40th Anniversary…

That’s right friends.  This past weekend was the 40th Anniversary of the Smokey and the Bandit movie that came out in 1977.  Do you remember the basis of the movie?  This is what it says on the IMDB webpage:

Big Enos (Pat McCormick) wants to drink Coors at a truck show, but in 1977 it was illegal to sell Coors east of the Mississippi River without a permit. Truck driver Bo “Bandit” Darville (Burt Reynolds) agrees to pick up the beer in Texas and drive it to Georgia within 28 hours. Cledus “Snowman” Snow (Jerry Reed) drives the rig while the Bandit helps make his path.  When Bo picks up hitchhiker Carrie (Sally Field), he attracts the attention of Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason). Angry that Carrie will not marry his son, Justice embarks on a high-speed chase after Bandit.

Knowing the story line, you now know that some of the movie is based in Georgia, home sweet home to this oinker.  And downtown Jonesboro (less than five minutes away from the Hotel Thompson) held its 40th Anniversary over the weekend.  The big rig came rolling in on Main Street followed by the famous Pontiac Trans-Am.  And not only was the rig and Trans-Am present, so was the sheriff’s car that was driven by Sheriff Buford T. Justice (played by Jackie Gleason).

And of course they had a re-enactor that was playing Burt Reynolds character… who just happened to get arrested by our finest here in Clayton County, Georgia.

Nah, not really.  It was all for show but doesn’t that guy look just like Burt Reynolds years ago in the movie?

He was a great guy for getting arrested and hanging out with everyone… and mom said not bad on the eyes whatever that means.

Burt Reynolds did show up to the festivities.  This is him in the picture next to the Trans-Am.  What an awesome time it was for everyone in attendance.

Did you know some of this trivia that we read on IMBD?

• A senior executive at Pontiac promised Burt Reynolds a free Trans-Am if the movie became a hit. It did and the 1977 T-Top Trans-Am became one of the hottest selling cars of the year. When the movie became a hit, Reynolds expected the executive to come through with his promise. But the Trans-Am never came. After a few months, Reynolds, (who was afraid of looking like one of those pretentious stars looking for freebies), finally called Pontiac. As it turned out, the executive that made the promise had retired and the new executive refused to keep the promise that was made, by the previous Pontiac Trans Am executive.

• Jackie Gleason would often ask his assistant Mal for a “hamburger,” which was code for a glass of bourbon.

• In Jonesboro, GA (YAY close to us here at the Hotel Thompson) where a lot of the film was shot, Snowman’s house and the warehouse where the Coors beer is picked up (in Texarkana, TX) are actually only about a half a mile away from each other.

• The line of Jackie Gleason’s dialogue printed on the movie’s poster is incorrect. The quote on the poster reads “What we have here is a total lack of respect for the law.” In the movie Gleason actually says “What we’re dealing with here, is a complete lack of respect for the law.”

Credit to IMBD web page for information on movie.  Credit to Scott Stubbs for pictures.

 

 

 

Travels in the South

Hello friends – welcome to another edition of Travels in the South.  This week mom/dad went back for what they know.  They went to a local steakhouse that offers an appetizer called “Wild, Wild Shrimp”.  Better yet, mom had a coupon for this appetizer so that makes it even better, right?

These shrimp are lightly battered and friend.  They are served with different kinds of spicy peppers with a blue cheese dip dressing.  If you are like daddy, you pick the shrimp out and leave the peppers – snorts with piggy laughter.  But if you are mom, you jump feet first in and eat your way out.  Of course, this always goes well accompanied by a glass of Chardonnay, which mom had.

 

31 Days of Spook – Oakland Cemetery

 I thought it was time to walk through a cemetery with you once again.  Today, I’m going to focus on one close to home – the historic Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia.  Oakland Cemetery was bought in 1850 and was originally named Atlanta Graveyard or City Burial Place.  It was renamed to Oakland Cemetery in 1972.

Oakland Cemetery offers twilight tours of the cemetery – how scary huh?  And around this time of the year, the cemetery even offers what they call “Capturing the Spirit of Oakland Halloween Tours”.  What a way to catch some things that go bump in the night.  There are over 70,000 residents in over 40 acres that are just dying to meet you whether you have a guided tour or walk the cemetery by yourself… if you’re brave enough.

A lot of the history of this wonderful cemetery centers around the Civil War.  There have been stories in the Confederate portion of the cemetery of hearing names being called as if in a roll call.  But to look around, there is no one living there, just the statue of a lion guarding the unknown Confederate dead and he’s not talking.

Often the guides at the cemetery will tell you that people actually die three times.  Once on their last breath, once when they are laid to rest and once when they are no longer remembered.  Sounds just like a situation for a few people to come out and be remembered, doesn’t it?  So the next time you’re in the area, drop by for a visit.  I’ve heard they’re always looking for a good soul to fright.

There are lots of famous people buried here in Oakland.  Mom took this photograph not too long ago.  Do you recognize the name?

 

 

Travels in the South

Have you been enjoying our Travels in the South my friends?  Today we continue our travels with Fozziemom and Fozziedad who visited with us all the way from Australia.  Now, the month previous was Fozziedad’s birthday so everyone agreed to celebrate his birthday when he came to the States.

On this date, they all ventured downtown Atlanta to hang out for a bit and then to go to lunch.  Since Fozziedad plays the guitar, mom researched and found a great shop close to the restaurant they would be going to for lunch.  They all went into the store where they got to hear Fozziedad play and were totally amazed and I do believe mom was star struck ❤  Fozziedad is amazing and trust us, he knows his way around a guitar.  Mom/dad said if they lived in Australia they would for sure have to go and hang out when he plays.

After the guitar store visit, they went to eat at one of my mom/dad’s favorite restaurants called Fogo de Chão.  This is an all you can eat type Brazilian Steakhouse.  Now don’t worry.  This place has everything – from the meat eaters to the vegetarians you will be happy here. You first start off with a huge salad bar that has everything that you can imagine.  You can work on that salad first or have it with your meat selections.  As you eat, they bring skewers of different varieties of meat to your table where they then carve it onto your plate.  You choose what you want and how much.  Now I have to tell you a secret.  My mom/dad love this restaurant, especially these little rolls they bring to your tables in baskets.  Mom says they mysterious and magically reappear in the basket every time you ask.  Isn’t that amazing?

Everyone was instructed not to eat breakfast and have to empty bellies for this adventure at the restaurant.  And I must admit, everyone got their fill – even dessert for the birthday boy.  It was an awesome time.  Sometimes when daddy puts me to bed, I ask him to tell me this story about the restaurant.  I can just imagine myself laying up under the table, hooves up in the air like I just don’t care and being hand fed the remarkable steak at this place.  Give me a moment….. okay let’s continue.

Afterwards, the group wanted to go on a further adventure.  You see a couple of years ago, downtown Atlanta installed SkyView Atlanta.  Skyview Atlanta is a Ferris Wheel that is over 20 stories above Centennial Park.  They have individual gondolas that are climate controlled.  Did you hear that?  Climate controlled as in the day everyone visited, it was an air conditioned gondola that they rode in.  Can you believe that?  Ferris Wheels have come a long ways baby.  When you are up in the gondola, mom said you could see all kinds of views of downtown.  It was totally awesome!  And of course no trip is complete without a picture of your memories.

Oh, are you asking where daddy was?  He was guarding the Jeep – snorts with piggy laughter.  Due to dad’s vision, he can’t go up that far so he sat this one out and partied in the Jeep until we got done.   Don’t fear – he had a great time rocking out to Queen.

 

 

Travels in the South

Welcome back friends to another edition of Travels in the South.  We have been talking about our visit with our great friends Bill and Jean from Canadian Cats.  If you have missed the previous editions, please check them out here:  Red Lobster; Fogo de Chao; Stately Oaks; Spa Day. World of Coca-Cola Part I, World of Coca-Cola Part II. World of Coca-Cola Part III, The Varsity, CNN Center.

 Today we are going to start sharing another tour that we went on that was called Gone With the Wind Tour.  The funny thing is that this tour has been in downtown historical Jonesboro for as long as I can remember and mom/dad have never went on it.  Now, they have been to some of the places that the tour visits but never the ‘official’ tour that shares all kinds of information.  And well Jean is such a fan of Gone With the Wind that everyone *had* to take this tour.  This posting will definitely have to be in several postings to share all of the highlights that we saw and the pictures we took.  So are you ready?  Here we go.

The tour picks up at the Road to Tara Museum which is a 1867 Train Depot.  Back in the day at the peak of railroad travel, both passengers and freight passed through downtown Jonesboro day and night.

It was once made of wood and stood near the Confederate Cemetery (which we will get to soon).  But that building burned down in 1864 during the Civil War’s Battle of Jonesboro.  After the building burned down, they built this building of granite and placed it more in the center of the town.  You bought the tickets for the tour in this museum and also could shop for all kinds of gifts and trinkets.

In fact inside of the museum, they had all kinds of items for Gone with the Wind including this picture, paintings, books, pens, bells – you name it and they had it.  I can assure you that mom and Jean walked out with more than the hub units wanted – snorts with piggy laughter.

Mom said she could have spent hours inside of the store just looking at everything – it was like walking on a movie set.

This beautiful house is called The Warren House and it was built in 1860 by Guy Warren.  Guy Warren was an agent for the Macon & Western Railroad and one of Jonesboro’s first town commissioners.  On the tour, you go by the house but currently it has new owners so you can’t go in to explore.  It was on and around this house where the majority of the Battle of Jonesboro took place.  The house at that time was used as a field hospital and was headquarters to the Confederate Troops until the Union Army took possession of the house for the same use.  The tour guide told us that in some of the walls in the downstairs parlor, you can still see signatures of the soldiers that were recuperating at the house during the war.  They left messages and signed the wall for all to see in the years to come.  Cool huh?

The next stop on our tour was the Patrick Cleburne Memorial Cemetery.  Now there are some graves that are marked with the names.  But this cemetery also holds the remains of over 1,000 soldiers that died during the Battle of Jonesboro who were buried in unmarked graves.  The unmarked headstones are laid out in the shape of a Confederate battle flag that can be seen from the air when you are overlooking the cemetery.

AND, in all the years mom has grown up in the area she has heard plenty of stories about this cemetery.  Mom knew of a friend that grew up in a house across the street.  One night her parents had gone out and she stayed home alone.  It was dark and rainy with a heavy fog in the area.  She looked out her front door and saw the image of a Confederate soldier walking down the street.  Just the thought of that makes my hair stand up on end – shivers.

Well friends, I hope you enjoyed the first installment of the tour of Gone With the Wind.  Come back next week for more in the Travels of the South with my mom/dad and Bill and Jean from Canada 🙂 ❤

 

Travels in the South

Welcome back friends to another edition of Travels in the South.  We have been talking about our visit with our great friends Bill and Jean from Canadian Cats.  If you have missed the previous editions, please check them out here:  Red Lobster; Fogo de Chao; Stately Oaks; Spa Day. World of Coca-Cola Part I, World of Coca-Cola Part II. World of Coca-Cola Part III, The Varsity.

Are you having fun my friends sharing in the different things that my mom/dad and Bill/Jean got to explore during the trip to the south?  Well today, we are going to talk about another tour that my mom and Bill went on.  Jean and dad decided to sit out on this one and have deep conversations while mom and Bill toured.  Why?  Because this one involves EIGHT flights of stairs.

Yep you read that right. EIGHT flights of stairs and mom and Bill felt every single step towards the end of the tour.

But I’m getting ahead of myself like I seem to do at times.  What tour did they go on here in the south?  Of course it was the CNN tour located at One CNN Center, Atlanta, Georgia. This is actually huge letters that are standing outside of the front door when you enter into the CNN Center.  Cool huh?

.

Mom and Bill were pretty lucky because they walked up, purchased tickets and were able to go directly on the tour.  It’s a 50 minute walking tour that starts off at a huge escalator.  That’s right, to get to the tour you start off at the top and walk your way down.  Now this picture of the escalator in the atrium absolutely does not show the justice of it going almost straight up.

In fact, this escalator is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest freestanding (supported only at the ends) escalator in the world.  Does that put any fear into your head?  Because I’ll tell you, mom grabbed on to the railings and Bill several times for support on this escalator that takes you all the way to the top to start the tour.

Here’s another shot of the escalator once you get all the way to the top.  Can you tell from this picture how that escalator goes straight up and how it can be so long?

And that blue blob at the top – snorts.  That’s the ‘world’ that you enter into the CNN tour.  It’s really creative.  And the building in the back of the picture – that is the Omni Hotel.  See inside of the CNN Center it is huge!  There is also a full food court downstairs, and police precinct, the hotel and I can’t tell you how many offices.  It’s HUGE in this place.  I kept telling mom she should take me as dad’s seeing eye pig but she wouldn’t go for it.  tsk-tsk – the places I could have gotten into!

Now this is not the best picture because I took a picture from a picture that mom/Bill got from the tour.  Once they made it to the top of the escalator, CNN saw the spark that Bill and mom had and immediately hired them for the CNN desk.

I mean come on – with mom’s southern accent and Bill’s Canadian accent – just think of the places they could go – snorts. I think I could see a new morning crew coming at you full of laughs and jokes.

.

During the tour, mom and Bill got to see many, MANY rooms filled to capacity like the one in this picture.  Mom even asked the tour lady once exactly how many televisions were in the CNN Studios.  The tour guide said she couldn’t even tell mom a number – there were that many.  But an interesting piece of information mom did get.  With all of the televisions, lights, cameras and computers, CNN’s electric bill is over $500,000 a month.  Doesn’t make your electric bill look too bad now does it?  Snorts.

And while they were doing the tour, Bill and mom got to meet some famous peeps like Ted Turner, Mike Rowe and Anderson Cooper.  Okay maybe ‘meet’ is a stretch of the truth but they got to see some great pictures of them throughout the tour.  And that brings me to another thing.  As the tour is happening and you are walking around the studios, you are constantly being supervised by security.  Go ahead and ask me why I know that… because someone – coughs and oinks Bill and mom – didn’t stay with the group one time and had to be redirected.  Snorts – they were such shutterbugs!  And at the end of the tour, it drops you off in the CNN Store as well as the Cartoon Network store.

---

---

 

Travels in the South

Welcome back friends to another edition of Travels in the South.  We have been talking about our visit with our great friends Bill and Jean from Canadian Cats.  If you have missed the previous editions, please check them out here:  Red Lobster; Fogo de Chao; Stately Oaks; Spa Day. World of Coca-Cola Part I, World of Coca-Cola Part II. World of Coca-Cola Part III

After all of that touring of the World of Coca-Cola, the humans all got hungry and needed a sit down break of nourishment.  They decided to go to a local restaurant that is very popular here in the south.  Mom plugged in the destination in her GPS and they started off down the street.  That’s when something funny happened.  They passed the same church like three times.  Finally Jean and Bill were like, “Have we been here before?”  Of course everyone started laughing when the GPS would go “recalculating”.  That’s my mom – always making her own destination.

After a while and with letting the GPS tell mommy where to go and mommy listening, they finally made it to their destination for lunch – The Varsity.  You are immediately greeted with so many people and the “What’ll You Have? What’ll You Have?” from the cashiers taking orders.

The Varsity has been running for over 88 years and is a local landmark here in the South.  On this day, there was nothing major going on in town.  Days that there are football or basketball games or school functions, imagine this picture three or four times as busy.  Not only can you go in to dine but The Varsity downtown also has the world’s largest drive in with car hops.  What a blast from the past huh?

The Varsity offers a variety of different food – from hot dogs to hamburgers to grilled pimento cheese sandwiches to awesome onion rings to french fries.  In fact, it is a published fact on their website that they go through two miles of hot dogs, a ton of onions, 2500 pounds of potatoes, 5000 fried pies and 300 gallons of chili that are made from scratch daily.

For more information on the Varsity – see here.  I know all of the humans had a blast at the restaurant this date eating to their hearts delight.  And of course every meal is finished with dessert, right?  Everyone had hot peach fried pies topped with turtle ice cream.  I’m licking my lips just thinking about it.  So I gotta end this posting today with “What’ll You Have?  What’ll You Have?”

 

31 Days of Spook – Oakland Cemetery

 I thought it was time to walk through a cemetery with you once again.  Today, I’m going to focus on one close to home – the historic Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia.  Oakland Cemetery was bought in 1850 and was originally named Atlanta Graveyard or City Burial Place.  It was renamed to Oakland Cemetery in 1972.

Oakland Cemetery offers twilight tours of the cemetery – how scary huh?  And around this time of the year, the cemetery even offers what they call “Capturing the Spirit of Oakland Halloween Tours”.  What a way to catch some things that go bump in the night.  There are over 70,000 residents in over 40 acres that are just dying to meet you whether you have a guided tour or walk the cemetery by yourself… if you’re brave enough.

A lot of the history of this wonderful cemetery centers around the Civil War.  There have been stories in the Confederate portion of the cemetery of hearing names being called as if in a roll call.  But to look around, there is no one living there, just the statue of a lion guarding the unknown Confederate dead and he’s not talking.

Often the guides at the cemetery will tell you that people actually die three times.  Once on their last breath, once when they are laid to rest and once when they are no longer remembered.  Sounds just like a situation for a few people to come out and be remembered, doesn’t it?  So the next time you’re in the area, drop by for a visit.  I’ve heard they’re always looking for a good soul to fright.

There are lots of famous people buried here in Oakland.  Mom took this photograph not too long ago.  Do you recognize the name?

 

 

Houdini is Behind the Wheel – OH NO!

So Houdini gets to drive the new Jeep and I can’t?  How wrong is that picture might I ask?  Look mom, his paws don’t touch the gas pedals either.  I want my turn!  See, I found these pictures.  Nope, I wasn’t snooping on mom’s iPhone either.  See mom forgot about this called the Cloud.  It holds everything – snorts with piggy laughter.  Her pictures get saved to the Cloud therefore I don’t *need* her iPhone anymore – ha!  Just don’t tell her okay my friends.

So I see this picture of the little guy driving the Jeep.  I’m like so that’s what he gets to do when he goes out with mom.  Boogers – I want to drive too!  Then I’m like why are they stopped?  And is Houdini’s paw on the horn – why?  Then I saw the next picture and went that’s why!  There was a geese crossing in downtown Jonesboro.  I guess that would stop traffic… as if a dog driving wouldn’t stop it before that – snorts with piggy laughter!

And I wonder where these geese were going?  To get to the other side of the railroad tracks?

 

 

Road Trip – Food Porn – Be Warned

My mom is forever coming up with road trips for her and dad to take.  Sometimes she tells dad of her destination and other times she doesn’t.  This was one of those times she didn’t.  She told daddy, “Be ready in 15 minutes – road trip.”

Daddy got as excited as a two year going on vacation to Disney World.  He busily got ready and was in Albert waiting in 12 minutes.  I know cause I timed him – snorts.

So off they went in the Albert the Smart car, weaving in and out of downtown Atlanta traffic until they got to their destination – you got it The Varsity.  Daddy was in pig heaven.  He ❤ this place.  You know road trips have to revolve around food with those two.  Now you know where I get my food love from – snorts.

The Varsity they went to is located downtown Atlanta, Georgia.  This is the world’s largest drive-in and is very popular here in Georgia.  You are greeted as soon as you enter in the order lines with, “What’ll Ya Have?  What’ll Ya Have?”  It’s busy – especially if there is a game going on downtown.  I took this information off of their website:

“It sells more than two miles of hot dogs daily, a ton of onion rings, 2500 pounds of fresh cut potatoes, 5000 homemade fried pies, and 300 gallons of chili, all of which are made from scratch daily.”

That’s a lot ‘What’ll Ya Have’ my friends.  But I promised some food porn.  I didn’t forget.  I took all of these pictures from mom’s cell phone… which I might have borrowed when they got back home… and yes they brought me back some onion rings – snorts.  These pictures below are of mom and dad’s plate.  Which one do you think is which?  Mom likes her dogs with chili and mustard.  Dad prefers the works – chili, cheese and slaw.  Look good?

..

.

.

.

.

.

 

.

Oh, and you heard me mention onion rings right?  They have the BEST onion rings.  Of course, this place is not for the diet at heart – trust me on that one.  Mommy says she gains weight just by SMELLING the food.  But this below – aaww goodness piggy down.  These onion rings are the bomb!  Mom and dad brought me some back.  Heaven.  That’s what I was in – piggy heaven!  Look at those crisp delightful rings.  Drool

 You can not go to The Varsity without more fat being added to your butt dessert.  Mom and dad’s favorite is a warm fried peach pie topped with two scoops of ice cream.  Why two scoops?  Because mommy likes Turtle Track ice cream and daddy likes the Butter Pecan ice cream.  Perfect dessert to share.  See goodness below.

And was this a dad approved road trip?  You be the judge of that in this picture to the left.  Yes, that is a Varsity hat he is wearing.  I think mommy took that picture in mid chew.  Glad to know I’m not the only one that doesn’t have any privacy.

You go daddy – keep chewing.  That’s the best sign that he is a very happy man.

The next time you are in Atlanta, be sure to check out The Varsity.  I know mom and dad will be back again…and again… and again.