7/9/09---The Return

So we got back early last evening and I felt like a fluffer at a Traci Lords film festival.
You know...totally spent.  9 1/2 hour drives will do that to you I guess.  It would've been longer if I had been driving, but thank God my wife and her lead foot actually likes to do the driving, which lets me....you know, get in some quality reading time.
We had a terrific time in Hot-lanta but are glad to be home.....lets take a look at a brief (who, me??) recap of our adventures in the big city.

Day 1 starts off around 10ish, when we left for a relaxing drive up on Monday the 3rd.
We stopped for lunch at the dreaded Shoneys (recommended by Kellie thank you very much) where, after our buffet lunch...it was decided that we NEVER, EVER want to go to a Shoneys again.  I mean at least in THIS lifetime.  That's how bad the food was.
We stopped for lunch around 1:30ish, and I realize that it was a little late for the normal lunch crowd...but I'm here to tell you, that lunch buffet had been picked clean like hyenas had the run of the place for an hour or so.  So we walked up and look at the selection and I sorta look at the woman behind the buffet counter and say:

"Um....is this it?"
"Oh no, their preparing another round in the back."
"Is is going to be out here anytime SOON?""
"Well....um, eventually it will."

She had the cheeriest smile on her face when she said it.  It was so bad that I said something to my son that I almost never say.  He had gotten what was supposedly a piece of fried chicken (maybe a breast, although I'm not positive) and was sort of looking at it trying to find anything remotely resembling actual sustenance on the thing and I said to him...

"Son, I'm not going care if you choose not to eat that piece of chicken."

The look of relief that flooded over him was visible.

Later that day we pull into the Sheraton Suites in Atlanta and got settled in.  Later we went out to find dinner (after that wonderful lunch go figure that we were all famished) and stumbled upon a place called "Folks" (lots of time spent on that name obviously) that advertised that it specialized in southern cooking.  Well now, for a boy that spent his summers as a youth in the low country of South Carolina---hello, dinner!
So we're all making our selections, and somewhat surprisingly, Andy decides to select what is advertised as "Atlanta's best fried chicken"---I say surprisingly because I couldn't blame the boy if he was scarred for life away from chicken after his lunch time experience and also because, well, quite frankly, its not like he's much of a fried chicken eater to begin with.  So he's halfway through his chicken (3 pieces) and declares:

"This is the best chicken I've ever had in my life."

I'm with his mother for 7 years and all of a sudden he discovers that he likes fried chicken.  Its about damn time.  If I can get him to start eating BBQ, it will be like he was mine from the get go.

The 2nd day, which was the fourth of July, we decided that we wanted to do a little sight seeing so we really just drove away from the hotel and started heading toward the middle of town.  Its an incredibly beautiful old city, with lots of rolling hills and beautiful houses.  Our first stop doing the tourist thing was the Atlanta Aquarium, which is one of the world's largest and is the only one of its type that has a whale shark in captivity.
And what's even more amazing is that they don't have just one, they have THREE!
One of the really spectacular moments came as you walk throughout the exhibit is when you walk under the containment tank where the whale sharks are kept, and look up watching the sharks swim directly over you--all the while the sun is shining through the roof--its really breathtaking.
Next up we walked approximately 27 miles (or at least it seemed that way) to the Coca-Cola plant (and good Lord does Atlanta advertise Coke and all its products--its hard being a Pepsi drinker and going to Atlanta).  Its a pretty fun tour and at the end they have this all these different Coke products from throughout the world.  Some of them were fairly tasty--and some were--ahem....they were not.  Let's just leave it at that.
And in case I forgot to mention it.....oh dear Lord in heaven....was it hot in Atlanta that day.  I mean, not just the equator like heat---the humidity was overwhelming.  As Kim said at least once on the trip---it was a two shirt day, because once you got back to the hotel room, you wanted to change clothes because you felt so yucky.  So after the Coke plant (interesting way of referring to it) we walked over to Underground Atlanta, which used to be a terrific tourist spot in the 70's & 80's.....but that was about 20 years ago and now its sorta, well.....not so great.  I remembered my last visit, somewhere around '75when my parents and I went to visit my sister and we were headed to this restaurant in Underground Atlanta and my dad totally ripped his pants and.......well, this is the point in the story where my dad is reading going:

"Oh good God....he's not going to tell THAT story, is he?"

Thankfully for Dad, I really don't remember much more than that.  But I do remember the pants ripping....and I'm not talking about a small rip either....just for the record.

So then we make the calm and rational decision to get a cab to take us to our next destination---the Georgia Dome, which was where the kids tae kwon do tournament was going to be held.  Oh, and did I mention that there was a parade going on?  This resulted in us taking....uh....the rather circular route to the Dome.  Which was okay, because at least we were in air conditioning and our cab driver was this old black guy who was hilarious.  No teeth whatsoever on his upper row, so his words were half slurred....and naturally I struck up a conversation with him and as Kim likes to say, I also immediately went into my "southern talk" mode.  You know, where I speak southern.
So I asked the guy where the old Atlanta City Auditorium was located.

"Oh, that's right over there.  That building.  That's where they used to hab rasslin."
"That's right.  Did you used to watch it?"  (Kim in the backseat, rolling her eyes)
"Oh yeah....I used to like the masked man...what was his name?"
"Mr Wrestling # 2?"
"That was him!  Master Rasslin Nubber Two!"

We talked for the next 10 minutes or so about the old days of Atlanta wrestling.  He mentioned that his birthday was coming up later in the week, so I gave him a $5 dollar tip and told him to enjoy a cold beverage on me.

"So...." I said to Kim as he drove away, "whatta ya suppose the odds are that its really his birthday later in the week?"

I didn't care...the old guy remembered the old wrestlers, talked to me about them and that was worth $5 to me.

The Georgia Dome is truly a massive structure.  But it has no personality, you know?
The kids did their registration for the tournament and we headed back to the hotel, where after the afore mentioned change of clothes we headed out for dinner...to the end of a 12 year quest.  It was around 12 years ago I read a book about a couple of guys who decided at the start of the college football season that they were going to try and hit as many legendary college football stadiums during the season as they could.  One of the sites they went to was Bryant-Denny stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, home of the Bama Crimson Tide.  During that part of their trip, they stopped by and visited Dreamland BBQ, home of the nations best ribs.  As I read the story all those years ago, I made a decision that one day.....one day.....I would make my way to Dreamland.
Hey, its what fat guys do.  You walk in and its like a college football shrine, so right away---even before food is served---its going to get a big thumbs up.  Tons of photos from former college football greats and all sorts of memorablia (mainly from the SEC).
I just knew my man RPM would be in the same sort of state of nirvana that I was in.
We sat down and enjoyed a great dinner.  The ribs and the BBQ sauce were both top notch.  The waitress was new, and kept giving me unsweetened tea instead of sweetened.  That's the sort of thing that could ruin a visit to an ordinary place.  But Dreamland is no ordinary place.

Next up....the tournament begins!

Later,
Jeff