Macon GA to Tybee Island GA

We awake in Macon and get breakfast and hit the road towards Savannah GA this morning. We arrive around 12:30PM and find the Hop On – Hop Off Bus and board for the 90 minute tour. Our driver, Ellis, is very entertaining and tells us all about the Historic district that he is driving us through. Stately mansions assault our camera lenses as we go. About an hour into the tour and our bellies are complaining of hunger.

So we get off in a food district and find a pub with good food and appease our tummies before venturing back out into the heat and humidity of downtown Savannah. We locate the Trolley Stop and board the bus just as an afternoon rain squall hits us. the side curtains on the Trolley are dropped and our cameras growl at us but we weather the storm to the end of the line where the weather lets up enough to make it to our car.

Driving on, we find a few more photos to take on the way to our motel for the next couple days out on Tybee Island. Here we have only a 900 foot walk to the beach. We have chosen this place for our last couple nights of our vacation so we can kick back a little as we have been on the go for the last 16 days.

We find a fun seafood restaurant by the beach to have dinner and have fun with a couple of locals while we eat. Now it is time to turn in for the night. See you all tomorrow!

Atlanta GA to Macon GA

Waking up in Atlanta GA, we get the obligatory hotel breakfast and pack the car. We head out after talking to a hotel employee that told us we need to see Stone Mountain and we set our navigation to get there. It turns out it is a half hour out of the city but we go anyway. When we arrive, we pay the parking fees and find our way to the sky tram and also pay the tram tickets and board the tram up Stone Mountain.

Our cameras are happy and keep us busy all the way up and on the top as we walk around the very smooth granite surface. It feels like we are on the moon up here! We get views in the distance of Atlanta, Perimeter and other places. We take the tram down and drive on back to Atlanta to walk around downtown. A friendly local gives us advice as to where we might get some skytop photos but alas, the recommended locations are closed due to it being Monday.

We continue walking around and find a restaurant, “Reubens Deli” to get a couple of very authentic deli sandwiches and sit and enjoy them. The owner catches on that we are out of town and visits with us and we share stories of our lives and it is a very enjoyable experience! If you are ever in downtown Atlanta, you wouldn’t go wrong to look up Reubens Deli!

We move on and head out of town and drive to Macon, GA where we settle in for the night. See you all tomorrow!

Kimball TN to Atlanta GA

We awaken in Kimball and have breakfast and drive on to Chattanooga TN, a short 30 minute drive. We stop at Ruby Falls, an underground series of caves ending at an underground waterfall, a highlight of Chattanooga and we sign up for an afternoon tour. We now have about 4 hours before we need to be back for our tour so we drive the last 5 minutes into the city and find things to see and do.

We find the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel and take some really fun photos. Part of us wishes we had stayed here but the $3-500 nightly price tag to stay in a rail car for a night is out of our budget. But the grounds are fun to walk around. We then walk around the downtown area and find the “Selfie Museum” but it appears to be closed and we wonder if Covid has put it out of business or is it just because it is Sunday?

We drive a mile or so and park the car again and walk across the river with our cameras and take some fun shots of the local aquarium buildings with an outdoor waterfall stairs that hot tourists are playing in. A local pub provides us with some cold refreshments in the form of cold hard cider and a local IPA and we are refreshed and ready to go again!

It is time to drive back to Ruby Falls for our tour and the place doesn’t disappoint. Our guide, Evie, takes us down a 260 foot elevator shaft and then a half mile of caverns into Lookout Mountain where we eventually arrive at Ruby Falls, a 90 foot tall underground waterfall, some 1100 feet underground! They have illuminated the falls with colored lights for quite the effect which our cameras enjoy immensely!

The path out is the same as the path in and the tour groups have to squeeze past each other on the way but the tour guides have developed a pattern and it all works smoothly and after an hour and a half we find ourselves back out in the hot humid Tennessee air after being in 60 degree underground air!

We set our GPS for Atlanta GA and in just under 2 hours we find ourselves checking into our hotel. We find a local Chinese restaurant only a few blocks away and have a quick dinner before turning in for the night. Tomorrow we will tour Atlanta!

Good night all!

Goodlettsville TN to Kimball TN

We wake up at Juan and Stephanie’s bright and early today and go downstairs to find we are the only ones awake. we find the coffee and tea supplies and make our hot morning beverages and await Juan and Stephanie.

They join us shortly and our day starts. We go back into Nashville and they take us to a park where a replica of the Parthenon stands and our cameras are once again happy as we walk around the park. Then we drive through downtown Nashville in the daylight and see the difference from last night.

Once back to their house, we borrow Stephanie’s car and drive our rental car to a friend of Juan’s where a small repair is performed while we drive back into Nashville to the Grand Ole Opry where we have scored Back Stage Tickets for a tour. Such fun! We and our cameras are stoked for an hour and a half!

After the tour, we cross the street for a quick lunch. Who would have thought that the Grand Ole Opry was across the street from a mall? So Dave and Busters it is for lunch before driving to pick up our rental car and heading back to Juan’s house. There we pack up and thank our hosts before heading back out on the road towards Chattanooga as we need to keep moving on to stay on track for our vacation timing.

We decide to stop 20 minutes short of Chattanooga in a town called Kimball, TN for the night and find a hotel. After checking in, we pick up some sundries at a Walmart next door and then go into a Mexican restaurant called El Toril where it turned out it was Karaoke Night! So we turned down discounted Grand Ole Opry tickets for Mexican Karaoke! How could we have chosen better?

Well, it’s time to call it a night! See you all tomorrow!

Louisville KY to Goodlettsville TN

We have our obligatory breakfast and head out this morning.

We point ourselves towards Churchill Downs Racetrack which is less than a 10 drive from our hotel. It is an amazing complex of buildings and we go inside and pay the admission price. We check on tours and there is one that starts in less than a half hour and we sign up for it.

The history of the Kentucky Derby is exciting and there are so many horses and jockeys that come to mind during the tour. We are taken through the facilities and down onto the track. Our tour guide, Ally, is pleasant and tells us all about the history of the race and the track! The tour ends with Elee trying on some Kentucky Derby hats and and getting refreshed with Mint Juleps!

We then drive on to downtown Louisville and we locate the Louisville Slugger Museum. A fun stop to see where the famous baseball bats are made! We walk around Louisville and take a few photos before moving on. Have you ever seen a sequined limousine?

We then head out on the road in the direction of Goodlettsville, just north of Nashville where friends of ours live. We arrive later in the afternoon and Juan and Stephanie greet us and we all catch up on old times! They take us into Nashville for the evening onto Broadway where it is a walking street that is a party atmosphere lined with bars and filled with music of all genres. This reminds me of Bourbon Street in New Orleans and Beale Street in Memphis. Fun places, all of them!

So we’ll call it a night! See you tomorrow!