Exploring Buckhead

Evening, Campers! Silver Cliche' here writing tonight (as last night) from the shores of Lake Lanier outside Atlanta.

I mentioned the other day that with each successive trip we reduce the number of hours we drive each day and increase the number of days per week when we don't move at all. This trip we are shooting for 3 driving hours per day and two days a week when we stay in place. It happens that the two for this week are back-to-back here in northeast Georgia. That pace is making this trip a bit more relaxed than the Yellowstone trip in June/July where we did 4 driving hours and one stationary day per week. We are currently defining a Southwest US trip for the spring of 2016. Our route looks like a shot across the south and Texas followed by a upper case "C" through NM, AZ, UT and CO. If we were headed to smaller states in the Northeast we'd call it a lower case "c". For Delaware and Rhode Island we'd need a smaller font size. Anyway, enough about typography... at the pace we are moving on this trip I think it will take us... oh... let me calculate in my head.... about a year and a half to get to the Grand Canyon, Arches, Zion and back. Oh well... we seem to enjoy this... dragging it out might be a good idea.

So, today was a day off for us. That meant we got up and lounged around the trailer in our PJs drinking coffee and reading. Last night was the first night we didn't use the AC since somewhere around Iowa in early July coming home from Wyoming. It was in the mid to upper 70s at bed time and may have reached the upper 60s by dawn. With two roof fans and all the windows open we slept well enough. We didn't put the AC on today either. Hopefully we can live au naturale until we get back to Florida in late September.

After hours of lounging we eventually got the urge to explore. I did a bit of googling and discovered that one of our favorite restaurants... ok... our very favorite restaurant... had several locations in the Atlanta area. Those of you who hung out with us in Maryland know what I mean... Houston's! Those of you who don't know about our Houston's "jones" might appreciate the following: 1.) we sometimes ate at Houston's twice in one day 2.) when we lived in Frederick, MD and the only remaining Houston's in the DC area was in Bethesda we still drove an hour each way for lunch on Saturday 3.) We ate at Houston's in Rockville or Bethesda at least once a week for several years straight (Excepting when we were away from DC. However if we were in Miami we would eat at Houston's there.) 4.) when we sold the Frederick house and moved to an apartment we had to select between several appealing buildings. The one we chose was across the street from Houston's and we could see the restaurant from the specific apartment we picked there. That way, if the parking lot was getting too crowded we knew to leave earlier for lunch or dinner so we didn't have to wait. and 5.) after a year of retirement (and no Houston's) while driving around Washington on the beltway last year heading to NJ to pick up the Airstream with 5 hours of driving still to go and three complaining dogs in the truck we got off the highway to go to Houston's in Bethesda and pick up take out. While tasty, the experience of eating while driving and screaming "SHUT UP OR WE'LL TIE YOUR DAMN LEASH TO THE TRAILER HITCH UNTIL WE GET TO NEW JERSEY DO YOU HEAR ME?????" reduced our sense of wonder and delight at renewing the acquaintance. Get the picture? We like the food, service and atmosphere at Houston's. Knowing that there was a Houston's within a 40 minute drive of our campsite was enough to get us moving. Their choice of a location also determined what corner of Atlanta we would explore. Buckhead.

So we headed to Buckhead. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it: "Buckhead is an affluent uptown district of Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia, comprising approximately the northern fifth of the city. Buckhead is a major commercial and financial center of the Southeast... ". If you are familiar with the DC area, Buckhead is the equivalent of downtown Bethesda or Chevy Chase... it's not the center of the region (that would be Washington or Atlanta downtown)... but it's close to the center and offers some of the better aspects of the city center while leaving out some of the less desirable elements. We ate some of our old favorites and enjoyed it.After that and with the help of Google we found some shopping for Mrs. C' while I kept the truck safe (this is Atlanta after all!) by sitting in it and reading.

After that, we headed back to Lake Lanier, fed and walked the dogs, cooked some hot dogs on the grill, made a campfire which inspired genuine toasted marshmallows for a 'smore each. Now it's dark, quiet, cooling down and nearly bed time. All day and I took not one picture to share with you.

Tomorrow? Who knows. We'll start with coffee and reading (I'm sure Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are working right now on something we can read about in the morning... otherwise I'll learn more about the history and geography of Lake Lanier). Come back tomorrow to see if we found the inspiration to breakout and explore more of Georgia.

Later!

SC