Day two in Georgia heralded a trip to the big city of Atlanta. We got up early so that we could arrive in good time in Atlanta, but that idea went out the window when we got a phone call on Skype from my sister and my niece and nephew. God bless the invention of Skype. It is lovely to not only be able to talk to everyone but actually see them too while we are chatting. It has meant that Viki has been able to talk to and see all of her old friends while I have been visiting them too.
We jumped into the truck, punched the address of the Coca Cola Museum into Maggie – the sat nav – and headed on our way.
The trip went by fairly quickly and we soon hit the Atlanta traffic. Maggie didn’t do too badly with the directions, but didnt really get us exactly to our destination. We drove around in the city trying to locate exactly where the museum was, at one point we drove the wrong way up a one way road and all of the city folks were beeping at us and flashing their lights at the stupid tourists going the wrong way. Some kindly paramedics pointed us in the right direction and we finally found a parking lot close to the places we wanted to visit.
Our first stop was the Coca Cola museum. Basically a huge advertisement for Coca Cola that attracts millions of people (including us) and that you have to pay for the privilege of seeing. I thought I was cheesy, but this place has levels of cheese that I have never before experienced. Our tour started with a little chat in the entrance hallway where the steward pointed out all of the old coca cola artifacts, including the syrup containers that would deliver just the right quantity of coca cola syrup into the glass before being topped up with soda water and stirred to produce the perfect coca cola. Next was the ‘hall of happiness’ which showed us a ten minute commercial about what happens when you put your coin into the slot of a coca cola dispenser. Cute, and very very cheesy.
We took our time walking around the museum, and had a lot of fun in the tasting room, tasting all the variations of coca cola products from around the world. I don’t think I have every drunk so much fizzy drink in such a short space of time.
Slightly bloated and on edge from all of the sugar we exited the museum (after declining to pay 25 dollars for the cheesy shot that had been taken of us at the entrance of the museum) and headed accross the lawn to the Aquarium.
Once again we hit the tourist trail found oursleves in queue apon queue. The aquarium had four different climate zones and had the appropriate fish and sealife in each zone. By the time we had finished all of the zones we were fairly hungry and I felt that it was definately beer o clock.
We left the aquarium and walked across to the Olypic park, which was full of people especially lots of chilren running in and out of the fountains getting soaking wet and cooling way down in the hot Georgian summer. We consulted the navigator to find restaurants in the local area, and promtly headed off in the wrong direction. It was really hot and a 10 minute walk the wrong direction stripped me of my usual chirpyness and revealed the grumpy whiney hungry and hot Veronica. Crystal recognized the signs and, as most of my friends do, tried to quickly find a restaurant to feed the grumpy Veronica so that happy Veronica would re-appear. We found a pizza place and I devoured my half of the Pizza and then sat sipping my second cooling beer as Crystal finished her pizza at a more human pace.
It was time to head back home, so we jumped in the car and drove the hour and a half back to Warner Robbins.
We were fairly tired from our long day so just had a couple of drinks with Luke before heading off to bed.
The next day was our down day and Crystal and I spent most of the morning trying to find accomodation for me in Florida. I got fed up of looking at the computer and all of the options just ended up confusing me, so we turned the computer off and headed out to the shops to gather ingredients for dinner.
Two more of our friends from our old group were travelling down from Prattville (!) Alabama to spend the weekend with us. They turned up early evening and it was time to fire up the outside stove and cook our dinner – a Low Country Boil. A Low Country Boil is made from putting some water in a pot with some crab stock, and adding various ingredients in order according to how long they take to cook. First off were the potatoes and onions, followed at various points with corn on the cob, prawns (shrimp in American) and crab legs. It didnt take long and we all enjoyed a couple of beers and catching up on 9 years of life while the boil boiled.
Eventually it was done and we tipped the contents of the pot onto a large platter and everyone helped themselves. It was delicious! Viki, please can you get the recipe from Crystal so that you can cook it for us one day?
After we had all filled ourselves with good food we headed off to a local ‘Irish’ pub for a spot of Karaoke, the right and traditional thing to do with our group. There was a long queue for the Karaoke and we amused ourselves with more chatter and a spot of people watching. Finally it was our turn and we sang the songs that we used to sing all those years ago, including my favourite version of You dont bring me Flowers.
Luke was ‘des’ so he drove us home and we finished off the night hanging out in the hot tub and talking a lot of nonsense – which is all we could manage after several beers and wisky and cokes. I stumbled off to bed at about 3 and tore myself out of bed again at about 10am so that I could shower and pack my things as I was leaving Georgia that day.
Luke had cooked up a good hearty breakfast, and we all tucked in. It was about 12 o clock by this point and we realised that no-one was in any condition to drive me to the airport, which had been the original plan. We came up with a plan ‘B’ and after some tearful goodbyes Luke drove me to Macon to catch the shuttle bus up to Atlanta Airport. We hit some traffic near Atlanta and I was slightly concerned about missing my flight, but we got there in time and I boarded my flight no problem
The flight was quick and I was soon landing in Kansas. The captain had announced after we had all boarded that some of the suitcases had to be left behind in Georgia as there wasnt enough space on the plane, but luckily my case was one of the cases that was included. I saw Drew straight away on disembarking from the plane and we took the quick walk to the car.
I got a little confused when Drew pointed out the sign saying ‘welcome to kansas’. Kansas City airport is actually in Missouri. The City crosses the state line so some of it is in Kansas, and some is in Missouri!
It was about an hour’s drive to the small town of Ottowa and once we got there we had time for a quick bite to eat at the local and a couple of beers before calling the town’s only taxi to take us off to a little concert that was being held in someone’s field in the middle of nowhere. The band was Clevermax and it was an old band that was quite popular in the 80s in this area, having something of a reunion. There were old classmates also taking the opportunity to have a reunion and we bumped into a few of Drew’s highschool pals who had travelled down from wherever they were for the occasion.
The concert was a lot of fun, and it was wierd for me to think that I was standing at a country concert in a field in the middle of nowhere in Kansas instead of at work or rehearsal in Cyprus. After a few hours we called the taxi again and she drove the 20 minutes out of town to come and pick us up and take us home after a quick nightcap at the local. I went to bed tired and excited at the thought of exploring more of this beautiful country the next day.
We jumped into the truck, punched the address of the Coca Cola Museum into Maggie – the sat nav – and headed on our way.
The trip went by fairly quickly and we soon hit the Atlanta traffic. Maggie didn’t do too badly with the directions, but didnt really get us exactly to our destination. We drove around in the city trying to locate exactly where the museum was, at one point we drove the wrong way up a one way road and all of the city folks were beeping at us and flashing their lights at the stupid tourists going the wrong way. Some kindly paramedics pointed us in the right direction and we finally found a parking lot close to the places we wanted to visit.
Our first stop was the Coca Cola museum. Basically a huge advertisement for Coca Cola that attracts millions of people (including us) and that you have to pay for the privilege of seeing. I thought I was cheesy, but this place has levels of cheese that I have never before experienced. Our tour started with a little chat in the entrance hallway where the steward pointed out all of the old coca cola artifacts, including the syrup containers that would deliver just the right quantity of coca cola syrup into the glass before being topped up with soda water and stirred to produce the perfect coca cola. Next was the ‘hall of happiness’ which showed us a ten minute commercial about what happens when you put your coin into the slot of a coca cola dispenser. Cute, and very very cheesy.
We took our time walking around the museum, and had a lot of fun in the tasting room, tasting all the variations of coca cola products from around the world. I don’t think I have every drunk so much fizzy drink in such a short space of time.
Slightly bloated and on edge from all of the sugar we exited the museum (after declining to pay 25 dollars for the cheesy shot that had been taken of us at the entrance of the museum) and headed accross the lawn to the Aquarium.
Once again we hit the tourist trail found oursleves in queue apon queue. The aquarium had four different climate zones and had the appropriate fish and sealife in each zone. By the time we had finished all of the zones we were fairly hungry and I felt that it was definately beer o clock.
We left the aquarium and walked across to the Olypic park, which was full of people especially lots of chilren running in and out of the fountains getting soaking wet and cooling way down in the hot Georgian summer. We consulted the navigator to find restaurants in the local area, and promtly headed off in the wrong direction. It was really hot and a 10 minute walk the wrong direction stripped me of my usual chirpyness and revealed the grumpy whiney hungry and hot Veronica. Crystal recognized the signs and, as most of my friends do, tried to quickly find a restaurant to feed the grumpy Veronica so that happy Veronica would re-appear. We found a pizza place and I devoured my half of the Pizza and then sat sipping my second cooling beer as Crystal finished her pizza at a more human pace.
It was time to head back home, so we jumped in the car and drove the hour and a half back to Warner Robbins.
We were fairly tired from our long day so just had a couple of drinks with Luke before heading off to bed.
The next day was our down day and Crystal and I spent most of the morning trying to find accomodation for me in Florida. I got fed up of looking at the computer and all of the options just ended up confusing me, so we turned the computer off and headed out to the shops to gather ingredients for dinner.
Two more of our friends from our old group were travelling down from Prattville (!) Alabama to spend the weekend with us. They turned up early evening and it was time to fire up the outside stove and cook our dinner – a Low Country Boil. A Low Country Boil is made from putting some water in a pot with some crab stock, and adding various ingredients in order according to how long they take to cook. First off were the potatoes and onions, followed at various points with corn on the cob, prawns (shrimp in American) and crab legs. It didnt take long and we all enjoyed a couple of beers and catching up on 9 years of life while the boil boiled.
Eventually it was done and we tipped the contents of the pot onto a large platter and everyone helped themselves. It was delicious! Viki, please can you get the recipe from Crystal so that you can cook it for us one day?
After we had all filled ourselves with good food we headed off to a local ‘Irish’ pub for a spot of Karaoke, the right and traditional thing to do with our group. There was a long queue for the Karaoke and we amused ourselves with more chatter and a spot of people watching. Finally it was our turn and we sang the songs that we used to sing all those years ago, including my favourite version of You dont bring me Flowers.
Luke was ‘des’ so he drove us home and we finished off the night hanging out in the hot tub and talking a lot of nonsense – which is all we could manage after several beers and wisky and cokes. I stumbled off to bed at about 3 and tore myself out of bed again at about 10am so that I could shower and pack my things as I was leaving Georgia that day.
Luke had cooked up a good hearty breakfast, and we all tucked in. It was about 12 o clock by this point and we realised that no-one was in any condition to drive me to the airport, which had been the original plan. We came up with a plan ‘B’ and after some tearful goodbyes Luke drove me to Macon to catch the shuttle bus up to Atlanta Airport. We hit some traffic near Atlanta and I was slightly concerned about missing my flight, but we got there in time and I boarded my flight no problem
The flight was quick and I was soon landing in Kansas. The captain had announced after we had all boarded that some of the suitcases had to be left behind in Georgia as there wasnt enough space on the plane, but luckily my case was one of the cases that was included. I saw Drew straight away on disembarking from the plane and we took the quick walk to the car.
I got a little confused when Drew pointed out the sign saying ‘welcome to kansas’. Kansas City airport is actually in Missouri. The City crosses the state line so some of it is in Kansas, and some is in Missouri!
It was about an hour’s drive to the small town of Ottowa and once we got there we had time for a quick bite to eat at the local and a couple of beers before calling the town’s only taxi to take us off to a little concert that was being held in someone’s field in the middle of nowhere. The band was Clevermax and it was an old band that was quite popular in the 80s in this area, having something of a reunion. There were old classmates also taking the opportunity to have a reunion and we bumped into a few of Drew’s highschool pals who had travelled down from wherever they were for the occasion.
The concert was a lot of fun, and it was wierd for me to think that I was standing at a country concert in a field in the middle of nowhere in Kansas instead of at work or rehearsal in Cyprus. After a few hours we called the taxi again and she drove the 20 minutes out of town to come and pick us up and take us home after a quick nightcap at the local. I went to bed tired and excited at the thought of exploring more of this beautiful country the next day.
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