STONE MOUNTAIN

We spent the day at Stone Mountain today, which is the southern equivalent of Mount Rushmore. It celebrates all things confederate. It is, in fact, a pretty interesting place. In addition to the

carving on the wall they have walking trails, a train ride (not operating now) and a gondola ride. This granite mountain is the highest freestanding granite mountain in the country. Or maybe just in the eastern United States. We started out by taking a gondola ride

up to the top of the mountain and walked around up there and then we came back and we walked down to where they have built a pretty little lake, some state memorials, and nice picture taking area. This relief itself is actually bigger than Mount Rushmore.

The gondola driver told us it is big enough to park two school buses on the ledge underneath the guys on horses.  This is me in the horse's mouth -- a reproduction in the museum. The "heroes" are Robert B. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Stonewall Jackson. And the horses they rode in on. The amazing thing about this even existing, to my mind, is that it was dedicated in 1975.  

It must be difficult for some of these southerners to visit. It celebrates the Confederacy on one hand, but the material about the mountain points out that it is a result of continental drift going back a few extra million years past the Bible timeline. 

The grounds include a Civil War Museum, (yawn) and a sort of reconstruction of a plantation.

That was kind of interesting.  We also went down to where they play the carillon. I played carillon in college, so I found that very interesting.  

We had to return our rental car tonight, so we just drove directly back to our hotel in Atlanta so we could dump off the car. We asked for a recommendation for dinner and they sent us to a new place near the hotel, which of course is near the airport, which didn't bode well.

But it was delicious, inventive food. It was

like a foodie paradise.