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.