The trip....Part 1...Georgia....

On Thursday, Ami and Nan came to get me from work. They had already been to WalMart and had bought sleeping bags for all of us. It took us three hours after i left work for us to leave. it was raining in South Florida at the time and I wanted to see my mom before I left. We went to her job, saw her, said our "laters" and we headed out. Vin works next door to her job so we went in to see him too. he was busy so we just said bye and then headed out. Ami's mom made sandwiches for us. Boy did they come in handy!
The first day was spent only driving. We drove from 4pm until 3am Friday morning. It was a long drive. We took the turnpike from Coconut Creek to Orlando then joined on the I-75 all the way into Georgia. It took us 5 hours to get out of Florida and almost 3 hours to get on the outskirts of Atlanta...I am guessing we spent about an hour in rest stops and stretching our legs. For economic purposes, we decided to stay outside the city...realized that in the last trip that staying outside the city is a lot more budget-friendly. We were able to stay in an Inn for about $45. It was an incredible price considering that there was everything we needed and it was clean.
The next morning we woke up about 10 am and we headed into Atlanta. We were meeting Nan's ex-boyfriend there. Turns out that he was extremely nice to us....considering that i never really spoke with him nor did Ami. He was indeed hospitable. Took us to lunch too and it started Nan and Ami on a quest to find the best chinese restaurants specializing in tofu. They actually spent time talking about how good the tofu was!
We headed to Stone Mountain after driving through Atlanta. I was not aware that we were going to Stone Mountain but Ami wanted Nan to see the city and the park as well. We got to Stone Mountain after a little while of driving and getting lost. It was already 4pm when we got there and we wanted to hike to the top. Was a long climb and we realized that we were a little out of shape=0) We made it though. For a little while, i was even worried about rolling down the side of the mountain but the view from the top was spectacular! There were railings to hold on to at the steepest parts of the mountain.
Now Stone Mountain is really a large protrusion of granite. I think it is about 855 feet high but the air was definitely cooler at the top. The carving on the mountain took 55 years to complete and it shows the leaders of the confederacy including General Robert E. Lee.
I was watching this documentary once on National Geographic and I saw that Stone Mountain, GA is the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan. Not too thrilled to say that but it was one of the historic facts about it. Really, the place is seeped in history. On the way up, we delighted ourselves in reading the carvings made by previous visitors/lovers/hikers to the top of the mountain. Some etchings were made in the early parts of the century and some were made during the 50s, 60s and 70s, etc. I saw Atlanta in the distance. the air was so clean and fresh! It was something i hadn't enjoyed in a long time. We took the sky-lift all the way back down. I must say that the ride was crowded and a little uneventful. In retrospect, the hike down may have been better and less hard on my ears (they "pop" a lot at higher altitudes). Then i had to make sure Ami was okay. He is scared of rides from heights, lifts, pulleys, roller coasters, etc......
The Sky Lift dropped us out all the way on the other side of the mountain so we ended up walking the circumference of the park to get back to the car. Was not bad though. We were not exactly dressed for hiking but we managed. At least we all had our sneakers and hats! I can say one thing though...we surely exercised on this trip! all the chinese food we ate was burned out=0)
When we left Stone Mountain, it was almost 7 and we were driving to Tennessee with the directions we had printed from MapQuest. turns out that Mapquest gave us the longest possible route and boy was it long! even managed to get lost. Usually when I go on trips with my dad, i use Yahoo directions or Google but this time, i didn't really think and i used mapquest. this is the second time we got lost using Mapquest directions. Anyway, luckily we were able to find a welcome center in South Carolina (yes, the directions sent us to South Carolina when we should have been in Tennessee!) and a map of the state and some of the routes that would lead to Tennessee.
We were able to use a highway that led into North Carolina and through the Appalachains right into Tennessee. Needless to say, we were travelling in the night on roads that had no streetlights. It was dark and extremely scary. We stopped out at a WalMart on a hill on the highway that ran from Georgia into North Carolina. let me tell you, it was the scariest, most frightful WalMart I have ever been to at 1:30 am! People were staring at us. I guess we looked very different and out-of-place. But we were able to get some bread, cheese and hummus to make sandwiches. After, we stopped at a motel because we were not sure how to get to Tennessee from where we were at. Nan and I stayed in the car and Ami got out to ask for directions.
I was beginning to get scared when i saw that 15 minutes had passed and Ami wasn't back yet. When he came back, he told us that the owner was Indian and was very helpful. The guy gave him precise directions and even told him to be careful. We were driving through the mountains. For 34 miles, from Cherokee, NC to Gatlinburg, TN we drove through pitch black darkness and some very steep, winding curves in the Smoky Mountains. There were times when Ami set the car in neutral and let it roll down the hills for itself. my ears were popping like crazy. I was sleepy but i couldn't sleep. began babbling so that Ami would not feel like sleeping as well. it worked, eventually we got to Gatlinburg and after enquiring around at the different Inns, we found an Econolodge in Pigeon Forge (a few miles up the road from Gatlinburg) that was budget friendly. Considering that it was a tourist town, I thought it was a good deal. Ami and nan really liked this motel too. This one was even cleaner and prettier than the first one. We woke up so late that the next morning, Saturday, the receptionist called the room to remind us that check-out was at 11am. We left there at 10:56 and headed back into Gatlinburg......I will continue this in Part 2...Tennessee....