Stone Mountain, Georgia ~ March 25, 2010

Preface: The one thing about my new job at the state hospital means that I am working for the State of Georgia. Due to the state being in a HUGE financial deficit, I began my new job knowing that I would be furloughed 12 days between February and the end of June. And what I mean by furloughed is 12 UNPAID days (and I don't have to work)....and yes, I accepted that condition and took the job anyway.

When I worked at the technical college back when we first moved to GA, I was working for the state. During that time I accrued sick leave, annual leave, and retirement. When I left the college, they paid out my annual leave, but my sick leave and retirement were withheld. Now that I am working for the state again, my retirement is accruing again, and after 2 years of employment, I can get back the 274 hours of sick leave I relinquished. Not bad.

Anyway, I have 12 furlough days that I must take during each two week pay period (either one day or two). Since Dave gets every other Friday off, I have been scheduling my furloughs to coincide with his days off. This has been giving us 3-4 day weekends periodically. So, we decided that during this year of a rather pleasant winter, we'd take advantage of the time and check out some of the state's sites.

Now the real story: On March 25, we drove through the pouring rain on the back roads of Georgia to Stone Mountain, about 16 miles east of downtown Atlanta. On our way, we drove through the small town of Plains, home of former President Jimmy Carter. Just over 4 hours later we arrived at our destination.

Stone Mountain is a 3200 acre park that is home to the largest piece of exposed granite in the world rising to just under 1700 feet. According to Wikipedia here are the facts: "The largest bas relief sculpture in the world, the Confederate Memorial Carving depicts three Confederate leaders of the Civil War, President Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson (and their favorite horses, "Blackjack", "Traveller" and "Little Sorrel", respectively).

The entire carved surface measures 3 acres (12,000 m2), about the size of three football fields. The carving of the three men towers 400 feet (120 m) above the ground, measures 90 by 190 feet (58 m), and is recessed 42 feet (13 m) into the mountain. The deepest point of the carving is at Lee's elbow, which is 12 feet (3.7 m) to the mountain's surface."

The park has a skyway ride up to the top of the mountain (it was closed due to the wind and poor weather--it rained and was cold); a memorial museum with pictures of the carving that are actual size; a theme park that includes a 4-D movie; a miniature golf course; a camp for kids to climb and zipline; shops and restaurants; a full size train that goes completely around the mountain; and a "Duck" ride. Since the train and the skyway were both closed and contained in the basic ticket, they gave us the Duck ride for free. The Ducks are amphibious land vehicles that were used during WWII. Our Duck captain, Joanne, was hilarious. She drove us thru some of the park to the lake below the mountain. Nothing like going from dry land to boat in a matter of moments.

We stayed at the Marriott Stone Mountain Inn for one night and it faces the relief. Here is me at the front of the Inn. Right from that point I could see the carving in the stone. It's amazing!

This was my view of the carving from the front of the InnA close up

Inside the park, you can see the carving well.As you can tell, there really weren't very many people. The weather really wasn't ideal for this adventure.Dave standing by our Duck--they even gave us yellow duck bill quackers so it was a rather noisy ride!Ms. Joanne, the self-proclaimed diva and our captain. She made the ride even more entertaining. Here she is preparing to drive us into the lake...The Carillon bells

The old quarry--much of the granite from Stone Mountain can be found all over the world. It sparkled in the sunlight, but our cameras couldn't capture that. An old grist millAnother angle of the grist millThe granite water fall from which the grist mill gets its water
The lattice covered bridge. This bridge had actually been built in Athens Georgia, but was moved here.
You drive on the wood planks. The inside rafters used to be the hiding place for thieves who would jump on unsuspecting victims

Despite the limited number of things to do that day due to the weather, we managed to see about all the park by 3:00pm. We then headed for our next destination--Helen, GA an alpine town similar to Leavenworth in Washington State, up in the GA mountains about 90 miles northeast of Atlanta.