Linda&Russ: Jan 22 2014 Stone Mtn GA

We traveled from Columbia,NC to Stone Mountain, Georgia and setup up in the Stone MTN state park campground. Not your average state park, this place has golf courses, steamboat rides on the huge lake, Inn's, conference centers, restaurants huge camping areas, and tons more. pretty quiet this time of year but still huge. We got setup and fully connected with thoughts of a great evening in our home, with a fully functioning hot water heater, plenty of water with good pressure, so thought we would go for a tour of the park. We drove a ways and found the "Skyline" gondola to the top of Stone Mtn . the mtn is a big smooth very round rock the just popped out of the ground millions of years ago. part of the tectonic plate shifts. it has a Confederate war memorial carved into the face of it. there was only six or eight on our ride to the top and the guide said there had only been about 40 people all day, unlike Martin Luther King day when the had over 7000. there were signs along the entrance (zig zag rope lines "cattle shoot" style) that said 2hr waits at one point. glad it was pay and go today. the top was cold and windy but the sun was out and you could see for miles. Downtown Atlanta buildings and lots of other views. the ground on top looked like the moon with indentations that look like small craters. really neat. As we were looking from porch at the arrival center at the top Linda happened to look just over the railing and there was a pickup trucked parked there. we were surprized as it seems to be a really steep and round rock and we couldn't imagine they could get a vehicle up there. I actually talked to the game warden and he said that it was maintenance guys and that the road was very steep but manageable. he thought Ford should use a video of someone driving up as a commercial. We made it back to the parking lot and my cell phone rang and it was the campground office saying someone had driven over a water valve and that our water had been secured but should be back by noon tomorrow. we hope so as we didn't want to move. we feel fortunate that we have a tankfull of freshwater so we will be able to use our systems. we stopped at a couple of more places within the park, most are closed due to the cold and lack of "guests" but we had fun looking around. One spot was intriguing to me, it was the Carillon that is lakeside. the carillon is a gift from Coke company and was originally made and used at the 1964 New York Worlds Fair. If I remember right we say that when we went to that worlds fair when I was a kid. The carillon wasn't playing until the weekend so I won't be able to hear it, but I think it is like bells. Mom will let me know if I am way off or not. The web is very slow so I will have to continue this later.
hello again it's Thursday and we got water back. today we relaxed in the morning then went to Stone Mountain Village, expecting a lot of shops and neat little places to see but it's off season so it's kind of like York beach in February, real quiet and closed up. decided to find Walmart and got a few things and fuel then went and climbed the mountain we rode up in the gondola yesterday. the sun was out all day but it was still cold and quite windy. we cooked hamburgs on our grill for supper and now trying to figure which way to head tomorrow. It will be west but not sure to go south to the coast and see that area or stay on route 20 across towards Birmingham. we have some time before getting to Joey and Brenda's so figure that we might see some country that we haven't been yet. I know you are wondering if we went into Atlanta and the answer is no. We talked and decided that we are not city folks and didn't really care about the aquarium, World of Coke or CNN so we have had a lot of fun in this huge state park and didn't see all of it. by the way we did get to hear the Carillon playing recorded music over the lake this afternoon. I am sure it's the same I hear when I was about 9 at the worlds fair. Linda questions my memory, as do i but won't admit it to her.

carving in the mountain