Today was another travel day moving from Nashville, TN to Atlanta, GA. We left the Boyd's early in the morning so that we could stop at a church we had been wanting to visit, the Christ Church in Brentwood. Their choir has produced several CD's of Praise & Worship music and our choir has sung many of them.  We wanted to hear the choir in person and we were not disappointed!  There was at least 50 minutes of worship during the 90 minute service.  You can't help but walk out of that church feeling good and uplifted.  They even produced a new CD since we had been on the road and we didn't hesitate to purchase it.  And here’s the kicker . . . while browsing their book store, we found one of the CD’s our choir produced for sale here!  In the words of Steve Martin in the movie, The Jerk, “we’re somebody now!”  

 

After church, we crossed the border into Alabama and stopped in a little town called Lexington.  This is where Dot's Dad was born & raised.  He was the youngest of 12 and his sister Estella still lives on the same property they grew up on.  The orginal house they were born in burned to the ground and they had built another one across the street.  That one just got old and it was replaced several years ago by the current one where Estella now lives.  We had a great visit.  You can see the resemblence between Estella and Clifford (Tom) as they call him here.  We were also able to meet several other family members at a small restaurant in downtown Lexington . . . a four-corner town that if you blinked you would miss it!  We also took the opportunity to visit the 3 cemeteries there and were able to find and take pictures of the stones of many of my wife's Mackey family.  Dot's grandparents and about 4 of the 10 children were there along with some of their children.  Along the route we took to get to one of the cemetery's, we stopped at a home that Dot remembers visiting in 1994 and sure enough that family still lives there.  He is the son of Jesse, one of Dot's Aunts.  Small towns are like that.  Nobody ever leaves!

 

We left Lexington around 5 pm and hit the road for Atlanta.  By the time we had stopped for gas and some dinner, we finally arrived at the Homestead Suites in Atlanta around 11 pm, having to move the clocks ahead 1 hour for the change from Central to Eastern Time.  The day before, we had just moved the clocks back an hour to cancel daylight saving time and now we had to change it back.  Does anybody really know what time it is? Anyway, it was a very long day and a very long drive. Sleep came easy.  Tomorrow we will meet more of Dot's family and visit the Coca Cola plant.

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Got up later than usual this morning and after a stop at the library to check my emails, we went in search of gas for the vehicle and a map to get us around.  You won't believe this but gas in this town is down to 99 cents!!!  Only costs me a little over 16 dollars to fill up the tank on this rented SUV!  By the time we got the map and found our way to downtown Atlanta, it was already 12:30 pm and we were running out of time.  We were to meet Dot's cousin, Myra Ann and her husband sometime this afternoon and haven't even seen anything in this town yet.  

 

We went to the Coca Cola Plant which is headquartered here in Atlanta (this is where it all started) and toured the museum there.  It started by showing a video of how Coke was invented and how the receipe has been kept secret for all these years (over 100 yrs.)  We saw all sorts of memorabilia and when the tour was over we were entertained by several of the more well known commercials from TV and a sampling of some 32 different flavors that Coke creates for other countries.  I still like the Real Thing better than all the other flavors!

 

We toured the Underground and had a shared lunch.  the Underground is a mall that is under (and over) Atlanta Street.  It is pretty cool.  It is designed to look just like an old subway station.  Found a Cafe du Monde there and had coffee & Beniets just like in New Orleans.  Also found out the digital camera had broke.  The switch to turn it on quit working.  Had to buy the disposable kind so I got two of them just to make sure we had enough film.  Figured out later that I had bumped it on a tombstone at one of the cemeteries in Lexington.

 

We finally got to Myra Ann's home around 4:15.  They have a home, colonial in style but only about 25 years old.  It has three levels, first floor & garage, second floor and a basement for a total of 4500 sq ft!!!!!  It is awesome!  They have decorated it almost entirely with antique furniture and picures of the family adorn every wall of the home.  It is built in a somewhat secluded neighborhood in the woods and from just about any point you cannot see the neighbors homes.  We had a wonderful conversation getting caught up on the past and present and then we went to dinner at a buffet nearby named Ryan's.  There we met Myra Ann's two boys Randy & Barry, their wives, and all their children, seven in all!  Barry is the one who put this all together as we had been e-mailing each other over the last several months in preparation for this trip.  They have great family values and the love they have for each other really shows.  The eldest grandson, Corey, is in his first year at a Christian college and hopes to be on the PGA tour one day.  His brother loves to play football, two of the daughters are cheerleaders for their high schools, and the rest of the children are elementry school age.
        
 We promised to get together again in a couple of years and next time to spend more time here seeing the sights and playing golf!!!

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This morning we went to visit Myra Ann's mother Dura who lives in a resident home nearby.  She was married to Arthur Mackey, My wife's Dad's brother from 
Lexington.  We had a wonderful visit and then Myra Ann gave us a tour of Stone Mountain which is five square mile park that is Georgia’s most visited attraction and home to the world’s largest piece of exposed granite, hence the name.
        
 After stopping for lunch, and a short visit with Randy and family to see the home they had built, we left mid-afternoon and headed for Charleston, South Carolina.  On our way through Augusta, GA, Dot asked if we could stop and find an old family friend, Phyllis Jackson. Her phone number was unlisted but we had her address and when we inquired for directions, found that we were less than a mile from her 
home.  We found her with no problems and she promptly took us to dinner.  Had a good time visiting with her and when we finally got on the road to Charleston, SC, it was a little past 8pm.  We didn't get to our next destination until after 11pm, dog tired from another long day.  Our home for the next few days is the Best Western near historic Charleston!

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Today we spent the day in Charleston and started our tour with a private horse drawn carriage ride through the streets of historic Charleston.  The ride lasted about an hour and a half and we were able to see many of the historic sites and homes in the area.  
 

We then took a walk through their flea market which was several blocks long down the middle of the street and spent a couple of hours marveling at all the stuff for sale.  The most unique item were the baskets made from sweet grass by the local African American people most of Cajun decent.  We bought a couple of wall hanging for ourselves.  We then stopped at Hyman's Seafood Restaurant for lunch on the advice of several of the locals. . . and we were not disappointed!!!  I had a salmon steak fixed Caribbean Jerk style and Dot had the scampi.  Both dishes were absolutely heavenly.  I had never tasted salmon so good!  The hush puppies that were served were also unique.  More than just deep-fried cornbread, these tasty morsels had a definite taste of honey and were sweet enough that you could just eat them plain, and we both ate plenty of them!  Even bought a package of the mix to share with our friends back home.

 

We then drove along the coast headed east and stopped at the Boone Plantation for a tour of a real working 768 acre plantation.  The house is not the original having burned down a couple of times and destroyed by an owner and replaced, but the grounds are much as they were even back to the early 1800's, complete with several of the slave quarters along the entry driveway.  The driveway itself is lined on both sides by English oaks only two of which have been lost due to Hurricane Hugo back in 1989 but the canopy they provide along the entire length of the drive is stunning.  The tour of the home itself is very short because the owner's family lives in the upstairs portion but the tour of the grounds was well worth the cost and the guide was very knowledgeable and helpful and answered all our questions.

 

We then decided, on the spur of the moment to drive all the way to Myrtle Beach, SC in search of the Hard Rock bear (and t-shirt). After getting lost a couple of times, we finally found it in a huge shopping plaza called Boardwalk on the Beach. However, the mall was nowhere near the beach!!!  Anyway, this Hard Rock is unique as it is built in the shape of a pyramid, similar to one of the casinos in Las Vegas but much smaller (it has the light on top like in LV) and is fully lit on all four sides by bright pulsating colors to the beat of whatever song is playing outside it's walls.  We got our shirt and bear and then had dinner at Landry's.  We had seen quite a few of these in our travels but had never stopped to eat.  The food was OK but nothing to rave about.
        
It being Halloween the mall was having a huge party and nearly everyone was dressed up as someone or something.  I thought that the most unique costume belonged to a guy who appeared to be dressed as a Marine carrying a jail cell with Osama Bin Laden in it.  Pretty cool costume!  Too bad it wasn't true!

 

Round trip to Myrtle Beach was just over 200 miles.  Another long day.  Only three days to go and we are threatening to pass the 5000 mile mark on our journey around the Southeast US.

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We drove to Hilton Head, SC this morning.  I wanted to play a round of golf in one of the most golf course populated places in the US so we drove to Hilton Head, SC.  Once you get on Hwy 278 heading southeast into Hilton Head, all you see, on both sides of the highway, are private enclaves, country clubs, and golf courses along the entire 13 mile stretch of sand.  Abslolutely Awesome!!!  I had a chance to play at the Hilton Head National course.  It is one of the best on the island and is relatively inexpensive when compared to the more popular PGA courses in the area.  I was able to take Dot as a ride-along and she enjoyed herself watching me play the duffer.  I played with a father-son tandem from Colorado.  Shot a 110.  Not good but it was a difficult course, created by Gary Player, and if I ever have the opportunity to play there in the future, I know that I will play much better. (NOTE:  I actually played the course for free.  I learned several weeks later when my credit card never got charged that the receipts for that day had actually gotten lost . . . I mean, you should be able to play in Heaven . . . for free . . . right?)

 

We left the course around 4:30pm and cruised into Savannah, GA to have dinner at a little hideaway called Snappers where I enjoyed a decent prime rib and Dot had fried oysters and deviled crab cakes.  Of course yours truly had to make a mess, spilling the entire contents of the au jus into my lap.  Fortunately Dot went and got a change of clothes for me from the car and I was able to leave appearing as if nothing had happened!

 

After several miles of bumper to bumper traffic near the Florida border due to construction, we arrived in Jacksonville, FL just before 10pm. Another long day and one night at a Best Western in Jacksonville.  No matter because tomorrow we visit the Fountain of Youth!

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Today is our last full day on the road. We started our day by stopping at the World Golf Village, home to the USGA Golf Museum and Hall of Fame.  It is a spectacular place with a large building snuggled between two championship golf courses, surrounded by beautiful condominiums.  The whole Museum is laid out like a golf course.  The beginning of golf and how the game evolved is encompassed in the "front nine", and the modern game is covered in the "back nine".  There is lots of video and audio bits to keep one browsing for hours.  This of course, all ends at the Hall of Fame. We were there just a week prior to the actual induction of this year’s players and everything was being prepared for an onslaught of personnel, guests, and dignitaries.  The view from the central tower is awesome and I attempted to get a panoramic view captured on our disposable camera.

 

Our next stop was the Fountain of Youth, discovered by Ponce de Leon.  What a tourist trap!!!.  If there was ever a way to make money, this was it.  The actual water from the "fountain" (a well) tasted terrible and had the strong smell of sulfur.  Mom always told me that if it tasted bad it must be good for you but this stuff probably would age you rather than make you younger.  The depiction of the fountains discovery was very "hoakie" although the grounds were very well kept and lush with vegetation.  The "fountain" is now a well, filtered by the public works dept. and is several miles from the ocean separated by marshland for the most part.
        
The "tour" starts in a lean-to with paper mache indians and half-cut logs for seats. This is where you actually get a tast of the water.  We then entered an auditorium very much like my old elementary school auditorium.  On the stage was a curtain that hung on the floor and when it was finally opened, there was a large paper mache globe with blinking lights on it depicting the travels of several of our explorers including Ponce De Leon.  Finally we were ushered into another "half" building where behind glass was very large "sandbox".  Really.  There where photos on the walls showing the previous exploration of the sandbox and the discoveries that were made . . . but all I saw was a sandbox . . . At the end was the gift shop where you could get just about anything (junk) with the Fountain of Youth printed on it.  WOW!  Well, that was impressive . . . NOT!

 

We left St. Augustine around 5:00pm and headed for our final destination, Orlando, FL where we would fly home in the next afternoon.  Traffic was horrendous, and included some rather heavy rainfall.  All of this severely hampered our trip to Orlando.  We were to meet one of the "McHenry" researchers, Karen Bogart at 7pm in the WDW town of Celebration at a restaurant called Columbia.  The traffic made us nearly two hours late for our planned arrival in Orlando.  Fortunately, Karen waited for us and we finally met at 8:15pm.  Had a wonderful dinner and chat about family history and finally headed to our huge room at the Buena Vista Suites around 10:30pm.  Another very long day.  I can sleep on the plane tomorrow . . .

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We awoke on our last day of vacation, did our final packing, had breakfast in the buffet and headed for WDW's Magic Kingdom by 9:00am.  We wanted to try and ride those attractions we missed a month ago and we managed to do quite well and after doing a little last minute shopping (Oh God, where are we going to put all this stuff!) we left WDW an headed for the airport around 1:00pm for a 3pm flight.  We 
arrived with no delays, checked our bags at the curb, and turned in the SUV we had driven for 5 weeks and nearly 6000 miles.  Got a really nice surprise when I checked it in as National Car Rental only charged me $136 per week rather than the $190 per week I was quoted.  A savings of nearly $300 !!!!

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The flight home was rather uneventful . . . at least as I saw it.  Dot, however, saw things much differently as we hit a pocket of turbulance that lasted nearly an hour and she was in tears for fear that we were going to end it all on our way home.  But we arrived safely at 9:00pm and were escorted home by our youngest son Garrett & his wife Vanessa.

 

In all, it was the best trip ever.  So many memories, new discoveries, great food, beautiful scenery & new family and friends.  One we will remember for a lifetime.
    
So what do we have planned for our 30th "Anniverary"?  Well when I asked Dot that question during our trip she said she had no idea, but I suppose you already have that planned too?" she questioned.  "Why, yes. my dear  I have thought about it . . . How about 6 weeks in . . .

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