Llew Wanders the World

It’s been an eventful few days since I last wrote.
The story begins on the morning of Friday, July 30. I woke up fairly late (again) and went to try and change my flights in and out of Baltimore. To my pleasant surprise, it was a breeze. Everything the folks at the Adventure Travel Company had confirmed about my Star Alliance RTW ticket proved to be true.
I just phoned up United Airlines, and they happily adjusted the dates and times of my flights at no cost. It’s nice to have done this once, so in future I’ll be able to alter my schedule with confidence.

It wasn’t long after I’d made my arrangements that Sean came home from work, nice and early, to get started with preparations for a weekend of camping. We loaded up his car, headed off to buy groceries and a few camping supplies and by 15:00 or so we were on the road, headed for the hills north of Atlanta.

It took about an hour to drive to the campsite, a free site in a National Forest near a US Army Rangers training ground, right by the edge of the Etowah River. We got unpacked and claimed our spots in anticipation of the other guys from MH arriving, then set out exploring the area around the campsite, Sean on his bike, and me by walking. I headed off on what appeared to be a trail leading up into the hills. Though the trail quickly vanished, I continued on through the woods, knowing that despite the rugged terrain, there were still a number of roads and rivers around that would lead me back to our campsite. After trudging up and down three steep hills and crossing a couple of tiny creeks, I found my way back to the entrance road to the camp, which followed the river. Remembering many fun afternoons spent with my family walking through the Credit River near Toronto, I decided to walk back to camp through the river. The water was beautiful and cool, and the river was never too deep or fast to walk through.

Despite my knowledge of the nearby 1.5 lane gravel road, the river seemed very isolated. To my surprise I saw a (very large) great blue heron sitting by the river in the woods, and also scared a drinking fawn into scampering away into the woods.
Eventually Sean and I met up at our camp, and made a quick dinner before the arrival of the others.

Everyone else (Billy, “Ronnie,” and Chris “The Rookie” from MH Atlanta) showed up around 20:45. (incidentally everyone on the camping trip was Canadian except for Billy, who’s from Buffalo, and so is about as close as you can get) After their arrival, we set up our tents, and built a campfire with the three pieces of dry wood we’d brought. Much to our astonishment, we managed to stretch the fire out late into the night by using dead wood from around the campsite (this despite the rain that had come down earlier in the day.)
We passed a wondeful night sitting around the campfire, drinking Southpaw Light beer (pretty good for it’s dirt cheap price) playing the guitar and singing along.

The next day began with Billy preparing a great breakfast of bacon and eggs, served on tortillas. We ate to our hearts content, and then started planning for the day. We’d decided on heading out to go tubing (riding inner tubes down a river) but unfortuantely it started to rain. This led to a sedate morning spent sitting under the tarp, playing cards and working on bikes.

Finally the weather cleared and we headed down to the tubing launch place. Unfortunately the proprietors informed us that we couldn’t bring our cooler along, and (according to Sean at least [and I’m inclined to believe him]) that’s at least half the fun. However, the guy at the tubing place told us of a good spot to go swimming, which, with a few unintentional detours, we found our way to.

Here’s a photo of Sean and Chris riding in the back of the pickup (in true Georgia style) on the way to tubing. You can also catch a tiny sliver of Billy’s head. Not only was he our cook all weekend, he was also the driver, God Bless the man.

The swimming hole, which was well down the Etowah River from our campsite, proved to be every bit as good as we’d been told. We had a great afternoon there, wading around in the water, jumping into the river off a rope swing, splashing around, enjoying a few beverages (though many of these ended up being sprayed at or spouted on to one another rather than actually drunk) and sunning ourselves on the rocks out in the middle of the river upstream from the swimming hole. In fact, the place was so great that Chris “The Rookie” identified one small piece of it (a nice smooth, warm rock out in the middle of the river where you could dip your feet in the water and still lay out in the sun) as The Best Place in Georgia.

On the way back to the campsite, around 18:00, we stopped and picked up a few additional supplies. Chris “The Rookie” and I went in to shop, and made the (as it was later proved to be) mistake of getting 48 beers instead of 24 or 36 along with the additional food.

At camp that night, Billy prepared a spectacular dinner of corn, steaks and beans, and we settled in for another night of talk and music around the campfire. One by one, folks started drifting out to their tents, or off to sleep in their chairs, leaving only Chris and I around to finish the beer that we’d bought earlier. We sort of felt it was our responsibility to do so, since we were the ones that bought it. It turned out to be something of a marathon, ending at perhaps 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning, but in the end we were successful (if you can call it that.)

This “success” ended up leading to a rather abbreviated day on Sunday, with the two of us waking up just in time to head home, and then only pausing to help make dinner before heading to bed upon arrival back in Atlanta.

Monday was an altogether more adventurous day, with me waking up (by my recent standards) early, and heading into Atlanta proper. I had little trouble navigating the public transit system on the way downtown, but that didn’t prevent me from being nervous about my ability to find my way back.

My tour of the city’s sights began with a walk around the downtown core of the city, wherein I walked past what (if my memory serves) was, until fairly recently, the tallest hotel in the world. The first portion of the walking tour ended at the Atlanta Centennial Olympic park. The park is a beautiful public area, right in the heart of downtown Atlanta, overlooked by the CNN Center.
Aside from numerous monuments, statues, concert venues and so forth, the Olympic Park also has a beautiful fountain in the shape of the Olympic rings, where dozens and dozens of local kids come to play during hot days.

Just before leaving the park, I hear drumming coming from far off, and decided to investigate its source. It turned out to be the Eastwick Commandos Drill Squad. They ranged in age from about 6 up to 16, and included marchers (who verged on being dancers at times) and all manner of different types of drummers. Two of their smallest members are pictured here.

After watching the drill squad’s performance, I carried on with my tour, walking past the CNN centre, and several of the city’s sports venues before ending up at the World of Coca Cola. Coke was, of course, invented in Atlanta, and it’s tough to find a spot in the city where you aren’t reminded of it. At the WOCC, you have NO danger of forgetting. The place is full of historic items, advertisements, equipment and pretty much anything else you can think of from the company’s 100 odd year history. The tour ends with a chance to try beverages produced by the company around the world ranging from the familiar (Coke, Cherry Coke, Sprite etc.) to the odd, but tasty (a Chinese apple flavoured pop) to the downright unpalatable (an Italian non-alcoholic apertif.)

In a successful attempt to get back to Sean and Jenn’s before rush hour started, I concluded my tour of the City at this point and hopped back on MARTA. Despite my earlier trepidation, I not only got back, but found a quicker route to go by.

On the way home, I stopped to pick up ingredients to prepare a dinner that would be my way of thanking Sean and Jenn for being such spectacularly good hosts. They were both happy to help out with prep work in the kitchen, and although it took a while, everything unfolded according to plan. My former schoolmate Shylesh came over and we all enjoyed a wonderful Thai style supper of hot and sour shrimp and mushroom soup, mango salad, and noodles with peanut sauce and basil.

Feeling fully sated, everyone finally said their goodnights (and goodbyes, since odds are Sean and Jenn will be gone for work by the time I’m up and about tomorrow) and here I am writing my final entry from Atlanta.

I’ll just conclude by thanking Sean and Jenn once more. You guys were amazing hosts, and were so generous and hospitable that if I manage to find people even one tenth as nice as you over the rest of my trip, I’ll be in very good shape.

Talk to you all again from the World Boardgaming Championships in Baltimore.

P.S. Is it just me, or are these entries getting longer and longer? I suspect that’ll change once I’m somewhere with less readily available internet access. Anyone think they’re TOO long? Don’t be shy… Please let me know if you do.

P.P.S. Also, one more photo from back home: My sister Christi, my sister Melanie and my mom at the Kingston Triathlon where they competed as a team and kicked some major butt. Congratulations guys!

Tags: North America

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