March 21 and 22

The trees are in full bloom.
So are my allergies!

Stone Mountain Park

March 22

We have been camping at Stone Mountain and finally took the sky tram up to the top. Lucky us; some fellow travelers gave us some a days pass for the three of us. What a great view of the stone relief carving on the way up. You could almost reach out and touch it. Stone Mountain is this largest granite rock in the world! After going to the top, we went to the museum with displays on the making of the relief and also on how the Civil War affected the community here. Way back in 1909, Helen Plane had the idea for a memorial to General Lee and the Confederacy. Borglum, the same person who did Rushmore, planned the first version of the carving in 1915 but didn’t get going until 1923. They unveiled Lee’s head in 1924 with a breakfast served high up on scaffolding to some of the backers. I guess he had quite a temper and left the project in a huff. His sculpting of Lee was actually blown off the side of the mountain with a whole new plan taking shape. With new plans and after many sculptors, Walker Hancock finished the project and it was dedicated in 1970. On the path to the base there are small monuments for each state that left the Union in 1861. The Confederate flag is flown here. The Sculpture measures 90’ by 190’. The carved area covers three acres. A person can actually stand in General Lee’s horse’s mouth! Stone Mountain Park is really a tourist attraction with a water park, boats to rent, a golf course and more. The bike and jogging trail that goes around the mountain is heavily used. Lots to do. Right now the park is pretty empty but weekends and summers it must be packed. We had a yummy steak dinner tonight and enjoyed the Kilburg wine.

Stone Mountain Tram

Stone Mountain Carving

This shows the scale of the carving.
This is the actual size of the horse's mouth.

Thanks for the Kilburg wiine Dick!

March 23

We made it to the TrailManor Rally this afternoon down south of Macon. It seems so funny to see so many TrailManors all together! In all of our camping we have only seen three other TrailManors with a couple of sighting on the highway. Tonight we are all going out to dinner at a Mennonite cafeteria that is supposed to be really good!

Well, we are not such hot rally folks. We went to the wrong restaurant; finally making it to the right one as most people were leaving. It was up from there. Thanks goodness we are across from the campfire so we could see everyone heading over with their chairs! Everyone introduced themselves and told a little bit about their TrailManors. Of course we were from the farthest location. People couldn’t believe we were all the way from Seattle. We got a couple of ideas for places to visit on this trip. Tomorrow is an Open House. If you want to open up your Manor you turn your porch light on. Of course we will be spruced up and ready for company but we want to see others also. Chris and Norm’s is one of the newest. A few people in the club have moved on to regular trailers or 5^th wheels. One couple even kept their TrailManor because their 5^th wheel is to big for some places. As they have gotten up in years, the setting up and taking down is not as appealing but they love the friends they have made in the club. There is a pot luck tomorrow night and a breakfast on Sunday morning. Now we are with the program.