Hotlanta

After leaving Kentucky we had quite the drive to Atlanta. We decided that it’d be best if we got as close as we could to the capital of the south and head in the next morning. We ended up spending the night in the Red Top Mountain State Park. This is one of the hidden gems off the freeway. It had one of those dense and fragrant pine forests that made you want to take deep breaths through your nose. While it was cold the night we dropped by, I bet this place goes off in the summer as it lines a huge river with enough room for swimming and jet skis.

We packed up quickly in the morning and headed down to the Big City. First, we were in dire need of an internet café (in order to upload the lovely prose of this here blog). We stumbled upon a hipster mecca. Tight jean clad indie rockers clicked away on their apple computers and drank cups of French pressed coffee (every cup they serve is individually French pressed). They even had a zombie-art exhibit on the walls. It was pretty awesome.

Next we headed off for Fat Matt’s BBQ. This place was hands down the best BBQ we’ve had in the south. Succulent pork ribs with meat that melted in my mouth and spicy bbq sauce that was perfectly smothered. This was all complemented by rum baked beans and cinnamon laden sweet potato soufflé. It was heavenly.

Finally, we made it downtown. Downtown Atlanta has been the most urban of the places we’ve been in the south. It has both CNN’s corporate offices and the Coca-Cola museum. We didn’t want to pay for the museum so we contented ourselves with just wandering the coke store, which was museum-like in itself. It had all sorts of replica coke artifacts for sale and every t-shirt, glass or hat you would ever want with a coke design on it. The store must’ve been designed pretty well because it made me want to spend my few remaining dollars on all sorts of needless crap. We got out of there without buying anything, but I found myself trying on a Mr. Pibb hat and telling myself it would be a great purchase. It was a low point in my life.
Next we strolled through the Centennial Olympic Park that was constructed for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The park was pretty boring, but it was nice to have that nostalgic feeling reminding me when America used to actually be home to the games. Now, it’s just China and Canada and Britain, damn.
We finished off our abridged tour of the city with a stop at the CNN building. There was a tour available through the studios where they produce the shows, but we skipped it because it got too many negative reviews. The building itself was pretty cool and they had the hummer they used in Iraq War reporting on display and we got to see the world’s highest and longest escalator – woohoo!

That was it for Atlanta. We probably could’ve spent another few days there, but New Orleans was calling our name and we had too many places to visit before our Halloween date with the Big Easy.

Atlanta Pictures