After a very informative tour of Charlotte Speedway we headed to Atlanta and to see Don. We tried to visit another inexplicable large thing but shock….it wasn’t there anymore. Rude! So, we gave up on that and continued, but don’t worry those of you who only read this for the silly Americana, more to follow 🙂.

Having battled through the Atlanta traffic we arrived at Don’s and were treated like royalty. We had a beautiful home cooked meal on Friday evening, accompanied by quality wine from an amazing wine rack 🍷. We then had a great night’s sleep in a beautiful room. Saturday began with a trip up Stone Mountain. A lovely place, exercise and the reward of fabulous views of the area at the top (cloud allowing 😄). Then there was the carving in the side of the mountain. Think Mount Rushmore but with Confederate heros from the civil war.

Saturday lunch time was spent at a great restaurant on the Beltway, a fantastic walkway used by the locals to exercise, to walk or cycle to restaurants and bars and just generally to be sociable and be outside 🙂. Our guide (sorry Don) then took us to Martin Luther King’s place of birth, neighbourhood and church, as well as the memorial centre built there. We were both interested in learning more and boy did we! Time for some quiet reflection on what he did for the world, how he did it, what it cost him and what it cost his wife Coretta.

We were then treated to dinner on Saturday evening at a local Italian, with a good friend of Don’s, Dani (apologies if this spelt wrong). A lovely evening with interesting people.

We left Atlanta just in time for Don to head to Bryce Canyon for a cycling trip. We headed to Jacksonville FL via some Americana, see below. We decided to go downtown, via the local buses 🚌, to walk the Riverwalk. A few miles of walkway along the river allowing us to see Jacksonville. Sadly they have dug half of it up for reasons we couldn’t quite grasp, so we came back and walked in an Arboretum instead, showcasing what Florida was like before Europeans trampled all over it. Suffice it to say that our ability to deal with the hot and humid conditions has not improved over the years 😅.

On to Kennedy Space Centre tomorrow. Looking forward to exploring it without the kids (yes kids we love you all but…..) and….big build up…..there is a launch scheduled for tomorrow evening!!! We will be a few miles away. Fingers crossed🤞.

Inexplicable large things, now known as Americana, update – Jimmy Carters peanut and the Largest peanut in the world. See photos. Sadly the statue of liberty made of rubbish had to go by the wayside as we ran out of time