Monday found us visiting the World of Coca-Cola back downtown adjacent to the Georgia Aquarium. This was recommended by our friend, Miss Katie and was a real treat. We saw a lot of history and tradition about Coca-Cola and each received an 8-ounce glass bottle of coke that had been bottled right before our eyes.
On Sunday, despite the threatening thundercloud-type skies, we went to Zoo Atlanta in our quest to see the baby Giant Panda. Peggy and Clayton have been reading about Mei Lan and wanted to see her. We were delighted to see not just the 2-year-old Mei Lan but also her baby brother Xi Lan (11 months-old) and the adult male and female. Xi Lan means “Atlanta’s Joy”. Quite a treat! The zoo was very nice and provided over 5 hours of enjoyment or us.
The reptile house was good and quite scary for one who cares not for snakes. One cobra was particularly active; br-r-r! Following the zoo adventure, we visited the Cyclorama; world’s largest oil painting supplemented by lots of sculptured figures and scenes all depicting the Civil War Battle of Atlanta that occurred July 22, 1864.
Just as we were leaving, the sky opened up and provided the much-needed rain that we had dreaded would interrupt our zoo trip. What good fortune that the rain waited!
In Atlanta, we’re staying at Jones RV Park in Norcross, 19 miles east of downtown. On Saturday, we spent the day at the new (2005) Georgia Aquarium, the largest in the world! Clayton would have been happy spending the entire day just with the alligators. He did enjoy the “touch-tanks” where he got to tough manta rays and other fish and animals. The crowds were quite large (we probably should have gone on a week day), but we loved it.
Thursday afternoon, we enjoyed more touring of the residential areas and a great Savannah Riverboat ride. Clayton loved the paddle-wheel boat. We learned that Savannah is the 4th busiest port in the U.S. Lots of history and charm to this beautiful Southern town! As I mentioned, Friday morning, we departed for Atlanta amid scattered thunderstorms. We had three along the way that slowed us almost to a crawl. But, thankfully, the awning held.
Lots of rain while we were in Savannah! Wednesday we went to the City market and drove through lots of the beautiful historic districts of Savannah. During a torrential thunderstorm in the afternoon, we sought shelter for about 40 minutes at a restaurant in the Market. When we later arrived back at our camp-site, we were sorry to see that the “monsoon” (as one of our camp-site neighbors called it) had broken our long roll-up awning on the Airstream. The problem of the day became how we could “un-bend” the 28-foot 5-inch galvanized tube that contains the massive spring. This is how the awning rolls back up into its cover attached to the trailer. So, Thursday morning was spent working on that project, with a jury-rigged solution found after 5 or 6 hours of pushing, pulling and tugging. I’ll include a picture of the result that has stood up so far. (We’ve covered the 265 miles to Atlanta without losing it).
