Day 34 - Get outta the water!

I not too long ago only just published the blog which should have gone up last night, I typed it last night but due to our staying in a campsite at the back of beyond we found ourselves without wi-fi to upload the blog – shock horror we had no contact with the outside world for a few hours!!

Anyway back on the planet now but as we are without the comforts of a hotel and it’s facilities I’m not sure if I’ll be able to upload every night on cue…Oli says he’ll look for and buy a dongle – not sure what that is, sounds like a sex toy, but he assures me it will mean independent wi-fi!!

We awoke this morning to no sound of thunder and the skies had all cleared up, in the sunlight the wood didn’t look as scary as it did last night.  No longer was I picturing the Blair Witch Project but more like The Swiss Family Robinson.  

There was only one other RV parked up, and now we could actually see the place there was a massive pond/lake surrounded by tall trees and the air smelt lovely and fresh.  It was early (well 8am early to wake up for us) and the people in the other RV showed no signs of life so we had our breakfast outside on the wooden bench, so peaceful, the only noise (apart from me talking) was the family of geese quacking happily away as they went for their morning swim in the lakeJ

We set on our way to drive to Atlanta, where we arrived about 11am.  Atlanta wasn’t on our original travel plan but as we drive around the US with a rough guide of where we want to go, if people suggest places or we read about places we then adapt our route accordingly.  Two reasons Atlanta caught our eye, it has an aquarium (I asked Oli if this was the biggest aquarium in America to which he replied “no bubba it’s the biggest aquarium in the world”!!  As impressive as it was with its amazing fish, massive glass tanks, petting pond (I touched a shark).... I think I was slightly more excited to visit the World of Coca Cola!  

I have always been a fan of CC more for its packaging and design but also I just love its marketing – the fact that we think of Santa Claus in a red suit rather than his original green is all due to a coke advert!  Coca Cola was invented here in Atlanta (about a mile from where the museum is now), the place takes you through the history, the advertising, the philosophy and has exhibitions, memorabilia, a 4D show and much more.  

A big part of it is that you get to see inside a mechanical production line and get to taste up to 65 of Coca Cola's brands from all over the world – Coca Cola has 500 varieties of brands such as Fanta, Sprite, Minute Maid and my personal fave of the trip, Barg's root beer!  

On leaving you are able to get your own free limited edition bottle of Coke made from the production line with "125 years of world of Coca-Cola" on.  This was a bonus for me as I collect full bottles of Coke from around the world (Kate please tell Amers next time not to drink the Coke from the Indian bottle – the thought was there!) Not content with our free bottles I also purchased an American design bottle complete with a stars and strips banner on it from the gift shop J

A Beluga whale

Just across the road from the Coca-Cola museum was the Georgia Aquarium, the largest aquarium in the world.  It has more than 8.5 million gallons of water and is home to more than 120,000 animals from 500 different species.  There are manta rays which are rare to have in captivity - this is the only aquarium in the US to have them (it has four!) and one of only four aquariums in the world to have them. 

In one part of the aquarium we crawled through a glass tunnel through a penguin enclosure and could pop our heads up in glass domes to look at them close-up.  It was really amazing to be face to face with them albeit with a piece of man made material between us - it dawned on me that the penguins might be looking at us like WE were the wildlife, and not the other way around!

The most impressive part of the aquarium was the "Ocean Explorer" area, where we "walked" (we had an electronic conveyor belt so you could stand and gawp and be moved along at the same time) through massive underwater tanks and could see a huge collection of animals from the sea. These included manta rays, sharks and sawfish, but best of all were the huge whale sharks (pictured right)....I wonder if the sharks ever eat the other fish in the tank!  

You couldn't help but be in awe whenever one of these beasts swam past and I did clench my butt cheeks a few times!  Apparently this aquarium is the only one outside Asia to hold a whale shark, so we were lucky to have caught a glimpse of them today.  It also has hammerhead sharks but they must have been sleeping because we didn't see them - Oli said maybe they got hammered last night , boom boom? :)

We drove for another hour or so after Atlanta and are now in Adairsville, still in Georgia.  We have stopped to pick up some take out Chinese food (always wanted to say that!) and are staying in a campsite, as I cooked last night (toast) thought I’d have the night off tonight and treat ourselves!!!

Tomorrow we are heading to Dollywood, soooo excited, it’s about a 2.5 hour drive from here so will have an early night to start out first thing in the morning.  Like Dolly said “working nine to five aint no way to earn a living” so play on!

J&O

Ps secretly hoping to catch a glimpse of Dolly as I’m sure we’d get on like a house on fire…and then she’ll invite me to live on the ranch…and we’d be life long friends…okay back to reality!