Exploring Atlanta

We are finishing up our stay in the Atlanta area so I thought I would get you caught up with our activities here.  First let me start with the park where we are staying.  In the last post I mentioned we are staying at Stone Mountain Park and there was an arts and crafts festival here for the weekend, the Yellow Daisy Festival.  From what I read it is supposed to be the third largest arts and craft festival held in the US and has over 400 vendors.  It started on Thursday and ended on Sunday.  We went to it on Thursday and was surprised to see a large turnout for a weekday afternoon.  It is a very large festival but nice to walk around as the booths are in the woods.  Thank goodness we went to the festival on Thursday as on Friday, Saturday and Sunday the crowds were enormous!!! On both Friday and Sunday we left the park in the morning and the traffic coming into the park was backed up for miles.  Fortunately on Friday we came back in the evening so there was no traffic getting back in, but on Sunday we tried to get back in the park around 1:30pm and the traffic was still backed up for miles at the main entrance.  I remembered there was a back entrance and went to that gate and fortunately we were able to sneak into the line quickly, but the main road for that gate was also backed up for miles.  Not sure where they parked everyone. 

Friday we took a trip into downtown Atlanta via the Marta system.  We visited the Atlanta Aquarium, World of Coke and walked through Olympic Centennial Park.  Let get my complaining out first.  Both the aquarium and World of Coke were overpriced.  The aquarium is close to $40 per person and Coke is $16.  We had only wanted to do these two but if you plan on doing at least three attractions (CNN Tour and a couple of museums) there is a city pass that is only $69 per person for 5 attractions.  Now that would be worth it, but not what we wanted to do.

The aquarium is really nice.  It has the best presentation I have ever seen for this type of venue.  It had a great dolphin show and the their ocean section was outstanding.

Outside view of the aquarium

Great display of jellyfish!

From the aquarium we went next door to the Word of Coke.  I was not happy with the cost but as we did the experience I began to wonder why we paid at all, this all a big promotion for their company, one of the largest corporations in the world and we paid $16 to be told that!  Nice, but not worth the entrance fee.  Their was a section that was a big lead up to showing you the vault where the secret formula for coke is kept. It took about 15 minutes of hype before the big reveal and then you are let out.  Great for the kids, not so much for the adults.  I will save you $16, here is a picture of the vault.

As Coke is bottled by local bottling operations you only get to see a sample line which is bottling an 8 ounce bottle of Coke that you get at the end of the tour.  Probably the best part of the tour was at the end they have a room where you can sample all of Coke’s products from all over the world.  There must have been close to a couple hundred soft drinks.  The best is the new Coke fountain dispenser that is computerized.  You pick what type of Coke you want then another menu comes up and you get to pick different flavors and types.  It gives you something like 110 choices of Coke products.  Some fast food chains and mini-marts are starting to put these machines in.  I tried Diet Coke with orange and vanilla, OUTSTANDING!

We left Coke and walked back to the Marta station via Olympic Centennial Park.  This was the park built for the Olympics and where the bombing occurred.  What a very beautiful park.

On Saturday we went to see the laser show the park puts on at the carving on the mountain.  What a great evening.  You bring your chair or blanket and sit out on a lawn in front of the mountain and watch a 45 minute laser show that uses the mountain and carving as its screen.  There are even some fireworks as part of the show. 

On the lawn in front of the mountain.

Lastly, today we climbed to the top of the mountain.  It is about a mile hike up, not too bad until the end where it gets fairly steep.  The reward is a 360 degree view of the Atlanta area as this is the highest point in the Atlanta metro area.

Atlanta in the distance as seen from the top of Stone Mountain

WE DID IT!!!!

Stone Mountain, Georgia

On Tuesday we moved from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Stone Mountain, Georgia (just outside Atlanta).  We are actually staying in the RV park located in Stone Mountain Park.  I had been to Atlanta on numerous business trips but never had the chance to get out to Stone Mountain to take a look at the carving in the mountain, so it was on my list of places to see.  Fran had worked her before we were married and had the chance to see it.  Before I get to the sightseeing and pictures, let me tell you about our arrival and set up.

I had made the reservation for the park via their website and what it does is give you a list of spaces to choose from that meet the criteria you have input (dates, rig size, connections).  The premium sites are fairly expensive ($57 a night with no weekly rate) and none were available for our stay.  I chose one of the standard full hook-up sites.  I had about 5 to choose from.  I then took a look at the park using the satellite feature in Google Maps and it showed that all the spaces, except for the premium spaces, were amongst the trees.  This most likely meant we would not be able to use our satellite dish.  When we arrived I inquired about a satellite friendly space and was told that some of the premium spaces would work but none were available because of a big arts and crafts festival this weekend.  So, it was onto the space I had picked.  The section where our assigned space was is on the lake and winds through the trees.  However it became quite obvious that they do not spend as much time and money in this section of the park, but rather are focusing their attention on the premium spaces.  We find our space and discover it is next to the bath house and has a raised manhole cover (4 feet off the ground) as part of the site.  I begin to back the trailer in and see that it is going to be difficult to get the trailer level as the site is very rocky and uneven.  As we were surveying the site a campground maintenance worker comes up to me and asks if I actually picked this site as generally they only put smaller rigs in the site.  He recommended we go back up front and see what else is available.  The office gave us 4 other choices, all near our original space.  We settled on one and backed the trailer in.  Fortunately this site was fairly level from side to side as we only had to put one set of blocks under the tires on one side.  The issue was to level it from front to back.  It did not appear the site sloped down that much but as I was lowering the front and watching the level it became evident the front of the trailer might hit the ground.  It got to within 4 inches, but it is level!

I tried our automatic satellite but the trees were too thick for its use, so I pulled out my portable dish to see if I could find the satellite.  I found an opening in the trees that faced southwest and played around with and finally was able to get the satellite up and running.  I am amazed I was able to get it working as the trees are tall and thick here.

On Tuesday evening we took a drive over to the mountain so we could see the carving.  It is pretty cool but I was expecting something bigger (don’t know why). 

On Saturday they put on a light show in the evening which we are planning on attending.

On Wednesday we decided to see the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum and the Martin Luther King Center and Museum.  Both are close to each other and about 20 miles from our park.  First up was the Jimmy Carter Library.  This will be the 7th Presidential library for me, 6th for Fran (there are 13).

The entrance to the museum

Replica of the oval office during his presidency

Nobel Peace Prize won by President Carter

Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded to Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter by President Clinton

This is one of the nicer presidential libraries and the museum was very informative and well laid out.

From there we went to the Martin Luther King Center which is about 2 miles away.  This is actually a group of buildings in a block area near downtown Atlanta.  It includes a museum, the Ebeneezer Baptist Church (original and new one), the King Center and his boyhood home.  Personally I was disappointed with the museum.  It was small, not laid out well and had so many TV’s going showing clips that it was difficult to listen to the one you wanted.  They did have the caisson on display that carried his body during the funeral march.

Across the street from the museum is the original Ebeneezer Baptist Church.  This is where King and his father were pastor’s and where King’s funeral was held.  The park service has a done a fantastic job of restoring and maintaining this church.

Up the block is the house where he was born.

And lastly, nearby is the King Center.  This is where he and his wife Coretta are entombed.

Chattanooga Sightseeing

 

As mentioned in my last post we moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee for a week.  Before I get into our sightseeing activities let me give you some information on our park.  We are staying at the Best Holiday Trav-L-Park just outside the city limits of Chattanooga.  I believe we are actually in Georgia.  I have seen these Trav-L-Parks in other cities we have traveled or passed through but never stopped at one. Now that we have we got a little history lesson.  These Trav-L-Parks were started in the early 1970’s by Holiday Inn and were called Holiday Inn Trav-L-Parks.  Towards the end of the 70’s Holiday Inn decided they did not want to be in the RV park business so many of the owner’s of the parks formed their own association called Best Holiday Trav-L-Park.  The owner of the park we are in is the original owner from the Holiday Inn days.

On to sightseeing.  On Wednesday we had a full day.  It started with a ride on the incline railway.  This is a mile long incline rail that takes you to the top of Lookout Mountain.  You can drive up the mountain, and we did, but riding the rail was fun.  At the top the incline is over 70 degrees, so it is the steepest incline railway.

Looking down the track

At the top looking down

At the top we took a short walk to Point Park.  This is a national park on the top of lookout mountain that played prominently in the Civil War.  Nice little park with spectacular vistas.

View from the point

  Cannon placements

After Point Park we went to Rock City.  We have always seen signs for this attraction and wondered what it was and were very impressed.  It is on Lookout Mountain and is a winding path through boulders, rocks and caves.  Along the way it has a waterfall, panoramic views, and some strange displays involving gnomes.

Walking between the rocks.  This is actually one of the wider paths.  At points you have to squeeze through.

Here is a tight spot.

You get a view of seven states.

beautiful waterfall. 

After Rock City we went to Ruby Falls.  This is an underground waterfall.  You travel down 260 feet from the cave entrance in an elevator and then walk a quarter mile through the cave to reach the waterfall.  At the waterfall you are 1120 feet underground (as measured from the top of Lookout Mountain).  We have been through a few caves and caverns over the years but this is the first with an indoor waterfall and it was spectacular.

That was our activities for Wednesday.

On Thursday we drove to downtown Chattanooga where we went to the Hunter Museum of American Art, had lunch in the Bluff View Art District and finished the day with a Duck Boat tour of the city and river.

The art museum is on a bluff overlooking the river and is made up of an old mansion surrounded by a new contemporary building.

The mansion

The new portion of the museum

View of the museum from the river (taken on the Duck boat).

The Chattanooga Aquarium as seen from the river.  This attraction, built in the 90’s, revitalized the city and now there is a vibrant downtown with restaurants, attractions, hotels and condos.  A very nice downtown area.

Learned Something New

 

We have moved on to Chattanooga, Tennessee today.  I will report more on that in a later post.  For this post I wanted to give you some RV information, which I just learned, after having RV’s for 20 years. 

Since we have had the fifth wheel, we began to notice some very tiny flies appearing in the rig from time to time.  Not at all RV parks, just some.  At times we had these flies in our house and attributed it to fruit flies or drain flies.  In the RV they are a little annoying, but never in very large numbers.  Fran did some research online and found a trick of putting out some apple cider vinegar as a trap and this worked well.  At our last park in Pikeville, Tennessee their numbers were much greater, the most we had ever seen and primarily concentrated in the bathroom.  We laid our trap in the kitchen and the bathroom and were catching dozens of them.  I did some research in a couple of RV forums that I like to read and found out what may be the problem and a solution.

First you need a little a more information on they way we operate our RV waste system, based on experience and information from other RV’ers.  RV’s have two holding tanks, one for black water (toilet) and one for gray water (sink and shower).  These tanks then empty into one pipe that you then connect a hose to, which then connects to the park sewer system.  While at an RV park we were always told to leave the black tank closed and let it fill up  then you drain it.  This allows the solids to break down (sorry for being gross).  As for the gray water tanks we have always left them open to drain to the park.  With this method no gray water stays in your tanks.  Ok, with that information, here is what learned.

With the gray tanks open the flies are sewer flies and are coming from the parks sewer system, up through the hose and into the gray tank.  Now in our previous RV’s they had no where to go as all the drains had a curved drain pipe so that water blocked the pipe and nothing could enter.  Well in the fifth wheel we have a shower and it does not have a curved drain pipe.  It has a straight drain pipe right into its own holding tank.  Here is where the flies were coming in and why we had not seen this problem in other RV’s we have owned.

The solution is to keep the gray holding tanks closed until they need to be drained, then drain them and close them back up. 

Probably more than you all wanted to know, but it is Life on the
Road!

Fall Creek Falls

We went from the middle of nowhere Kentucky to the middle of nowhere Tennessee.  I say this because at both places we have no cell phone coverage, which has been a rarity with Verizon as we have moved around the country.'

We are actually in Pikeville, Tennessee and came here to check out the Fall Creek Falls State Park, which is nearby.  First let me show you the park we are at, Mountain Glen RV Park.

This was taken from the entrance of the park.  We are over on the left near the trees.  There is only one other RV that is occupied in the park.  Nice park, but if there were many RV’s here it would tough to maneuver around as the roads are quite tight.

We have a nice view of a the hills and a pond.

At this park we have two new “friends”.  First is a dog, appears to be a younger dog and a mix of beagle and something.  It was asleep on our mat outside our trailer on Friday morning.  No collar, so not sure who she belongs to.  She comes around once and awhile and is very friendly, but likes to jump and lick.  Our second “friend” is a goose that walks up from the pond when it sees you outside.  Obviously it has been fed many times by campers as it walks right up to you.  I made the mistake of giving it some bread and it would not leave me alone, to the point it started nibbling on my feet when I sat in the chair.  We may be having goose for dinner before we leave!

On Friday we went to the state park to check it out.  It has a couple of nice waterfalls and some great views of the area.

Fall Creek Falls, 256 foot drop.

A view of the area.

Piney Falls, 75 foot drop.

Suspension bridge spanning a gorge.

We are here for a few days then move to Chattanooga (about 75 miles away) for the Labor Day weekend.

Let Me Catch You Up

There have been some activities over the past few weeks that I have not reported about, so let me now catch you up with narrative and lots of pictures.

First, back to Ohio where we were visiting our middle daughter Kelly.  One of the reasons we were there is because Fran and our three daughters were meeting up in New York City the weekend of August 11th to celebrate our youngest daughter, Kim’s, 25th birthday.  The main event was to go see the Broadway musical Newsies.  All three of our daughters are huge fans of the Disney movie.  Fran and Kelly flew from Dayton, Ohio to New York City while I stayed back at the trailer, watching golf and NASCAR.

Let’s start with the New York trip. 

Girls night out!

The birthday girl!

The planned highlight was the Newsies play but both Fran and Kim are big fans of Good Morning America so they both got up early Monday morning and went to the outdoor set of the show in Times Square.  They were rewarded with some on camera time. But were disappointed as their favorite, Sam Champion, was on vacation.

Stars in the making!

After we left Ohio we moved on to Salvisa, Kentucky where we are at as I write this (we leave tomorrow for Tennessee).  We stayed at an RV park near Harrodsburg, Kentucky.  This area is known for the Pleasant Valley Shaker Village (restored shaker settlement), the Kentucky Bourbon Trail along with a few other sites.  First we went to the town of Harrodsburg where they were having a festival on the weekend at the Fort Harrod State Park.  We enjoyed the festival and toured the restored fort.  An interesting attraction at the fort site is the church in which Abraham Lincolns’s parents were married in.  What made it interesting to me is that it was a twofer attraction.  Inside the church was the restored house the Lincoln’s lived in when they were married.  Here is a picture of the house inside the church.

The fort was interesting and we did take pictures but hey it is a fake.  It is a reproduction from historical records and is not that old.

Next up was a stop on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.  We stopped at Four Roses Distillery.  I am not familiar with this brand and found out why.  This was the #1 selling bourbon in the US until the 1950’s when the company was bought by Seagram’s and they decided to change their marketing strategy and focus the brand in Europe and Japan.  It quickly became the #1 bourbon in Japan where it still is.  Because of this, about 10 years ago the Japanese beer company, Kirin, bought the brand and brought it back to the US in 2003 where they are trying to gain market share.  The bourbon has always been made here in Kentucky.

At the front of the distillery building.

Inside the distillery.  This is the box where the mixture passes through for tasting before it is moved to the barrels for aging.

After tasting some bourbon we drove to Frankfort, Kentucky, about 25 miles away.  For all you fifth graders, this is the capital of Kentucky.  We took a tour of the state capitol, drove around the town and stopped at Daniel Boone’s gravesite.  The capitol building is amazing.

Capitol

View inside

Abraham Lincoln statute in the center of the building.  (Lincoln was born in Kentucky)

House chamber

Daniel Boone’s gravesite

View of the city from the gravesite

Lastly, today we went to the Shaker village. It is a beautifully restored village that you can walk amongst the buildings and go inside and see how life was back in the 1800’s.  Many of the buildings have staff inside dressed as Shaker’s performing tasks, such as weaving, wood working, etc.

This is one of the oldest buildings on the property and was one of the dormitories for the Shaker’s. 

They have a hotel and restaurant on the property that is in the existing buildings.  We had lunch at the restaurant and in the building has a spiral staircase that goes up 3 floors.

View from the bottom floor up

View from the top floor down

As part of the visit to the village we took a boat ride on a paddle wheeler that was nearby on the Kentucky River.  It was docked where the Shaker’s had a ferry to cross the river.  The boat took us for an hour ride on the river showing us the limestone cliffs, or palisades, as they are called. A cool sight as we are on the boat was seeing turtles sunning themselves on logs.  Here is a picture of 4 of them on a log.

It was a beautiful day and we had a great time.  On Thursday we move on.  We have made a change to our plans and decided to go to Pikeville, Tennessee.  This is near the Fall Creek Falls State Park.  The state park was recommended to us by my nephew.

RV Parks

I don’t remember if I have written exclusively on this subject in the past, but I know I have discussed it in bits and pieces in various posts.  If it is old news, sorry, but that is the price you pay for reading my blog.

We have stayed in a lot of RV parks in the 20+ years of owning an RV and especially in the last year and a half of our life on the road journey.  Presently we probably average 1 park every 2 weeks.  RV parks come in all shapes, sizes, costs and amenities.  With this experience I figured it is time to share my thoughts, observations and rants on RV parks.

First subject is about those that live year round in RV parks.  Most parks will have a number of spaces that are rented by people who live at the park.  This could be people who live year round in their RV at the same park or it could be migratory workers who are in the area for a few months and then move onto the next job.  In parks near recreation spots or the like you will usually have some spaces rented by those that use their RV as a weekend getaway, sort of like having a beach cottage or mountain cabin.  RV park owners have to love these “full time” customers as it gives them a steady stream of income and most reflect it in their price for the space.  Monthly rates at most of the RV parks we have visited are very reasonable, but most do meter the electric and make you pay that in addition to the space rent.

From our perspective this issue of people living at the park can be problematic.  If the park is not diligent these year round sites can get quite trashy as the people begin to collect all sorts of things and have no place to put them (yard tools, ladders, etc.).  Generally, these year rounders have jobs and this is the issue.  An RV park is a very small community and the units can be quite close together, so if the year rounders and the recreation/casual user are intermingled it can impact on the recreational user.  Many of these year rounders are migratory construction workers, welders.  They move with large construction projects.  This means they start work very early, so it is common to hear their pickup trucks (usually older model diesel, noisy) fire up at 5:30am.  In one park we had a guy who would start his diesel pickup at 6am and let it idle for 30 minutes while he ate breakfast.  At another we had the workers start their trucks, idle them, then carry on a conversation for 10 minutes or so while their trucks warmed up.  That one prompted a “conversation” from me as they were right outside our bedroom.  In the park we are at now there are about 6 workers who all leave at the same time, 6am.  So, one by one you hear the trucks start then they circle the park to leave.  Not much of an issue for me as I am generally already up, but Fran is a later sleeper.

We have been to a couple of parks where they separate the year rounders from the recreational ones and I think that is a good policy if the park gets a lot of recreational use and these year rounders are workers.  At other parks, I realize we were the “intruders” as it was a park mainly for people who live year round and not for recreational users, but they do allow “our type” in. 

Next issue is amenities.  Probably the biggest amenity these days is having internet at RV parks.  Internet access is an expectation and need for most people.  RV parks, for the most part, have stepped up to offer Wi-Fi. Most of the times it is free, which is great, but what we find is that what is advertised is not delivered.  The park will advertise free Wi-Fi throughout the park but when you get to your space you will find that the signal is too weak or the service will go in and out.  Almost universally the Wi-Fi offered is very slow.  The parks will ask users not to use the service for streaming video or downloading large files, but I am sure it is still done which cuts into the bandwidth.  I do not expect high speed service like we had when we lived in our house in Naperville, but what would be nice would to have consistent service that has adequate speed to use the internet.  And, if you say you have Wi-Fi in the park then it should reach all spaces.

My latest observation has been the use of golf carts in RV parks by the “regulars”.  We have stayed at some HUGE parks and I could see where a golf cart would be needed just to get to the pool, clubhouse, laundry, etc.  But I noticed at some of these smaller parks the regulars all have them and it becomes fun to just watch them parade around.  At our current park it has something like 80 spaces and the entire park from front gate to last space is probably the length of 2 football fields, yet most of the regulars have a golf cart.  Not sure what the need is.  At the last park, in Ohio, it was a larger park but still not the size where a cart was a must, however all the regulars had them and as I watched it appeared they just did laps each day just to drive their cart around, as there was really no place to drive to!  It was a nightly parade.