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DAY 112

Week 16

MACON (Georgia, USA) to TUSCALOOSA (Alabama, USA)
via ATLANTA (Georgia, USA) & STONE MOUNTAIN (Georgia, USA)

Tuesday October 10th, 2006

TODAYS MILEAGE – 307 miles or 494 kilometres

TRIP MILEAGE – 15827 miles or 25471 kilometres

Headin' to Hot–lanta baby!!!

After 3 day here in what the locals are proud to call the "deep South", I've come to notice a couple of thing that's not real prevalent in other areas of the country that I've visited:

RELIGION — College football and God bothering IS ones Saturday and Sunday salvation. You know this to be the case as there are as many religious channels as there are sports channels on the TV.

LANGUAGE — English is THE second language. The native tongue has a real drawl and laced with Ghetto or Redneck, depending on your suntan.

FOOD — Wholesome, rib sticking, simple and plenty of it. Grits is an acquires taste, solely because it has none. The texture is similar the refuse found at the bottom of a bird cage and about as interesting as a stink pickle.

BIG BOYS — I'm no Skinny Minnie, but there are a lot of fellas that need to step away from the Jimmy buffet as they've got a fair ol' verandah around the tool shed.

DRIVING — The 'shine runner is alive and well, simply sit in the middle lane on I20 at 10MPH over the limit and be prepared to be a speed bump.

Georgia and Alabama has all the pace of any East Coast state, but the people seem as laid back as riding a rocking chair on Grandma's porch. Both states looked a lot greener than anything I saw in Florida, which was a pleasant surprise to me.

Today I went and had a look at Summit Racing's huge retail store just outside of Atlanta (Georgia). For any rev head like myself this is like a visit to Costco and Ikea for people who don't have a life. 60,000 square feet of hot rodders heaven with the parts to help you pimp your ride, trick your truck or bling your thing.

From there is was a 30 minute ride up to Stone Mountain Park. I was expecting a thickly wooded forests around a lake or something. What I got was the largest exposed piece of granite in the United States with Southern themed museums and a theme park of sorts. They've also carved the image of three of the South's "idols" into the side of the rock formation Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson and someone else.

Being 16 miles outside of Atlanta, the park is fairly heavily patronized and although not my cup of tea, they've done a good job with the place. I took the skylift to the top of Stone Mountain and soaked in the sights of the surrounding countryside.

I then headed to downtown Atlanta, as I wanted to check out the World of Coca–Cola. It was interesting to see how the worlds most recognized product went from inception to modern day production. A pretty good story that runs two floors of the building, including a working 1930's store with it's own soda jerk.

I pulled up for the evening in Tuscaloosa (Alabama), as I was not willing to pay $80 - $120 an night for a bed in Birmingham (Alabama) or it outskirts.

Tomorrow I'm headed to Dallas (Texas).