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We left the Mulroy's this day, after more than a week of great visits, good food and lots of Southern hospitality. We got away at the crack of noon, after several rounds of thanks-you and goodbyes, and headed West again for the 2 hour drive towards Atlanta along I20. We don't much like the big interstates, especially when the country is so interesting and beautiful -- we much prefer the state highways. The dogwoods and azaleas are all abloom down here, and it is something to see. Even driving down I20, the big piney woods on both sides of the road have bright white explosions down low that slowly resolve to one wild dogwood after another. If dogwoods grow in Santa Barbara, I'll be planting some when we return. Chelsea Allen is a friend of Jordan's from California who lives in San Diego but is currently visiting her father in Decatur, just East of Atlanta. And, we again have pictures! Ralph generously offered to take pictures and put them on a CD ROM for inclusion here -- he even did the necessary image processing. Thank you Ralph! Below are Ralph and Chelsea, at Ralph's home in Decatur.
photos courtesy of Ralph Allen We had prearranged with Ralph and Chelsea's mother Christie to pick Chelsea up on this date from Ralph's home. We had no trouble following Ralph's directions, and arrived right on time, at 3 PM. Chelsea ran out to meet us, and we had hugs all around. We all like Chelsea; in fact, we don't know anyone who does not. We had a short visit with Ralph, mostly to try to give him enough a sense of ourselves that he would feel comfortable letting us have his only daughter for a few days of camping in the bear-infested woods; I guess we succeeded, in that he did let her go. In all seriousness, we would have wanted the same if someone were whisking our daughters off to parts unknown. The young ladies posed for the picture below in Ralph's living room.
Ralph shot some pics of the departure scene while we got Chelsea situated in her home for the next 5 days with us.
In addition, Ralph used a wide angle lens to capture some unique pictures of the trailer, its interior, and our 'rig'. Please see The Trailer, if you are interested in these. Since we were a bit low on food, we stopped en route at a "Piggly Wiggly" -- a Southern and Eastern grocery chain. Big mistake. No organic food at all. This was essentially a giant store full of wonder bread, TV dinners, and Sara Lee. We bought what we could stand to eat, and otherwise went without. Live and learn; at the other Southeast grocery chain, Publix, we had even found an entire organic packaged foods section, in addition to organic produce. We were hoping for similar. While driving off Jody and I (mostly Jody) figured out where we were going to camp. We had lots of options -- the Chattahoochee National Forest is due North of Atlanta, and marks the Southern end of the Appalachians. We ended up in the Unicoi State Park at about 7 PM, hoping for cooler temperatures, no mosquitoes and lots of forest. We scored on all 3 fronts. It was so nice that Doug and Jody -- who were now back out in the 'guest room'/van, could leave all the doors and windows of the van open to let in the air and moonshine. Lovely.
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