We wanted to do a little something in Atlanta while we were there, so we went to the local Puppet Museum, which housed an incredible collection of puppetry. They focused on what's probably the fundamental tenet of puppetry - the ability of the puppet master to give life to otherwise inanimate pieces of wood and cloth. My favorite piece was what first greeted us at the door, entitled Trash Phoenix. It was a metal trash barrel, which unfurled as a large Phoenix manifested itself in all its glory from within. We also saw a 20 minute video, praising the accomplishments of Jim Henson, which was pretty interesting, and showed osme of his favorite puppet masters. I was impressed with the art of shadow puppets, where the audience watches shadows cast on a screen. The puppet master sits behind the screen, moving pieces of wood/paper/cloth against it to create the pictures. A great puppet master, who's name I forget, did a great skit called Super Kangaroo. Here's a shot of Hillary in a room full of many many puppets. Some were animated, so after a minute of silence, a puppet would move a bit, and create a bit of noise. It was kind of cool, when you weren't expecting it.
After the puppet museum, we tried to find the Atlanta historic district, so we aimlessly drove around Atlanta. But we had no idea where to look, and city traffic was getting annoying, so we headed for the highway to Birmingham. Driving to Birmingham was pretty relaxed. At times we used the AC, instead of the blaring wind with the windows rolled down, which was more peaceful. During my solo driving, I never used the AC.
During my drives around the South, I was amazed at the proliferation of Kudzu. Kudzu is a leafy vine introduced to the US from Japan for shade, but in many areas it can grow out of control. It is often seen encompassing trees and even grassy fields, and ultimately kills whatever plants it's growing on as it blocks out all the light from underneath. Here's an impressive shot of some Kudzu, on a few trees, even the tree on the left foreground, and also covering the grassy knoll between the trees.
We got to Birmingham and headed for downtown. Tried to follow signs to the Civil Rights Institute, and got there around 5:30. It closed at 5, so we wandered to the Five Points area, as recommended in The Rough Guide [We later realized that we were now in Central Time, so it was really 4:30, and the Civil Rights Institute would still be open].
We looked for a place to eat some food, and bickered a wee bit about where to go, what to do, and settled on walking around to see what's open. Most places weren't very impressive, and the locals seemed to scowl at us as foreign tourists infringing on their native soil. The whole area was pretty punk/goth, reminding me much of the lower blocks of South St. back in Philly. We found a nice vegetarian new-age store and restaurant, but they only served lunch, so we then settled on a Chinese restaurant. Got Mongolian beef and sesame tofu. The tofu was butt-nasty, like it was fried in orange marmalade. Too sickly sweet, with no veggies. The waitor brought it back, and was able to make it less sweet and add some veggies, but it was still pretty bad.
I'm starting to get concerned with how much money I'm spending. It seems like it could be almost $60 a day with how often I hit the ATM machines. I need to keep better track of my spending.
After dinner, we decided to find the so-called Red Mountain for a nice view of the sunset, a few miles out of the city. There's also a science museum up there, probably closed by now, that focusses on the geology of the area. We got out there, but couldn't figure out where the scenic lookout was (if any) near the top of the mountain. We just decided to drive up and to keep going up. Finally, after many wrong moves, we made it to a private road, past many old-style buildings and houses. The road was closed, as per the sign, because it was too late. However, we decided to drive in anyway (the gate was open), and were rewarded with a spectacular view of downtown Birmingham just before sunset. We continued to the end of the road, past the private houses and lawns, and then a closed gate greeted us at the other end. I thought we may be trapped on this private road of rich estates, if the gate we drove in through decided to close, as well. However, as we approached the gate, it opened to let us out, so we made our way back down the mountain, through Birmingham once more, and onto Highway 65.
Here's the only picture I got of Birmingham, from the top of Red
Mountain. Amidst the smog you might catch a glimpse of Birmingham's
skyline.
We went through the Tennessee border, and found an exit with a camping sign. However, as we exitted the highway, the sign that should have told us which way to turn for the campgrounds was just empty, probably indicating the campgrounds was now developed into a shopping mall. So we got back on the highway for a few more miles, then saw an exit for a KOA campground. Took that exit, and paid a $20 deposit for the night, and set up our tent with rainfly. It was sticky-hot inside, but after oping the rain-fly flap, it got a little cooler. By the middle of the night, we were using the sleeping bag for warmth, so it was nice sleeping.
| Location | Frankewing, TN |
| Odometer | 130801.1 Miles Total 2047.4 Miles On Trip 297.5 Miles Today |
| Coordinates | 35° 11.404' N 86° 51.948' W |