ATLANTA, GA MAY 24-25, 2015

Our stay in Atlanta grew to be ten day rather than just a week. But, we started by driving on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend to avoid the Monday traffic we expected. I found some wonderful smaller roads, well paved and easy drive for the RV. Just about 20 minutes north we passed a sign for Whistle Stop Cafe, the very cafe used in the movie Fried Green Tomatoes. How I wish we'd been in just the car rather than pulling our full entourage; we become quite long and unparkable in small spots. But still fun to see.  

So on we went and two hours later we arrived at Stone Mountian Heights RV Park, about 15 miles east of Atlanta.  I'd reserved a week for us and we picked up the papererwork and settled into Site 20.  The park was perfect for us since our time would be spent in or around Atlanta all week.  It is a mix of older mobile homes and RVs with the phasing out of the mobile homes as someone leaves.  The park is enormous and most of the sites very large, many of those around us occupied by traveling workers for a nearby worksite. But, with full hookups, a paved patio and a grassy yard around us, we were happy. 

Monday morning we started with the CNN Center in downtown Atlanta. We were there by 11:00 and joined the next available tour. Interesting and huge! But, being a holiday, it wasn't in full working mode though still fun to see the inner workings of it all

By the time we were finished it was still early afternoon with time to visit the Martin Luther King Jr National Historic Site.  The neighborhood has his boyhood home, Ebenezer Baptist Church and gravesite.

A statue of Ghandi stands just at the entrance.

A mural of MLK's life surrounds the entrance.

After visiting the main museum we walked across the street to the Ebenezer Baptist Church basement  to hear a live performance of MLK's "I Have A Dream" speech.

Afterwards we walked into the main area of the church where he and his father had both been preachers and saw the organ where Alberta King, mother of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed as she played for the morning service on July 1, 1974. Such sadness.
Outside the church is the Eternal Flame and the gravestones of both Martin and Coretta Scott King

On our way back to the RV we visited the nearby town of Stone Mountain and learned a little more Civil War history. Sherman's troops had passed this way on their march to Savannah and left these "Sherman Necktie" sculptures. As the troops came through Atlanta Confederate railroads were torn up. Bonfires were built of the RR ties heating the rails which were then tied around trees and telegraph poles and left to cool.

Such a full day of visiting Atlanta with so much more to do in the week ahead.