Days 6-9 - New Orleans - Atlanta - Columbia - Williamsburg - Rehoboth Beach!

This one is kind of long, so I apologize.  We didn't have much time or much internet access over the last 3-4 days of our drive.  So I had to put things together once we arrived at the beach.

This last 1/3 of our trip East was fun, but also busy.  I'm sure we will all be glad to get the hell out of the van for a few weeks, and spend some time at the beach/relaxing.  Surprisingly, we have not had too many crabbed up events/anyone getting too grumpy with anyone else.  A much better result than we all figured.

The girls with the "World's Largest Rocking Chair" someplace in MS.

We headed out of New Orleans around 9 am on Tuesday, June 6.  It was raining (again!) on and off most of the drive b/w NO and ATL.  We again experience a few "turd floaters" and I think it actually rained harder this day that it did on our way to NO!  I didn't think that was possible, but it sure seemed like it as I had to have the windshield wipers on high at only 50 mph.

The girls with the "World's Largest Brick" in AL.

In the process of one of my internet searches on "things to do" along the way, I discovered a website called "RoadsideAmerica.com" that listed all of the cheesy things you could stop and do/see in each state.  As a result, we have begun making occasional pull offs to see some cheesy ass one of a kind roadside attraction.  We saw the "worlds largest rocking chair" in MS, and the "worlds largest brick made of bricks" in AL, and experienced "South of the Border" in SC just before you get into NC.  The girls (and Bish too I'm sure!) roll their eyes at me every time I pull off to visit one of these fine examples of American culture, but someday they will laugh when they see the cheesy pics I made them pose for!  :-)

Gick and I after dinner.

Our host in ATL, Becky!

We stayed at my friend Becky (Reiff) Murphy's house just South of Atlanta on the night of June 6th.  Her and her family live just South of the ATL for you Manchester-ites that travel to/from FL if you ever need a stopover, or have time for dinner/lunch, I'm sure she'd love to see you!  In addition to seeing Becky and her family, we also got to see John C. Gick of Farm House fame!  The Gicks met us and Becky and her husband Mike at a great local beer joint in PTC (Peachtree City for us non locals) called Taco Mac.  Bish enjoyed getting to know some of my old friends a bit better, and she especially was glad to finally meet Gick after he responded to her, for the 30th birthday scrapbook she made for me years ago, with "Wash pans!  Wash pans!"  Those of you in Kalthoff's Krew will understand the comment!  So ATL was an awesome visit as we got to reconnect with 2 old friends of mine, and our family got to meet people they hear me speak of occasionally!  The Slackettes learned that Gick was the person that taught me how to make a straw in a paper wrapper make a "moo" sound!

Danica and I at World of Coke.

The girls at Centennial Park in downtown ATL.

We spent most of the day on June 7th in the Atlanta area seeing some of the sites.  First off was the CNN Studio Tour.  It was fun, but nothing great.  I wouldn't waste the $$ if you are looking for something to do in the Atlanta area in the future.  Then we walked through Centennial Park, and over to the World of Coke for a tour.  This tour was better then CNN, but the whole "let's find out the secret formula" theme was kind of cheesy.  However, at the very end, you got to taste different types of pop (or soda if that trips your trigger) that Coca Cola makes around the world!  There were 4-5 fountain stations with drinks from 4-5 different continents - Asia, Europe, South America, Latin America, and finally North America.  But we were all bloated and sugared out after trying too many sugary drinks!

Stone Mountain Park.

Slaw dog lunch at The Varsity!

After seeing some of the sites in downtown Atlanta, we went out to Stone Mountain Park to kick around a bit more.  The ROCK was cool!  There were a lot of things to do there, but we didn't do as much as we could have as most of us (aka not Bish) were kind of tired after doing downtown.  Bish and the girls eventually took a walk down closer to the rock carving of the 3 Civil War Era people, while I wen to over to the Stone Mountain Inn and took a nap on one of the couches in the lobby!  :-)

Poor Darby being forced to try on cheesy hats by her dad!

I wonder which stop this hat was found at?

That evening we drove over to Columbia, SC to stay with Mick Miller, of Wabatucky Indiana fame, and his family.  Fortunately it was only a 3 hour drive, plus the 30 minutes of dead stop due to road construction near Augusta, GA of course.  We sat on their patio and had a few beers while the kids all played Manhunt in the neighborhood.  I think the girls enjoyed kids their own age and some fun and games.  Plus they got to paint their nails with Hayley!  We had the chance to get up early and go fishing with Mick and his son, but decided to pass and enjoy a bit of sleep before hopping on the road for Williamsburg, VA.

The girls with Paul Bunyan & Babe somewhere!

Beneath the SOB sign!

On our way to Williamsburg, we had to stop at the South of the Border cheese ball attraction just before entering into North Carolina!!!!  Lots of Mexican tacky tourist stuff for a family to enjoy, as well as any item you could imagine with either "SOB" or South of the Border printed on it!

Sometimes I like this idea!  A lot!

We got into Colonial Williamsburg around 4 pm the afternoon of June 8th.  We first went to the visitor center to see what activities there might be in the area for the evening and next day.  We ended up getting our tickets for the next morning, and then headed to our first night of camping at the KOA Williamsburg!  We were hoping our tent would still have all the pieces/parts it was supposed to have and that it wasn't going to rain that night.  Darby got very excited when she learned that the KOA had a "Gaga Ball" pit!  I guess it's some game similar to dodge ball that both girls got to play at some overnight trip they took with their class from school.  Sadly, we ran out of time before it got dark that night to actually get a game in.  So she's hoping another camp site on our trip West will have a Gaga Ball pit also.

Almost there.

Friday morning we got up, took our tent down, and headed to learn about the early settlers of Williamsburg.  It was a fun morning of learning about blacksmiths and tin making, Peyton Randolph and his "enslaved people," and more than you need to know about wigs of the time!  By early afternoon, we were all kind of shot, and ready to hit the road for the final 4 hours/200 miles to get to Rehoboth Beach!  So we hopped onto I-64 and promptly sat in construction traffic on our way towards Virginia Beach, VA to go through the tunnels towards Delaware.  A friend of mine from MHS lives in the Virginia Beach area and said the traffic was crappy in the area, and he wasn't kidding!  Granted, it was a Friday afternoon, but only 2-3 pm in the afternoon.  We drove North on a fairly narrow peninsula type area of Northern Virginia, and then across the country parts of Maryland and Delaware on our way to Rolling Road.  We finally hit familiar territory when we hit Highway 1 in Bethany Beach, and then on through downtown RB.  It was nice to finally get to our destination for the next week and a half.

During our time at the beach, I plan to make a few posts about (my interpretation) the history of Bish and our family's time coming to Rehoboth Beach over the years.  For us at least, it will be good to reminisce about our visits to the beach, and the lifelong memories we made here, every few summers.