Monday 5th December – into Atlanta

Having missed a day with the rain we were keen to get going this morning.  The Satnav had done us proud so far but today was an exception.  We plotted a course to our first intended stop for the day – a large University building which is actually, I am reliably informed by my co-pilot, the CDC (Centre for Disease Control) from the Walking Dead television series.  The next two days are largely due to be dedicated to visiting filming locations from the series, of which Simon is a huge fan.  It's an undead/zombie series for anyone scratching their head!  I tried watching the first episode way back when it first started but was disappointed to find that Andrew Lincoln, the main star and the man who has one of the deepest, sexiest English accents ever….. had an American accent in the series.  I mean, what was the point after that?!  So, that is where I left it.  I don’t think that Mr Lincoln (not that one) is the reason for Simon watching it, I reckon it’s about the zombies and chaos or similar….

Anyway, I digress…..  We set off on winding country roads which gradually tapered to ever thinner lanes until we were heading up a steep slope on an unmade track (still shown as a ‘road’ on the Satnav).  Trust me, this would have been bumpy and uncomfortable in a normal car but this sensation is multiplied in a large RV!  We carried on for a short while, but mostly because there was nowhere to turn around.  Then a wide corner gave us an opportunity to make a 7 or 9 point turn and we took it.  It felt like an age to retrace our steps but finally we spotted tarmac in the distance and were relieved to be back on solid ground.  However, the error in navigation had cost us over an hour of the day and wasted some precious gas.

We arrived in Atlanta on fumes and in torrential rain but still headed to the CDC:

Harvey in front of the CDC.... with me hiding inside

I stayed firmly in the RV whilst Si got that photo, here's some shots from the series for comparison:

Note the attention to detail with where the RV was parked!

We then set the Satnav to the nearest possible gas station – which just happened to be a Costco.  Time to put our membership to the test!  As they don’t accept Mastercard I had cash at the ready.  You could tell it’s the cheapest gas around from the length of the queues.  We pulled forward to the pump and I went to pre-pay by cash; but there was no kiosk, it was pay at pump only.  Darn it.  Knowing it may cause my card to be cancelled I tried a debit card instead – no good.  I called over to an attendant who came and totally saved the day – allowing us to get cheaper fuel by using his personal credit card in the machine and me handing him the cash.  I warned him that we wanted to buy $80 worth but this was no problem.  I stopped the pump short of $80 so I could give him a small tip for being an absolute star. 

After a hasty lunch hoping for an improvement in the weather I was directed to the next Walking Dead location by Simon - the junction of Walton and Forsyth.  This is a central Atlanta location so I sat tight in the RV again whilst the uber-fan ran out to get the necessary shot:

Spot the RV....

There were fewer tanks and zombies, thankfully, on the day we went...

Following our morning delay and fitting all of this drama in, by the time we got to the Martin Luther King National Historic Site we had only forty minutes for a whirlwind tour.  There was a museum about his whole life and premature death.  Having already seen the site of his murder in Memphis we now had the opportunity to see his family home and place of his birth....

Dr MLK's birthplace and family home

.... as well as his tomb and memorial (above) where he has since been joined by his wife, Coretta, who continued working for Civil rights for the rest of her life.

We headed South-East out of Atlanta in heavy rush hour traffic towards our booked site for the next two nights - High Falls State park.  In making this journey we passed the 5000-mile mark of our trip. 

The torrential rain that had held off for the afternoon was back and by the time we arrived in the dark at 630pm a leak had somehow worked its way through one of the roof outlets into one of our cupboards.  The leak was sufficient to make us have to remove all the items from within and put a plastic bowl down for the night to minimise the damage.  The rain falling onto the trees overhead was then forming into larger droplets of water that hammered onto the roof – it was a noisy evening!