Getting settled into Atlanta from Chattanooga was a little bite of a struggle. Britney's hopes may have been a little too high. For some reason, she has been convinced for a few years now that she would love Atlanta and want to move there. As we have said before, city travel isn't as easy as we thought that it would be when we started this trip. We try to stay optimistic but, as usual we didn't have any specific plans. We were just excited to be there and head towards our first stop - Piedmont Park. It's the cities largest open space and would have been a great place to get some exercise. Unfortunately parking isn't as simple when traveling in a 26' Honey Wagon. After a small meltdown, we decided to try our luck just outside of downtown in an area called Buckhead, with the idea that we would head back into downtown once we had settled in. Turns out Buckhead has everything we need in two square miles. So despite our good intentions, that's were we stayed for 75% of our Atlanta stay. We found a Sprouts, a gym, a yoga studio and a sprawling park all right next to each other. Although its not in any City guides, you should definitely check out Chastain Park if you are in Atlanta anytime soon. Since we don't have much to tell you as far as site seeing or Atlanta history, lets talk about the homes. Atlanta you are doing it right! Brit found six dream homes within the first five minutes of our walk. Huge beautiful yards, propane burning light fixtures, cooper roofs, and ivy are the way to her heart..... and chocolate. Our days mostly consisted of exploring our fantasy neighborhood, working on our fitness and planning to go back downtown. On our last day there we meet up with family and finally made that happen. We had brunch at an iconic diner called OK Cafe. It was really nice to catch up with family that I hadn't seen since I was eight or nine years old. After our meal we had an auto tour of the city that really opened our eyes to what we had been missing the days before. Its really such a beautiful city and we were really glad to we got to see more of it even if it was for just one day.
If you have been reading at all lately, then you probably know what we are going to say next. That's right, we headed south to a National Forest! We cruised over the border with the windows down and the radio up while we listened to Florida Georgia Line. Osceola National Forest was a couple hour drive away for us and we go there in time to squeeze in a work out and hit the water for some evening fishing with a new friend. I met an older gentleman named Al while I was on a walk and he invited me out on his fishing boat. We were only out on the water for an hour or so but managed to catch one Crape and watch the sunset. The next few days we putz around camp and mingled with the locals. I met a Dutch man from Poland named Elbert, who was a very opinionated physicist with a positive outlook on life. I enjoyed his company and maybe one day we can meet him for a cup of coffee back in his homeland. Elbert also gave us a recommendation on the next campsite to go to. So we took his advice and headed towards Alexander Springs in Ocala National Forest. This campground was like we were instantly transported into a tropical paradise. Large palms and magnolias drapped over the roadways. Providing just enough shade to keep this ginger skin from getting too crispy. The coolest part about Alexander Springs was the natural pool housing the famous Blue Spot. The Blue Spot is a large snorkeling and scuba diving location where you can observe the natural habitat of fish, eles and alligators. As usual, I made some more friends and Brit hid inside the RV hoping that I would stop talking to them before it became obvious that she was avoiding conversation. No luck! They turned out to be such interesting people! Jay and Mae invited us to an after dinner campfire and we listened to endless stories recapping his wild early years. He told us about having mob connections that got him into crazy New York City parties, smuggling alcohol and "other goodies" into every kind of event and hob knobbing with the Connecticut royalty at their mountain chalets. We didn't get a word in edgewise, but we enjoyed it just the same.
Next destination - Tampa Bay!
- Blake
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