Vaccinated and on the Road

 

After tracking down the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, a couple weeks ago, me, Mark and Starbaby decided it was finally the right time to hit the road again. With our CDC cards and Starbaby’s shot record up to date, we decided to head east for a change. We try to never lose sight of what a beautiful part of the country we call home, but many times, when we begin a trip, we rush through neighboring states, to get somewhere different and new. We’ve become aware, in our travels, that if we are in a hurry to get things done, we rush and rush until life’s no fun. I love that old Alabama song that says, “ All I’ve really gotta do is live and die, but I’m in a hurry and don’t know why.” It’s important to live in the moment on these adventures, so one thing we’ve discovered, to help do that, is shorten the mileage we drive between stops and lengthen the time we stay at each stop. Even though our first place to visit, on this trip, is only 150 miles from home, we are spending 4 days at Tallulah Gorge State Park, in Georgia. And of course, even with four days we will only scratch the surface of all the things to do and see here. 

Tallulah Gorge is one of the oldest geological features in North America. Being one of the most spectacular canyons in the eastern US, it’s two miles long and almost 1,000 feet deep. 65 year old Karl Wallenda, wire walked across the canyon in the 1970’s. The movie “Deliverance” was filmed in the gorge around that same time. 

Just before you get to the park, there is also an interesting roadside attraction called “School Bus Graveyard.” A former school bus driver and junkyard owner (Wade Alfonso) decided to use old school buses (120 of them) to form a fence around his 5 acre property. This unusual fence attracted the attention of an artistic former bus rider of Wades who spray painted a mural on one of the buses. Wade liked the art work and asked the young man to do more. Eventually artists and muralist, in the Atlanta area heard about the “potential “ public art piece and asked permission to create art works of their own. To this day, this unusual attraction continues to evolve.