Like a Boomerang: Atlanta GA

Packed up and left moderately early for the 400 km (250 mile) drive from Savannah to Atlanta and as we drove we wondered why there were lots and lots of very large Helicopters in the air. When we saw a sign for Fort Stewart Armed Forces Base www.stewart.army.mil/ we understood why!

Needed to post a card to Julie’s Dad and asked for directions to the nearest Post Office when we were buying fuel and were given directions to Rockledge, GA. Before we left the Petrol/ Gas station we had a look through a museum of local history where we bought peach jam and green pepper preserve.

Interesting collection and an even more interesting lady on duty and amazingly her directions to the Post Office were totally different. Oh well we went with the girl who said we need to look for a “itty bitty” sign. She was right it WAS an “Itty Bitty” sign but THERE was a post office. It may have looked like a shipping container but it was a Post Office!

Leaving the Interstate to find the Post Office did give us another view of the countryside which had housing of all types. The farmland that was surrounding the scattered communities did look very fertile. Rejoining the interstate gave us not only the opportunity to speed up (roads are good here) but gave us a chance to find a lunch spot and there are lots of good facilities for travellers and there seems to be a conscious effort to cater for people with mobility issues.

As we were coming into Atlanta earlier than we expected we decided to have a quick look through the Martin Luther King Junior museum. After about 15 minutes we realised there would have to be another Martin Luther King Junior Museum visit as it was so full of information. We left after watching a movie on his life, vowing to return.

We were staying for two nights with Vicki & Mark Pomeroy. Vicki is a person with Multiple Sclerosis who holds some similar positions with the MS Society here as I do in Australia. Had a great meal at a buffet near their Snellville home.

Atlanta is very well served with facilities for people with MS so it was interesting to have a tour of the Shepherd Centre. It is a private, not-for-profit hospital specializing in medical treatment, research and rehabilitation for people with spinal cord injury and brain injury. It has a Multiple Sclerosis unit as part of the hospital where Vicki has been a patient. We had the opportunity to meet Dr Ben Thrower who is the Medical Director at the MS Centre at the hospital. And had the opportunity to see the facilities that are used by many people recovering from Spinal Cord injuries and people living with neurological disorders like MS.

Atlanta with Vicki wasn't all about MS we next stopped at The Varsity which is The World's Largest Drive-in Restaurant who have been serving customers in Atlanta since 1928. Not a lot here for people following the Swank/ Jelinek diet but I didn't starve.

Atlanta was the city that hosted the 1996 Olympic games and we had a quick look at some of the facilities including a really neat musical fountain that I would have loved to have fallen into at Olympic Park.

With the heat of the day taking its toll and after a full day's entertainment we had a relaxing evening at Mark & Vicki's in their sunroom. They were entertaining hosts.

First stop the next morning was to give our CuRVy some tender loving care by treating her to an oil change at Andy’s Mufflers in Snelville. It's amazing that we've now done 10,000 km (6,000 miles) since we arrived.

Thanks to Mrs G we navigated ourselves back to the Martin Luther King Jnr Historic Site.Though we, or more correctly Julie, had to find a way through what appeared to be a suburb cleanup to get to the MLK2 Museum.

The whole of the area where Martin Luther King Jnr was born and grew up has been turned into a fabulous Historic Area. The site includes his birth home and the houses around it, the church where he and his father both preached, a museum of his life and the reflecting pool with the crypt where he and his wife, Coretta, lie. We took full advantage of the precinct as such a place certainly was educational for both of us.

This place should be visited by as many people as possible but we couldn't help noticing that at least 95% of the people we saw when we were there were African Americans. We all still have a long way to travel....

Leaving what was in many ways an uplifting monument we put a new address into Mrs G and the CuRVy headed via I 85, then I 285 and we headed back onto 2 lane windy roads and into forest – nice! Lunch by a lake on the South Carolina Border - even nicer!!!

As we climbed the mountains we were rewarded by waterfalls,great views, nice roadside flowers and even bees. Julie walked to the Whitewater Falls and the rise in elevation made fora cool place to rest for Bruce.

We were staying with a friend of our Collingwood friends, Greg & Marianna, near Brevard and as we came into the town we noticed a vintage and vereran cars display. It was the Cardinal Cruise In. We didn't find anything of the CuRVy's class but there were some pretty nice vehicles!!!