Thursday, March 7 through Saturday, March 09, 2013: Returning to NBNC

Dekalb Farmers Market, Decatur Georgia

You say po-ta-tow, I say po-taa-tow, you say De-kall-b, I say Dee-kal-b…no matter how you say it, the DeKalb Farmers Market in Decatur Georgia was incredible. This 140,000-square-foot warehouse-looking building, a plain-jane on the outside is shopper’s mecca inside. There are aisles and aisles of spices, jams, salsas, pastas, oils and vinegars, nuts and dried fruits. Had we been driving ourselves I am pretty sure at least two of each product would have been in our shopping cart. And then we came to the fresh produce and fruits. Rows and rows of veggies and fruits I not only could not pronounce, but would not have known how to eat and/or cook. It was fun reading the labels and wondering how some of this stuff was harvested.  

Decatur Georgia, Dekalb Farmers Market

And then there is the bakery displaying wonderful loaves of brioche and challahs, Italian and French breads, and dozens of different croissant and muffin flavors. The daily baking begins about 1 a.m. and continues through until closing when the bakery teams begin yet another day’s work. We then continue down to the fresh seafood and meat counters. There are no unpleasant odors and you would not know, until you approach the counters, that the fish is so fresh there are even tanks where fish are trying to go upstream and where you may see live crawdads wiggling on the floor where they might have escaped from their watered containers. The extensive selection of fresh meats included Australian goat and lamb, organic beef, pork and poultry. This market was surprising and unexpected and we really enjoyed our brief visit.

South of the Border, Dillon SC

 On Friday we broke camp and travelled eastbound to our planned stop in Dillon SC-The South of the Border. We have driven past this touristy spot since the early 1980s and after all this time we decided to pitch the motorhome for the night. The campground was secured and allowed for spacious pull-through. Rates for full-hookup are very reasonable.

South of the Border Site A111

 The souvenir shops we strolled through offered the usual ‘stuff’, albeit the winter crowd (us) were about the only ones on the streets. We assume there would be quite the summer crowd due to the number of restaurants, shops and arcades. Saturday morning brought us to temperature in the mid-40s, sunny skies and the wind at our tow. We arrived safely at home in NBNC (New Bern NC) after 2,220 miles, 66 days, and 380 gallons of fuel.

Join us in April when we join fellow Harbour RVers as we gather in Wilmington North Carolina. CYA on the blog! Dave and Karen

Wednesday, March 06, 2013: Atlanta Georgia

After a Winnie the Pooh blustery night and morning, we journeyed into downtown Atlanta for our Inside CNN Studio Tour, which is a 55-minute walking tour that descends 8 flights of stairs. 

Our tour guide, we learned, is from Syracuse, his family lives in the Sedgwick area and he is a graduate of Syracuse University. He happens to be flying to D.C. tomorrow to be at the S.U. vs. Georgetown – GO ORANGEMEN! 

We ascended the world’s largest free-standing escalator, riding upwards eight stories to have a behind –the-scenes glimpse into the news and broadcasting of CNN and HLN news bureaus. 

We saw and heard live production being prepared and broadcast from the studios, and learned how live feeds are received into our homes with immediacy.  

After our tour we visited Underground Atlanta, that covers six city blocks of shopping and restaurants. Underground Atlanta is a preserved area once a railroad depot that still shows original storefronts, marble, granite archways, cast iron pilasters, brickwork, and hand-carved wood posts that survived the Civil War and many reconstructions of the area.

After working up an appetite we headed to Cumberland and our very favorite restaurant, P.F. Chang’s, where we relaxed and enjoyed a delicious lunch and planned our tomorrow.  

February 24 through March 5: Florida to Georgia

Dave and Karen with Jean and Sam

The next segment of our trip brought us to Spring Hill RV Park in Spring Hill Florida, just north of New Port Richey. We were reserved at site 121 but then moved to site 118 because of a huge live oak blocking our satellite reception. We joined up with our good friends, The Jones’s-really, that is their name. We have known Jean and Sam since the early 1970s and have re-kindled that strong friendship during the past few months. While with Jean and Sam we visited New Port Richey and Hudson. 

Hidden Lake home with hangar

Sam took us through Hidden Lakes Estates Airpark, where the homes in the community have direct access to the runway, and all the streets are taxiways and aircraft have the right-of-way. A majority of the homes had hangars and the mailboxes were placed strategically for the planes to pass over. Jean and I spent an afternoon browsing Hobby Lobby and Lyons Head Antique Shop. We had a wonderful week with Jean and Sam and look forward to visiting The Biltmore with them in the Fall.

Welcoming porch at The Villages

We also traveled an hour northeast to The Villages, where we were placed under a spell of the ‘Disney-like’ senior community. We enjoyed a delicious lunch at The Lighthouse Restaurant and then boarded a tram for an hour tour of The Villages.

On Sunday morning we headed northbound to Atlanta South RV Park in McDonough Georgia. We traveled through strong headwinds and temperatures that did not exceed the low 40s.  A co-worker of Dave’s from the A-B brewery in Baldwinsville lives nearby and we reconnected with him for a few days. 

During this time we dined at Six Feet Under, a neighborhood restaurant overlooking historic Oakland Cemetery. The cemetery is one of the best views of Atlanta's skyline and is the final resting place of Atlanta’s most noted citizens like Margaret Mitchell., who wrote Gone with the Wind. There are many graves that are lavish monuments marking a prominent or wealthy family, as well as hundreds of small, simple headstones.

We visited Grant Park where The Cyclorama painting, a work of art painted in 1885 is 42 feet tall and 358 feet in circumference and weighs more than 9,000 pounds. It is said to be the largest painting in the world. The painting depicts the Battle of Atlanta. The presentation placed us on a grandstand that turned very slowly as detailed description of the Civil War conflict was fought in Atlanta was shared.  After the presentation we toured the museum and then we travelled westbound to Patak’s in Austell.  Patak’s is a small store that sells its own fresh, smoked, and dry cured meats and sausages. There were also fresh breads and east European cookies, jams and condiments. Patak’s has two smokehouses, that produce up to 20,000 pounds of product per day. All Patak sausages are hand-made, twisted and smoked in their on-site factory. Needless to say, the moment we walked in to this shop we began to drool.

On Wednesday Dave and I will be visiting CNN’s Studio and the Atlanta Underground.