Stan and Connie Spielbusch's Web Site

StanAndConnie.com

May 2001

May 1st-15th, 2001

Tampa

We stayed a week near Tampa to get some work done and "decompress" from so much sight-seeing in the Keys. I would have liked to visit several places, like Busch Gardens (for the roller coasters!), but we just didn't seem to have the energy. We did visit the Salvidor Dali Museum in St. Petersburg. I've always liked his surrealistic art, and the museum was very interesting. We joined the 40-minute narrated tour twice, since each tour guide talked about different paintings and aspects of his life. Unfortunately, photos were not permitted in the museum.

Perry, Georgia

On the way to Atlanta, we stopped for a couple days in Perry, Georgia. About the only attraction near there is the Warner Robins Air Museum. It's much larger than we expected, so we didn't go early enough and missed the two Smithsonian movies they show. There are 4 different buildings, plus many aircraft displayed outside. In addition to airplanes and helicopters, there are in-depth exhibits about what it was like to be part of a bomber crew in World War II, a Korean War exhibit and several others. We both found it very interesting and will visit again the next time we're there so we can catch the movies and spend more time looking at the exhibits.

My favorite was the SR-71 Blackbird.

(Click photos to enlarge)

Atlanta, Georgia

In addition to visiting some good friends which we haven't seen in about 10 years, we visited several attractions in Atlanta. There were many more to see, but we just didn't have time.

The Jimmy Carter Library and Museum was interesting. We like presidents with a down-home attitude like Carter and Truman. We didn't actually get to meet Jimmy, though (I understand he visits there often). Here's a nice replica of the White House oval office.

(Click photos to enlarge)

Anybody who knows me will know that I could not possibly go to Atlanta without visiting the World of Coca-Cola museum. While paying $6.00 to watch advertisements may not be everone's idea of a good time, I think we all had fun. In addition to exhibits of old bottles, advertisements, soda machines and everything else "Coke" you can imagine, you can drink as much of Coca Cola's products you can handle. In addition to about a dozen of their popular U.S. drinks, you can try about 30 varieties of international soda. Most of the international ones are fruit-flavored, though it's tough to tell sometimes. My favorite were the lychee and the watermellon drinks.

Here are a couple early Coke bottles, and the first standardized bottle. (They had problems with imitators before standardizing on one bottle design).

We also stopped by the "Underground", a trendy shopping area that's located underground, sort-of. It looked to me like it was just under a highway bridge. In fact it couldn't have been too far under ground since this sign to it points up!

Another popular place is Stone Mountain. It's basically a large granite rock, and has a huge carving of Civil War heroes in it. You can ride the cable car to the top (or walk -- yeah right!), ride a train around the base, take a riverboat ride around it, visit a museum about it, and a few other things. We didn't have a lot of time so we just did the cable car and train.

Here's the carving, and to give you an idea of the size, a man can stand up inside the left-hand horse's mouth.

Here's a view from the cable car, near the top.

Finally, before leaving we decided to check out the Kennesaw Civil War Museum, where the main attraction is The General, a locomotive that was involved in a famous chase during the Civil War. There were even some movies made about it, including a Disney movie "The Great Locomotive Chase."

Late May, 2001

Carthage, Missouri

We stop in Carthage a lot because we bought our RV there, and it's handy to stop there and get some work done on the way back to Kansas City. This time we got a chance to go to the main attraction in Carthage, the Precious Moments Chapel. In case you're not familiar with Precious Moments, they are known for their figurines and drawings of children, often with a religious theme, and always cute.

(Click photos to enlarge)

Actually there's a lot more than a chapel -- there's a fountain show with singers, a museum, a huge gift shop (actually two), and the wedding island which is almost like a small town that can be booked for weddings and even honeymoons. The photos below show a couple buildings on the island, an outdoor fountain, part of the indoor fountain show, and a mural inside the wedding chapel on the island.

We also spotted a couple RV's on the grounds:

I have created a free screen saver with 12 of the best photos from the Precious Moments Chapel Center. You can download it from Awesome-Screens.com.

Thank you for visiting our travel site. Please visit our other sites too:

Campground Master -- A tracking program for your campground or inn. Easy to use and learn, but modern and powerful. One of the most inexpensive systems, great for small campgrounds. Designed by campground owners and full-time RVers.

MysteryPhotos -- Every week a new photo is shown, which may be a close-up of something, or a section of a common object or sight. Guess what it is and you might win a prize. Lots of fun for the whole family! Free screensaver and wallpaper too.

Awesome Screen Savers -- Cool photographic screen savers of the highest quality, for Windows PC's. Download FREE Lite versions of them all. Some are created with photos from our travels, some are awesome photos from NASA. (Contact me to have a screen saver made with your own photos!)

Cottonwood Software -- My shareware business site, currently featuring File-Ex 98: a Windows 95/98 dialog enhancement tool. Great for people who work with a lot of files.

Free -n- Cool -- Tons of Freebies, Giveaways, and Cool Sites -- all in one! You'll find a large selection of free samples you can get mailed to you, free games, screen savers, internet services, etc., plus hundreds of contests of all types, and a unique "intensely cool sites" list.