phoubar.com

Welcome to Mississippi!

After Tuscaloosa, we made our way to Jackson, MS. There was a really bad storm that was brewing because of the hurricane in the Gulf. Instead of pulling over to the side of the road, I decided to keep on driving through the downpour. It was pretty bad. We could barely see the cars in front of us, even though they had their lights on. We finally got to Jackson, MS in the evening. Even though it was dark, that didn’t stop us from checking out the capitol.

The next morning we went to the downtown area and visited the old capitol building. They offered a free self-guided tour with a lot of interactive displays.

We also took a tour of the governor’s mansion. No cameras were allowed in the mansion so we only have shots from the outside.

Before we left Jackson, we visited the capitol again during the daytime.

We hear that there was a pretty good restaurant called The Cock of the Walk, so obviously, we tried it. We had a window view of the river so that was nice. We ate and drank from metal plates and metal cups. There are only two options to select from, fried chicken and fried catfish, so we ordered both! Our meal came with mustard greens, black-eyed peas, pickeled onions, jalapeno skillet cornbread, and hushpuppies… mmm, mmm, good! Oh! Can’t forget the deep-fried corn-on-the-cob… Southern home-cookin’! Gotta love it!

From this point on, we basically booked it back home through Louisiana (quick stop to pee and take a picture)

And we finally made it back to Texas!

So after 8 days, 2,222 miles, we were finally home!

Welcome to Alabama!

Didn’t know which sign to use.

Sorry Allen, we didn’t stop by the fireworks place, but we did take a picture of it.

Mercedes factory!

It wasn’t as cool as the BMW factory, but I suppose I’m biased. =p We also took the tour at the MB factory. Somehow we got stuck with a bunch of old people. Like as old as your grandparents. They were slow. Our tour was supposed to be 1 hour, but it ended up taking much, much longer…

Oh, look, there’s a trash can on display… hmmm, nope, just there to catch the water dripping from the ceiling.

So at the MB factory, we saw a poster with a picture of a Benz in front of a barn-looking restaurant. There were directions to the restaurant next to it. It looked interesting so we decided to go there after the tour. It was in the middle of nowhere in a residential neighborhood so we were a bit hesitant when we pulled up, but it actually turned out to be a cool stop. The decor was very unique and the ribs were really good! Definitely a hole-in-the-wall type of place, but apparently it’s pretty well-known because there were pictures of famous people up on the wall. Good find for us!

While we were still in Alabama, we decided to check out the local scenery since the area is very historical. So we stopped off at the Tuscaloosa visitor’s center and took a self-guided driving tour of the city. The tour of  went by pretty quickly and at times it was hard to follow. We were supposed to play the CD and look around as it guided us through the downtown area, but we were always somehow off and looking at the next stop on the tour so we would have to pause and restart the CD a bunch of times.

After we drove through the downtown area, we decided to go ahead and drive on to our next stop, Mississippi.

Atlanta, GA!

The first night, we had dinner with Allen at The Vortex. We ate outside on the patio and just people watched before we chilled at the hotel watching TV. The next day we went to The World of Coke.

Right before they let us into the factory, we had to wait in a room with large coke bottles from different parts of the world.

Once they let us in, there was another room where a guy came out and talked to us about some of Coke’s history. It’s interesting how a soft drink product can remind you of the past.

This painting is the most expensive item in the collection ($2 million!).

These aluminum bottles are currently only available in the European market and are filled half way with Coke. They are purchased in bars and night clubs and the bartender fills the rest of the bottle up with your choice of alcohol. Did I mention that they glow in the dark? Pretty cool! These bottles should be available later this year in the US market.

After the history lesson, we walked into a movie room for a quick commercial. After the show, the screen went up and we walked into the lobby where a polar bear greeted us. The bear was quite impressive. Although it kinda reminds me of the puppet from the movie Saw. His eyes and mouth move, and as he was “talking” to us, he knocked Teresa’s sunglasses back on to her face as we were taking the picture.

Exhibits and more history.

Next we watched a 4D movie. It was something about finding the secret ingredient. I think the 4th dimension that was added made it more fun. Otherwise, I think the show would’ve been a snooze.

Some artwork with Coke placement.

Now it’s time for taste testing! There were 64 different Coke products to sample. We tried them all! Some of them were just plain gross, as you can tell from our facial expressions. I was so bloated afterwards.

We even got a free Coke bottle after the whole tour was over!

The next stop in our day was the Georgia Aquarium, the largest aquarium in North America.

Baluga Whale.

Diver cleaning rocks.

Touching anemones and starfish.

Cool seahorse.

Their version of Nemo, Deepo.

Poisonous dart frogs.

Alligators.

Touching sting-rays and sharks.

Cheese! And touching more stuff.

Jellyfish.

This display was really cool. The waves were timed to music. So the waves would crash at the same time as the music. I’ll try to post a video of it later.

Sharks, whales, and sting-rays. Oh my!

More of Deepo.

After the Aquarium, we went for a walk in the Centennial Olympic park where you could see the CNN headquarters.

Here is a shot of downtown Atlanta from Allen’s hotel room.

Allen had dinner with his co-workers that evening so Teresa and I explored Piedmont Park. We watched a kickball game at first and then found a place to eat afterwards. We ate at The Nook, which is known for their tatchos. They’re like nachos but instead of chips, they used tater tots. We decided to get the  Redneck Tatchos. They were pretty good! Teresa also ordered a drink called Cheerwine. It’s like a cherry soda. It is produced in North Carolina,  but we didn’t get a chance to try it while we were there so we decided to try it here. It’s not bad. Oh, and the owner named it Cheerwine because he was following the trend of non-alcoholic drinks that sound alcoholic. For example, Root Beer and Ginger Ale.

There was a Marriott across the street from Allen’s hotel. We wanted to check it out so we took the elevator to the top. It’s a really nice hotel, but standing at the top and looking down is scary!

While we were in ATL, the Black Shriner convention was in town. The women stayed in our hotel, The Hilton, and the men stayed in the Marriott across the street. It was a pain getting an elevator to the 24th floor. This is a spy-cam shot of a group of Shriners. You can tell by the way they dress.

Later that evening, Allen rejoined us for dessert! Oh boy, we didn’t know what to expect, but we sure wasn’t expecting what came out. We ordered a strawberry shortcake and chocolate nachos. We were already full from dinner, but we didn’t want the desserts to go to waste so we tried to eat as much as we could. By the end of the night, we were all stuffed and bloated. We lounged around the bar in their recliners and watched TV until it was time for bed.