A Memorable Memorial Day Weekend

[Mistwalker]

Having had my ability to travel somewhat restricted by our Governors' shelter in place orders from mid March into late April, I had been looking forward to being able to do more traveling again over the Memorial Day weekend ever since those orders had expired.

With Governor Kemp of Georgia, our neighbor to the south, having reopened his state as well I was really looking forward to going back down to Atlanta. It had been nearly a year to the day since the last time I was in Centennial Park, and I was looking forward to riding Skyview again. So I packed up my gear and equipment and hit the highway headed south.

There wasn't any where near as much traffic on the road as I had expected. And strangely enough, unlike previous times of traveling south on I-75, the traffic actually became less congested between Marietta to Atlanta.

Sadly Polaris, my favorite restaurant in Atlanta, is still closed. This picture was taken on a trip there in 2017 for my daughter's 12th birthday, she had their signature Steak Oscar which was delicious. Currently the Hyatt literally has an ad hoc black wrought iron fence placed across its front entrance on Peach Tree Street. The contrasting colors and obvious make-do nature of fencing just looked more odd the longer I looked at it.

I was surprised to find the crowd at Centennial Park so much smaller than I was expecting it to be, even for a weekend in general much less Memorial Day weekend. I had seen a lot more people gathered there than this on a quiet Sunday evening just the year before when I had attended a convention at the Cobb Galleria that weekend.

The initial idea had included photographing Centennial Park from the top of Skyview. However by the time I had gotten a few rudely-phrased answers from the gentleman working the line, and had come to think that not only did he know nothing about Skyview other than the information was on the various signs he also had zero interest in learning any more, I had completely lost interest in the idea of spending $20 just to see and photograph a nearly empty Centenial park from a slightly higher altitude. Now obviously there could be any number of reasons for his poor business etiquette. He could have been having a bad day, we're all human and it happens. Yet after observing his similar interactions with other patrons, who also just walked away, I suspected his tensions were as much fear related as the concerns of others I interviewed later that evening.

For instance the young man I got the blackcherry limeade from was utterly terrified, of all us strangers around him and of the pocket knife I produced as I offered to open the box of cups he was struggling with. His fear was all but tangible, as it showed on his face and stood out in his quavering voice when he openly admitted he didn't want to be there. He wished we, us travelers who had made our way to Atlanta, weren't there either but he was trying to keep it together and do his job because his family is struggling. After listening to him, and hearing more responses from some of the other patrons in line, I took my food and drink and moved on. I walked out into the quietness of the all-but-empty park and ate my hot dog in apprehensive silence, musing on the surrealism of the bizarre scene around me. Then I shook it off and walked back to my truck, determined to find a more enjoyable environment and regretting the amount of money I had spent on parking, and headed a few miles to the north to see how things were there.

 

[Mistwalker]

When I arrived at the Marietta Diner, after perceiving an all together different sort of vibe in Marietta in general and encountering much more traffic on Cobb Parkway as I made my way there, it was clear that Mr. Tumlin is somehow seeing much better results in his community than Mrs. Bottoms is seeing in Atlanta. The first thing to be noticed, as I heard it before I even entered the turning lane, was the addition of a live music venue to entertain the guests. Both the folks in the drive through and the ones sitting at socially-distanced tables in a special dining section of the parking lot. Harold Shulz, the front man for Young Elvis and The Blue Suedes, is a pretty cool cat who was fun to chat with, and he does a really good young Elvis. He is glad to see more businesses opening and more crowds being ready to be entertained again.

The next thing to be noticed was that the diner has really risen to this occasion in their typical fashion, and have completely reconfigured the front of their restaurant in order to provide their customers with a very nice drive-thru. Not surprisingly there were even hosts working the line in person, providing the same stellar level of service I've come to expect from them even in this odd chapter of our history. The diner has been a class act every time I've dined there, and this weekend was no exception. Other than perhaps them having gone even more above and beyond their usually high standards in order to truly honor this very unusual Memorial Day. The turkey dinner I ordered, and ate on my hood in the parking lot observing the scene,was huge and came with all the fixings including soup and salad. Under the circumstances of these strange times it was easy to look over the provided plastic cutlery and use my own knife, the @JBKnifeworks Shady Baby in this case, for the cutting, and just happily spend the evening enjoying the show.

After the show it occurred to me that Atlanta was just not the right place for me to spend this Memorial Day Weekend. So I drove back to I-75 and turned north. This time the destination was Gatlinburg, 240 miles away in the Great Smoky Mountains. When I arrived I felt very fortunate to have been able to arrange the wonderful accommodations I have here, the EconoLodge on the River, with all the red “No Vacancy” signs lit up and all the people who were crowding the sidewalks. Once I checked in I made my way through town walking by the gift shops. As I looked around I was remembering a time when most of the shops in Gatlinburg sold wares and crafts that were each unique and made by hand here in the Smoky Mountains. It was a pleasant surprise to find I wasn't alone in those memories or my thoughts, or maybe it's just a sign of the times, but I heard more than one parent saying no to the “cheap imported trinkets” that they were saving their money for the local crafts when they found them. Then, after buying a corn dog at Fannie Farkle's, I walked through an alley way and up the hill to an old cemetery. It's a local cemetery where several U.S. military combat veterans were interred long ago. I have spent a good bit of time meditating there over the years. This time I went to pay my respects to all the men and women buried there who served our nation in years gone by. That's where I snapped the first photo in this post.

Leaving there I made my way back down the hill into town, and then up onto to the fourth-floor patio of the Loco Burro. As I stood there looking up and down the strip, watching the crowd moving along the flag-lined sidewalks laughing and talking, I quietly contemplated my forefathers. I thought about my grandfather's stories of his time in the Army during WWII, my father's time in the Marines when we were fighting China in North Korea in the mid 50s, and my uncles' times fighting their chapter of the cold war in Vietnam in the 70s. I thought about the day I entered infantry training at Fort Benning Georgia and all the late night talks with my Platoon Sgt. SFC Stan Lazano that came after. I thought about all of my friends who are veterans and some who still serve. And then I shuddered as I imagined the depths of darkness of some of the final moments faced by veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice and gave all. Those who traded away their own lives to preserve for all of us the freedoms that our founding father's fought to establish with the birth of this great nation 244 years ago this summer.

After that I ordered a beer to raise a toast. To men like Clayton Beeler, John Yarnell, Charles Oakly, and Horace Ownby, and the others whose names I had seen on tomb stones as I passed through the cemetery but couldn't remember. To all whom we honor every Memorial Day, and to all who will at some point make the same sacrifice when their time comes.

Over the past 5 days I've driven through multiple states and a dozen counties to reach various destinations. And as I crossed those state and county lines a little voice in my head quietly gave thanks for all the people I know personally in various law enforcement agencies who still believe in all of us being Americans, and who appreciate the real value of our hard-won freedoms. And thanks for all of the men and women who have watered the tree of liberty with their own blood precisely for the purpose of preserving those freedoms for us. I am very glad to see that America still alive and doing fine in most places I've been to. I was worried about that. But with all the interviews I have conducted in the last 10 weeks, it seems clear to me that we're still drawing people here to us from all around our world, and we have still yet to have a mass exodus of people moving from here to elsewhere. So that tells me we're still doing something better than most places are, and we must be getting some things right. Or all those millions of people would be staying home in their own countries and many of us would be moving there. That's just the way immigration works.

Yet one of the biggest things I'm taking away from this whole adventure is that here and now, during this very odd phase of the cold war we have been dealing with since 1949, there are some Americans out there who are in great need of help from the rest of us. They are in need of a little less anger fear and confusion (of which they have more than enough from many pushing various agendas in order to profiteer) and a whole lot more America from their politicians, their manufacturers, and from us their fellow countrymen. So I hope the rest of us can somehow manage to be American enough to rise to this occasion, to defend this experiment in freedom and democracy of ours in the face of adversity, and help them find it for all our sake.

 

[osprey888]

Very nicely done! Thank you!!

 

[MolokaiRider]

Great read, thanks for sharing.

Strange times indeed. Hope all is well with you and your family.

Tension between people is growing and palpable.

Stay safe and soldier on!

 

[Kismet]

Mr. Griffin?
You talk on the screen with pichures and words good.

Thankew

 

[Kenneth F Huls]

How warmers

Having had my ability to travel somewhat restricted by our Governors' shelter in place orders from mid March into late April, I had been looking forward to being able to do more traveling again over the Memorial Day weekend ever since those orders had expired.

With Governor Kemp of Georgia, our neighbor to the south, having reopened his state as well I was really looking forward to going back down to Atlanta. It had been nearly a year to the day since the last time I was in Centennial Park, and I was looking forward to riding Skyview again. So I packed up my gear and equipment and hit the highway headed south.

There wasn't any where near as much traffic on the road as I had expected. And strangely enough, unlike previous times of traveling south on I-75, the traffic actually became less congested between Marietta to Atlanta.

Sadly Polaris, my favorite restaurant in Atlanta, is still closed. This picture was taken on a trip there in 2017 for my daughter's 12th birthday, she had their signature Steak Oscar which was delicious. Currently the Hyatt literally has an ad hoc black wrought iron fence placed across its front entrance on Peach Tree Street. The contrasting colors and obvious make-do nature of fencing just looked more odd the longer I looked at it.

I was surprised to find the crowd at Centennial Park so much smaller than I was expecting it to be, even for a weekend in general much less Memorial Day weekend. I had seen a lot more people gathered there than this on a quiet Sunday evening just the year before when I had attended a convention at the Cobb Galleria that weekend.

The initial idea had included photographing Centennial Park from the top of Skyview. However by the time I had gotten a few rudely-phrased answers from the gentleman working the line, and had come to think that not only did he know nothing about Skyview other than the information was on the various signs he also had zero interest in learning any more, I had completely lost interest in the idea of spending $20 just to see and photograph a nearly empty Centenial park amount of money I had spent on parking, and headed a few miles to the north to see how things were ther

Having had my ability to travel somewhat restricted by our Governors' shelter in place orders from mid March into late April, I had been looking forward to being able to do more traveling again over the Memorial Day weekend ever since those orders had expired.

With Governor Kemp of Georgia, our neighbor to the south, having reopened his state as well I was really looking forward to going back down to Atlanta. It had been nearly a year to the day since the last time I was in Centennial Park, and I was looking forward to riding Skyview again. So I packed up my gear and equipment and hit the highway headed south.

There wasn't any where near as much traffic on the road as I had expected. And strangely enough, unlike previous times of traveling south on I-75, the traffic actually became less congested between Marietta to Atlanta.

Sadly Polaris, my favorite restaurant in Atlanta, is still closed. This picture was taken on a trip there in 2017 for my daughter's 12th birthday, she had their signature Steak Oscar which was delicious. Currently the Hyatt literally has an ad hoc black wrought iron fence placed across its front entrance on Peach Tree Street. The contrasting colors and obvious make-do nature of fencing just looked more odd the longer I looked at it.

I was surprised to find the crowd at Centennial Park so much smaller than I was expecting it to be, even for a weekend in general much less Memorial Day weekend. I had seen a lot more people gathered there than this on a quiet Sunday evening just the year before when I had attended a convention at the Cobb Galleria that weekend.

The initial idea had included photographing Centennial Park from the top of Skyview. However by the time I had gotten a few rudely-phrased answers from the gentleman working the line, and had come to think that not only did he know nothing about Skyview other than the information was on the various signs he also had zero interest in learning any more, I had completely lost interest in the idea of spending $20 just to see and photograph a nearly empty Centenial park from a slightly higher altitude. Now obviously there could be any number of reasons for his poor business etiquette. He could have been having a bad day, we're all human and it happens. Yet after observing his similar interactions with other patrons, who also just walked away, I suspected his tensions were as much fear related as the concerns of others I interviewed later that evening.

For instance the young man I got the blackcherry limeade from was utterly terrified, of all us strangers around him and of the pocket knife I produced as I offered to open the box of cups he was struggling with. His fear was all but tangible, as it showed on his face and stood out in his quavering voice when he openly admitted he didn't want to be there. He wished we, us travelers who had made our way to Atlanta, weren't there either but he was trying to keep it together and do his job because his family is struggling. After listening to him, and hearing more responses from some of the other patrons in line, I took my food and drink and moved on. I walked out into the quietness of the all-but-empty park and ate my hot dog in apprehensive silence, musing on the surrealism of the bizarre scene around me. Then I shook it off and walked back to my truck, determined to find a more enjoyable environment and regretting the amount of money I had spent on parking, and headed a few miles to the north to see how things were there.

How were things in Buckhead? Fat Matt’s BBQ open?

 

[Fiddleback]

Great looking adventure Brian. All over the place.

 

[madhatta]

Great post Brian. Thanks.

 

[Mistwalker]

Very nicely done! Thank you!!

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Great read, thanks for sharing.

Strange times indeed. Hope all is well with you and your family.

Tension between people is growing and palpable.

Stay safe and soldier on!

Thanks man. Yes so far we're fine. Very glad to be living in a state in a free American state.

There would be less tension if people would just stop watching msm and go out and get to know each other outside of media and government influences. I think the big red CNN on the building by Centennial Park says a lot about how things are going in Atlanta.

Mr. Griffin?
You talk on the screen with pichures and words good.

Thankew

LOL thank you...I think...

How warmers


How were things in Buckhead? Fat Matt’s BBQ open?

Sorry, It was too late to go see when I left Marietta headed north. I'll be going back to Marietta again later, I'll make a point of checking Buckhead as well.

Great looking adventure Brian. All over the place.

Thanks Andy. It was also very educational. There will be more to come from this past weekend than I could publish in just one or two pieces. It's a very interesting and complex situation.

Great post Brian. Thanks.

Thanks man, I'm glad you enjoyed it.