Carowinds Amusement Park

Saturday, we went to Carowinds Amusement Park. Now for those of you who haven't read the last post, we are right across the North Carolina border and staying in a RV park right next door to the amusement park. They have a shuttle bus that takes you back and forth to the park, but the park is only open on Friday - Sunday until later in the year. The amusement park also has a water park in it, but that isn't opened until Memorial weekend. Carowinds is owned by Cedar Fairs, same people who own Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH and Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, CA among many others. Carowinds is a lot like Knott's with a few more roller coasters and no log ride. Instead of Camp Snoopy, they have Planet Snoopy. The amusement park is actually in both North and South Carolina, with even a roller coaster that takes you through both states. I believe that to be the best part about it. It is what makes it unique from all the other parks.

They have a three wooden roller coasters; the Hurler, Carolina Goldrush and Thunder Road which is a twin racer. They send both sides off at the same time and see who wins. This is the one that goes through both states. The other roller coasters they have are the Afterburn, Carolina Cyclone, Carolina Cobra, Ricochet, Vortex, and Night Hawk. Night Hawk is interesting because you get on it and then it lays you down and you right the coaster head first laying down. Vortex is a standing roller coaster. The most spectacular one though is called the Intimidator, after Dale Earnhardt. Instead of showing you the several pictures that it takes to get it all, I took a picture of the layout that you can see below.

Carowinds also has a couple of water rides; Rip Roarin' Rapids and White Water Falls, which I can guarantee you will get wet on if not soaked. The also have a dragon swing type ride that goes upside down called the Southern Star, the Scrambler, Yo Yo (swings), Dodgem (bumper cars), Scream Weaver (like the old loop trainer at Knotts) and Boo Blasters, a ride that you sit down and it takes you through it and you try to shoot the ghosts. There are also a few tower riders; the Carolina Skytower, Windseeker, and Drop Tower. Windseeker is basically a swing at the top of the tower and Drop Tower is just that... it takes you to the top and drops you.

Like many other Cedar Fair parks, Snoopy is the mascot. This one has a Planet Snoopy. Just like Camp Snoopy at Knotts, this is for the kiddies... Lots of cool rides though. 3 small roller coasters, a train, a carousel and other types of rides

We had a great time, although we didn't ride any of them. The only thing we did was the Action Theater which is an interactive movie basically. We usually just walk around and people watch. Love doing that and it is a perfect way to get exercise.

Well check back later for our next adventure. We are heading to the Nascar Hall of Fame.

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.

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OK Maybe a little too remote

On Tuesday evening, we decided that maybe the campsite was a little too remote so I called the place we were going to next and checked with them to see if we could come early. We could so we took off and drove the 2 hours to North Carolina to Carowinds Wilderness Resort. This is a campground right next door to Carowinds amusement park. There is a Cracker Barrel across the street along with many other restaurants, stores, and gas stations. Its civilization again.... It started raining about an hour after we got there, but we had the trailer all set up. Its a pretty large park, but there was no one around us until Friday night. We plan on going to Carowinds on Saturday along with a few other places while we are here. Check back to see where we go.


You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.


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Columbia, SC

Well, we made it to Columbia, SC and are staying at Yogi Bear Jellystone Park at River Bottom Farms. It is actually about 25 miles south of Columbia. It is a pretty ride... kinda reminds me of Oregon with all of the trees. We are about 7 miles from the grocery store and 13 miles from the closest Walmart. As far as parks go, it is probably the furthest out we have been without stores and gas stations. Its a really nice park though with 4 catch and release ponds, ducks and geese and frogs that croak all night. There also seems to be no restaurants around either, therefore we drove the 7 miles out and stocked up on groceries at the Piggly Wiggly yesterday.

This morning we drove out to Columbia, which is actually the capitol of South Carolina, to see what there is. It is a very pretty little town. They have a university along with all the government buildings. We saw the Governor's mansion, South Carolina Supreme Court, Woodrow Wilson's boyhood home, and the Capitol House (State Capitol Building).

Woodrow Wilson Boyhood Home	State Capitol
Washington Statue damaged by Civil War	Monument to the Confederate Dead

Well, this is all we saw today. If we find anything else, we will bring it to you.


You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.


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Sites of Atlanta

Well we went to view the sites around downtown Atlanta. What a great time we had. It was Easter Sunday so the roads weren't too bad. Some of the sites we saw were:

Martin Luther King, Jr National Historic Site - Man was this cool. We toured the visitors center, another site across the street called Freedom Hall where there is a reflection pool and his burial site at the end of that, his birthplace and childhood home, an old fire station, and the Historic Ebenezer Baptist church, not to be confused with the new Ebenezer Baptist Church which is across the street. The visitors center had alot of exhibits regarding segregation and the civil rights movement. When you go across the street to Freedom Hall, this is where you get the tickets for the house tour. While waiting for our time slot, we roamed around the three rooms they have there. One of the rooms was dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr with all kinds of artifacts of his like his minister's robe, Mrs. Kings dress and other neat stuff. The second room was dedicated to Ghandi with artifacts of his and the third room was dedicated to Rosa Parks. There was a beautiful quilt hanging in her room and all kinds of family photos. Now is it time to gather at Fire Station No 6. There are many exhibits in here that discussed desegregation of the Atlanta Fire Department and the riots of 1906. 

From here we continue walking up Auburn Street to his birth place. This home was the home of his maternal grandfather and is where his mother was raised. She married his father and they raised 3 children in this house... MLK and his older sister, Christine and his younger brother, Alfred Daniel (AD). The guide said that all the women in the family were teachers of some sort and all the men were ministers and civil rights activists.The house looks small from the outside, but it was quite large and pretty modern for that time. 

After the house tour, we walked back to the Freedom Hall and visited Dr. King and Mrs. Kings graves and then walked on down to the Historic Church. Wow did that bring back memories. Looked alot like the church I grew up in minus the stain glass windows. It is really quite an awesome time walking around such a historic area.

Carter Center - Our next stop was the Carter Center or Jimmy Carter Library. Ironically, it is at the end of the Freedom Parkway. This was a cool place. I don't know if it is quite as neat as the others, but it is pretty cool. There are alot of exhibits and photographs depicting his time in office including a replication of Oval office and the Iran hostage crisis. That is the one thing I remember about his presidency. I remember when they were freed. The museum\library is on 30 acres and looks so nice and peaceful.

Turner Field  Atlanta Braves	Centennial Olympic Park
Georgia State Capitol	Georgia Dome Atlanta Falcons
Margaret Michell's house Author of Gone with the Wind	Federal Reserve

This pretty much covers the entire day. We still need to get out and see the Atlanta Motor Speedway, Six Flags and anything else I could find along with dinner with a couple of friends. I will keep you "posted".

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.


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Heading to Atlanta

Well, this morning we took off to Atlanta, GA, but not before we had a couple of "adventures". First, there was a screw in the tire so Del got up this morning to get it fixed and I told him that I could take care of packing up the trailer. The first thing I did was the sewer.... you know do the worse first... well I am dumping the tanks only to realize that the sewer hole is higher than the trailer outlet which means that every once in a while I have to raise the hose by starting on one end and working my way to the dump... not horrible, just a long time, but it got done. Then when I raised the jacks, I couldn't get my socket off of one of them so I had to play with that one for about 10 minutes. Next was the awning... you have to make sure that the awning is centered otherwise, you will have to pull back out and start over... which I did. Oh and lets not forget the pine cone stuck up in the slide that I had to climb on the dinette chair to knock off. All together, it took about 2 hours, the whole time I am thinking "dang... where's Del".

Turns out he was having his own issue. Walmart wouldn't fix the tire, so he had to keep looking for places. Turns out he had to about 20 miles into Savannah proper to get it done. I was actually done before he was. So he gets home and we put the hitch on, hook up the trailer and leave. Oh wait... lets not forget the blonde moment I had...LOL. Delbert asked me to make him some coffee when he was on his way home. He drinks the Starbucks via so all I had to do was heat up the water. I plug in the water kettle and waited...and waited... and waited... then I realized.. I unplugged the power.. DUH

OK so we get on the road and the trip was very uneventful with one exception. We put the address in the GPS and followed it... followed it to a gravel road that didn't connect to the other side where the campground really was. Luckily, we didn't have to turn around and the road finally turned back into a paved road that we were able to work our way around and get onto the other side, but we are here and safe and all set up. Going into Atlanta tomorrow. Hoping to see the Carter Library along with other sites.


You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.


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Paula says Hey Y'all

OK... I didn't know that you could literally feel your skin stretch, but after eating at Lady & Sons tonight... I did.... Probably the best fried chicken EVER...  You have a choice between the buffet or selecting from the menu. The dinner entrees were mostly seafood so I chose to have the buffet. The buffet had on it fried chicken, pork tenderloin, stew, stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, greens, cabbage, black eyed peas, green beans, mac n cheese, lima beans, rice and a salad bar, which I never made it to. You also get your choice of Banana pudding, peach cobbler or something called gooey butter cakes, which looked a lot like brownies. You just keep eating and eating cause it is all soooooo good.

Now the bad... if you decide to go, they do not take reservations. When we got there around 6:30 pm, the earliest seating they had was 9:00 pm or we could be "wait-listed" for the bar. We took both and luckily was seated in about 30 mins. They do allow you to go to the reservation lady in front of the restaurant anytime after about 9 am and "make a reservation" that way for that day, but we were too far away to do that and then go back. I can tell you though... WELL WORTH IT.

Well, don't have much planned between now and Atlanta on Saturday, so see ya then...


You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.


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Georgia on my mind

We checked out Savannah Sunday. What a beautiful city. Lots of trees and downtown has cobblestone streets. Here are a few of the places we saw.

Tybee Island - Here is where I got to actually make my coast to coast trip complete. I actually touched the sand of a beach on the Atlantic Ocean. Mind you, I only put my toes in, but that was enough for me. It was such a beautiful and sunny day and such a nice drive. There is small lighthouse that isn't functioning anymore called Cockspur Island Lighthouse near the Savannah River. Fort Pulaski, an old Confederate fort, now a National Monument is also there. We didn't stop there as we were going to Fort Jackson.

Old Fort Jackson - An old fort on the Savannah river. It has a real moat and and is all brick. It was used during the ware of 1812 and the Civil War for the Confederate Army. It actually had the C.S.S. Georgia Ironclad, which they sunk so the Union Army wouldn't be able to get it. It is still under the river. There was a person there dressed in a Confederate uniform giving tours and a cannon firing demonstration. Now he didn't fire the cannon with a cannon ball or anything... He used 5 ounces of black powder in foil to make it compact. We took Buddy with us, so you can imagine the look on his face when this cannon went BOOM. They wanted us to cover our ears when he fired it, so I had to cover one of Buddy's ear and then put the other one of his ears right next to mine and then I covered my other ear. I tried to muffle it the best I could, but after it was fired, he was ready to leave.... IN A HURRY.... 

Laurel Grove Cemetery - cemetery that originally was segregated with the North being for the whites and the South being for the blacks. The cemetery has graves for senators and other politicians as well as Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts. Also the writer of Jingle Bells is buried there. 

Lady & Sons - Paula Deen's restaurant. We plan on eating there, but they don't take reservation and there is a huge line... but then again... it is Sunday and they serve Sunday brunch. Hopefully will get there in the next couple of days. We already visited Uncle Bubba's Oyster House with she owns with her brother. That was really good.

Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace - She is the founder of the Girl Scouts. We also say Andrew Low House, her home after she married William Mackey Low and the First Girl Scouts Headquarters.

Chippewa Square - This is a park that a movie studio place a bench in for a infamous movie.... "Life is like a box of chocolates....." ok... if you haven't guessed yet, it is the bench where Forest Gump sits for a lot of the movie telling the story. It isn't there now. They moved it to the Savannah History Museum.

Cathedral of St John the Baptist - Oh my gosh... what a beautiful cathedral. I don't know anything about it but is sure is beautiful

Roundhouse Railroad Museum - This is really and truly a round brick building. 


We had such a good time looking around and hoping to get to Lady & Sons for dinner before we leave. Next week... Atlanta, GA.



You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.


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Rain Rain Go Away....

We made it to Savannah, GA in the middle of the pouring rain. We are staying at the KOA in Richmond Hills, GA. It was raining so hard that between the time I went into the office to pay and come back out, it was flooding the driveway. We set up the trailer and had some lunch. Finally, the rain stopped and blue skies came out so we took off to see what Georgia was like. It was already after 5pm when we left. 

We decided to go and see where Uncle Bubba's Oyster House was. This is Paula Deen's brother's restaurant and has really good food. Delbert had a crab stuffed flounder and I had grilled shrimp and scallops. It was a really nice place with a garden setting and an area for a small band. I am sure that they have had many weddings and parties there.

After that we went to find out The Lady and Sons restaurant was at so we could go during the week. It is in the middle of historic Savannah. We are going back to that area tomorrow as it was already dark when we got there, so look for my posting about it.

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.


Gotta run.....