bad. Because of the rain delay, I was surprised to see fans leaving the stadium as I was entering, but it seemed not a lot of people really wanted to stick around a wet ball park. I walked into the stadium, and I must say, I was impressed! The stadium is very beautiful, and I am going to go on record and rank it as the best one I have been to thus far, just ahead of Camden Yards in Baltimore. The seats are spacious, and the park is very pretty. You get a great view of the river just beyond the outfield wall.



Great American Ballpark was a great experience. The game started at about 9 due to the rain delay and severe rain, but the groundskeepers did a great job getting the field into shape. I would have liked to see more fans in the stands, but because of the weather and the fact that the team has fallen far below expectations thus far, I guess the crowd was ok for a thursday night.

I moved around seats a bit, trying out different angles and enjoying the game. The concessions here seemed to be less expensive than other parks I've been to, and the fans were extremely knowledgeable. I have grown to enjoy the entertainment between innings, it is amazing how similar it is in every ball park. You've got your t-shirt cannons shot by girls on the top of the dugouts. You've got your soda bottle or mascot animated race around the park. You have the helmet/baseball three card monte for a prize. You've got the dance-athon to YMCA. But perhaps my favorite is the kiss cam. They play a Stevie Wonder song, and the camera focuses on couples in attendance. The fans in Ohio were especially sentimental, cheering the loudest when an elderly couple kissed. Of course the big cliche in every stadium comes at the end, when the camera focuses on two big burly guys, and they look at each other and laugh. One always grabs the other and plants a big kiss on the cheek.

Since the game started about two hours late, I decided to leave at about 11:30, right before the start of the 7th inning. The game was tied 2-2 when I left, and it seemed like a lot of people had the same idea as me. I walked back to my car, lightning and thunder following me the whole way, lighting up the whole sky in an obscure picture. The city of Cincinnati, very pretty lit up in the background. And just as I was walking into the garage, I felt the first few drops of rain. By the time I had paid and gotten my car out onto the street, the sky had opened up, dumping even more rain than the previous storm if you could believe it. By the time I had gotten back to the motel, the game had been called. Since the game was tied entering the 5th inning, and ended up going 7 full innings, it counts as a tie of sorts. The tie doesn't show up in the standings, and the game has to be made up as a complete game on saturday, but the statistics of the game count, all the hits, strikeouts, and innings pitched. This ended my home team winning streak at 7 games. I've now been to 8 games this year in 7 stadiums, and this was the most impressive stadium experience thus far. Ballpark photos here.

Today I'll briefly be heading North on I-71/I-75, but I'll be turning west in Cincinnati, onto I-74, into Indianapolis, and then heading Southwest on I-70 until I reach St. Louis.

Current Location: Florence, KY, N 39 00.221', W 084 38.916', elev. 875 ft.

On tuesday, I got an oil change for the car. I've gone about 6500 miles on the trip, and getting about 27 mpg so far. I left Knoxville TN, headed west on I-40. At some point I crossed into Central Time, though I didn't see any signs on the highway marking this transition. In the mid afternoon, I arrived in Nashville, TN, center of the country music world. I drove around the city, but it was so very hot that day. It was the middle of a heat wave, so I didn't feel much like doing anything. I drove around the city some more checking out the sights. I drove past the Country Music Hall of Fame, and was tempted to take the tour, but then thought better of it, since I probably only know of 2 or 3 country music artists. I headed north from Nashville on I-65, and got to Bowling Green, KY (N 36 56.021', W 086 24.999', elev. 1036 ft.) at about 7 PM (or so I thought). When I got into town, I checked into a motel and found that I was in Central Time, and it was only about 6 PM. Extra hour, bonus! Bowling Green is home to the National Corvette Museum, but after my experiences in Atlanta, I'm more reluctant to stop and take these kind of tours. I don't know if maybe I've just gotten too cynical in my old age, if I'm a little too cheap to be cheated by tourist trap stuff, or if its just that I realize that National Parks have so much more to offer than CNN, Coca-Cola et al. Bowling Green is also home to a lot of caves and caverns, and the main attraction for me was 20 miles north, Mammoth Cave National Park.

I arrived at Mammoth Cave (N 37 11.293', W 086 06.045', elev 742 ft.) on wednesday morning, drove around the park some, and then went to the visitor center to see what it was all about. I have never been inside a cave before, so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. I walked around the visitor center some, getting my bearings, and figuring out what cave tour(s) would be best to go on. A lot of the literature I have suggested that it is best to book tours in advance because they sell out, but none were sold out that day. I decided to sign up for two tours, the Frozen Niagara Tour at 12:15, and the Historic Tour at 2:45. Each was $11, with no discount from my National Parks Pass, but definitely worth the price of admission.

I had a little bit of time, and the temperature inside the cave is 54 degrees F year round, so I went back to my car, and put on jeans and sneakers and grabbed a sweatshirt. However, it was such a hot day, well over 90 degrees F, and very humid, that I had already been sweating wearing shorts and flip flops.

It was very hot, and the jeans and sneakers and carrying around a sweatshirt didn't help. I guess much of the nation has been experiencing a heat wave of late. Its the kind of hot where you can sweat sitting in the shade. I'm not a person who likes to sweat, but I typically don't mind the heat as much as other people. I waited inside the air conditioned visitor center until my tour was called, at which time I walked out to the bus stop where they pick you up for the tour. The entrance to the Frozen Niagara tour is about a 5 minute drive from the visitor center, but with 40 people crammed on a hot bus, it seemed to take much longer.

We finally got to the cave entrance, and it was just this big door sticking out of the ground, almost like going into a basement, or perhaps a doorway to the magical land of Narnia.



Abandon every hope, ye who enter here

Going inside, you notice huge bugs, they have long legs like spiders, but they are actually cave crickets, and they are huge, some as big as your hand. I wanted to get a couple of photos, but since the path down into the cave was wet, single file stairs, I didn't really want to stop the flow of traffic to take the photos. As soon as you start descending the "million dollar staircase" a set of about 350 stairs, you start to feel the cool air. The way down is lit by electric lights which the guide in front turns on and the guide behind turns off. The cave is breathtaking, there are some really nice sights to see, here are a few.



I won't bore you with too many photos. I took 129, but since I was in a cave, some are tough to decipher. In fact, some I wasn't sure if they needed to be oriented as landscape or portrait once I got them onto the PC.

Mammoth Cave is the largest known cave system in the world, at least 360 miles of mapped path, and water has been carving its walls, ceilings and floors for over 200 million years. On the Frozen Niagara tour, we descended to a depth of over 250 feet, but we were still somewhere in the middle. I was surprised how many open caverns and huge rooms were to be found inside the cave. The tour was not too difficult as far as walking up and down steep paths or climbing is concerned, but there were some tight spots where it is a little harder for a large gentleman to pass through, but nothing impossible. One thing I wanted to mention is that while the cave air is 54 degrees, it is quickly warmed by 150 hot bodies passing into it, so by the middle of the tour, I was still sweating with the jeans and the sweatshirt. There were a few stops in the tour where the park range tour guide had us rest and she talked about the geology of the cave. At one of the stops she turned of all the lights, and asked everyone to be quite so we could appreciate the quiet darkness. and how the first cave explorers relaxed. The cave is a dry cave for the most part, no running water on the levels we were on, so the quiet could drive you crazy before the darkness if you were ever lost. Unfortunately, there were scores of children on the tour that day, and kids can't stay quiet for very long, so that came to an end very quickly. Kids on tours can be fun, but they can also become very annoying very quickly, especially in the tight spaces.

Near the end of the Frozen Niagara tour, we finally came upon some formations in the cave, an area known as the Frozen Niagara for its resemblance to a waterfall. 85% of the formations in all of Mammoth Cave are part of this room. There were some very neat formations, (stalactites, stalagmites, bacon, popcorn, drapery, and column formations).





That was pretty much the end of that tour, so we walked out via a different path and boarded the bus. Since I had been so hot, I wen tback to my car, cranked the AC, and had some lunch. I also changed out of the jeans, and left the sweatshirt in the car.

For the Historic Tour, we didn't need to take a bus, as the main entrance to the cave is very near the visitor center. And the entrance is simply amazing, it is just this huge huge dark hole in the ground. You walk down to it, and you immediately think of Alice in Wonderland, deciding weather or not to follow the White Rabbit into the hole. The air in the vicinity of the cave is much cooler and less humid than the land, and so it is a pleasure just satnding in an around the mouth of the cave while the park ranger goes over the saftey tips.



Step into your cave. Find your power animal. Slide.

Where the Frozen Niagara tour focused on the geology of the cave, the Historical Tour focused on the history of the cave, from Indians as long as 4000 years ago, to the cave's discovery by Europeans in colonial times, to the manufacture of saltpeter for gunpowder in the war of 1812, to the tourisim industry starting in the 1800s. The path of the Historical tour is much gentler, much less stairs and many more huge open caverns, but it is a longer path with less stops, and you go deeper into the cave a maximum depth of about 360 feet. The park ranger talks about how saltpeter was made by slaves out of bat droppings during the war of 1812. He goes further into history and talks about preachers who used the cave for its natural acoustics, and how there has even been some weddings. This part of t the cave was much cooler, but I was very comfortable with just shorts and a t-shirt, since there were fewer breaks.



The features inside the cave have some out of the ordinary names, too, such as bottomless pit, the river Styx, and Fat Man's Misery and Tall Man's Misery.



Fat Man's Misery was a path through the cave where the path was only about 2 feet wide and the wall came up to about my waist before widening out, but it was still passable for this fat man.

You can view all of the day's good photos here.

We left the historic tour via a huge firetower, about 250 stairs straight up and came back out into the main cavern we had entered and back out through the main cave entrance. Leaving the cave, the air was instantly hot and humid, and my glasses fogged up immediately. I had a fun day, but I was hot and sticky and wanted a shower. I left the park, and caught back up with I-65, which I followed north through Louisville, KY, at some point passing back into the eastern time zone. In Louisville, I caught up with I-71 North and East, which I drove to Florence KY, about 10 miles south of Cincinnati, OH, where I stopped for the night.

I added some links to the left side in Exit 6. If you want me to link to your site, send me an email. (Likewise if you want me to remove a link to your site).

Next project is to fix up the photos section (Exit 2) so it somewhat matches the rest of the site and has a little navigation, then updating my goals section (Exit 3) to be more current (some goals have been completed!)

Then I can move onto the more interesting super top secret projects, Exit 4 and Exit 5.

Current location: Knoxville, TN, N 35 54.867', W 084 05.466', elev: 895 ft.

On Sunday, I made the short drive from Maggie Valley, NC to Asheville, NC, to check out the city during the daylight. Asheville is a very pretty city, large with a lot of hills. It was rainy and overcast while I was there, so the city reminded me very much of the rainforest cities in southern Alaska, Ketchikan and Juneau, though in reality, Asheville is larger than any city in Alaska (slightly larger than Anchorage, 8 or 9 times the size of Juneau). I read that Asheville has more health food stores per capita than any other area of the United States, and there definitely is a large hippie community, left over from another era. Driving down town there were lots of hippie people just loitering on corners, playing guitars on stoops, and talking at coffee shops. Driving into a residential area, I noticed there was a high proportion of cars parked in the street, and then I realized there were hardly any driveways. Maybe one out of every 20 houses had a driveway. I found this odd, and would like to know the reason. Asheville was overcast, and on the way out of town, it began raining.

I was on my way towards Great Smokey Mountains National Park, a distance of about 40 miles, into higher altitudes. I was hoping the rain would dissipate some as I traveled through Maggie Valley into Cherokee (US 19 to US 441), so I could enjoy the park, but luck was not on my side. I drove into downtown Cherokee, and once again, it was a tourist trap type of town, lots of fast food restaurants, mini golf, and gift shops. There was also a large casino on the Cherokee reservation, which I was tempted to visit. With the rain coming down so hard, I stopped at a motel for wi-fi so I could check the weather. The forecast was awful for the rest of Sunday, but Monday looked quite promising, so I decided to stop for the day, in Cherokee.

Despite the rain, the mountain area is a welcome change from the warm, humid Floridas and Georgias I've been in the last couple of weeks. The air here is cooler, and doesn't hang over you like a shroud. The breezes are frequent and welcome.

On monday, I started out early, and I was hoping to catch a scenic helicopter ride over the mountains. They were advertised as $15 per person, and I thought that was reasonable. The only problem was, there was a minimum trip of 3 - 4 people, so I had two choices. Pay for my seat as well as two additional seats ($45), or wait around indefinitely for 2 or 3 people to arrive and agree to go on a ride with me. Well, I wasn't going to pay extra, and didn't have any patience to wait around, so I continued on to the park.

The Smokies get their name from a perpetual haze that clings to the mountains. The haze can look a lot like smoke and is generated by the large biomass in the park. The biomass creates a lot of moisture which evaporates, and the resulting clouds look smokey due to the coloration of the mountains. The park is the most visited of the National Parks, because it is close to three rather large cities, Knoxville, Asheville, and Chattanooga. June is peak season, so needless to say, there were a lot of visitors on this day.

I had a very excellent time in the park! Definitely worth the price of admission (free)! I took 175 photos, the highlights of which can be found here. The mountain air is refreshing, the views are stupendous, and greenery is easy on the eyes.

Driving into the park, I of course stopped for the park map and guide to add to my collection. I then proceeded on the park road (still US 441) over scenic roads driving at ever higher altitudes. I pulled over at a few scenic overlooks for photos.



The first major attraction on my route was Clingman's Dome, (N 35 33.777', W 083 29.904', elev 6672 ft.), right on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee. Clingman's dome is one of the highest peaks east of the Mississippi, and at over a mile high, I think it is also the highest elevation I have been outside of airplanes. I got out at the bottom of the path, and got in a few good shots. I was also pleased to see my first amendment rights are alive and well in the national parks.



It's no court room, but I think I'll hang a copy of the ten commandments here.

The sign at the bottom of the path to Clingman's Dome indicated that there was very poor air quality for the day, and that high ozone was a factor. The path up the mountain was half a mile long, at a very steep grade, and at higher elevation, there is less oxygen, and since I am out of shape, the walk was a struggle. The suggested climbing time for the hike up the hill was 30 minutes, and I was pleased to make it in that time, with 5 breaks to catch my breath and take photos.



Some insects

There were a lot of people who struggled to make it up the path, and at least a third of them did not make it, proving there are people who are in even worse shape than me. When I finally did get to the top, my reward was a very cool, very refreshing breeze, and some breathtaking views. Towards the end of my stay at the top of the mountain, the clouds started to roll in, and it really did appear to be smoke; you could tell it wasn't, however, as the air remained pleasant and cool.





After descending the hike again, I drove off back down to the park. Now in Tennessee for the first time, I came upon a really neat waterfall area and grabbed some more photos. The waterfall area is called Swift Water, and was probably my favorite spot of the day.



It was starting to get late, about 4 o'clock, when I came to the last area of the park, Cade's Cove, which is an 11 mile scenic loop road through a valley, allowing many glimpses of the mountain passes, and hopefully many glimpses of wildlife. The initial drive of the cove, I ran into heavy rain, but with no clouds overhead; it was perfectly sunny. I witnessed my second rainbow of the trip. The rain quickly abated. There were many cars in this area, and the driving was slow, some of it was on dirt roads, and it took about an hour to get through all of Cade's Cove. There were many stops as people would spot wildlife and try to take photos. I got some really close glimpses of deer, including one point where I witnessed three deer jump over a 4 foot high barbed wire fence, from 2 feet below the fence. I knew deer could jump but I didn't image they could clear 6 feet. Shortly thereafter, I was able to get some photos of deer, but almost none came out very well, since it was getting dark under the canopy of the forest, and I turned off the flash so as not to alarm the deer. (Though I suppose they are used to flashes at this point).



In addition to seeing about 20 deer up close (some within 15 feet of the car), I saw a black bear, about 30 feet from the car. Unfortunately, I did not get a photo of him, because my camera had shut itself off due to inactivity, and by the time I had it back on, he had disappeared over a hill.

After completing the loop road, it started raining again, this time, a more prolonged rain, so I once again chickened out of setting up camp. (There were plenty of camp sites in Cade's Cove, and I was all set to camp). It seems that every time I try to camp, the rain is too heavy, and the promise of a motel with a shower and internet just down the road is a strong attraction.

Be sure to check out the cream of the day's photos here.

After leaving the park, I drove through Gatlinburg into Pigeon Forge, TN, on US 441. Pigeon Forge is the home of Dollywood; and Dollywood is no podunk little amusement park, it is the biggest attraction in the Smokies, outside of the national park. In Pigeon Forge, I caught back up with I-40 and traveled west to Knoxville. On Tuesday, my plan is to head west to Nashville, check it out a bit, then head north to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, which I hope to explore on Wednesday. From there I may travel north to Cincinatti to see the Red's game thursday night before heading west to St. Louis, and south on the Mississippi river to Memphis and New Orleans.

Current location: Maggie Valley, NC, N 35 31.330', W 083 01.892', elev 2721 ft.

On friday, I drove from Brunswick to Savannah to Atlanta, Georgia before stopping for the evening. So today, I spent the day in Atlanta.

My first stop was here:


This is CNN

At CNN, I paid $10 to park and another $10 for the tour. I don't know what the hell I was thinking. I was thinking it might be neat to see a news studio, it might be neat to see the groundbreaking cable news system. As I was paying the tour fee I was already starting to think I wouldn't enjoy the tour, but since I had already paid for parking, my thinking was I might as well continue; I might learn something. The tour was a load of bullshit. It was a gradual walk down 8 stories worth of stairs, with a stop on each floor. They talk about how the news gets made. They talk about how the robots on camera read from the teleprompter. They are just robots, unable to deviate from the script, not comprehending what they are reading. The whole tour was given by robots, toeing the company line, spewing the propaganda. The tour guide talked all in cliches. He talked about how the news is all about the integrity of the stories. When I think of stories, the word story, I don't think of news, I think of fiction. I certainly don't think of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes kissing, which is all they were broadcasting the whole time. You would think CNN invented news. You would think CNN was the last bastion of integrity in news. I've got news for you CNN, when you are owned by a conglomerate, you have no integrity either. When your studio tour ends in a giftshop, you are not relevant. CNN studio tour is not a tour of a working news station, it is a tour of a working rhetoric station.

Eh, that was just a wordy way of saying: not worth the price of admission.

Next I went to Turner Field to see the Braves play the Orioles. I was pleasantly surprised by the field and the knowledgable Atlanta fans. The fans were really into the game for the most part, and didn't need to be told when to cheer and when to make noise like "fans" at a Yankees game. (Robert, Jim, Constantino, Casey, that one's for you). Once again, I payed more for parking ($10) than I did for admission to the game ($5). I actually had to sit in my $5 dollar ticket this time though, as the stadium was mostly full. My ticket was actually in the the very top row of the stadium, the furthest seats away. And once again, the home team won (though they made it interesting!), continuing my streak. I have been to 7 games in 6 stadiums so far this summer, and the home team has won all of those games. I only have a few complaints about the game: The grass in the outfield is a little too chewed up, there were still fans sauntering into the park in the 5th inning, and, too many fans left at the end of the 7th inning after the Braves had scored 4 runs. Well, the Orioles tied it up 4-4 in the top of the 9th before the Braves won it with a walk-off homer by Andruw Jones in the bottom. By the way, the baseball park is an excellent place to meet women. At least the kind of women that I like. When leaving the park, I was a little taken-aback by a street vendor walking up to me and trying to sell me fresh, real pork rinds. Ewwww.

Next up was the World of Coca-Cola.



I was under the impression it was a headquarters of some sort, with some memorabilia, maybe a small museum, and a tour of the workings. It was, sort of, but it was another huge propaganda fest. You would think Coke cured world hunger and was responsible for world peace. The place was billed as a giant, three floor museum, with a self guided tour. Its actually quite small, and is really only 1 floor, soda fountains and gift shops don't count as floors. Entrance fee was $9, and again, not really worth it. There was a highlight though, on the top floor, they had a 12 minute film showing. The film depicted Coca-Cola inventing electricity, curing cancer, and overthrowing dictators. The film was silently hilarious; it was produced in 1990 and was just a long stream of people enjoying Coke around the world dressed in those awful transitional clothes, when people went from the 80's to the 90's. Some pictures were taken in places that no longer exist, like East Germany, Bandu Aceh, and Atlantis. 95% of the museum was on the third floor. The second floor was a giant soda fountain, you could drink as much as you wanted. They had a wall with regular Coke products, Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Sprite, etc. They had a wall of 20 eclectic regional Coca-Cola products from around the United States, like Mello Yellow, and then another wall with 20 Coca-Cola drinks from around the world, like bottled goat piss. No New Coke, and surprisingly, none of the new Coke flavors they are pitching right now, Coke Zero, Diet Coke with Splenda, or Coke with Lime. You put de lime in de Coke, you nut. The floor in this room was unbelievably sticky; worse than any movie theater you've ever been in. Finally, the ground floor, as I mentioned above, was nothing but a giant gift shop. Once again, not worth the price of admission.

My final stop for today was the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Monument. National monuments are like National Park-lite, interesting and fun, just not as big, and not receiving as many funds. I got to the monument at 5:45, it closed at 6, so I only had a bit of time to collect my NP brochure for the collection, and take a few photos.



Dr. King's tomb

The rest of today's photos.

After leaving Atlanta, I drove up to Maggie Valley, North Carolina before stopping for the night. My route was I-85 North out of Atlanta until I reached Spartansburg, SC, where I turned west onto I-26, which eventually became I-40 in Asheville, NC. On Sunday, I'll briefly check out Asheville before venturing into Great Smokey Mountains National Park. On US 441.

I meant to mention this the other day when I was driving on US 41, but I was driving and Ramblin' Man by the Allman Brothers Band came over the XM, and it immediately became the third song on the Jon Sheldon Across America soundtrack, since it has that great line "I was born in the back of a / greyhound bus / driving down highway 41." Its just another perfect road song.