Stone Mountain Redux July 2010

This is Atlanta at night, circa July 2010.


Here is my bed at the Omni hotel where I went to sleep after I took the picture of Atlanta at night.


Habits from old blogging days, documenting the rooms I stay in. This is the bathroom of the Omni hotel where I brushed my teeth before I went to sleep after I took the picture of Atlanta at night.


Part of the reason I was in Atlanta was to support MGX. That's all I've got to say about that part.


The other part was to take some more time to explore Stone Mountain.


Here I am at the flag memorial on Stone Mountain, GPS and Chik-fil-A drink cup in hand. This is the site of a virtual cache, a micro cache, and an Earthcache!


The path up to the top starts here.


I'm not a fan of vandalism, but I can't disagree with the equation. I have posted this on my blog before. I probably will every time.


A view from the top of the rock of the natural amphitheater where they hold the laser light show.


Here's the monument carved into the side of the mountain. This is what it looks like before the light show begins.


With a little brighter lighting, just before the show begins.


The lasers are tracing out the figures of Confederate Generals Lee and Jackson and Confederate President Davis.


I knew there would be lasers, but I didn't know there would be fireworks, too!


The laser show gets a bit trippy in spots.


The Devil from The Devil Went Down to Georgia.


An eagle drawn during one of the patriotic songs.


Fireworks!


The end of the show.


So this is a theater at the Marriott where I was staying. This is more banker's lamps than I have ever seen in one place in my life.


The hotel had a nice pool. Unfortunately, the nice pool was inhabited by a bunch of out-of-control drunks the night before, who spent their time splashing around the pool and yelling until about 2:00 a.m. It was excessive. I thought the hotel would tell them to keep it down, but that never happened.


Is this OSHA compliant? Hmm . . . .


I wanted to go down and play, but I had to geocache!


I saw this spider while I was out crawling around the woods near the hotel.


See anything out of the ordinary here? Yeah, neither did I.


Does this help? Yeah, I was walking around the pine needles poking the ground to see if somebody had hidden the geocache in the ground, when all of the sudden I felt a pinprick in my left leg, then a sudden burning pain. Nearly simultaneously, before I realized what was going on, I felt another pinprick and more burning pain in my right leg. Now I realized that I had been stung twice, I didn't see what had stung me so I started looking around, and then I was stung again on a finger of my right hand that was holding the stick. At that point, I decided to throw the stick down and run away. A couple of the yellowjackets followed me out into the parking lot but never got close. I killed one that was stuck in my boot laces on my left foot, and then was trying to kill another one that was caught between my sock and the top of my boot on my right foot. He was there squirming and stinging away, but fortunately that didn't come through my sock. Unfortunately, while trying to scoop him out, I knocked him free and he flew away and then circled back and landed on my thigh! I smacked him before he could sting me. So for anybody counting, that's yellowjackets 3, me 2. Those wasp stings hurt!


I saw this van parked at the Marriott hotel. I think Chick-fil-A holds meetings at this hotel. There were a number of cars that had Chick-fil-A markings on them, but I think this was the only car that was painted up like a cow. That's it for my Atlanta trip! Watch out for those yellowjackets!