Saturday we finished our march to Atlanta, crossing into Georgia on Highway 175 and into a beautiful lake area leading into the town of Hiawassee. Very pretty area. From there we traveled through northern Georgia to Cartersville about an hours north of Atlanta. We had been warned by many folks that the traffic in Atlanta is terrible and since our sole mission was to see a ball game there, we opted to stay outside the city but close to easy access in. Cartersville is a small town just off the I-75 and Turner Field (where the Braves play) is right beside I-75 so it should be a piece of cake getting to the Sunday afternoon game.
Well, it was pretty much a piece of cake, but wow, as we got closer into Atlanta the traffic was indeed pretty brutal... and this, a Sunday morning! We had pre-purchased parking for the game so the only thing we had to do was to find the entrance to the Green Lot. Again, piece of cake and we ended up being very close in to the park entrance.
As you enter the general park area there are a number of statues dedicated to past Braves players including... Warren Spahn,
... Ty Cobb (The Georgia Peach),
... and, of course, Hammerin' Hank Aaron...
We had timed our arrival to give us plenty of time to search out our standard souvenirs (Kris is collecting park pins and Brian is collecting sew on arm patches). We found pins right away but the patch was a different issue. None to be found... well, later, after the game we went back into the main store and Kris made the appropriate inquiry. They keep the patches on the rack with the jerseys so if someone wants to buy a patch to put on their jersey, they don't have to look any further. That's a first for us. Normally the patches are on a display by themselves. Oh well, objective achieved, and nice patch too.
The game itself was a bit of a pitcher's duel until the Braves broke it open with six runs in the bottom of the 5th and that's all they would need. The Mets got one back but too few, too late. Final 6-1 Braves.
Our trip record now stands at Home 4 wins; Visitor 2 wins.
We were really surprised at the low turnout. The stands seemed half full at best. Indeed, the announced attendance was just over 23,000 with the stadium seating capacity being listed at over 49,000. We bought club level seats so had an excellent view overlooking 3rd base... and totally in the shade. The temperature was about 38C so a seat in the sun would have been brutal. There were very few folks around us with the exception of a brief period when 4 young ladies sat a couple of rows in front of us and spent the entire time fiddling with their iphones.
Leaving the ball park was a bit of a mini adventure. The main road back out to I-75 northbound was blocked off so we had to find another way (without the benefit of a map). Finally we spotted a sign showing "this way to I-75" so followed that through a couple of, well lets just say, lower end neighbourhoods (car doors firmly locked) but did eventually arrive at an on ramp going north... except it wasn't really going anywhere. Four lanes of cars going nowhere fast. After about 5 or so minutes the traffic started moving again and the bottleneck slowly cleared and once out of the downtown core we started moving at a decent speed again. Sunday afternoon! Can't imagine what it must be like on a busy weekday.
The headlines on the local paper yesterday was all about a vote being held to ok a one cent tax on everything across the board in the state of Georgia. The 16 Billion dollars expected to be raised over the next 10 years is to be earmarked specifically for traffic remediation. The big question in the paper was "What is Plan B?" (if the voters reject the proposal). The traffic through this area is simply unworkable!
Anyway, in and out of Atlanta and back to the KOA for a dip in the pool... BUT... not so fast.... it is sprinkling, as in a few rain drops! Pool closed! You can count the rain drops as they hit the pool, there are that few of them! Buddy, says "nope, can't open the pool, maybe later". After waiting a half hour or so and not noticing any rain drops at all, we go back and ask "how long do you have to wait between "sprinkes" before you can open the pool?"... Buddy decides he can open it now. Frustrating but better later than never in this heat.
After a brief swim with nary a sprinkle of rain, we headed into Cartersville to find some dinner. We drove around the main historic area and settled on the City Cellar a lower level tavern type of place. Kris tried the "house special" a Shrimp with Grits dish which was tasty but HUGE, while Brian had a pretty good burger. All in all, a decent dinner and the waiter (who might have been the owner or manager) was a very pleasant fellow. Nice chat.
Monday we took a leisurely drive north through the Georgian countryside to Chattanooga Tennessee. Here we stayed at the "Best Holiday Trav-L Park" where they have a sign on their pool... "No swimming in a heavy downpour"... hmmm wonder if a sprinkle here and there constitutes a heavy downpour in these parts (as it apparently did yesterday in Cartersville)?
Our main goal for Chattanooga was to see the large model train (HO scale) at the "Choo Choo" but since we had arrived fairly early in the day we decided to drive around downtown, get a bite to eat and see if there was enough interest to stay a second night. Didn't get much of a vibe about the city (and it was about 9000 degrees out, I think the surface of the sun was cooler) and to top it off lunch sucked so we decided one night here was enough. The huge HO Scale model train layout at the Model Railroad Museum was cool though especially the part where they added roads containing cars pulling wee trailers...
Tuesday our travels took us into 3 states as we left Tennessee, into Georgia, back into Tennessee and finally into North Carolina, for the third time this trip. We stopped along the way in a very small town (turns out it was Benton, TN) for a nice lunch at "Kathy's Cownty Kitchen" (with a lot of ceramic cows)...
...on our return to Franklin, North Carolina for the night before heading into the Great Smokey Mountains and back into Tennessee. The Great Outdoors RV Resort just north of Franklin is very nice. Pool, individual washrooms (shower, toilet, sink) and a beautiful view up into the Smokies.
Wednesday we headed north towards the entrance to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park drive through to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The drive through the mountains is very cool with lots of scenic opportunities and an excellent visitor center. There are numerous hiking opportunities here. It only takes a couple of hours to drive through to Gatlinburg. Arriving in Gatlinburg we discovered that several folks, with whom we discussed travel, were right when they told us that Gatlinburg is way over the top tourist wise. This place is block after block of tourist trap/crap. Not our style, so one night here will do it. We did however stop in at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts where they had a fabulous Instructor Exhibit on display open to the public and a great supplies store. We could easily have come away with more than an armload of books and other craft supply items but held back to leave with a great pair of earrings for Kris. We did collect info on some of their craft workshops for future reference though.
Thursday we hit some secondary highways westward towards Nashville and stopped in Crossville at the Deer Run RV Resort for the night. This place is about 10 miles out of town up in the hills. Beautiful area with a great pool. While at the pool we chatted with some folks who pay an annual fee for their RV spot and they told us that many people there either own their own space or lease them as a summer cabin type place. We can see why. Great place to have this type of summer get away. A lake, huge play area for kids, etc etc... the only drawback was the plethora of wasps constantly around. One of the fellows we chatted with at the pool works at the park and earlier in the day was mowing a grassy area when he inadvertently mowed over an inground wasp nest pissing them off! He said he only got 6 to 8 stings; lucky for him he is not allergic and laughed it off (other than, as he said "they got me a couple of good ones on the top of my head").
After the swim we headed out and found the Big Boys BBQ just north of the town. A very pleasant find as we had a good sized meal of ribs and brisket along with the traditional potato salad and coleslaw.
Friday we continued our trek towards Nashville Tennessee. We opted to continue following US 70 which pretty well parallels I-40 but goes through a number of cool little towns. At one point we invoked the Daniel Boone saying from last week ... we were just a bit bewildered not lost... but eventually came back across US 70 and continued on our way as if nothing had happened!
We stopped for gas in the small town of Smithville. While Brian filled the tank Kris was looking though a brochure and asked "Where are we?". When told we were in Smithville, she said "Sweet, there is a place I wouldn't mind going to"... so after getting directions from the gas station attendant we headed off to the Appalachian Center for Craft which is a satellite campus for Tennessee Tech. AND WHAT A PLACE! It took us a while to find the Center but we then had an excellent lunch in their cafeteria followed by at least an hour wandering through their art galleries. What an inspiring place! We came within a hair's breadth of changing the rest of our travel plans for this trip. Their summer three week intensive workshop sessions start three days from now and include numerous courses we both are interested in including metal enameling, fibre crafts, clay crafts and woodworking. We seriously considered enrolling but decided to stick to our original plan and continue on... BUT... we will watch their schedule and possibly decide on a 3 week trip specifically to take a couple of these fabulous looking workshops. (you can easily reach Smithville in one day with flights out of Vancouver to Nashville... we checked already!).
Totally inspired, we continued our day and arrived at the Nashville KOA in time for a late afternoon dip in the pool (waaay to warm; could use a truckload of icecubes dumped in it) before heading off in search of dinner. We bought a couple of great looking pork chops (under $4) and proceeded to grill them up along with some salad fixin's. Just in time as we no sooner finished eating than the skies opened up with some serious rain. We managed to get everying put away (at least that which needed to be) and headed inside to watch some TV. At one point the noise of the rain on the roof of the wee trailer was so loud that we could not hear our TV even at full volume .... so ended this week.
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